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Thought I'd complete the set of threads...

Well, although Maketoys' Giant tempted me a lot, I decided to plump for Encore Devastator. When it came down to it, I just couldn't justify shelling out the large amount of extra cash to get the third party offering. The risky QC on the third party stuff (fingers crossed Devvy doesn't have the same issues as Encore Bruticus was supposed to have) was a factor, but to be honest it came down to this: Neither Hercules or Giant are, in my mind, perfect. For such an outlay of cash they'd have to be regret and guilt free purchases, and that wouldn't have happened.

I'm not a fan of the Hercules aesthetic & size (or price) at all, while the individual Giant figures differ enough from how the figures should look (to my G1-centric eyes) to make we think I'd never be totally happy with it. Awesome looking combined form, though.

Now I'm super excited looking forward to my G1 Devastator goodness (or should that be badness?). Yes, G1 figures are small and poorly articulated, but, damn, they have SOUL! They are my childhood in plastic form, and I can't wait to play with my first non-Scramble City combiner...

(Having said all that, I may pimp my gestalt with the upcoming Junkion Blacksmith upgrade pack...)

Not me...as stated in the other thread, I have nothing but horrid memories of my G1 Devastator.

Should be good, no wait, great for the people who had waited so many years for a release of this set. Between Predaking, Bruticus and this, the only fans still bitching are Menasor fans.

I'll wait until it's out to decide. I don't want to bother with it if the mold is worn out like Bruticus.

Clay wrote:I'll wait until it's out to decide. I don't want to bother with it if the mold is worn out like Bruticus.

The mould hasn't been used anywhere close to the number the Bruticus mould was re-issued, but I see your point.

Apparently a lot of folks have received their Encore Devys with...Mixmaster's head missing?

Knightdramon wrote:The mould hasn't been used anywhere close to the number the Bruticus mould was re-issued, but I see your point.

Been used a lot more times than the Ironhide/Ratchet moulds, though, and see what happened there.

You know, even if it is only a small number affected, not including a toys head has got to be about the worst QC issue ever for a Transformer surely? And now means you've got to be sure that you buy it from somewhere you can easily return it opened as well.

Regarding the Heroic Decepticon blog about the crooked stickers and the bad rubsign placement on Mixmaster, that's just part of the G1 realism. However, I'd be ticked if I paid that kind of money and got peeling stickers and scraped chrome. I'd be livid if a head was missing.

I'm so glad I kept my originals.

inflatable dalek wrote:And now means you've got to be sure that you buy it from somewhere you can easily return it opened as well.

Mmmmm, this is the problem with this sort of thing - even if you have a seller who's prepared to offer a refund (for Takara's mistake), you've got the hassle of sending a large-ish parcel back to Asia, probably at your own expense.

I'm certainly skipping the Encore; I might be tempted if the fake drops in price in response to a real reissue.

Mind, give Takara six months and they'll bring out an Encore 20 Version 2 so you can pay twice to get that Mixmaster head...

Yep, it's a shame because I'd love to support the official release as a means of showing there's a market for those other previously difficult to reissue toys to make the restoration worthwhile (and based on that review, they seem to have done a good job on the actual getting Devastator to release standard side of things, it seems to have been the final QC check where things fell down). A great, and annoying shame.

Clay wrote:http://heroicdecepticon.blogspot.com/20 ... re-20.html

My G1 Mixmaster (the one I had as a kid) had the rubsign in the same place, now that they mention it.

I got my Encore Devastator set today and am really pleased with it. The figures are great, nicew and tight joints with no warping or melted (or missing) faces. The colours are equivalent to the '80s originals, plastics are good quality. Rubsign placement on mine is fine, except on Hook, whose is a bit wonky. The factory applied labels are fine, show no signs of peeling. I wont be pasting on the others as I've learnt I'm just shocking at putting on decals whenever I try

Combining the individual bots to form Devastator doesn't seem as easy on my originals (or the G2 ones for that matter). The hip piece seems a very tight fit, but its always been my least favourite bit as there's a bit of a knack to clipping it to Long Haul. Oddly, because of the tight fit of the hip connector and the head module, Devastator feels unusually solid and less like he'll drop to pieces with the slightest tap. I am also pleased that a minor improvement has been made to Bonecrusher - there's a small tab to keep his arms clipped together in vehicle mode.

The only thing that's caught me off guard is the back tracking of the usual Encore traits of having the toys match the animation model - unlike the doctored box art, Encore Devvy does not have black wrist launchers and the eyes remain yellow, rather than red. Not that I mind overmuch, but makes you wonder why they bothered for the other Encore releases.

All in all, I am rather pleased given the horror stories that have circulated. The box is nice and the contents are neatly presented and I really like having the trading card tech specs so i can spend many happy hours oggling the glorious painted artwork. I'd even go so far as to say these match the quality of the original toys (and the Euro non-combining Constructicons), and are much crisper and nicer than the G2 versions to boot.