Dave's RotF Rant: Fast Action Battlers Wave 2

     Devastation Blast Long Haul (Dump Truck)
     Sideways (sport car, not reviewed)
     Autobot Ratchet (redeco, not reviewed)
     Jetfire (SR-71, not reviewed)

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/FAB2

     Sideways looks too much like a retool of Barricade, and Jetfire just
looks bad (stubby arms, among other problems) in robot mode.  The Ratchet
redeco is in Constructicon Green (i.e. less yellowy than usual) with medium
green splat-pattern camo that makes it look like he lost a paintball match.
I already own the Rescue Ratchet recolor, so even if I liked dayglo camo
patterns, I wouldn't bother with this one.

     http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/FAB1 - Ratchet original deco

CAPSULES

     Devastation Blast Long Haul: Good in both modes, and pretty well
articulated for a FAB.  The gimmick's nothing to write home about, but
amusing.  Transformation is perhaps a little trickier than it needed to be.
Mildly recommended.  $12.99 at Target.
     Sideways: Not reviewed.  $12.99 at Target.
     Autobot Ratchet: Not reviewed, original deco was mildly recommended.
$12.99 at Target.
     Jetfire: Not reviewed.  $12.99 at Target.


RANTS

     Packaging: Same as wave 1, but with the correct co-sells on the bottom. 


DECEPTICON: DEVASTATION BLAST LONG HAUL
Altmode: Dump Truck
Licensor: None 
Package call-out: "Devastation punch attack!"

     LONG HAUL never talks, unless he's going to complain about something.
The other DECEPTICONS expect him to carry all their stuff, but he'd rather be
fighting than transporting a bunch of missiles and laser cannons.  He likes
to let other robots' gear bounce out of his truck bed, and then tell them it
got "lost" on the way.

STR 9  INT 3  SPD 3  END 9  RNK 3  COUR 8  FRB 9  SKL 2  Avg 5.75

     You BETTER have high courage and firepower if you're going to
deliberately lose your teammates' stuff.  He's not smart enough to make the
lie stick, after all.

     Packaging: 6 twist-ties.

     Robot Mode: Beefy and with pistony arms that have tires up atop the
shoulders, there's a slight "Big O" feel here.  The hands have that kind of
weird "two fingers and two mutually opposed thumbs" look that a lot of the
RotF robots share.  A sort of toothy bit behind the head appears to be the
front bumper, although the real vehicle mode's bumper makes the toes of this
one.  The feet are molded so that the legs need to stand an inch or so (about
3cm) apart for the feet to sit flat.
     5" (12cm) tall at the head, but 6" (15cm) to the tops of the shoulders.
A mix of a somewhat dull yellow-green (close to the web color 99FF00) and
dark gray, with other gray and silver bits.
     The tires, shoulders and thighs are a dark warm gray.  The piston on the
right arm and the internal shoulder struts and gears are medium cool gray.
Everything else, including panels on the fronts of the shoulders and the hubs
on the shoulder wheels, is made of the dull yellow-green.  A medium dull
green paint is used on the chest and the bumper teeth behind the head.
Silver is on the abdomen, the left arm pistons and some bits on the bumper
teeth.  There's two metallic blue stripes on the top of the head, and this
paint is also used on the pelvis, some transformation swivels on the
shoulders, and the Decepticon symbol on the right boot.  There's a few
orange-red bits on the torso and behind the head, plus an airbrushed woosh of
it on the right forearm, no doubt meant to imply a rapidly striking punch.
This color is also used for his eyes.  There's a sort of faux harness molded
onto the torso, and it has some metallic blue and dark gray paint dots.
There's plenty of other paint on the boots, but it's really vehicle mode
stuff, so I'll describe it below.
     The head is molded into the upper torso and cannot move.  The waist can
swivel smoothly, though.  Both shoulders are smooth universal joints,
although the hinge that lets the arms rise to the side can only move about 50
degrees before things get blocked.  It's enough for Long Haul to ask for a
hug, though.  The right arm can only swivel at the elbow because of its
gimmick, but the left arm has a swivel above the elbow, and the elbow is a
hinge that bends nearly double.  The hips are restricted ball joints, and the
knees are hinges.  
     Long Haul's gimmick attack involves pushing in on the green hub on the
right shoulder, which is pushed up as a button when you clip the wheels into
place.  This makes the right forearm piston out by about a centimeter (okay,
9mm).  Not terribly impressive, but amusing nonetheless.  If you think he
needs a ranged weapon, just put the arms down to the sides and flip up the
shoulder wheels as stubby cannons.  The wheel nut nubs on the hubs can be
taken to be rotary cannon barrels, or take a page from Cybertron Landmine and
call 'em vortex blasters.
     You can fold down the lip of his dumper part as a platform to let a
Basic stand over his shoulder, Master Blaster style.

     Transformation: Bring the legs together, twist 180 degress at the waist,
and then fold up to make the front end.  Getting the arms into the back is a
bit trickier, since there's a lot of stuff that needs to be rotated or swung
around at the right times, PLUS there's gearing that makes the arms swing
backwards at the shoulders together (much like Megatron, but without the head
being linked in).  The rear wheels do a fair amount of repositioning along
the way.  Unsurprisingly, Long Haul's instruction sheet is bigger than
Megatron's. 

     Vehicle Mode: Well, it's not really a dump truck, it's a mining truck of
the gigantic variety that has a ladder on the side so you can make it up into
the driver's compartment.  But they call it a dump truck on the package.  It
has six wheels, the rear four all on the same axle (and only the outer ones
actually roll).  Mining trucks have somewhat chibi proportions anyway, so
it's hard to tell if there's been any deformation at all here.  The height of
the railings and door on the driver's side give some idea of the scale, I'd
call it 15mm scale (1:133) or maybe N-scale (1:160) at the extreme end.
[Later note: Long Haul was played by a Caterpillar 773b, which is 30.5 feet
long.  That makes this only 1:80 scale.]
     4.5" (11.5cm) long, 2.75" (7cm) wide, 2.5" (6.5cm) tall.  At a
conservative 1:120 scale, that'd make it 45 feet (13.5m) long.  It looks like
it's carrying arms in the dumper, and it has a spare front bumper sticking
out the back.  Mostly dull yellow-green with dark gray on the tires and the
payload.  There's some dusty/dirty paint on part of the dumper's underside,
but not on the pieces that become forearms, which hurts the look.  The
driver's compartment windows are metallic light blue, the headlights are
silver, the front grille is dark gray, and the turn signals are red.  The
blue Decepticon symbol is now on the chunk to the right of the driver's
compartment.  It would have been nice to have green paint on the front hubs
to match the green plastic in the rear hubs.

     Overall: A brutish mold for a brutish Decepticon, eminently
appropriate.  The gimmick does steal some articulation, but I kinda like it.
And unlike a lot of FABs, the robot mode has good proportions.


     Dave Van Domelen, and now, maybe, to do the regular Deluxes.