Dave's Hunt for the Decepticons Legends Rant: Wave 2 Long Haul (Mining Truck) Sandstorm (Universe2 Beachcomber redeco) Tracker Hound (Universe2 Hound redeco) Override (Sideways redeco, not reviewed) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/LegendsH2 An almost entirely redeco wave, and not very impressive original molds at that. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/U2/Legend4 - Beachcomber mold http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/U2/Legend2 - Hound mold http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Legends3 - Sideways mold CAPSULES Long Haul: It's well-detailed in both molds and looks nice standing around in robot mode, but the transformation is fiddly and the vehicle mode is riddled with aesthetic flaws. Mildly recommended. $4.97 at Walmart. Sandstorm: Original mold was recommended. This is an okay homage redeco, although casting it in yellow-orange rather than tan plastic would have been more accurate. Recommended if you don't have Beachcomber, mildly recommended otherwise. $4.97 at Walmart. Tracker Hound: It's a black version of the mold with gold striping, and the mold was mildly recommended to begin with. $4.97 at Walmart. Override: A mildly recommended mold, repainted blue and given an arbitrary name to preserve trademark (the RPM Sideways got painted green and randomly called Wreckloose for similar reasons). Doesn't look like either G1 or Cybertron Override, unsurprisingly. $4.97. RANTS Packaging: Same as the previous HtfD wave, but these all have the hubworld.com stickers squeezed onto the front as well as the Hunt for the Decepticons stickers. They continue to come with codes for the online Hunt for the Decepticons game. DECEPTICON: LONG HAUL Altmode: Dump Truck Licensor: None Transformation Difficulty: Very Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Universe, Classics, RotF Previous Mold Use: None Function: Transport STR 9 INT 3 SPD 3 END 9 RNK 3 COUR 8 FRB 9 SKL 2 Avg 5.75 Packaging: Robot mode held in place by a single rattan string. Robot Mode: 2.75" (7cm) tall at the head, 3" (7.5cm) if you count the xylophone behind his head. The dominant color is the same dull yellowish green found on the Voyager Long Haul, with a lot of gunmetal plus some black and a little red. There's real wheels on his ankles and on the backs of the shoulders, plus fake wheels molded on the fronts of the shoulders. Just standing at attention, this actually looks about as good as a Bayformer can look. The level of detailing is impressive, and the limited paint applications are used to very good effect. The wheels are all black plastic. Gunmetal plastic is found on the thighs, the shin fronts and the "pecs" where the shoulders connect. A good match gunmetal paint is used on the abdomen front and the v-shape under his collar area. The parts of his upper torso flanking his "vest" detail are painted matte black with red stripes on the outer edges. His eyes are also red, and the fake wheel details on his shoulders are painted matte black. The Decepticon symbol isn't really visible in this mode. The hips and shoulders are restricted ball joints, functioning pretty much like swivels with a little wiggle room. The knees only bend backwards, and only for transformation, as the shin armor locks them in place in robot mode. The transformation hinges on the chest can let the arms move a little more, although it starts to look weird if you bend them in more than about 30 degrees. Kinda Big O territory, or G1 Ironhide toy arms. But it does mean that if you find something thin enough to fit into his hands (like a toothpick cocktail flag) he can hold it in both hands. Note, the feet are molded to require spreading the legs apart so that they can sit flush with the table, but the hip joints do not allow the legs to simply separate enough. You have to rotate the toes outward about 45 degrees to either side to let the feet work. On the plus side, his hands are the right size to hold Star Wars pistols, so I had mine mug a Clone Trooper for his spares: http://www.dvandom.com/images/longhaulblasters.JPG And Long Haul insists on proper oral hygiene: http://www.dvandom.com/images/longhaulflosser.JPG Transformation: Arms swing together in front of the chest (hands still pointed down), then the shin armor flips down and the legs bend backwards to clip over the arms. It all pegs together in several places, but getting the shin armor pieces to peg onto the arms requires a little fiddling about. Vehicle Mode: Based on the Caterpillar 773 (which played Long Haul in the movie) a 30.5 foot long dump truck. Unfortunately, while the level of molded detail is pretty impressive, it's utterly negated in the aesthetic department by the weird location of the wheels and the fact that there's three big screw sockets sticking up in the dumper bed. Plus, from the sides the robot bits are blatantly obvious, and there's no paint to make the gunmetal piece on the side of the dumper bed blend in. Seriously, the ugly is strong with this one. 2.5" (6cm) long, so about 1:144 scale (aka Gundam Action Figure Scale), with the rear wheels pushed WAY back almost to the very rear of the vehicle and the front wheels shoved all the way to the front end. The rather large front grille is painted gunmetal, while the driver's compartment is matte black with a silver window. Black Decepticon symbols are printed on either side of the dumper part, near the front (and mostly obscured by the arms in robot mode). The fake wheels are mostly painted black, but they don't go all the way around and the truncated parts are left unpainted so that they stand out even more badly thanks to being yellow-green. The toy rolls poorly, as the fake inner rear tires are barely smaller than the rolling wheels, so it ends up skidding on most surfaces. Inevitable Comparison: So, how does it stack up against the version that comes with the Devastator set? Well, the robot mode looks generally better and definitely more movie-accurate. But despite extra detailing and better paint, the vehicle mode just looks worse. The combiner version may look less like the movie character, but it's a better toy in general. Overall: If you prefer to keep your Legends in robot mode, this is definitely one to pick up. It looks very good as a robot, but that comes at the cost of looking pretty bad as a vehicle. A few bits of paint might help the vehicle mode a little, but most of the problems are core to the design. AUTOBOT: SANDSTORM Altmode: Dune buggy Licensor: None Transformation Difficulty: Very Easy (1) Previous Name Use: G1, MW Previous Mold Use: Universe2 Function: Reconnaissance STR 6 INT 5 SPD 5 END 8 RNK 4 COUR 8 FRB 4 SKL 4 Avg 5.5 Packaging: Robot mode held in the blister by one rattan string. Color Swaps: Blue becomes a light tan, black stays black. Paint Apps: The face is painted white, the visor silver, and the helmet black. Most of the chest is painted orange, with the engine detailing in silver and a red-and-white Autobot symbol printed right below the collar (same position as on Beachcomber). The shins are matte black, and there's orange paint on bits of the limbs that end up as fenders. In vehicle mode, the fenders are all painted orange. The center third of the hood is painted black in an attempt to match up with the black plastic of the seat chunks, but the seams are way too obvious. The headlights are silver. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. Other Notes: G1 Sandstorm was mostly yellow-orange and full orange, while Machine Wars Sandstorm went with olive green and orangey-tan. The BotCon exclusive Sandstorm is actually the closest in color scheme to this version. :) Overall: Well, the head shape does at least fit kindasorta for G1 Sandstorm, and if you're not going to have a triple-changer for him you might as well cover one of the two altmodes (and maybe we'll get a tweak of Desert Blackout Legends as Sandstorm in some store-exclusive pack). It's a decent mold, so if you missed Beachcomber a couple years ago you might want to pick this one up. But it's not really interesting enough to get in addition to Beachcomber unless you're a Sandstorm fan already. Dave Van Domelen, failed to find TF:A Rodimus and Ironhide while on the trip to Topeka that got him these two. Sigh.