Category Archives: Transformatorium

Big Angry Trev discusses the beautiful wonderful world of Transformers!

Transformatorium, Transformer Toy Reviews

Toy Review – Ectotron

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Transformers may be an intergenerationaly beloved franchise that began in 1984, but there is another that began that same year that is just as beloved and famous, and that is Ghostbusters.

Transformers rock! Ghostbusters rock! One involves giant shape-changing alien robots, the other using proton streams and containment systems to catch ghosts. Plus both have cool vehicles and catchy theme tunes!

It’s the cool vehicles (or at least one of them) we will be looking at today. Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters vehicle and a true icon of pop culture. But here Ecto-1 has been given the Transformers Crossover treatment, so for the 35th anniversary of both franchises we get Ectotron.

 

The Packaging

Oh it’s just sooo beautiful! Pure 80’s Transformers G1, right down to the transformation steps at the top. And subtly altered with the odd bit of slime and Ghostbusters symbols to show the dual heritage of this toy.

 

Vehicle Mode

Be still my beating heart! Ecto-1 looks superb here! So much detail! From the grill to the doors to all the various equipment on top, this is an incredibly faithful rendition of the original vehicle. The only downside is that there is no interior detail, but given this is also a Transformer I find this completely forgivable – all those robot pieces have to go somewhere after all.

 

Robot Mode

Who ya gonna call?

Very cool! The colour scheme is mostly white due to the vehicle form, but incorporates some brown as a shout out to the uniforms the Ghostbusters wear. The figure has great articulation which allows you to put him in all sorts of bustin’ poses. Instead of the usual robot optics, he has spectro-goggles such as Ghostbuster Ray Stanz wears. And speaking of equipment the Ghostbusters wear…

 

The Proton Pack

The roof equipment from the vehicle form transforms into a detachable Proton Pack for the Ectotron robot mode. This is very clever! Not only can he take the pack on and off, but he can also either holster the gun on his back, or can hold it in order to do some bustin’ of his own. Very, very well done – Slimer better watch out!

Back-Bling

 

Worth Getting?

This wasn’t a very hard review to write as I am absolutely in love with this figure! Could it have been better? Perhaps. Inner detail for the vehicle, maybe some more paint apps on the robot mode and some eye and mouth colour on Slimer so he is not just a green blob (though really, the character literally is a green blob). But given this figure is not that cheap as is, it would have resulted in a far higher price tag in order to accommodate all that, and I think he is fine as is.

Personally, whenever not playing with it I’ll be keeping Ectotron in the beautiful packaging as a display piece. Ectotron is currently available at multiple places online or here in Australia at Zing & EB Games stores for around $80. If you are a fan of both the Ghostbusters and Transformers franchises (and let’s face it – who isn’t), then I heartily recommend picking up what, in my opinion, is the best TF crossover toy we’ve ever had!

Got something to say about this figure?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

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Random Rants, Transformatorium

Venue cancels Interactive Transformers Show at last minute

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Note: The following in an opinion piece based upon actual events.  All images taken were posted publicly in a public forum.

When one is providing a service, whether it be performing a surgical operation or digging a ditch, it is incumbent upon one to take all necessary steps to make sure that the service is provided with the highest professionalism and standards.  If the service involves services for children, then the pre-planning involved in order to provide that service is effectively delivered should be considered of even greater importance.  One could assume that this kind of thinking pervades every right-minded person in society.

Well apparently not.  Not when it comes to the Panthers Penrith Leagues Club anyway.

In what could only be described as a colossal cock-up, Panthers Penrith failed to deliver on a Transformers Interactive Stage-Show, disappointing hundreds of kids and their families who had paid substantial amounts months in advance to see the performance.

Their excuse – bad weather.

To clarify, this show was not outside, it was inside the venue in a theater.  The reason the bad weather stopped the show was that the ‘artists’ (D-grade actors in Transformer costumes) were unable to fly in to perform due to grounded planes on Saturday morning.

‘Oh OK’ you might think “Well sometimes these things cannot be helped.  It’s nobody’s fault’.

Only thing is, the bad weather had been forecast a week in advance, and in an extreme example of penny-pinching, Penrith Panthers had inexplicably still decided to try and fly the actors in that morning of the show rather than the night before, which would have resulted in them shelling out for a nights accommodation at their on-site hotel.

Of course, this meant that many families who had booked a hotel so they could bring their kids to the show, were now out of pocket for nothing.

For our family personally, this was all a gigantic disappointment!  We had booked months in advance and even booked a hotel room.  Then on the day driven 2 ½ hours over the Blue Mountains, only for the cancellation to be announced on social media a mere 90 minute before the show was due to start.  My son, who loves Transformers almost as much as I do, was incredibly upset.  All that build up and travelling just to have his show whisked away at the very last minute… it was probably the biggest disappointment he has experienced in his 6 years of life.

 

Panthers Penrith handling of the situation was deplorable, in fact one might say the term ‘bungling incompetence’ is an apt phrase to use.  First they announced the 11am show was cancelled.

Then 2 hours later announced ALL shows were cancelled.

Then they rang some people to tell them of the cancellations, but certainly not all:

The outrage on Facebook was palpable:

While it was allowed to last:

Yes this comment got deleted

In pure damage control, first Panthers Penrith kept going through their Facebook ‘All Shows Cancelled’ post and deleting every negative comment, which meant pretty much all of them.  In fact  when talking to Lisamaree the next day, she mentioned how surprised she was by all the positive ‘It’s not your fault, you guys are great’ comments.  Panthers Penrith not only left all the positive comments up, but also rather startlingly all the troll comments that made fun of the upset parents.

By Monday, Panthers Penrith Leauges Club must have realized how suspicious that looked so simply started deleting everything anybody posted:

Somewhat suspicious that the comments shrank from over 50 to 1

So not only did Panthers Penrith disappoint a lot of families with their idiotic decisions, but even denied families the right to vent their very valid frustrations.

Thankfully here at bigangrytrev.com we engage in no such censorship, so granted Jason, another parent who was bringing his family, his chance to vent here:

When you recieved the call saying the show was cancelled, how did you feel?

‘Annoyed. Our eldest son had been looking forward to this for almost 2 months, we had accommodation booked, we were on our way out to Penrith and we find out that the actors didn’t have the forethought to look at a weather map in advance (or listen to the news) and realise that flying in on the morning of the shows was not a good idea.’

What were your children’s reactions when you told them the show was off?

‘Our youngest was ambivalent, mostly due to his age. Our eldest was upset, until we bribed him with playing at Timezone for a few hours instead.’

 

So yes, in all, one could say this was a complete cock-up.  While even the angriest of parents (a group which included myself) agree that in no way did Panthers Penrith Leagues Club or the actors wish for this to happen, it is a situation that could have easily been avoided with even a modicum of forethought and preparation.  The equipment was already at the venue and there wasn’t a show the previous few nights in Melbourne where the actors were flying from.  So really, besides the Leagues Club saving a few bucks, there was no reason the actors could not have flown in earlier, especially with the bad weather known about so far in advance.  Thus when Panthers Penrith gives their ‘it’s nobody’s fault’ speech, it doesn’t ring true, not one bit.  Next time they make such a mistake they should own it.  Admit ‘Yes we f*cked up – we are really sorry!  We will try to make it up to you all!’.  It would garner them a lot more respect than weaselly excuses and deleting negative facebook comments.

But personally I wont know next time it happens as I plan on  never trying to attend a show at their venue again.  Maybe they should just stick to being the overgrown pokies parlour that everyone considers them to be – because a kids entertainment venue they certainly are not.

 

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Transformer Toy Reviews

Toy Review – Cyberverse Soundwave

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Good old Soundwave, after having a break for many years he got revived for the Cybertron series and has been a staple ever since.  Animated, Prime, RID(15), Movieverse – he’s been in them all.  It should not come as much of a surprise then that Soundwave has cropped up in the new Cyberverse series, ensuring he gets yet another new toy.  So lets take a look at Cyberverse Warrior-Class Soundwave. 

 

Robot Mode

‘Operation: Look Awesome’

I kinda like the style of it.  Somewhere between the G1 and Animated Soundwaves.  The blue is quite vibrant, the yellow stands out well on his chest with the Decepticon Symbol in the middle, the soundwave patterns on his shoulders, the shoulder cannon – all good!  Good to see the cassette-player symbols on there too despite the fact that’s not what he transforms into.  He also has an extra little satellite dish that can flip out from the side of his head.

The articulation here is better than most other Cyberverse Warrior class figures too with the elbows and knees bending, the neck turning and the leg and shoulder connections being able to swivel.

The only letdown is how bare his legs look, much like Cyberverse Prowl, they look far too plain due to making up the back half of the vehicle mode.

 

Vehicle mode

Quite a letdown.  A survellience vehicle  is a good alt-mode choice for him but this is just way to bland.  Some different colours on the lights and grill or even a stripe down the side would have helped break up this big box of blue.  Once again you can flip out the satellite dish which makes sense for the vehicle, whereas the cannon definitely does not.

 

The Laserbeak Blast

‘Laserbeak: Eject. Operation: Attend Rave Party’

This made me laugh the first time because I didn’t mean to activate it, I was just seeing if his head swiveled.  By turning his head & cannon you make Laserbeak (who sadly can’t detach) pop out of his chest compartment at a surprising speed!  But that colour – translucent neon pink?!  Haven’t seen a Laserbeak this pink since he was pretending to be a Bumblebee copy in DOTM!  It’s kinda fun and it’s kinda quirky – it would have just been a lot better if Laserbeak popped all the way out.

Laserbeak can also pop out the back of the vehicle.  I can’t figure out if this works in the figures favour or not.  On the one hand it forces Soundwave’s head to be uncovered and the overall effect is weird.  On the other hand the back panel dropping down like that and Laserbeak shooting out makes it looks like Soundwave is getting tailed and is deploying Laserbeak out the back of his vehicle – could make for some interesting play options.

 

Worth Getting?

I’d say that this figure is worth getting for the price tag, but only just.  The robot mode is really nice (if small) and has replaced Shockwave as my favorite Warrior-Class bot.  However the vehicle mode is definitely lacking.  Pretty simplistic transformation too.  It may simply be a case of how amusing  you think you or your kids will find the Laserbeak gimmick.  But it’s easy to say this is definitely one of the much better Warrior-Class Cyberverse figures.

Got anything to say about this figure?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

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Transformatorium, Transformer Toy Reviews

Toy Review – Siege Greenlight

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Over the past few years we have been getting Transformer toys based on increasingly obscure Generation One characters.  While it’s pretty hard to beat Scrounge (a character from the Marvel comics who turned into a wheel and died) who came with the Combiner Wars Technobots, we may have a contender.  This time it is a femmebot who was a background character with no lines in a single episode from a G1 cartoon back in 1985.  So let’s say Go to the Amazon Prime exclusive Siege Greenlight! 

 

Robot Mode 

‘It’s not easy being Greenlight’

Greenlight uses the same mold that was used by POTP Moonracer and Novastar before that.  So there are probably few dedicated collectors who are unfamiliar with this mold by now.  Besides the colour scheme, which is rather more striking than I thought it would be, the only change is a new headsculpt based on her G1 cartoon appearance – very 80’s alien from the future in its design.  And she does look pretty cool sporting a shield and flaming sword.

‘Springer – I am your warrior princess!’

 

Vehicle Mode 

Esentially identical to all her sisterbots, but once again the green really pops!  And at least coming with a Targetmaster … er, I mean Battle Master partner, attaching her shield at the back makes it look like she has a vehicular battle mode. 

 

Dazzlestrike 

Dazzlestrike is a redeco of Lionizer. The figure is unchanged except for some white eyebrows, some green on the blade and blue eyes instead of red.  These extra colours certainly make the figure stand out more than her brother.

 

Worth Getting?

Well it depends.  If you are looking for a toy you haven’t seen before you won’t find it here.  She also has a decent price tag, being an exclusive from Amazon Prime.  However these are characters you wont find anywhere else and considering you get a Deluxe and a Battle Master figure the cost isn’t outrageous.  Also if you wish to form the gestalt Orthia (review coming when 4th Femmebot released), the first female Combiner  we’ve had since Megatronia, then Greenlight is a must have to join with Elita-1 and the rest.  So why not fill out that extra gap in your G1-cast entourage and go get your Greenlight online today!

Got something to say about this toy?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

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Transformatorium

Blackarachnia Mouse Pad

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Well it’s been a few years since we got a Transformers-themed Wrist Rest Mouse Pad.  In early 2017 we saw pads made of Arcee and Windblade, followed several months later by Elita-1.  Now nearly two full years later we have the latest one, and it’s the character that near everyone predicted would be next.  So let’s look at the Blackarachnia Mouse Pad.

 

The Artwork

Classy!

The first Transformers Wrist Rest pads that came out were definitely Anime themed in their artwork.  The follow up one of Elita-1 was more G1 Cartoon/Comic themed and even those who abhor these Mouse Pads admitted it was excellent artwork of her (from the neck up at least).   This Mouse Pad definitely goes back to an Anime style, and is rather indicative of the artwork from the comic included with the Legends Blackarachnia figure.

Translated comic courtesy of Tets’ Toys and Shenanigans

An odd inclusion in the artwork is her licking a claw with an organic tongue.

 

The Physical Attributes

The dimensions and… er… squidgyness… of the Mouse Pad are on par with what has come before.

What is a shame is that unlike the other Mouse Pads, this one does not come packaged in a hard plastic shell, making it harder for those who choose to display them rather than put them to conventional use.

 

An Already Busty Character

Legends Box Art

It’s rather ironic that these Mouse Pads accentuate the female chest, yet the Legends Blackarachnia toy and box art actually show Blackarachnia with an even bigger bust than the Mouse Pad has! The previous Mouse Pads got a lot of scorn from certain sections of the fandom for giving a Transformer breasts.  It will be interesting to see if those sections get angry again here, considering Blackarachnia has always been portrayed in cartoons, comics and toys as actually having breasts.  In fact the original Beast Wars toy had massive mammaries!

Voted at the academy ‘Predacon most likely to develop back problems’

Why these silly little Mouse Pads cause such controversy has always been a bit beyond me, since they are representations of fictional shape-shifting alien robots. Plus pick up any DC or Marvel comic and you’d be hard pressed to find any artwork showing a single female Super Hero rocking something smaller than Double D’s.  Funnily enough the outrage often seems to be more from male rather than female Transformer fans, who tend to find the whole thing bemusing.  But to each their own and it’s understandable that this kind of product is not everyone’s cup of tea.

 

“Silverbolt – you have captured my essence exactly!”

So there ya go, the latest in the line of Transformer Wrist Rest Mouse Pads and something to sate fans until the Masterpiece Blackarachnia figure is released later this year.  For those of you that entered the competition on this site, well done, nearly every one of you predicted this would be the next Mouse Pad created!  So keep tuned to see which Femmebot will get the Wrist Rest treatment next.

 

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Transformatorium, Transformer Toy Reviews

Toy Review: Cyberverse Slipstream (Ultra)

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Slipstream – the female Seeker fatalle.

Introduced back in Transformers Animated as a female clone of Starscream, Slipstream became very popular very quickly.  Not only having the distinction of the only official female Seeker ever, but also one of a small number of female Decepticons all up.

Fans loved seeing another female baddie and combined with her cool attitude and colour scheme it meant that Slipstream soon started turning up in other Transformers Universes.  In the Aligned Universe via novels, video games and a Timelines figure (recolour of TFP Starscream) and was retroactively introduced into G1 via a Legends toy (retool of Legends Windblade).

Well now Slipstream has shown up in the new Cyberverse cartoon.  Not only was she the main antagonist for the first season of the cartoon, but it has finally after all these years given her well overdue original toy that’s not simply a redo of someone else.  So let’s check out Ultra Class Cyberverse Slipstream.

 

Robot Mode

Aesthetics

I reckon without a doubt this is the best looking Slipstream we have ever had!  Not a recoloured Starscream, not Windblade with an Animated-style head stuck on.  No, this is Slipstream all the way!  The proportions, the colour scheme, the arm cannons, the face with the plum coloured lipstick, she looks exactly like she does on the cartoon.  If it wasn’t for the fact you can see a big purple panel hanging down behind her thighs I’d say she was perfect.

Jet black hair and plum lipstick – I AM the emo girl you lusted after in High School

Articulation

Knee’s are for the weak!

Of course, while her looks are great, her articulation is not.  No knee articulation, no neck and head movement and the few places where she does have articulation (hips, shoulders & elbows) the movement is quite limited.  So unless you want her very purposely striding somewhere or doing the splits, you will feel let down here.

So glad I’m not a Malebot right now!

 

Jet Mode

Aesthetics

Once again, you can tell this figure was meant to be Slipstream from the start, the jet mode looks just like it does on the cartoon.  Whilst a tad plain for my tastes, it certainly does the job of recreating the onscreen look.  She has landing gear that pops down but the cockpit is simply painted on.  The only real letdown to this mode is the very visible hands from the robot mode, it would have taken so little effort for the designers to make them fold into the hollow forearms.

Sonic Swirl

WTF?! Well I suppose….. no seriously – WTF?!?

Sigh… look, I understand why these gimmicks get put in.  While I as an adult would prefer they get left out so as to put more effort into the rest of the toy, they are very appealing to little kids. My 6 and 4 year old had great fun squeezing the jets guns together to activate the ‘Sonic Swirl’.  My question is – what the hell is the sonic swirl supposed to be?!  It makes some panels pop up off her wings and flip behind her to briefly twirl.  But why?  It can’t be propulsion, she is already a jet.  As it’s sonic, maybe it causes some kind of noisy vortex behind her to deter pursuers or something?  For me it just seems to be a bit of useless gimmickry that the toy could have done without.  But yeah, I guess I’m not the key target demographic.

 

Ultra Class Slipstream, worth getting?

Hey – I look better than Starscream at least!

Depends.  Aesthetically she is by far the biggest and best looking Slipstream figure we have ever had from any continuity.  Articulation wise she isn’t much better than the KRE-O version.  The vehicle mode looks great but has a couple of glaring issues.  That combined with the very simplistic transformation (9 steps) means that your more serious Transformer fan will happily bypass her. But for young kids, Cyberverse fans or Slipstream & Seeker fanatics (which I am) she is worth shelling out some bucks for.

 

Got anything to add to the review?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

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Exclusive Card Reveal: Private Stakeout – Transformers TCG

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A few months ago, bigangrytrev.com was privileged enough to be given an exclusive reveal for the new Transformers Trading Card Game. In that instance it was Dirge and Defensive Driving from the Rise of the Combiners cards.

Well now courtesy of Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, we have been given another exclusive reveal. And this time it is from the latest iteration of the game – War For Cybertron Seige.

For those unaware, the current Transformers Generations toyline for 2019 is indeed War for Cybertron Seige and indeed it appears many of the upcoming cards will be based on said toyline. The exclusive card reveal we get to do today is definetly based on one of those toys, a Micromaster character who hadn’t had a new figure for nearly 30 years – Private Stakeout.

Coming in at 4 Stars, Stakeout – whose roles are Infantry and Communications – doesn’t appear to be the most powerful of characters, but then as a Micromaster he isn’t expected to be.  But this little Autobot can still prove quite useful.

 

Patrol Car Mode

 

3 Attack, 5 Health, 0 Defense

The artwork from this has been taken from the Siege packaging for Stakeout, which I quite like as I’m really enjoying the more gritty artwork that has been accompanying this line. In his Patrol Car mode, Stakeout has only 5 health and absolutely zero shielding. However this sneaky little bot has got that covered. Despite appearing quite vulnerable, his skill is Stealth, which means that unless every other one of your Hero Cards has been KO’ed by your opponent, any attack on this card while it is untapped can be deflected onto another one of your characters, keeping him safe from being killed before he can even get in the fight.

 

Robot Mode

 

2 Attack, 5 Health, 1 Defence

Once again, the artwork has been taken from the great packaging art of the new toy. In robot mode Private Stakeout sacrifices one of his attack points in order to get at least a bit of defence going. But once again, it’s less his stats that are important bur rather his special ability. Stakeout has the ability to, via you sacrificing one of your white-square cards, to flip another Hero Character Card to it’s other mode. This can be invaluable depending on who you are flipping. For instance if you have another character who has a lot more health and defence in one of its modes and is near death, you can flip it to its more resilient mode in order to survive your opponents next attack on you.

 

Teams Private Stakeout may be useful on

Stakeout is most definitely a supporting character. With 4 Stars he is designed to fill out a team full of stronger/higher star ranking characters where you have already used up to 21 of your 25 star limit. Stakeout will be most useful in a team with characters where it is imperative to be able to get that extra Hero Card flip in so as to facilitate either attack or defence. This suits Stakeout in the grand scheme of the Transformers universe; Micromasters are small, not particularly powerful in of themselves and are often used to support bigger robots. For instance in the new toyline Stakeout combines with Red Heat to form the “Binerboost Salvage Blaster”, a gun used by regular sized bots.

 

So I hope you have enjoyed another Exclusive Card reveal from bigangrytrev.com. Many thanks to Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast for the chance to show this card to the world, which will be available when the Transformers TCG War For Cybertron Seige sets get released on June 28th 2019.  Also check out the reveal over on Life…With Sprogs to see another new card – Searget Skrapnel.

 

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Toy Review – Studio Series: Scrapmetal

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This year marks the 10th Anniversary of the original release of the Transformers Movie “Revenge of the Fallen”.

Despite this movie being almost universally agreed upon as the worst out of all the Transformers movies, it did very well at the box office (as opposed to the Bumblebee movie which was the opposite in both regards). But even fans that didn’t like the movie they liked the figures, a lot of toys were fantastic and considered a lot better than most of those that accompanied future movies.

So, to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the movie and its toyline, Hasbro is releasing via its Studio Series line, new versions of the Constructicons. These new figures will all eventually form a gigantic new Devastator combiner – and who doesn’t love that!

There were lots of unnamed Construticons in the ROTF, and one had a very short showing. Known as ‘ze little one’, there was a small yellow Constructicon who got ripped apart by his peers to be new parts for Megatron. And a full decade later that little guy is getting a toy of his own – so let’s have a look at Scrapmetal.

 

Excavator Mode

A really nicely detailed little digger. Certainly a lot smaller than the rest of the Constructicons, even counting those toys that were released way back when ROTF was in the cinemas. I suppose that suits him based on his ‘ze little one’ moniker. There is a decent amount of detail to this excavator, especially on the digger arm. I also appreciate that his cab windows are translucent rather than solid, as one would expect from a Studio Series toy. A bit of a disappointment is the plastic treads, I would personally have preferred rubber.

 

Robot Mode

I’m not Scrapper – he lived… for a while

Both in colour scheme and general appearance he looks a lot like ROTF Scrapper. But given that was how he pretty much appeared in his very brief appearance in the movie this is to be expected. Again, a nice bit of detail to this toy to recommend it. There is a fair bit of kibble but in a good way. A nice touch is that they’ve made his hands look like grabbing claws as if they are formed from the excavator bucket, even though they aren’t. A big disappointment for me though is my versions hands seem to be jammed, I just can’t get them to open.

Considering how many ugly movie toys we have had over the years, this bloke looks quite good. He comes with a shield, which is OK but I think mainly an excuse to use up some kibble.

Ole’!

The articulation on Scrapmetal is great! Head, shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes). And I’m not sure I’ve ever had a figure that does such wonderful cartwheels!

 

Transformation

Fairly intuitive. A pretty good level where it’s not going to take up half your afternoon but at the same time isn’t overly simplified like say some of the Cyberverse toys. Parts lock solidly in place in both modes.

 

Scrapmetal – worth getting?

It depends on how much you liked the movies and/or associated toys I guess. If you are a Movieverse completionist then Scrapmetal is a must have, but even if you are not a fan of the flicks this is still a pretty cool toy. If however you are a Constructicon nut like I am, or intend to form ROTF Devastator (Scrapmetal will make up one hand) then this guy is certainly worth putting down your money for.

 

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Devastator Pack Review: Part 2 – Gameplay. Transformers TCG

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Last week we got to have a sneak peek at the Devastator Deck, courtesy of an advance copy from Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, and look at the cards contained within in detail.

Now officially released, these are available for purchase, and over the past week I’ve gotten a chance to really put the pack through its paces.  So let’s have a look at the Devastator Pack in gameplay.

And the usual spiel: Neither Hasbro or Wizards of the Coast have paid for this review nor have they tried to dictate the contents of this blog.  Bigangrytrev.com would like to thank both companies for their ongoing generosity.

Since all the cards have been already examined in great detail in Part 1 of the review, we wont rehash what we already know.  If you need a reminder, go check out that post.  Instead I’m going to give you some top tips for using Devastator to… er… devastate! In particular we will look at pitting the Constructicons against other Combiner Teams, such as the Stunticons and  Menasor.

 

GAMEPLAY TIPS & TRICKS

Get Scrapper into Robot Mode

This should be your very first action!  Not only does it get one of the 6 characters into robot mode which you will need to make Devastator later, but it means every time another Constructicon gets KO’ed you will get a point for your Tower Card.

Get Bonecrusher in the mix

As your best offensive Constructicon, get him into Robot Mode next.  You want to try and inflict a fair bit of damage with him and his Pierce 2 on your opponents cards before he gets KO’ed due to his low Health Stats.

Flip Scavenger next

You want that Bold 1 and the extra card it garners you every time you are attacked.

Keep the others in vehicle mode until KO’ed or needed

The other 3 Constructicons don’t have particularly useful Robot Mode abilities so I suggest keeping them in Vehicle Form until KO’ed.  Their stats remain exactly the same and every time you attack with them it will give you another point for your tower.

If any character gets KO’ed in vehicle mode, flip them at the first opportunity. 

Their ability to get you extra points for your Tower is gone once they are KO’ed, so if you come across a card like Rapid Conversion, use it to flip a KO’ed vehicle into Robot Mode so they are ready to combine when required.

Build that Tower to at least 6 before combining!

I played several games both as and against Devastator and I’ll tell ya, you will really want those extra 2 Bold points Devastator gets when his Tower is at 6. They do make a difference when trying to knock out another Combiner like Menasor or a Titan like Metroplex, characters that have huge stats.  Also it means that it’s 6 damage points that you get to remove from Devastator, which also makes a huge difference!

Getting your Tower to 10 before combing is often unrealistic.

While it would be great to have your Tower at 10 before you form Devastator, unless you have a good run of luck with the cards it is probably not going to happen.  If you can achieve it, great!  It means you loose 10 whole damage counters and get extra attack power right off the bat, but again, it’s likely not to happen.  Hope to get your tower to 8 and then pick up some Builders Tools and Enigma cards to take you the rest of the way.

If your opponent makes a Combiner first, get combining!

Gotta Combin’em all!

The likes of Menasor are pretty damn powerful and you don’t want to give them free reign for too long, because your individual Constructicons aren’t going to be very effective against the behemoth.

Keep track of your Builders Tools and Constructicon Enigma Cards

These two cards are the only way to add extra points to your Tower after you build Devastator.  You get three of each card so keep track of where they are and how many you have used.  Once or twice I had to form Devastator when only having 4 points on my Tower, and coming across those cards enabled me to bring my Tower up to 6, helping turn the tide of battle.

If you get your Tower to 10 – get ready to bask in victory!

If you can get that Tower up to 10, getting an extra 4 Attack Points and your overall attack rating going up to 10 means that you are going to decimate your opponent!  As someone who has played both sides when this has happened, I can attest that the opposing Combiner/Titan/Team goes down very quickly under an onslaught that strong.

 

So there ya go, some top tips & tricks to playing as and winning with the Constructicons and Devastator.  A lot of it will depend on the deck your opponent has built.  Given that the other Combiners special cards are only found in Booster Packs, it’s unlikely they  will have 3 of each like you will be sporting, so if you find yourself destroying every opponent in sight you might even be magnanimous and take a couple of yours out to make things more even.  Until you reach that winning streak though, devastate away!

 Got any other tips to playing with this pack?  Would love to read them in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

Devastator Deck Review: Part 1

Rise of the Combiners Booster Packs Part One and Part 2

Metroplex Deck Review

Games & Competitions, Transformatorium

Devastator Pack Review: Part 1 – Transformers TCG

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With the Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs hitting shelves all over the country, it is nearly time for the first dedicated ROTC Box Pack to hit the shelves.  Due for release on March 29, this pack will have arguably the most popular and recognizable of all the Transformer Combiners – Devastator!  And once again bigangrytrev.com had been lucky enough to be given a pack in advance so as to bring you all the goss regarding these new cards.

Before we continue, the usual spiel: This pack has been given to bigangrytrev.com for review purposes by Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast.  Neither company has paid for this review or tried to dictate the content of this blog.  Bigangrytrev.com would like to thank both companies for their ongoing generosity.

Despite the average rate of finding a Combiner Character card to be 1 in 2, a lot of people have been struggling to make their first combiner, even when purchasing a whole box of the Booster Packs.  Personally I was able to make Menasor and Dreadwing right off the bat but many others have not been so fortunate.  So with the release of the Devastator Pack, it is going to bring a lot of joy to those yet to make one of these colossal characters!  In the Devastator Pack you will find not only all the cards to go with it, but all the characters you will need.  So no endless searching – all your Constructicons can be found in the same place – right here!  Lets take a look at them:

Oh and another note, like when looking at the Combiner Booster Packs, there is SO MUCH information to be shared here, this will most likely be another 2-part Blog, with part one being information and the second one gameplay.

 

Constructicon Character Cards

Scrapper

Leader, Melee

5 Stars

Hook

Surgical Engineer, Ranged

4 Stars

Mixmaster

Materials Fabrication, Melee

4 Stars

Bonecrusher

Demolitions, Melee

4 Stars

Long Haul

Transport, Melee

4 Stars

Scavenger

Mining & Salvage, Melee

4 Stars

So we are noticing a few things straight off the bat.  Firstly Scrapper as the leader has 5 stars but the rest only have four.  Whilst this makes them fairly weak characters, it does mean you get to have all 6 Constructicons on the board at once.  Also you will only have one ranged character, Hook, whilst the rest are melee.  All characters have the same amount of damage, health and shield points in both their modes, making no difference in stats whether you be rocking a robot or construction vehicle.

Now to their special abilities.  Again, nothing staggering either offensively or defensively.  Bonecrusher has the best offense capability with Pierce 2 in his Robot Mode, with Hook sporting Pierce 1 and Long Haul Bold 1.  The only character to be sporting anything defensively is Scavenger with Tough 1 in his robot mode.   So what are nearly all the other special ablitities geared towards?  Towards your Tower Card, which is going to be crucial when playing as Devastator.

 

The Tower Card

This seemingly innocent little card is going to dictate so much of your gameplay when playing with the Devastator Deck.  It has made me extra glad that this is the first Transformers TCG pack that has come with instructions included.  Unique among the Combiner Characters, Devastator’s abilities are tied directly to the height of his tower.  And your individual Constructicon’s abilities are aimed towards building that tower as much as possible before combining.  As well as powering up Devestator, the height of your Tower will also affect the strength of some other cards which we shall look at a bit later.

Scrapper’s abilities are both directly tied to the Tower.  His alt-mode means you put your tower into the KO area at the start of the game (which you get to do anyway) and having him in robot mode means that every time a Constructicon gets KO’ed, you get to add another height counter to the tower.

All 5 other Constructicons have the same ability for their Alt-Mode

So this makes your individual Constructicons geared primarily towards construction, making that tower as big as possible!  Of course there are other cards to assist them offensively and defensively, several of them exclusive to the Devestator Pack, and some of these too are geared towards your tower.

 

Exclusive Cards

Note: The pack contains 3 of each card.

Builders Tools

Can be used by Constructicons only.  Gives you an extra counter on your Tower whenever a character sporting the card attacks.  This makes this card very good to put on Bonecrusher in particular, as well as being one of only two cards that you can use to build your Tower further after combining.

Reclaim

Lets you access the scrap pile for upgrades, but if your Tower is 3 or higher then you get an extra card as well.

Heavy Landing

Gives you an extra point of damage to deal, but if your Tower is 6 or higher then you do 3 damage instead.

Work Overtime

The only exclusive card that does not involve the Tower, it allows you to draw extra cards until you have four in your hand.  This makes this card very useful for most any deck you construct!

Constructicon Enigma

Like the Enigma cards for the other Combiners, you need this card to form Devestator and all your Consturcticons need to be in Bot Mode.  Unlike the other Enigma cards however,  this card does not immediately become redundant after combining.  If played when you already have Devestator on the battlefield, you get to Repair 1 damage to him, as well as putting a height counter on your Tower.

 

Devastator

Towering Warrior, Melee

25 Stars

Here he is, the big guy!  No searching through endless booster packs, you get him in one shot!  His stats are similar to the likes of Metroplex and Menasor.

As you can see, his special abilities are directly related to his tower:

* When you first combine him you get to remove an amount of damage from him equal to the height of your tower.  This means that you can allow your individual Constructicons to get pummelled to a certain extent, because as long as you keep that tower going higher and higher, by the time you form Devastator a lot of that damage will disappear!

* If your tower is 6 or higher you get Bold 2

* If your Tower is 10 or higher, your attack rating goes up from 6 to a whopping 10!

It is for the above abilities I highly recommend you do not combine Devestator until you have a minimum of 6 height on your Tower, because once Devestator is formed you cant make it any higher, unless employing another enigma card.

 

Other Cards

This pack comes with 9 other types of card, both common & uncommon and ones we have already seen before.  The one of most use to you will definitely be Rapid Conversion, since you have 6 separate characters you need to get into bot mode.  I find it funny we got Scrapper Gauntlets, since it doesn’t seem to be Scrapper sporting them.  You get two to three of each of these 9 cards.

 

So is the Devestator Pack worth getting?

Yes, oh my yes!  Not only do you get to make a Combiner Character in one go without having to search through endless Booster Packs, but it comes with a ton of exclusive cards that you cannot purchase anywhere else.  Add to that the unique playstyle the Tower brings to the game and this really is a purchase that I can’t see any big Transformers TCG players bypassing.  I highly recommend going out and picking yourself up a pack when they come out at the end of this month!

 

Related Articles:

Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs Part 1 and Part 2

Metroplex Pack Review