The Energon Pub

Rated X wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:

Rated X wrote:Who is Hauler ?

Hauler is a Constructicon Green repaint of the Inferno and Grapple mold.

Ahhh...

This will probally be the next e-Hobby/Millions Publishing exclusive that I pay $140 for and then ends up on clearance 8 months later for $75. When will I ever learn ?

TFWiki wrote:One of the first original-deco toys released as part of the e-HOBBY exclusive series, RoadHauler is a redeco of the Autobot Grapple, transforming into a Mitsubishi Fuso hook-crane truck. Both of his forearms contain a spring-loaded missile launcher so he can fire his own fists, or the included silver missiles. (As a Japanese release, this feature is fully functional, as they have different safety standards for projectiles in Japan.) He was sold only as part of a set with his fellow "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1" cameo-character Sunstorm.
Pre-orders for the set closed on May 15, 2003. The toys shipped out in July.
A retooling of this mold was used to make Generation 1 Inferno and Artfire.

megatronus wrote:Is TFC really scaled with Warbotron? Their Bruticus is going to be, like, 15 inches tall...

daimchoc wrote:

megatronus wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

megatronus wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:I just don't get why TFC makes there combiners so huge. they are not in original toy scale. There not even in 1980's cartoon scale. I don't mind a size higher but not three maybe four sizes bigger.
What's worse,these things cost well over $550 to get the full set.

I'm not sure why you're obsessing over modern figures being G1 toy-scale. This is not something I've ever heard before, from anyone. If you want that, why not just buy the G1 toys?

As far as cartoon scale, the individual members of Hercules are actually scaled fairly well. They're about as tall as Classics Optimus, and taller than the deluxe Classics Autobot cars. That sounds about right to me.

To be in accurate 1980's cartoon scale. The 3rd party constructicons need to deluxe scale. As this is the scale Hasbro has given to the classics autobots cars. In the 1980's cartoon,the Constructicons were car autobots size. Having each 3rd party constructicon being voyager size is too big & not 1980's cartoon scale.

Cartoon scale is always tricky, but I could have sworn they were as tall as the Seekers and other Decepticons in the cartoon...

Peaugh wrote:Okay, mostly a photodump for now, will type up more as I have time. But Hooray, Diesel got here today!



The contents of said package. Of note, M3 stands for Motor Force Military Multiplier. There is no mention of Intimidator in the official paperwork.



He are the two halves of the vehicle mode. You have to take the back doors off of the back half of the trailer and put them on the back of the cab portion to form the shorter truck.



A quick comparison with Orion in vehicle mode:



And in robot mode:



Here's the rear section of the trailer, split in top and bottom halves. Very full in there.



The gang's all here!



All armored up with Orion:



Transformation on this guy is insanely fiddly, both from truck to robot and robot to combined mode. There are unfortunately already several stressed tabs, so of which I'm sure were there from TFsource's photoshoot, but I have no doubt I added a few myself. The instructions are annoying vague in a few spots and a few parts HAVE to be done in the right order so everything passes by each other in the proper order. There are also some REALLY neat parts too, so it's not a total wash. The combiner head reveal is OUTSTANDING. Definitely some wow factor, but a lot of small thin parts that could break easily if you aren't paying super close attention to a few parts. Slightly frustrating but worth it.

Here's the base form without the other guys.



Regarding the connection ports, you only use the triangle of peg holes starting with the crotch plate as the top and the two leg holes as the bottom of the triangle. Anything else that can be moved around you can position/deform to your liking. You'll see I messed with the leg cars a bit in the forthcoming photos. The triangles for the arms as well as the main peg are smaller for the arms. I have not yet successfully found a way to scramble city these guys. I will make further attempts later on, but it's looking less likely now that he's in hand and I have been able to fool around with it.



And all put together!



The back isn't too bad, those panels tab in at the top and bottom and stay pretty well, he's not anywhere near as hollow back there as previous photos made him look.



And here's a few comparison shots with other combiners. I'll just get this one out of the way first:



With Giant and Colossus:



With Defensor, so you get and idea of how much larger he is than his G1 counterpart:



With Hegemon:



With Computron and Glacialord:



He scales pretty well with Hercules, I think:



with Uranos:



With FOC Bruticus:



Video and more pics coming later!


EDIT! Forgot Car Crash and T-bone had those flip up chests earlier. Finally got more time to mess around, scramble city confirmed!



A quick vehicle group shot I didn't get earlier.