Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04)

Sunday, December 20th, 2015 10:20am CST

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Posted by: william-james88 Views: 63,441

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It is unquestionable that THE event of the year (2015) in Transfromers toys is Generations Devastator. Unlike almost every other Hasbro toy out there, Takara's version was not just a change in deco but a significant change in the articulation of the figures. Every single figure has extra/different parts to improve on articulation and there are even differences for Devastator as a whole. We could never know the extent until these were released and now that they are I can finally give an illustrated rundown of exactly what is new with Takara's take on Devastator. The pictures come from Seibertron, Dengeki Hobby, Alfes and myself (sorry for the shadows. I don't have a lightbox).

Articulation

The new articulation is broken down with a stock image of the Hasbro version first so that you can see the change right after. You will see that the shots showing the Takara version have the Constructicons holding their own individual weapons, which are unique to each Constructicon. This inclusion is one of the main extra features of the Takara set.

Elbows on Longhaul

Hasbro

Takara

Elbows on Scrapper

Hasbro

Takara

The elbows do lock for combined mode so there is absolutely no stability issue either now or down the line due to their inclusion.

Extra inner arm piece for Hook

Hasbro

Takara

Hasbro's elbow is preserved, making it a double elbow.

Extra inner arm piece for Mixmaster

Hasbro

Takara

Hasbro's elbow is preserved, making it a double elbow.

They call him Master, Mixmaster

Different knee joint for Scavenger

Hasbro

Takara

You can see here how the ball joint is replaced by an extra piece connected on a mushroom peg. This makes the knee bend at the actual knee and not the lower thigh. It also provides a slight increase in articulation. This is also present on Bonecrusher.

Different knee joint for Bonecrusher

Hasbro

Takara

Notice how the pelvic area is tabbed in correctly. If you hear the click, it will be rock solid and not undo itself when playing with or posing the figure. This seems to be an issue Takara fixed (at least on my version). As shown with Scavenger, the knee joint is different. However, while the knee bends at the correct area, the final result looks about the same when the knee is bent at 90 degrees, which you can see below.

Takara

I am unaware if the different knee will help achieve any new poses that people have been wanting to do. For those interested, this is explored further in the conversation we had on the Seibertron forum.

Devastator

New Head

The head lets you switch from one look to the next.

Ratcheted armpits/shoulders

I don't know what to call this specific joint but this is the joint used when extending Devastator's arms outward. It is ratcheted now, by having the connector pieces of Scavenger and Bonecrusher ratcheted, and helps counter gravity when doing poses that extend Devastator's arms so that they do not fall.

Mixmaster's cab

Mixmaster's alt mode has been the most controversial element of Generations Devastator due to the orientation of the cement drum being reversed compared to the original (since it is supposed to resemble a bigger cement mixer). This means that the front of the Hasbro version has more paint apps than the cab found in the back. Takara doesn't seem to fully agree with this change as evident in the mount of paint applications they added to that back cab.

Hasbro

Takara

You will notice that Takara included a faction symbol on this cab. This is important since this would make it the only faction symbol not facing forward head on if Mixmaster was oriented the Hasbro way. Scrapper himself has his faction symbol facing forward by being in his shovel, unlike the Hasbro version, adding to the theme of the placement of the symbols. Also, the individual guns can be placed on the alt modes to give each vehicle an offensive edge. Mixmaster's is placed on that back cab which would have his gun facing away from the action if he were oriented like Hasbro intended.

The intended orientation becomes very evident in a group shot. Here is the SDCC version of Hasbro's Devastator:

Here is Takara's and you tell me what works best.

This:

Or this:

To conclude, here is a rundown of the major changes with Takara's Devastator (UW-04):

6 unique individual weapons
New parts for improved articulation on all Constructicons (knees, elbows or double elbows)
Purple hands for Devastator
New tooling for Devastator's head to switch from visor to visor-less look
Ratchets when extending Devastator's arms outward
Different choice and distribution of paint applications (especially on Bonecrusher's robot mode and Mixmaster's alt mode)
Painted rims

This article was last modified on Thursday, March 24th, 2016 9:59pm CDT

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Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749149)
Posted by SkyWarpt on December 20th, 2015 @ 10:52am CST

Can't wait mine flew in yesterday! Wife is holding it hostage till Christmas

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749150)
Posted by dragons on December 20th, 2015 @ 10:53am CST

Looks like slow news day..?

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749151)
Posted by Wolfman Jake on December 20th, 2015 @ 10:55am CST

Nice rundown of the Takara upgrades, Billy-J. This just cements for me further the wisdom of my choice to wait for the superior Takara version and pass on the more readily available Hasbro version.

I just wish my shipment would get here already!

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749153)
Posted by Randomhero on December 20th, 2015 @ 11:05am CST

So the comparisons used for this is an inhand Takara devastator and stock photos of the hasbro? Is it even a real comparison if you have one in hand and use stock photos of another?

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749154)
Posted by SkyWarpt on December 20th, 2015 @ 11:16am CST

I'm glad I waited for the Takara, but am I the only one that likes the chest paint apps on the Hasbro better?

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749161)
Posted by Agamemnon on December 20th, 2015 @ 11:55am CST

Awesome rundown, WJ!! I really enjoyed reading it and am even more convinced that I did right by waiting for the Takara version. I also notice one more thing about Mixmaster you didn't mention (unless this is the additional forearm piece you meant). If you look at the Hasbro version:

The silver truck "fuel tank" is on the top of the arm, while on Takara's:

The "fuel tank" is purple and on the bottom of the forearm. This draws my attention to the fact that the Hasbro photo shows the left and right arms swapped. Is this the case for all Hasbro CW and SDCC Mismasters? Does this mean Hasbro had to misassemble the forearms to get them to work?

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749164)
Posted by Cobotron on December 20th, 2015 @ 12:12pm CST

Wow Ag, it looks like his fists are upside down on the Hasbro. The first finger protrudes out in a "trigger grip" sort of way, but on the Hasbro version, his pinkies protrude. Tea, anyone?

Maybe that Hasbro photo is of a miss-assembled prototype.

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749188)
Posted by william-james88 on December 20th, 2015 @ 2:15pm CST

Randomhero wrote:So the comparisons used for this is an inhand Takara devastator and stock photos of the hasbro? Is it even a real comparison if you have one in hand and use stock photos of another?

A side by side comparison to compare deco was already newsed last week: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... nes/34370/

This is not a comparison, just a round up of the new added features and the Hasbro pics are just there for everyone to recall how that version did it. There will be a full blown comparison by Seibertron in the traditional gallery style coming at the beginning of the new year, so stay tuned!

Cobotron wrote:Wow Ag, it looks like his fists are upside down on the Hasbro. The first finger protrudes out in a "trigger grip" sort of way, but on the Hasbro version, his pinkies protrude. Tea, anyone?
Maybe that Hasbro photo is of a miss-assembled prototype.

Yup, the stock photo is missasembled. Here's another pic I found of Hasbro's which shows that he is fine. Still Ag pointed out something no one pointed out before, another victim of the brilliant stock photo team

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749189)
Posted by X3ROhour on December 20th, 2015 @ 2:17pm CST

https://www.google.com/search?q=sobbing&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwji2-ztoOvJAhVFHh4KHakCAfIQ_AUIBygB&biw=1350&bih=646

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749190)
Posted by william-james88 on December 20th, 2015 @ 2:24pm CST

Z3ROhour wrote:https://www.google.com/search?q=sobbing&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwji2-ztoOvJAhVFHh4KHakCAfIQ_AUIBygB&biw=1350&bih=646

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749191)
Posted by .... on December 20th, 2015 @ 2:24pm CST

Bruh.

I know this may seem a bit "silly" to say but I just had a dream this morning about doing something illegal to take pictures of UW Devastator in a staff only area. I hope nobody got these "in-hand" pics from such methods as that!

But in all seriousness, I am hoping to get an MP Optimus Prime and CW Megatron with an upgrade kit to make him bigger, so I can have them next to UW Devy like in the cartoon and comics. I am so tempted tho to get that Dr. Wu Mixmaster to combine with Devy, since UW Mixmaster looks kinda crappy in design.

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749196)
Posted by hyperconvoy69 on December 20th, 2015 @ 3:02pm CST

william-james88 wrote:
jprime69 wrote:For those with Unite Warriors Devastator,

I'm curious if any of you have come across any QC issues with the figure. I just received my copy today and noticed a few issues immediately.

First of all Devastator's left forearm, which is composed of a missile pod, was loose at the wrist where it locks into place. The space was too wide so the hinge the wrist was on was loose. Thankfully, a few seconds under a blow dryer and some shaping alleviated that problem.

The left wrist is looser than the right one but it still locks for me.

Second, the elbow on my Hook are stuck and I'm afraid to force them to bend. Anyone have any suggestions? It goes without saying that I don't want to break my copy of this figure so soon.

Which elbow, he has two. The further one down (in the outside of the shell) was easy to unpeg. I understand that the inner elbow stuck to the shell were tricky to pose but not stuck. I just move them using the other elbow joint (which protrudes).

Thirdly, and this goes for all owners of Devy, I found a stress mark on one port near the crane where Devastator's head assembly should click into place.

A visit to Seibertron's gallery of SDCC Devastator helped me determine that port is in fact warped. This prevents Devy's head from sitting flush. Any thoughts or advice?

This one took me a while to figure out what you were referring to. And I realized why, its because his head sits flush with mine. I do not see any stress marks.

In the end, I quite like this figure as Devastator. Scrapper and Scavenger are my favourite individual constructicons since they actually feel like good decent voyager toys. The rest have a cheap quality too them. And Bonecrusher is a really crappy figure. I hate him as much as deluxe Breakdown (they have a similar dumb problem). Devastator is definitely better than the sum of his parts. A good toy, but I dont know if I would call him the year's best. I dont like the arm locking pegs (both the ones on the chest piece and the Longhaul forearms, which always unpeg) and I would have really liked the gun to peg in his hand. Was it so hard to put a small groove next to his thumb so that the gun peg could peg in there?! I would have also liked the ports to be the same on both arms. Its not hard to implement and could have added a small bit of diversity ala Predaking who can switch his arms around if you want.

Great legs though! Here he is combined (really hard to keep him all in the frame, so I didnt)

Thanks to al for the helpful advice. With some careful maneuvering, I have gotten my United Warriors Devastator to function as he should.

After some time under a blow dryer and being extremely careful, I was able to bend the port back to a functional shape. As frustrating as it was to have to work on him right out of the box, there is a sense of achievement to be able to get him in proper working order.

Great figure and an amazing update to the original Devastator. Can't recommend him enough.

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749198)
Posted by Burn on December 20th, 2015 @ 3:06pm CST

I can safely say that I'm content with Hasbro Constructicons. I have no plans to display individual robots or alt modes, only Devastator, and Hasbros looks good enough for me in that regard.

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749203)
Posted by lonrac on December 20th, 2015 @ 3:14pm CST

Looking at that unite Galvatron,

hoping for Technobots,
possible
1. reuse of brawl or Rook moulds with drill/sonic cannon for nosecone
2. reuse of Breakdown or wildrider moulds for lightspeed
3. retool of arielbot for strafe
4. cheet with second arielbot, or retool of UW groove for afterbreaker
5. or else repaint the legends groove as afterbreaker

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749209)
Posted by Nemesis Maximo on December 20th, 2015 @ 3:42pm CST

Burn wrote:I can safely say that I'm content with Hasbro Constructicons. I have no plans to display individual robots or alt modes, only Devastator, and Hasbros looks good enough for me in that regard.

Shut up, BURN!!!

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749210)
Posted by Burn on December 20th, 2015 @ 3:43pm CST

Nemesis Maximo wrote:
Burn wrote:I can safely say that I'm content with Hasbro Constructicons. I have no plans to display individual robots or alt modes, only Devastator, and Hasbros looks good enough for me in that regard.

Shut up, BURN!!!

mmmm...no.

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749213)
Posted by .... on December 20th, 2015 @ 3:47pm CST

william-james88 wrote:
In the end, I quite like this figure as Devastator. Scrapper and Scavenger are my favourite individual constructicons since they actually feel like good decent voyager toys. The rest have a cheap quality too them. And Bonecrusher is a really crappy figure. I hate him as much as deluxe Breakdown (they have a similar dumb problem). Devastator is definitely better than the sum of his parts. A good toy, but I dont know if I would call him the year's best. I dont like the arm locking pegs (both the ones on the chest piece and the Longhaul forearms, which always unpeg) and I would have really liked the gun to peg in his hand. Was it so hard to put a small groove next to his thumb so that the gun peg could peg in there?! I would have also liked the ports to be the same on both arms. Its not hard to implement and could have added a small bit of diversity ala Predaking who can switch his arms around if you want.

Great legs though! Here he is combined (really hard to keep him all in the frame, so I didnt)

I DON'T CARE about these issues. They are not enough to keep me from getting this UW version. If anything I mostly want him for the purple hands.

I am not really that upset about Bonecrusher, cuz even though he has the crotch issue (seek a doctor), he still LOOKS pretty good, and if I need to I'll find a way to customize it to fix it as best as possible. (Like I did with Generations Springer to keep the tabs on the gun from breaking from yanking it out of the front of the chopper mode. All they had to do was make the tabs shorter and there would be no stress marks.)

I personally sometimes enjoy sanding parts and fixing little bits so it doesn't bug me. Even if Bonecrusher has this problem, it's not the biggest issue for me. Bonecrusher is supposed to be the tough guy, and he looks kinda scrawny in this set.

I never was one to complain about the individual bots too much if they are all voyagers. I always end up picking favorites and kinda forgetting about the other guys till combined. Really, this Unite Warriors Devastator looks just as impressive as G1 Devastator did to me some years ago. (I always wanted that guy.

)

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749216)
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on December 20th, 2015 @ 4:01pm CST

lonrac wrote:Looking at that unite Galvatron,

hoping for Technobots,
possible
1. reuse of brawl or Rook moulds with drill/sonic cannon for nosecone
2. reuse of Breakdown or wildrider moulds for lightspeed
3. retool of arielbot for strafe
4. cheet with second arielbot, or retool of UW groove for afterbreaker
5. or else repaint the legends groove as afterbreaker

1. Brawl has an alternate drill part, as shown by TFCC Ram Horn. So he gets to be retooled into Nosecone, as Rook already has a reshell: Swindle/Hound
2. Wheeljack has the same basic profile as Lightspeed in Vehicle Mode.
3. Question is, which one? Firefly has no reshell yet, so I guess he'll be picked? Or maybe Blast Off?
4. Afterburner will be a problem, yes... hopefully TT has had the foresight of preparing an alternate shell for Groove.

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749217)
Posted by Rated X on December 20th, 2015 @ 4:36pm CST

If takara would have shrunk him down to normal size to scale with the CW combiners, I would be all over this version. But because they decided to go with the stand alone kid friendy size, Im still snubbing this mold for Hercules.

Re: Review of Changes and Upgrades in Takara's Transformers Unite Warriors Devastator (UW 04) (1749218)
Posted by .... on December 20th, 2015 @ 4:36pm CST

I have a question: Are the greens and purples on CW Devy and on UW Devy different? Cuz I am kinda tempted to get the Dr. Wu Mixmaster upgrade but I want the greens and purples to match up.

Rated X wrote:If takara would have shrunk him down to normal size to scale with the CW combiners, I would be all over this version. But because they decided to go with the stand alone kid friendy size, Im still snubbing this mold for Hercules.

I hate it when people say "crap" to official figures and go with 3rd party figures all the time. WHO CARES about scale with other combiners eh? It's a great design, and it scales PERFECTLY with the Combiner Wars Megatron, which I think is what they were going for. I don't mind 3rd party, but only to an extent. I like upgrades for official figures and stuff, but I am not planning to get many 3rd party combiners in the future with MAYBE the exception of DX9 War in Pocket Hulkie.

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