Well I finally got my Exgraver from BBTS... Damn it all, this is one of the best damn figures I've ever owned. Completely worth the price for the incredibly well executed transformation and combination gimmick in my opinion.

 

I'm going to disagree with most of you. I really dislike the robot mode, as I sort of expected based on the photos. To me the aesthetic, articulation, and engineering are that of toy that should have come out 10 years ago. The alt mode is nice, and the arm mode is outstanding. Luckily it's the combiner that I'm most interested in anyway. That and the overall size of the piece justifies the price for me, but I would have liked a better looking, more dynamic individual robot.

 

mine has a split in that spot but i dont care as long as it doesnt break off

 

Mother! After I saw this post I looked at mine and it's got a crack in basically the same position. WTH? I gotta be careful now moving the crane up and down.

 

I really don't think it's going to get worse. If you look at the other side, you'll see it's still perfectly fine with no evidence of stressing mainly because the crack on the other side has relieved all the stress from the ratchet joint.

I remember back to when I opened this up, and I had a heck of a time getting the crane arm to move at all. Then with some effort, I got it to move, and I'm pretty positive now that that first move is when the crack occured. It probably didn't have the ratchet clearance until then.

I'm not sure how to avoid this happening. I think what has to be done to fix it is to file down the ratchet joints between the black base and the green crane arm, but removing the crane arm from the base to do it might cause the same stress mark or worse.

 

Now the mega-combined gun for Hercules looks pretty cool, but if it sucks, we have other options....

 

^nice  

 

Well played, Blue death. Well played.

 

Got mine a few days ago and finally had a chance to play around with it a bit. Very impressed with how well the figure is put together, the articulation and the engineering in general. I have the same crack in the side of the shovel base, but I don't expect it to get any worse and the pistons should keep the shovel arm in place. The only minor quibble is that the figure looks odd in robot mode with the knees bent, just due to the way the transformation is designed for the arm mode. But I'm very happy with the purchase and looking forward to the remaining 5 members of the team.

 

Really? About 10 years ago we got RID Landfill and his components were nowhere near as good as this one...

 

Still having all kinds of damn fun with this thing

 

^  

 

"Constructicons, merge for the.... Ah crap! The others still aren't finished being rebuilt. Decepticons, RETREAT!" lol

Had to take a pic next to United Megatron.

Love this new figure!

- Gregg

 

Just got mine.

The biggest suprise was the purple. Man, that's a nice purple! Looks totally blue in photos... In person it's straight-up purple.

Anyway...Solid toy. No QC errors on mine. Love the 'bot mode. Love the arm mode. Excavator mode is a bit less than amazing with the big ol' visible arm hinge on each side.

So here's the thing: Is this good? Hell yeah. Is this worth $100? Ha ha ha ha. No. Will Herculese be worth $600? HELL YEAH! If this didn't combine, we wouldn't give it a second look. But it will combine, and every indication points to an amazing payoff.

 

Anyone have a pic of this guy next to faith leader or some mp figures?

 

Just got mine today, and it's lovely! I discovered some QCs on mine, and after reading a few page back, it seems to be pretty common. The head is a bit loose, but hold position so I'm quite fine with that!

But I also got stress mark/crack on the shovel base. I took some pics of it and wonder if it's the same level of stress that everyone have on theirs?

This is actually cracked, it split open when I move the crane.


Same side, inside view, you see the base also bear a stress mark.


Other side, very small stress line that don't through the rings, only about half of it (probably because the other side is split).


Inside view of that side, agains show stress mark at the base.


I was a bit worried about it, but it seems quite wide spread. I was thinking about asking for a replacement of the part if possible, but if every crane base do that, that won't help much! As long as the part don't break, I'm fine with it, but iy makes me nervous when i try to move the crane.

Here, I took a pics of that for you, with Faith Leader and MP Starscream;

 

Wow those stress marks look bad. But good news is you can get a replacement.

Thanks for the MP pictures. They are perfect. This guy is going to look awesome with the MPs.

 

Yeah after posting here, I saw the Hercules megathread at the top in the news section, so looked up there and browsed a bit, and a few page back I saw about the new arms with Heavy Labor. That's quite awesome, and it made my Exgraver happy too  

 

I finally opened this last night and I am very impressed with it.

This figure totally won me over!

The quality is great, the plastics feels right, tons of playability, good articulation and it's definitely bigger than I expected.

The shovel on the figure I purchased did not have stress marks or cracks, but I'm very pleased that we will receive a replacement shovel with the next figure.

In my opinion, Exgraver hit the mark and now I am really looking forward to purchasing the remaining 5 figures to complete the set in order to form Hercules (Not-Devastator).

I think once all the figures are released and combined to form Hercules, it will be very massive and a sight to behold.