HI folks. For those of you who know me, nice to chat again. For those who don't, I'm a blind Transformers fan and one of the reasons I post on this forum is to get help with some of the bots I own that are quite complex and for whom I don't have insstructions or who I can't work out. well, one such bot has potentially come along, in the form of Takaras unite devastator. Bens BWTF site has reviewed all the individual constructicons and whilst the Takara efforts are a little different, I imagine I can translate his transformation instructions into the Unite versions. He has vehicle to robot modes for all of them. However, what he's not done, is talk about the combined mode at all. Specifically, the way the limbs are formed from the bots and how those limbs lock together, i.e. what tab goes where. Also, what hasn't bee discussed because his sdc version didn't come with them, is the takara specific weapons and how each fits on to the individual bots both in vehicle mode and robot, but also which weapons go with which figure. I was wondering if people here might fancy a go at this. I realise it's a bit of a dawnting task as there are so many bots. For combined mode itself, i imagine the hasbro instructions will work ok. For the takara weapons, that will obviously need someone with the actual takara set. A few points: videos on the web will not work for me so please don't suggest them. 90% of the time the vocal instructions in them are no where clear enough for me to transform anything. Similarly, pictures obviously won't work. What works best is saying things like, on this section you will feel a tab, click it into this section here. or rotate this part to the left and up. If you want to PM me that is also fine. Any help as always is very much appreciated. Many thanks. Ed.
Okay, I'll try to help. I'll start with the individual guns for each of the 6 figures. All figures can simply hold their guns in their hands in robot mode. Hook: Hook's gun has a scope near the top back of the gun and is mounted to the gun on a slightly angled extension sticking out the top back. This gun also has a vertical gun clip in front of the standard 5mm gun handle. Hook is meant to carry the barrel of Devestator's gun as well as Hook's own gun in bot mode. To mount Hook's gun to his alt mode, find the rectangular hole on the side of the gun just in front and above the gun clip. This hole fits over a rectangular peg on near the front of the crane arm, just behind the hooks and what I would say would feel like ribs of the crane arm. Long Haul: His gun is the fattest of the 6 guns. It's got a stubby short gun clip in front of the gun handle. The rear of gun is large-ish "fat" box with a round-ish barrel. Comparing the guns, his is the 2nd longest. Long Haul is meant to be given the large rear portion of Devestator's gun along with his own individual weapon. To mount the individual weapon to LongHaul's alt mode, there is a slot in the bottom of the gun clip of the gun that fits over the tab on the top of his wrist (top when in alt mode). Long Haul also carries the rest of the accessories for Devestator when in alt mode: The main portion of Devestator's gun uses a slot in the bottom of the large gun handle which fits over a tab near the front of his dump bed. The Barrel of Devestator's gun uses the 5mm gun handle to peg into a hole on the opposite side of the bed from the tab for the main gun. This hole is right near the front of the dump bed and has slightly raised square surrounding it. Devestator's chest armor, wing thingy, seperates into 3 pieces: Two wings and the center portion. The wings slot into an area at the very back, middle of LH's dump bed. The slots will line up around the middle of the rear flap, if I was to a real airplane wing term, the flat portion of the wing along the rear edge. The center portion of the chest armor pegs into the hole at the front and center of the dump bed in the flat portion that extends overtop of the truck cab area. Devestator's forearms, when turned into their missile launcher mode peg into the holes in the dump bed near the back, these holes are raised off the floor of the bed. Peg the forearm launchers into the holes using the 5mm pegs that flip out from the back of Devestator's hands. Scrapper: Scrapper's gun should be easiest to sort out. It's the longest of the 6. No gun clips or scopes. Scrapper is meant to be given the two wing parts of Devestator's chest armor and can be used as swords, kind of. These along with his own gun. Scrapper's gun pegs into his alt mode using the smaller of the two holes on the side, middle of the gun. Using the smaller hole, peg the gun onto either one of the posts near the back top of Scrapper's alt mode. Scavenger: His gun is fairly short in length. It has a small scope on top and the gun clip sticks out one side at an angle. Scavenger gets one of Devestator's forearm/rocket launcher thingys as well as his own gun in bot mode. For alt mode, you can peg his gun onto one of the posts near the back of his alt mode using the hole near the middle, back of the gun, on the side of the gun that is on the opposite side as the angled gun clip. Mixmaster: Mixmaster's gun is short in length, has no gun clips or scopes. Mixmaster gets the center portion of Devestator's chest armer. He simply carries it in his hand using the 5mm peg. As with the others, he gets his own individual gun for bot mode as well. For alt mode, the gun uses the smaller hole located on either side of the gun just behind the barrel and pegs onto either of the outer two pegs at the back of his alt mode. Note there are 3 pegs on top of the rear section of the alt mode but I believe due to the length of the gun and placement, only the outer 2 will be useful. Honestly I haven't tried the center one yet though. Bonecrusher: Actually his gun should be easiest to sort out. It has a scope on top and three gun handles near the back, one on each side and the main handle at the bottom. It also has a 5mm peg sticking out the back. Bonecrusher gets the other forearm/rocket launcher as well as his own gun in bot mode. In alt mode, Bonecrusher's gun uses the side pegs to peg into a hole on the side rearward area of his alt mode. This hole is only on one side and is the hole for a screw that is the hinge for his alt mode cab (so feel around near the side top back. there are two other shallower holes on the side nearby that wont be of any use). I think that covers all the accessories. I hope that helps. I'm going to try to write something for you in regards to the assembly of Devestator himself, but I cant promise anything. So I apologize in advance if I don't post anything.
Oh boy. Devastator was brilliantly engineered that each connection between two components has multiple tabs and ports and clips and whatnot to make the entire combiner extremely stable (some people have reported devastator falling from a height and not losing any limbs). I'll disassemble mine and see if I can work out step by step instructions.
Sy-Rein, thank you so much for your help. Those were great descriptions. I just woke up in the UK so i will look at those later. I was up til 3 AM transforming this guy this morning and I have quite a bit worked out since i posted this which I'm very proud of incidentely given i've never owned a devastator before and had no idea how he looked. Guys,, let me tell you the specific issues i'm having now as that will cut down on a llot of the having to write something. transforming bots to robot mode: Scrappers elbows in Takara devastator: where are they? looks like the arms are simply rotational like the Hasbro ones. Anyone got any idea how you bend the Takara scrappper elbows: Hooks legs: how on earth do they transform? I can feel the front sections that open outwards and the long pannels with the feet that fold from underneath, but how do you connect them? they seem to have tabs on the sides of the foot pannels that peg into the front pannel. for one side this works, for the other it really doesn't,, the leg ends up at an angle. Any ideas? Mixmasters feet: I keep hearing reivewers say, open up mixmasters legs i.e. split them apart, but flip "this piece out" for the feet. which bit are they talking about? i know the feet tilt in on ankle joints, are there more bits to flip outwards? AS regards devy himself: Having a lot of trouble understanding how mixmaster and Scrapper turn into feet. I think i have the basic idea right, scrappers shoval forms the front of his foot, mixmasters rear forms the front of his whilst the chest flip out bit forms the heel, but no idea how you transform the top bits of either and no idea how to lock it into longhawl. IN fact no idea how you get the long hawl legs ready for devy mode other than that there are some hinged pannels which rotate out to the sides near the pegs. As regards hook connecting to long haul I@ve worked out some things: square peg in hooks chest connects to hole in long haul, round flip down peg found when you bend hook in half, also connects to round hole in Haul. 2 slots in hook have tabs on the tops of long hauls arms, and hooks arm, pegs into a space at the back of long hauls body. Obviously hook clips together in the Midle and his head flips out. What do you do with that huge hole where his head was, like a bucket at the back of Devys neck type area though? Are there any connections I've missed there? Also, does hooks crane arm just sit along Devys sholder pointing horrizontally back or does it go down his back a bit like an off kilter spine? scavenger and bonecrusher, i just have these in vehicle mode, but unpeg the treads partially and have the whole top bit swinging around to form the arm, the drum with the rotating wheels flipped out and connected to devastators hands. Pegs into hook with large square pegs and chest shields clip it all together at the front. Long Hauls arms tab into the treads on the other sides. Stupid things won't stay secure in there (the Hauls arms that is) but otherwise works fine So yeah. Just the legs I think to go now
Hahaha maybe brave I dunno. Brave would be transforming MP Scream, even with instructions that thing freaked me out, so much thin plastic. Brave might also be transforming DOTM leader sentinel prime, soooo many pannels. This thing though, goodness it's not easy that's for sure. Quite fun when you have it all pegged together though Glad I waited for the Takara version. ONly thing i really dislike is the forearms, might get the perfect effect ones of those although, I really wasn't imprssed with the combiner upgrades that PE did for their hands before. The feet, yes, although too big and heavy IMHO, but the hands were nasty. Far too skinny.
Ah one more question sorry, I keep hearing people say to "slide Hooks hook over" in robot mode. What does that mean exactly? does the hook slide somehow? i thought it was just on the base section which moved back and forth in crane mode to robot mode and came over his shoulders. Having said that, i can never seem to move the shoulders around in robot mode as the hooks base restricts them somewhat
HI Sy-Rein, or anyone else that might be able to help. With long haul, i'm struggling to put his chest shield wings in along side the launchers in truck mode. The larger part of the launcher i take it faces inwards? but the rear edge of the wing, as described earlier doesn't seem to work in the slot provided, i have found the leading edge, the angled piece seems to work better. I take it the slots are verticle and very closely spaced together forming an almost square type piece that rises from the truck bed at the back? Think i have now worked out mixmaster and scrapper as legs, the little slide peg into devastator anyway. then i take it you just fold up the pieces on each, so scrappers feet and mix masters bits that flip out of the feet? do these lock in at all or are there any other clips i'm missing? Still can't work out if i've transformed hook into torso mode properly and also how to do hooks legs in robot mode. Think everyhting else is done though. Cheers. Ed.
Hi, let me see if I can try to help: The elbow joint is on the other side of the lower arm of the bump part; with the fist out and the peg hole facing you, hold the upper arm and bend the lower arms towards you. Unlike Scapper where the back of the legs folds down, Hook's legs hidge out and down. One tab tabs on the knee area, you should have the back part tab onto that first, then fold the front down and the tab there should align with the slot on the back (now stablize with the previous tab) There should be no extra steps, once the cab unlocks, rotate them out until it stops, where the top of the cab becomes the feet, the pieces can rotate inwards as ankle tilt. For Scapper, instead of the back legs coming down like in robot mode, only the front parts sticks out. There is a little section that sticks out of the back pieces with indents on either sides like to IIs. Slide Long Haul's combiner ports over that (it's next to the hole from the panels that rotates out). There are two tabs on the heel of Scapper that tabs behinds the combiner port that locks it into place. For Mixmaster, remember the ankle tilt earlier? Rotate it so it is perpendicular from the lower legs, then there is this small indent on the cab; use it to pull the front section of the cab out and reveal the II pieces that is used to connect to Long Haul. Fold the cab back into the mixer like in vehicle mode, with the two tabs that locks the leg into place on the front of the cab. You're done; the bucket that stores Devey's head does nothing and just sits there. Make sure the treads still tabed to the waist of their individual robot, and make sure you push the port all the way in: for Scavenger, you might think the hip joints snaps into the crotch area, but it's not suppose to in vehicle mode, the port will push it back out so make sure it is tabbed. On Hook, the crane that becomes it's back is usually to the side, but when you transform in combine mode, slide the top part towards the middle to make way for the head to flip out. For the chest wings, on the back, near the top or back of the wings, there is a smalle indent with two tiny triangular pieces and a tab in the middle; that is where you will clip the pieces into Long Haul's bed, with the front facing inwards towards each other. hope this helps.
fantatsic, thank you for all that. So, only a couple more questions now I'm worried scavengers hip might still be tabbed in despite it being connected to the port. Is that a possibility do you think? could that be why longhawls arm is popping out from the back? should they not tab into the hip pieces at all so you can slide it right into the port? With the legs... so, i understand the little mushroom type peg at the top of scrapper and mixmaster needs to go into the slide hole at the bottom of longhaul. I get that the pannels at the bac have to flip up and tab into the back of hauls legs, but i don't really understand these other pegs you were talking about, can you try and explain them in a little more detial please? that sais, the wohle leg does seem to tab in so maybe I have it right?
It blows my mind that you are a blind toy collector. I respect that very much. I hope you enjoy your figuers.
yeah, Scavenger is a bit tricky since intuition would suggest the hip joints locked in like in robot mode, but they have to be off (the combiner port will push it out). Just make sure everything is out of the way when you plug into Hook, then tab in the back tread into the hip, make sure Long Haul's lower arm is rotate correctly and tab that into the lower slot. As for the legs, if the two tabs is locked into place, you should be fine. Oh, the Hook crane should only be center in vehicle mode, it slide to the right in robot and combine mode, though I think it looks fine when moved to the side in vehicle mode as well.
Wait, long hauls lower arms also tab into slots? the tops of his shoulders I know tab into hook, the wrists think it is, the long tabs, tab into scavengers and bonecrushers treads, but do the lower arms also tab in somewhere else?
Long Haul's wrists or rather arms, after folding them up, do tab into bonecrusher's and scavenger's treads. These should tab both treads on each bot securely. They're not all suppose to be loose. The long tabs located on top of long haul's shoulders are tabbed into long haul's feet. Hook's arms do not fold completely. Both the right and left arms stays at a 90 degree angle. Nice to see you here again and also happy for your purchase. What's your next purchase? Maybe we can make a thread for you ahead of time.
Indeed, I must also commend you! Not to stray from the topic but how did you get into Transformers with a sight impairment if you don't mind me asking?
HI Jetfire37, sorry it's taken me a while to reply, Christmas and all that Infact I remember it clearly as if it were yesterday. I used to visit my grandmothers every week on Monday nights when i was about 6/7. ON this particular night, she told me she'd found a toy for me in the charity shop and pulled out this.. thing. It was a man. Sort of square feeling man, bent at the knees and hips, head turned and the arms went up and down at the shoulder but also weirdly pivoted back and forth at the shoulder so he could tuck them along side his body. He also had flat wings on his back. I had no idea what this thing was, but I could see straight away that you could have several options. you could tuck the legs up almost like he was a little ship and fold up the feet, you could deploy or not deploy the wings. What I didn't know at the time, was there was a nosecone hidden in him. That was it. no guns, and nothing else. If you've not guessed yet this was the Pretender cloudburst inner robot. That was all it was. I didn't know what it was called, in fact I thought it might have been the Centurion Ace Mccloud as I'd been listening to an audio tape of that at the time. Over the next few weeks, she got more and more of them. Another pretended who I've always wanted to know the name of, he had a wheel in him and fists that flipped around to make little pointy... gun things I presume. There was also blitzwing missing his turrit and his accessories and then i have a sort og ap in my memory, where i just know i got more and more but don't know what they were. I know powermaster prime came along at some point in those days. Thing is, these were all from what we call carboot sales or fleemarkets, so they rarely if ever had any accessories with them, but I loved them all the same. What was really weird, was that i didn't like the ones we got the shops as much. I remember buying ironhide and being really disappointed with him, but i had wanted him so much i never said anything. Worst moment of my life you can imagine and probably a lot of others can relate to this... mum knew I wanted megatron, but at the time you coudln't get him. I didn't really know he turned into a gun, it had never really been explained to me, i just knew he must be out there somewhere. One day, at christmas, huge box arrived! Megatron! I cannot tell you, i was so excited, i wanted it now! i wanted it yesterday. Can you see a problem though? huge box. Megs never came in a huge box did he. she had bought me... the action master. I did play with him, but I died inside that day. There has never been a weird toy to shatter a boys dreams like the non transforming action master Megs. By contrast though, I remember another time, before that, when i returned home from holiday and grandma had not only got me the ladybird spoken cassette tape of Transformers the movie, but had found a complete and working Galvatron. This thing blew my mind. It became a cannon and made noises and was also a pistol. To this day it's still one of my G1 favourites. Gradually though, I grew out of them. I got into small models of starships and things like independance day, and, shock horror, I gues my studdies. Also audio, a lot of audio stuff. I sold my entire collection at a carboot sale myself when i was about 12. Nothing then for about 13 years, until the 2nd Bay movie was released and a cousin bought me voyager Ironhide which by the way I really like. I had seen beastwars type things that my cousin had over the years and had been very unimprssed. This Ironhide was really hard though, nothing like g1. I fiddled with it, tried some more, and gave up. Then, about 5 years ago, my now current girlfriend and I were discussing what I could buy for my birthday. she told me as I had everything I wanted, to buy something from my childhood. I went on ebay and just on a whim started looking up transformers. I couldn't believe my ears. They were selling characters I'd never had, mint in box. Bruticus! Soundwave... Oh how I'd wanted a soundwave as a child. You can imagine how he'd appeal to a blind boy. I got a couple of knockoffs, and treated myself to a mint in box genuin god gingrai plus a second hand galvatron. I also got a couple more from the movies, HFTD highbrow who I love to bits, was one of them. It all turned up on my birthday and we went to see DOTM that same day. I was hooked. Initially i was reluctant to spend lots on them, but over the years, that changed, especially when i got a complete Overlord in Europian box for £500. Odd toy incidentely, not my favourite. I have to be quite careful as Becca loves the Transformers, but they must stay very much in their own space on the shelves that I had built into my living room. Generally I like classic characters, but I do have some good toys from the movies, leader sentinel prime, jetwing prime, battle ops bumble and highbrows, shockwave and DOTM voyager Megs although that one is beccas I'm a bit of a sucker for large bots, so I have encore Plex, platinum Trypticon, encore maximus, a VGC G1 scorpy, a reissue powermaster Prime and an encore Lynx and OMega. I've also started collecting masterpiece toys and other than Starsaber, I have 1 of each mold relesed with the exception of Smoke and prowl who were different enough that I didn't mind investing twice. I hate mold reuse with a pation, along with figures that you can push their legs together whilst standing and they clip into one piece, I just find it sloppy and lazy. current favourite bots in my collection: from g1: metroplex, Galvatron and maybe soundwave from the movies: sentinel, highbrow and maybe battle ops bumblebee much as I hate to say it From masterpiece: sideswipe, Ultra magnus and wheeljack. From Generations: Defefnsor, Springer and devastator, all of which I got this year oddly enough. So that was a very long post, but hopefuly you enjoyed it. Thanks to all who have helped me on this board, devy is all combined up, bone crushers hips lock in properly, they all have elbows and the extra weapons are a blast. So glad I waited for this version Ed.
This is awesome seeing fans come together to help another fan. And yes you are brave to put your need for help out to the fandom.
