Going by the current trend that most 3rd party companies are going, pretty much anything can be a "combiner" now. Attach a magnet on the bottom of any figure and metal plates on a frame robot, they can be either an arm or leg with no compromises at all.

 

Is one of the weibo toy reviewer which he had a small interview with the MS designer aka The Wizard, that's what they call him.

 

Hulkie designer is from dx9 and heard rumors that this time NA Devy is design by him but no solid proof yet.

 

Multiquote is your friend!

The NewAge Facebook page stated that the same designer was responsible for both this and Hulkie. If it’s merely a ‘rumour’ with ‘no solid proof’, then it’s one that NewAge have started themselves…

 

Actually, we have proof. Recently, their Facebook account started responding to coment and said that "[Insert Name Here] We will update the introduction and picture information recently, because I have designed a dx9 brand product that hardly needs accessories. This time I think the focus is on the overall firmness, which will make it to the extreme, it should not be deformed, but It will be a whole, you don't have to worry about scattering and assembly problems. Finally got it, I hope you like it."

 

From partsforming to pantsforming to nonforming.
Next step is statueforming. Then I'll be out from this hobby

 

Indeed I'm really happy since I'll display them in bot modes without spending extra money for combined set. Hope MS will do the same too (I'm still in doubt about Which one will be my combined mode and which the bot mode

 

So it looks like the chest shield has pins on the wings and base. Is that just to fold down to slot Long Haul and Hook into?

 

Nice to see even the 3Ps running up against the boundaries of what can be done to produce screen-accurate scaled figures at a price people will actually pay.

First company to figure out how to turn that frame into a 7th Constructicon is going to make bank. In the meantime, these are basically 3P Micromaster Combiners.



Which makes me wonder why they haven't done one yet.

 

People talk like this is trash and no one is getting it, but I'm sure they'll have no problem selling these. I mean, sure, going solely by the threads, it may seem like it because people are going to be vocal about their hate for partsforming or hollowness and how they're not going to get it. But the thing to remember is only a few folks will bother posting they're fine with that stuff (and only if they can't take all the negative commentary). I think in general people are more likely to post about they're not getting something than they're totally going to get something.

But naw, its totally the first thing you said- they know they'll lose folks for partsforming, but they'll still have enough people to buy up all the stock they produced. I mean, people complained about Constructor's pants or the fact that all the MP Menasors were suits that the Stunticons plugged into, that didn't hurt those company's profits any. Like how many versions of Constructor have been released? Yes, NA Devastator's partsforming piece is a bigger proportion than the Constructor pants, and unlike the Menasor suits (2 of which turn into trailers, FT's supposedly does also) or MS's combiner pieces for their Devastator (which, that drill machine mode is a good use of the parts), they don't seem to serve any other purpose. But for all the talk about, why don't we just buy statues, people still buy these. I mean, lets be real, I'm getting both MS and NA, and probably some of the proposed NA repaints.

Because yeah, NA does great with repaints though, so I'm sure any recolors that get made will look great.

 

wow, fun looking bunch of toys!

yeah, the combine cheat is pretty egregious, but it looks awesome!

 

I do not agree with this that those bots 9-10cm cannot achieved combiner mode 25cm high without upgrade parts. DX9's Hulkie is a perfect example, someone mentioned DX9's Hulkie tried to integrate everything into the individual figures ... in that time, I personally did not like that idea because in the case of Devy it is impossible if we want a better looking Devy. DX9's Hulkie is 18cm, but his constructicons are small. DX9 Hook was weak as a torso or chest, that he was bigger DX9's Hulkie instead of 18cm it would be 20cm ( how big would be Hulkie if his constructicons were 9-10cm ).

I'm not disappointed about NA Devy, but I'm not happy either. I'm not really a fan of the cheat with the combiner of bascially having a new body ( set D ) and then slotting the combiners into it. Any Devastator cannot pass without additional parts if the goal is a good looking Devastator ( even if they were fake as in this case ). Anyway I'll wait to see how the situation between NA and MS version will go so I will then give my final opinion.

 

Well MS Devy at least tried to make it into a some kind of drilling machine? emphasis on "trying"

 

Those that complain that the parts don't do anything, how many would buy the MS version and actually display this drill thing? Most people are either going Devy or on of the alt mode with the combiner parts in a drawer.

 

I think I will pass on this after seeing half the combiner robot is simply set aside. Not for me.

 

Reminds me of the Micro Master Superion.

https://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/3/3e/TFU03-toy_SuperionMicro.jpg

 

I will. Then again, I'm a Yuusha saga fan, I'm quite used to double-nosed drills  

 

well when i say "redeem", that's strictly in context to myself and not a generalized statement i'm applying to anyone else. i'm sure there's plenty of ppl who aren't turned off by anything i mentioned that i don't like about this set, and are in fact perfectly happy or even over the moon with it. i'm just sadly disappointed with this coming from NA as i've always have been impressed with almost all of NA prev releases which i have at least one mold from all of. not to say any of them are perfect, but i could always find a lot of things that really impressed me, be it the sculpt, the deco/paint apps, or something with the transformation engineering that makes me overlook any nitpicks i have. but in this case, overall the things i find i don't like overshadows the few good points.

but if you read my previous comment, i'm in the same boat as you where i'm still possibly open to picking up another deco if it is something truly amazing, since NA is known for really giving us a whole gambit in the spectrum of repaints to milk the mold for sales. if they truly are releasing this set as a 4 pack where one is strictly the combiner parts, even better, as that gives me the option of skipping that and only grabbing the individual bots and saving on some money that doesn't need to be spent.

all i'm saying is that this initial release just doesn't "wow" me enough to overlook the one really big gripe i have with the full on combiner framework that serves no purpose but that. so in my mind, just ruins the whole principle of what the devastor combiner to me which is a real big let down for me.  

 

ShowZ has the preorder of the framework open now. The irony thing is that they call it upgrade kit ...
[Pre-Order] Newage Upgrade Kit for Hephaestus Devastator

 

True story, I was actually kind of taken aback by this classification. I have started dabbling in the legends world and up till recently everything I have purchased has been NewAge. This set is starting to leave me cold.