Quick and dirty review of our new Hauler figure. A buddy of mine found him out in the wild this evening.

I'm sure you've all seen or handled the ER Grapple/Kingdom Inferno mold by now. This is the 4th (is that right?) use of the mold after the aforementioned Grapple and Inferno, plus the excellent Generations Selects Artfire. Nothing new to write home about here except for the new, ridiculous screaming head. Includes all the Grapple accessories, nothing else new there.

Joints on my copy are nice and tight, he can hold a pose (unlike Legacy Selects Cyclonus, who also arrived today and his left arm is loose as fuck). Paint is great. He's got the remolded Inferno pegs for vehicle mode so far less fear of them breaking like so many copies of the ER Grapple mold's hollow pegs.

I couldn't stand that awful screaming head, so I swapped it out with an extra Kingdom Inferno head pretty much right out of the box.

Anywho, here's some pics!




Now I just need some nice, color-matched filler parts...

 

FYI: The peg issue from the original Grapple version of the mold has been fixed in this release, as it uses the Inferno mold's pegs.  

 

He looks good with the Inferno head, although considering I don't have an extra copy of Inferno lying around, I'd essentially be buying another entire figure just for the head (even if it's a damn good one). I didn't realize just how soft the features on the screaming face are either, his face almost looks like it's made out of some kind of putty.

I am glad they retained the structural changes for Inferno, and I think the mold in general looks good in green. I'd really like to see comparisons with existing Constructicon toys, since he seems to have a more vibrant neon green than, say, the CW Constructicons.

 

Indeed, I mentioned that in the third paragraph of my review.

 

Anyone notice on the back of the box he seems to show an impossible weapon combination where he has the nozzle in the center of the grapple claw on his hand?

 

We noticed in the news thread. They goofed on the 3D render and had the two accessories clipping through each other.

 

It's Grapple in Constructicon green with a yelling face. Thats ... about ... it.

On the good side, it looks pretty decent and all the joints on mine are nice.

That new scream face is truly hilarious. It's not even an angry yell of determination , but what might be better described as "baby tantrum". Because of this, I like to imagine Road Hauler as an entitled 'Karen' type screaming to speak to the manager, as his energon latte didn't have enough foam, and that barista needs to be fired.

 

He looks like Bill Dauterive screaming.

I like to pretend he sorta is Bill, kinda just forgotten. Maybe he didn't wanna fight and just became a low profile Rescue Bot? Maybe he's in the race to try and make a name for himself despite being a big heavy construction vehicle? Some fun things to consider.

 

So he never appeared in the flashback episode with the crystal city and Omega Supreme correct?

And yes, would be neat to see him in a group photo with the CW Constructicons

 

IDK where he's from in the Transformers continuum and don't care. I'm just getting him for that face lol.

 

With the screaming face, Hauler is doomed to be displayed being tortured in Shockwave's lab.

 

I love the screaming face. It's the mood of 2022 to me. The perfect encapsulation of life of the now. ❤️

 

Got mine. Tolerances are a lot better than my ER Hauler and on par with my Kingdom Inferno/GS Artfire. If you like the mold and colors, you’ll like this figure. The new face sculpt helps set it apart as well.

 

I think this may be my favorite version of the mold. Tolerances all feel really good, the screaming face has tons of personality, and that Construction green hits so nice. Plus they (finally) painted the molded in caution striping!

 

I saw one on the shelf in my local Walmart today when I grabbed Override and Blurr. At the time I had no intention of getting him because I have Grapple and Inferno and didn't think I needed another version of that mold, just in green.

Then tonight I discovered the fact that he has the new screaming head and I'll be honest: I am strongly tempted for that reason alone. It's absolutely hilarious looking.

No. From everything I can gather he's a sort of ascended-fandom amalgamation of two things from the G1 cartoon:

1) A crane-truck Autobot that looks suspiciously like Grapple but is called Hauler in during More than Meets the Eye

and

2) The flashback from Five Faces of Darkness that shows the Constructicons building Megatron, except there's seven of them, presumably by mistake.

From there was born the idea that Hauler is the "lost" 7th Constructicon who wasn't reprogrammed and ultimately joined the Autobots

 

Eight of them! The other one got canonised as Gravedigger, an accident where Scavenger's early name was used in a book, but the artist put Long Haul in the shot. So, therefore you've got, Gravedigger, Long Haul's little brother. And this is before we get to the much wider Constructicon group

I've been hoping for a modern Hauler ever since Solar Storm Grappel so I'm all for this one. Yeah, he's screaming. But, he's Road Hauler. Am curious if anyone's got a shot of him compared to the CW Devy though, as I still need to scrounge that one up and curious how he looks against his former team

 

Hauler hanging out with his old crew:

 

Y'all, this is the single best facial expression we've had on a figure in years. If not decades.

 

Makes me not want him.

Makes him a must buy!

 

Lol that expression is the only reason I picked him up!