Voyager Long Haul mini-view

[JediTricks]

Still playing catch-up from my week at Comic-Con, so this will be a mini-review, just a taste of this figure. Speaking of which, this figure tastes a little like a "mature" version of Energon Demolishor, which is a good thing, but he's not as much a hunch back and he has no missile launchers.

Alt mode: giant earth mover. Green. Detail from the front is very good, from the sides it's a little cut away to reveal bot mode if you look for it, but it gets away with it. Truck bed can tilt up, nice touch. Fairly solid. Big.

Transformation: lots of big chunks moving about, almost no panel action, plenty to do. Seems simple in theory, but execution keeps you busy.

Bot mode: nearly perfect iteration of concept art. Big brawler type of guy. Odd fat bird mouth. Undocumented Mech Alive feature, turn head and a gear in the chest turns, foolish coloring on that gear is black. Kibble isn't too bad, the dually wheels end up over the shoulders like turbines, the truck bed ends up on back, pegs down, but rear section becomes buttflap. Only real problem is that there's a big rollbar up above the figure's head that juts up and out to the front which is a little odd but no dealbreaker. Wrap-around bumper on legs is very clever. Arm kibble reveals spring-out clear blades, fat with hooks and tf glyphs. The clear color does them NO favors unfortunately, and this guy seems too bulky to bother using swords. Color is green with green and some more green, no weathering though which would have made it 100% accurate to concept art. Big.

Articulation: decent, most of what you'd need for a bot. No swivel wrists or movable fingers, no movable waist. The 2 sets of moving pistons on each elbow is cool though.

Overall: A-
Fairly satisfying voyager-class figure that's also pretty accurate. Deco could have used weathering, hands could have used a little more articulation, top kibble could have been movable, cockpit could have been whole, but otherwise pretty nifty.

[andersonh1]

For some reason I find this figure appealing. I may have to pick it up, particularly after your review.

[JediTricks]

For some reason I find this figure appealing. I may have to pick it up, particularly after your review.

Perhaps the reason is that it's a big cool figure.

[JediTricks]

I noticed playing with this figure last night that there are some stability issues I hadn't noticed before. The back kibble comes unpegged fairly easily, but it's just a cape so it's not going anywhere significant. However, the waist unpegs a little too easily and that could be an issue for some. Also, the hip joints are a bit loose and could possibly become weak over time. I'm not sure yet if those things affect this figure's grade, but it's definitely still "B+" territory if so.

[Shockwave]

I haven't actually noticed any issues with mine (although I've taken to inventing several "fan modes" for him). The hip joints on mine seem pretty stable and the back kibble stays pretty secure once it's pegged. Again this is on mine, so issues may vary from copy to copy. The waist pegs do unpeg a little easily on mine as well. Still I'm definately not sorry I bought this.

[onslaught86]

Interesting to see such high praise. Long Haul does intrigue me, in that he's a big chunky Constructicon toy, and one of the most traditional TF designs in the movie. hell, he was what got Nizzi the job. But he suffers from being normal, iin my eyes, because he also looks boring as shit. We've had a million big green Decepticons, we've had plenty of big trucks. Why is this passe-looking toy worthy of praise in a line whose main strength (Possibly ONLY strength) is innovation?

Sure, there's nothing especially wrong with him, but that's not exactly buy-me-now praise. The sword hook things strike me as ridiculous and inappropriate, and he has my pet peeve problem with those damned sideways hands, that always bugs me.

Convince me, is this guy's not sucking in a line of weird losers a real revelation? I'd take the weird losers otherwise.

[Shockwave]

Well for me, some of it is related to my determination to create a fan mode G1 Devastator out of existing movie molds. I've found that he can take a G1-esque Devastator waist form pretty well. I haven't really bothered with the sword things very much and have pretty much forgot about them. But one think I'll say is that everything locks down in both modes and is really one of the most solid molds in the line. The lack of wrist articulation does bug me but not enough to kill the toy for me. I dunno, maybe you just have to experience it for yourself.

[onslaught86]

"Unfortunately, no-one can be..told..what Long Haul is like. You have to experience him for yourself."

No deal, I have a ton of solid, average toys already.

Eh, who am I kidding, I'll probably get him on sale or something.

[JediTricks]

I haven't actually noticed any issues with mine (although I've taken to inventing several "fan modes" for him). The hip joints on mine seem pretty stable and the back kibble stays pretty secure once it's pegged. Again this is on mine, so issues may vary from copy to copy. The waist pegs do unpeg a little easily on mine as well. Still I'm definately not sorry I bought this.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all sorry I got this one, it's a cool toy and I'd recommend it to almost anybody (it's too modern a transform for some G1 purists, but what ya gonna do?).

Interesting to see such high praise. Long Haul does intrigue me, in that he's a big chunky Constructicon toy, and one of the most traditional TF designs in the movie. hell, he was what got Nizzi the job. But he suffers from being normal, iin my eyes, because he also looks boring as shit. We've had a million big green Decepticons, we've had plenty of big trucks. Why is this passe-looking toy worthy of praise in a line whose main strength (Possibly ONLY strength) is innovation?

It's funny, when I saw him at Botcon I thought "chunky" as well, but in person he's very well balanced, he's got a bruiser's torso but his arms and legs are more "powerful" than "HUGE AND CHUNKY". He's a good balance. As for being "normal", he might be called that, but not for this line, which has been an utter disaster of sub-par designs with a mere smattering of good, and this figure is good. Boring? no. Good detail and articulation, no ridiculous design philosophy or gimmick getting in the way anywhere.

Sure, there's nothing especially wrong with him, but that's not exactly buy-me-now praise. The sword hook things strike me as ridiculous and inappropriate, and he has my pet peeve problem with those damned sideways hands, that always bugs me.

The swords aren't great, but they're not in the way, those armor plates are from the movie design to begin with. The hands look like hands, not sure how they can be compared to Sideways' hands, they're big open mitts.

Convince me, is this guy's not sucking in a line of weird losers a real revelation? I'd take the weird losers otherwise.

This is why I don't understand you and O6, you'd rather relish in failures and misses than get the 1 figure that looks solid and accurate and all around keen. Long Haul is a cool figure, he'd be a cool figure in any line, movie or not. He's big, articulated, has good detail, armored, consistent deco, looks tough like a Decepticon dump truck should. Sure, he's no Mixmaster what with him not being covered in panels and being a spindly tangle of articulation on a torso with a tiny alt mode, but they can't all be Mixmaster-suckage. I guess in your eyes, Long Haul's problem is that he delivers a competent toy on all fronts.

[Onslaught Six]

The hands look like hands, not sure how they can be compared to Sideways' hands, they're big open mitts.

No, not *Sideways'* hands, sideways hands. Hands that are sideways, not the hands Of Sideways. They're sideways because of the elbow joint--if you raise the elbow as one would on a regular proper TF, the hands will always be pointing up and the only pose you can do that way is a kind of "Come on!" pose. It's not a problem I tend to be annoyed with, but 86 haaaates it.