See the full image gallery of the KO Constructicon Team and DevastatorI spotted a treasure trove of knock-off G1 combiners at Walgreens the other day. They had all the G1 combiners in their correct color schemes and scales, and for $5.99, I couldn't hep going back and picking up an imitation Devastator. Actually it was borderline embarrassing, because all the toys were being stored 8 feet off the ground, in the overstock section, to make room for the Halloween stuff. I'm a mere 5'10", so I had to ask for assistance, and was greeted by the monstrously tall Mr. Cosby, who had to cherry pick my selections until I decided to stick with Devastator alone. The set included all 6 fake constructicons for $5.99, essentially $1 per figure, but they were all factory-priced at "buy 2 get 1 free" at $11.98. I thought I'd see how Devastator worked out before potentially blowing another $6 on trash.
Basically, this is a pretty decent knock-off of the original. Unlike the original constructicon set, these guys are all fashioned out of the cheapest plastic you can imagine. All of the stickers are generic, brightly colored, and uninteresting, with the exception of a modified decepticons logo on Bull Dozer (Bonecrusher). The weak plastic makes transforming the figures a delicate operation, straining the toys' structure and my patience. Other than the expected shoddy quality, the figures look surprisingly good in their vehicle modes. The robot modes were less impressive, simply because some of them were impossible to fully transform without breaking, and a total lack of poseability made standing them nearly impossible. Also, for some reason, about half of the figures had their hands reversed (right hand on left arm) or their hands on upside down, but since they couldn't rotate, they couldn't hold their weapons.
I never owned a G1 Devastator, so I had little knowledge as to how these KO Constructicons were supposed to combine, and with the diagrams printed on the back of the box being so small and blurry, I pretty much had to wing it. I only now realized that I mistransformed Devastator a little bit by placing his chest plate a peg higher than it should be. I've corrected it, but the pictures in the gallery still need to be updated. Once I guessed my way through the process, KO Devastator, or "Ghettostator," as I like to call him is a solid facsimilie for his legit namesake. I think I'll check out Reprolabels for a set of correct decals to redeco him. I'm not trying to fool anyone, but it'd be nice if he had some decent stickers. My biggest complaint is how unstable the finished product is. I'm assuming it's because he's a $6 knock-off, but it's pretty hard to get standing. Oh, wait, that's definitely not my biggest complaint...that would have to be the fact that I had to whittle down the peg that connects the Hook arm with a Dremel before I could get it to fit in its assigned slot. Other than that, there are a few little things like the hole for his right fist not being totally drilled out, etc.
All in all, $6 for a cheapo Devastator was $6 well spent. Someday I'll pick up a complete G1 Constructicon Giftset, but until then, I've got Ghettostator to keep the bench warm, and after he gets some authentic decals he'll look pretty nice.
For shots of the knock-off Constructicons and Devastator and some comparisons with the recent Classics Devastator, check out the album .
