It’s been a while since I did a proper set of combiner posts but the timing on this one is perfect. Why perfect? You’ll have to hang in for the very last of the four posts to find out why.
When Generation 2 hit — the occurrence that actually got me back into Transformers — I was initially turned off by the odd colour choices with one exception: the G2 Constructicons. The Constructicons were the only toys I was actually turned off by the original G1 version of. Construction vehicles shouldn’t be… whatever shade of green this is:
This is something G2 actually corrected, giving them the normal yellow of real world construction vehicles.
Granted, someone decided this was far too realistic and not bright enough for G2 and a later, smaller run recast them in astoundingly bright orange colours.
Cartoon inaccuracy meant very little to me at the time. In fact, I preferred my yellow G2 Constructicons so much that they were the only versions of this mold I had up until this past year, when Takara choose to reissue the originals in the Encore line. It was well timed, I had a birthday coming up and decided this reissue of the original giftset, containing all six of the Constructicons, would be my present to myself.
Starting from the ground up, we have the two Constructicons that form Devastator’s legs.
Despite being the right leg, Scrapper is considered the leader by virtue of being the only Constructicon with a Rank over 4. He has a 5. Sometimes a single point makes all the difference. Of the Constructicon toys he actually has one of the better robot modes. Scrapper is one of those quiet types that turns out to have bodies hidden in the basement. By “in” the basement, I mean incorporated into the structure itself and by “bodies”, I mean still living. Maybe that’s how he got that extra point in the Rank category? Anyone that challenged him found themselves as support beams within the walls of Decepticon headquarters.
My favourite of the Constructicons is Mixmaster. He has a good robot mode coupled with a great name, a name that ensures that he has a backup career as the Decepticon bartender if his gig as the Constructicon’s mad chemistry set on legs/wheels doesn’t work out. Scrapper isn’t alone in his gruesome source of building materials, Mixmaster “will use anything from unliving rock to living robots in making new materials”.
Along with his other charming qualities, Mixmaster also incorporates a missile launcher directly above his head. That’s pretty hardcore. Or at least that’s pretty hardcore for G1 Mixmaster, unfortunately this feature was neutered for his G2 release.
So kids would have something to do with all those leftover parts, each Constructicon can incorporate a piece of the combining mechanism used to form Devastator. For Scrapper, it’s Devastator’s chest piece, that attaches to the back of his alt mode forming a rather ridiculous looking flying payloader.
Mixmaster, however, comes with Devastator’s large gun, which can be mounted on his alt mode to form the most heavily armed cement mixer in history.
And here you thought MechTech invented overly weaponized and otherwise odd secondary alt modes.
Up next: Long Haul and Hook!
'Til All Are Mine 
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