Review – Engineer General

If you’re at all like me and have a shelf of Transformers Devastator toys (Amazon.com search*) then you may as well stop reading this and go buy the Engineer General toy right now. It’s at Big Bad Toy Store, Toy Dojo, and TFSource and you want it. Really. Stop reading this and go buy one.

You’re still here?

Damn. I suppose that means you want to hear more about the toy than that it’s an unofficial Transformers Devastator action figure. Fine, I guess we can take a little time to stare at photos of the toy as I manipulate it, pose it, play with it, and eventually close the review with: No, really. Go buy this now.

Does not transform.

First off, unlike most of the Transformers Devastator toys (Amazon.com search*) out there this one does not transform. The Engineer General is a 12-inch tall action figure and not a transforming robot toy. When I stop and think about how many transforming Devastators I own I can sit back and be happy with what this toy is and not worry about what it isn’t.

Articulation

Engineer General is packed with more joints than I had expected, including more ratchet joints than I realized before handling the toy. Running through the articulation we find:

• Head – Ball-jointed neck with a limited range of movement.
  
• Torso – Swivel waist and hinged ab crunch just above the waist joint. The skirt pieces at the hips are on ball joints and can be moved to allow the legs a wider range of motion.
  
• Arms – Ratched shoulder swivels as well as ratchets to extend the arms outward at the shoulders, swivel elbows with ratchet hinges, ball-jointed wrists (so the hands pop on and off easily).
  
• Legs – Ratcheted swivel and hinged hips, ratched knees, and ball-jointed ankles.

Excellent poseability which makes it easy to prepare the toy for display. A few obstructions and problems — the right shoulder doesn’t extend outward far, the ankles have limited movement, and the weight of the arms pull them down sometimes — but nothing that stops me from saying: Go buy this guy!

Sculpt and paintwork.

As you can see by the pics, Engineer General is clearly a G1 cartoon-styled Transformers Devastator (Amazon.com search*), and that means the design of the individual limbs is quite simplified. Everything is blocky and minimalistic in sculpt, but that just helps the toy stand out from so many other Devastator toys in my collection. I am sure some out there prefer more detailed designs, but I love the look of this guy and the simplified design.

The paint apps are minimal, but that fits nicely with the cartoon-like sculpt and I am fine with the paintwork. The blue windows are a great touch, and after that blue the only painted colors appear to be some blacks, the face, and the purples on the arms, chest, and Mixmaster’s mixing drum. I’m sure many out there would have preferred a wash or other detail work, but from what I can see the paint style meshes perfectly with the sculpted design of the toy.

Closing Thoughts

Would you like a 12-inch tall action figure to go with your other Transformers Devastator toys (Amazon.com search*)? Then you definitely want the Engineer General. Cartoon-styling was selected over transformation, and the end result is a new addition to my Devastator shelf that looks sharp and was totally worth the cost.

Recommended!