Review – Hercules Heavy Labor
Yesterday I reviewed Structor, the first in TFC Toys’ (Facebook) not-Devastator series (review here). Now it’s time for a look at the second figure I’ve opened, Heavy Labor. Is it as mind-blowingly surprising as Structor is?
A Massive Chunk of Plastic
As a large dump truck, Heavy Labor is even thicker and heavier than Structor and feels every bit as durable as his companion. The toy is slightly shorter in robot mode, but he’s wider and overall feels meatier and heavier when you hold him. There’s something primal and satisfying about holding a toy with so much weight and such tight, working joints that hold everything but aren’t at all frozen in place. But it’s the vehicle mode where that heft and size really becomes obvious.
Vehicle Mode
In the next few photos you can see not-Long Haul in his dump truck mode. The wheels roll cleanly and everything about the vehicle mode is perfect except for those giant hands in the bed of the truck. The hands are obvious no matter how you look at the dump truck’s bed and I wish TFC had found a way to conceal the hands beneath the vehicle. It’s not a fatal flaw since — as I mentioned when reviewing Structor — I will not be displaying this guy in vehicle mode.
Another minor complaint is that Heavy Labor, like Structor, comes with two weapons that can be used like smoke stacks in vehicle mode. That’s not bad; what’s bad is that one weapon is translucent red while the other is purple. I suspect this makes sense when I finally assemble not-Devastator, but even so I wish the weapons had both been the same color.
The tiny cab on the truck is neat, the vehicle’s wheels are excellent, and the size . . . seriously, the size is shocking. Just take a look at Heavy Labor next to the Reveal the Shield Bumblebee* for an idea of how massive and beefy this toy’s vehicle mode is. That’s a lot of truck.
Robot Mode
Everything that I said yesterday about Structor‘s (review here) durability and impressive-quality plastic holds true for Heavy Labor. I have to idea if it’s just a better grade of plastic or if the thicker pieces give it a better feel, but whatever it is Hasbro needs to study these toys because the quality is if not identical to then better than what we’re getting from official Transformers toys these days. Hasbro, I’d happily double the price for a deluxe Transformers toy if the plastic felt as strong as what we’ve got with Heavy Labor.
Articulation
As with Structor, I feel that the photos I’ve posted here give you an idea of the toy’s poseability. All of the pics here were shot without any support: the toy was standing on its own and balanced nicely. There aren’t a ridiculous number of points of articulation, but there are enough that Heavy Labor can go into some nicely dramatic stances.
Point by point, Heavy Labor has:
- Arms – Hinged elbows that also swivel, shoulders that swing up and down and rotate back (all parts of his transformation process) . . . and that covers his arms. The hands have a little movement (again, part of the transformation) but nothing all that useful.
- Legs – The legs have double-hinged knees, the feet pivot up and down, and the hips swing outward on ratcheting joints while there are thigh cuts that help with posing the toy.
- Head – Left/right swivel and that’s it.
- Torso – The waist swivels 360-degrees. And done.
So as I said, not actually all that many points of articulation. I wish his hands swiveled and that the head was on a ball-joint, but otherwise the articulation covers what I need for playing with not-Long Haul.
Paint
Pretty much everything that I said in my Structor review applies to Heavy Labor when you start looking at paint. That green and purple plastic is perfect while the painted details are pretty good but not perfect. And he really needs stickers for Decepticon symbols and other details . . . but with any luck those are coming from Reprolabels.
Closing Thoughts
Seriously, if you can find any way to afford even one of the two toys in the series that I’ve reviewed so far then grab one. These are everything I want from Hasbro’s Transformers toys: classic-style figures that are durable, not at all complicated to transform, and feel like they’re going to last forever. Nothing about Heavy Labor makes me change my mind that this is the best toy series of 2011. Now to open the next box!
Philip Reed is off to the office for the holiday party where he’ll play games, eat food, and hopefully play with his Hercules toys.
Man this line continues to impress me. Any word on either stock shortages or perhaps a complete set when completed?
Deffinatly might have to bite the bullet and make a hefty purchase hehe.
@Court – I haven’t heard about supply, but I did see that both Big Bad Toy Store and TFSource recently got in restocks. The reason I finally just jumped on these was fear that by the time all six were out the first one or two would be available only on eBay.