Review – Transformers Power Core Combiners Huffer with Caliburst
When the Power Core Combiners series was released I couldn’t decide if I was excited or uninterested. Combaticons, Aerialbots, Constructicons . . . man, that all sounded completely awesome. But then I found out that the arms/legs weren’t individual robots but were instead drones, so I really wasn’t sure what I thought of the idea.
I bought this Huffer figure* last summer and snapped pics shortly after grabbing the figure. But then, after preparing the photos for a review, I just never got around to writing down my thoughts about the toy. What in the hell took me so long?
Eventually, the more I played with this toy the more I found that I was terribly conflicted. On the one hand, the Huffer itself is pretty good. It’s a clean, simple transformation that ends in a decent enough figure with reasonably useful articulation. But it just wasn’t exciting. I decided that the problem was that I’m so old and grumpy that I was more interested in the Generations line than I was the Power Core Combiners series and Huffer suffered because of me and not because it’s a bad toy.
What do we do about that? Nothing. It’s unfair for me to get into a long and complex review of a toy that I don’t like simply because it’s not based on character designs from the eighties. So I won’t. What I will do, though, is post these photos and say:
Caliburst is the weak link in this toy. It’s a small, simplistic design that functions as armor, a weapon, a robot, and a mounted cannon when Huffer is in truck mode. I’m not a fan of the translucent blue, and the armor mode doesn’t excite me, and I don’t know why the weapon mode doesn’t work — it’s basically a Targetmaster concept so I should be happy — but there’s nothing about Caliburst that makes me want any others in this series.
Huffer is okay, but there’s nothing here that makes me want more in the series. Maybe when the team sets go on clearance I’ll grab one or two of them, but for now I’m done with this line.
Philip Reed has to admit that this review is as weak as the toy, but rather than bash his face against trying to get into the specifics of the toy he decided to just let the photos speak for themselves.
The engineering of the minicons really let this line down. None work as armor, only a handful work as guns.
The last three unique sculpts though: Undertow, Skyhammer, and Heavytread, are fantastic.
If Huffer looked Hufferish I’d be all over this one – as it is he’s way too far off from the Huffer I knew and loved.
@BubbaShelby – Maybe Hasbro will continue Generations after the new movie; I’d love to see Windcharger actually hit stores and then followed by a recolor to create Tailgate.