Review – Transformers United Buildmaster Prime

My one giant complaint with Hasbro’s 2010 Power Core Combiner Constructicons* team is that the colors are all wrong. Seriously, that mix of colors does not belong on anything identified as Constructicons. Fortunately, Takara took care of the problem and created a version of the set in the proper green and purple colors.

Buildmaster Prime Mode

Not quite really the Constructicons, the 2012 Takara Buildmaster Prime Mode box set* gives us the same five toys as the Hasbro version under the name Buildmaster Prime Mode. The four drones/limbs are the Decepticons Demolition Reserve, and it’s only because I got lucky and scored this cheap that I now even have the set. These days it sells for far more than it is worth.

Power Core Combiners

Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the Power Core Combiners series (Amazon.com search*) here is a quick overview: The central robot of each combiner is a transforming robot, with a robot mode, alt mode, and a commander mode (central section of combined robot). The limbs are auto-transforming limbs that have two modes — limb and vehicle — and they work when you plug the drone into a connector which unlocks the mechanism to drop the “limb bits” into place.

The mechanism works okay, but I’ve found that some of the drones stick or are just really tough to plug into place. It’s far easier to transform the limbs by actually pulling the bits into limb mode and then plugging the contraption into the core robot. It’s not a pretty system, and the lack of robot limbs is kinda sad, but it was a neat idea that fits neatly into the Transformers universe. I think the larger problem I had with the whole idea was my inability to see beyond the names; hey, I’m old. Hasbro did just fine in using older names for new characters, I just need to admit I’m old (and stuck in my ways) and move on.

Buildmaster Prime Mode

With the Buildmaster Prime Mode box set*, Takara gives us a character that the TFWiki identifies as Gravedigger, a missing Constructicon. The story is that Gravedigger was the original name for Constructicon Scrapper and that this is now the eighth Constructicon character represented in the Japanese toyline.

(Where is Constructicon #7? That would be Hauler (see the TFWIki). I actually have the e-Hobby version of this toy from 2003; I should share it with all of you one of these days. And now that I think about it, why did we never see a Constructicon-painted take on the 2010 Transformers Grapple* toy? Hey, I’d like one!)

Combined Mode

One flaw with all of the Power Core Combiners series (Amazon.com search*) robots in their combined form is that the robots have very little articulation. You see those big arms? They swivel at the shoulders . . . and that’s it. The legs are a little better in the articulation department, but overall these toys are more like Generation One combiners than they are the more modern combiners.

Add the limited articulation to the drones/limbs not quite working as well as I would like and we find my reasons to be less than excited by the Power Core Combiners series (Amazon.com search*). It really was a cool idea, but the execution wasn’t as strong as I would have liked. I picked up some of the box sets when they were on clearance at Walmart, but with the majority of the Hasbro releases in this series not quite exciting me I’ve not even opened the majority of the boxes. Those poor toys going unloved for years now.

Closing Thoughts

The only reason that I bought the Buildmaster Prime Mode box set* was for the Constructicon-colored robots, and if not for the thought of displaying this with other Constructicons there’s a good chance that I would have sold the set rather than open it. Those stiff-limbed arms and legs aren’t the best, the mechanism to connect the toys together could work better, and everything about the finished design tells me that you’re better off not tracking this down.

It’s not terrible, but it’s also not worth the price I’m seeing these days.