Death's Head
19-09-11, 07:49 PM
Okay, lets get the sniggering out of the way first. Yes, this guy is called – tee hee hee – Erector. A name that instantly makes you think childish thoughts about male genitalia. I don’t know what Hasbro were thinking, but lest we forget, this is the same company that gave us Windbreaker and Spastic, so there you have it. Well done Hasbro.
The comedy name is unfortunate, as it rather distracts from what is easily the best of the Micromaster Transports. Erector is a smashing huge articulated crane truck. The crane jib can move up and down and move about and the thing trundles around nicely enough. He makes something of a good commander figure for the Construction Patrol.
The cab transforms into Erector himself, who apart from some obvious looking arm panels, does a much better job of converting from a tractor cab to robot than either Roughstuff or Overload. The top half of the cab rotates through 180 degrees, with the head flipping out of the back of the cab. The resulting robot is as bulky looking as Overload, but is better proportioned and so carries off the bulk so much better. The yellow and grey is nicely accented by a few splashes of red paint making Erector a great looking little figure. Movement is limited to the arms in the main, and he can swing his legs backwards the knees, but can’t really pose much, tending just to topple over.
The trailer also transforms into a fairly convincing battle mode (and the only ground based configuration out of the initial slew of Micromaster Transports), opening out to an impressive weapons platform (again with the tooled up Autobots...). As well as the main canon, there’s also a nice set of smaller weapons for Erector to command. The side pieces fold out to form, um, thingies with doodahs on. With feet. Overall, with Erector standing on there, it looks great and is a nice defensive piece of kit. You can easily imagine Erector beavering away on some construction project and having to switch to weapons mode to prevent its destruction from Decepticon attackers. Good fun and I bet Grapple wishes he had this guy around.
If there are any flaws with the toy, it’s with those smaller manned cannons. The plastic seems very fragile and at the point where it hinges upward from the trailer, quickly developing stress fractures and over time, it’s likely that this piece will break completely which is a pity. This point aside, Erector is still a great little figure and well worth hunting down, stupid name or not. Just be sure to check the condition first!
767768769
The comedy name is unfortunate, as it rather distracts from what is easily the best of the Micromaster Transports. Erector is a smashing huge articulated crane truck. The crane jib can move up and down and move about and the thing trundles around nicely enough. He makes something of a good commander figure for the Construction Patrol.
The cab transforms into Erector himself, who apart from some obvious looking arm panels, does a much better job of converting from a tractor cab to robot than either Roughstuff or Overload. The top half of the cab rotates through 180 degrees, with the head flipping out of the back of the cab. The resulting robot is as bulky looking as Overload, but is better proportioned and so carries off the bulk so much better. The yellow and grey is nicely accented by a few splashes of red paint making Erector a great looking little figure. Movement is limited to the arms in the main, and he can swing his legs backwards the knees, but can’t really pose much, tending just to topple over.
The trailer also transforms into a fairly convincing battle mode (and the only ground based configuration out of the initial slew of Micromaster Transports), opening out to an impressive weapons platform (again with the tooled up Autobots...). As well as the main canon, there’s also a nice set of smaller weapons for Erector to command. The side pieces fold out to form, um, thingies with doodahs on. With feet. Overall, with Erector standing on there, it looks great and is a nice defensive piece of kit. You can easily imagine Erector beavering away on some construction project and having to switch to weapons mode to prevent its destruction from Decepticon attackers. Good fun and I bet Grapple wishes he had this guy around.
If there are any flaws with the toy, it’s with those smaller manned cannons. The plastic seems very fragile and at the point where it hinges upward from the trailer, quickly developing stress fractures and over time, it’s likely that this piece will break completely which is a pity. This point aside, Erector is still a great little figure and well worth hunting down, stupid name or not. Just be sure to check the condition first!
767768769