Deluxe Decepticon Tanks

[Philip Ayres]

Thinking about Universe Galvatron..... We all know the (ultra) Armada Megatron tank is rather good. And the large G2 version ain't bad either.

But has there ever been a good deluxe Decepticon tank toy ? One that works as a tank and a robot ?

[Philip Ayres]

The best i could think of was the G2 Combat Hero Megatron, but that's got a turret that doesn't turn and (criminally) nobody has done a green version of it. Paint it green, stick it in Universe. Thanks Hasbro, here's £13 of my money.

[Shockprowl]

I always liked Quake, from G1. Although his turret didn't turn either. Decent robot mode. For G1 anyway.

[legios]

A shame Brawl isn't bigger - if he was a deluxe he would have been the a shoo-in for this.

I do think Combat Hero Megatron - except for the slightly silly colour schemes it has had (Purple, and yellow. Neither of them much cop)- is perhaps the best there has been. The fixed turret is a bit of a let-down, but in terms of the overall look of the vehicle mode it is rather well executed.

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

I've been and checked my Movie Brawl review - turret turns but the gun barrel doesn't elevate. Plus the robot mode has biog issues with the shoulders locking in place.

Deluxe Classics Megatron was a decent tank (turns and elevates) functionally but but had that awful action feature and robot arm

[Deleted]

Armada Demolisher is good. He has a great tank mode with a 360 degree spinning turret and elevating missile pods, an imposing nicely detailed robot mode with pretty much every important point of articulation (only really missing a turning head - though some sideways motion at his shoulders and elbows might have been nice) and as a bonus comes with a nice Minicon. He is also one of the better deluxe Armada figures in terms of his interaction with his Minicon too. A groin launcher AND a chair-mode? Lovely ;D

There has been a distinct lack of good tanks in all size classes really, which is odd considering that they should be such simple things to make. A basic block shape with a spinney bit on top should be pretty easy to turn into a good robot but nearly every recent tank transformer has had a serious flaw that spoils it for me. I think the problem is that because the change from tank to robot is on paper such a simple thing to do the designers try to compensate in an attempt to avoid making them boring and as a result go too far and end up over-complicating them. Armada Megatron is a good example. He looks great and has a lot of fun gimmicks but because he's got too many of them they had to cut back on costs and didn't bother to give him proper hip or knee joints. I could have happily lost one or two Minicon gimmicks (maybe the jail cell in his leg that very few Minicons can actually fit in, or the elevating ramp-thing on one shoulder with the sliding Minicon port) or the electronics in exchange for hips and knees.

[Philip Ayres]

Demolishor's more a missile launcher than a tank though - there's no main gun barrel. .... and he's never been done with proper camo/desert colours. And then there's the missing SixShot colour scheme to take into account.

[legios]

Aug 2, 2008 15:51:43 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Demolishor's more a missile launcher than a tank though - there's no main gun barrel. ....

I'd always seen Demolisher as less a missile launcher than a tracked anti-aircraft battery or something . It was the multiple guns and the range of elevation that did it. That said mind you, it looks a lot like the Vietnam-era Ontos as well.(A tank destroyer rather than a tank, with six recoilless rifles on an armoured hull).

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

That's putting it a bit better than i could