Transformers Legacy Evolution Deluxe
Item No.: Asst. F2990 No. F7198 Manufacturer:Hasbro Includes:Blaster and thrusters Action Feature:Transforms from robot to space ship Retail:$24.99 Availability: June 2023 Other: Hard to find, for good reason
For a show-only (and previously BotCon-exclusive) character, Devcon getting a main line toy is something of a miracle. The miracle is a lot less impressive when you find out his entire wave didn't get made - these guys were made only as solid cases. (Or so I was told, and the sightings in the USA seem to corroborate.) Because kids liked him enough in "The Gambler," where he showed how to hold and/or fold them, the character became a part of the greater canon. Unless you missed this episode as a kid, in which case you see this and go "...who?" Unless you saw every episode of the original cartoon, or were part of the organized online fandom, you probably don't have a lot to say about this guy. And I did, and I don't - he's a bounty hunter retool of Blurr that's perfectly nice, but I don't remember him like I do many of the other cartoon-only guys. That's probably because I didn't get to see a lot of season 2, for one reason or another, as a child.
Standing 5 1/2-inches tall, Devcon does not disappoint. Other than his fists which are blue here, he pretty much matches the original cartoon design with silver thighs and biceps, plus a silver face and a goofy cannon hat. His proportions are quite cartoony, with nice smooth panels and surprisingly little in the way of gaps and kibble. For a $25 toy, I'd say they got it down quite nicely. Getting a robot with thigh swivels, a waist joint, and rocker ankles isn't that unusual in 2023, but getting a guy like this with superb articulation in every place except his wrists is really something. At the same time, it totally makes sense that his last toy was a Scourge retool given the space ship alt mode and distinctive headgear.
His accessories include two boosters which can be plugged into his legs, or his blaster. All are heavily painted, and the red paint on the blue plastic looks retro in a not-entirely-great way. You might recognize this look from when you were a kid, like on Battle Beasts where the paint isn't quite thick enough to overpower the plastic underneath. It's fine, and it certainly helps highlight the sculpted booster detail, but I assume it would have been gorgeous if molded in color. They're still nice accessories.
Even though he's a retool - a superior one - of Studio Series Blurr, you might be asking "They could have done better, right?" I don't think it could have been that much better at this price point. The eyes pop nicely, he can hold all of his gear, the joints are stiff enough, the face is good, and the feet are big enough so he won't flop over on my desk as I write this. I don't doubt a Masterpiece edition could be fancier, but "fancy" is what I feel needs to stop with this stuff. I don't want a $109 Devcon, but I am having fun with this $25 toy. I don't have to consult the instructions or worry about anything snapping off, nor do I have 30 minutes to transform him. He's fun, he doesn't ask a lot from you as a fan, and he looks right. Thank goodness people love the cartoons, they could probably slap this guy in a Studio Series box and sell him again in a year given how the market seems to have been shorted on this release.
Transformation is a lot like Blurr, with the backpack covering the head and chest, and the legs folding into themselves. It's really impressive how it works to result in a toy that is very close to the cartoon, where mass-shifting and the laws of physics can result in wild designs that don't necessarily work in real life.
The ship looks a lot like the cartoon. This means that he looks like a robot laying down, and he failed to pay his bookie. The legs and arms are visible, with the fists rotated inward and the head covered by his back... but it works. You can plug the blaster in his nosecone, and the boosters can just stay on the back of the legs during transformation. The sculpted detail more or less matches the level of complexity of the cartoon, with a few lines and panels. It lacks action features, but at least it's a fun, weird, 1980s-style sci-fi vehicle from a toy commercial. It's nice to pick up a Hasbro Transformers toy that's a retool of another toy and be able to say "I don't have another toy that looks like this," especially since the previous Devcon toy was just Scourge.
Your love of the cartoon will probably result in your tracking down this toy... or not. I almost skipped it because I don't feel I'd have missed him, but I had a crack at him for regular price and that was reason enough to give him a shot. New guys that exist solely to please old men aren't uncommon, but most fans never had a crack at this guy - so it's kind of exciting in that regard. As some random new dude, I like it. I'd probably even buy a recolor of him as a new character.
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