The evils of travel.

 

The After a month of waiting, my Encore Devastator arrived in my post box and I ran inside to pick him up from the post office.  Little was I to know the horror that awaited me….

 

 

The guy brought out my package from the storeroom and it was in a plastic bag.  He then informs me that it arrived in a water damaged state.

 

 

Well, yes it certainly looks that way indeed.  I know SAL can be really slow, I once waited 6 weeks for a Nanael figure, but that was an exception.  Now this one took longer, probably because it had been left in the rain for a couple of days.

 

So hesitantly I opened the back and withdrew the box.  Remember there is a nice new complete set of Constructicons in there too…

 

The box by itself had seen a fair bit of action.

 

 

Naturally I laughed when I saw the address tag, which had nearly faded to nothing.

It said “Extremely fragile.”

 

Thanks for trying HLJ, I don’t think the postal service cares….

 

Luckily though, the insides of the box looked like this.

 

Devs was wrapped in a baggy!  Huzzah! Just a crinkle in the middle of the box, not where any of the Constructicons lay in stasis lock.  In the middle was where the connector pieces for Devastator lie waiting…  Maybe, I was worried that water may have gotten through and de-chromed him. 

 

No worries there though, he is fit and fighting, without due haste, I eagerly had them ‘Merge for the Kill!’  Also luckily I had an Optimus ready and waiting to take them on (with some targetmaster help).

 

PREPARE FOR EXTERMINATION!

 

 

I couldn’t even wait to put the stickers on.  Although not that big, Devs is pretty awesome.  The first of the Combiner teams and a carry over from the Diaclone days of yore too!

 

I like the way that the pieces that are used to join Devs individual components together can be popped onto the vehicle modes. The first instance of Stealth Force?   It’s also interesting to compare the difference between these guys and the later combiner teams, such as the Stunticons and Aerialbots, since there is a different way of combining them.

 

The uniform green looks good with them all together and their robot modes looks nice when they are all hanging around waiting for the next job, probably wolf whistling at Elita-1 as she walks by.

 

This is the first time I have ever really played with the Constructicons as opposed to just looking at a friends, the originals are old now and so I didn’t want to break a friends, so it’s nice to have my own (new ones no less) to mess about with.  Despite their age and lack of articulation  when combined, they are still pretty awesome.  I suspect nostalgia plays a big part in that.

 

Now I will have to get around to taking some better shots.  Shame my camera batteries ran out when this came in, hence my awful phone shots…

 

Phew, just really glad that the toys are fine despite the horror of the box.