Zob's Retro Review: Action Master Decepticon Devastator (1990)

[Zobovor]

Today we're going to look at Action Master Devastator, arguably one of
the strangest Action Masters ever produced!

So, it's clear that when it came to the Action Masters assortment,
Hasbro's goal was to bring us an even mix of old characters and new
ones. Each wave was pretty heavily skewed, with four Autobots for every
two Decepticons. There were far more Autobot characters than Decepticon
characters, and there were a number of notable, important 1984-85
Autobots who never achieved Action Master status (Ironhide, Ratchet,
Perceptor, etc.) With far fewer Decepticon characters to choose from,
the roster of important characters in the 1984-85 hierarchy pretty much
wrote itself. Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave.

Devastator was also chosen, and on some level it makes sense. He's a
memorable and instantly-recognizable character, and he's far more
significant than, say, Reflector or Frenzy. But, he's also
traditionally been a very large character who towers over the others, so
to make him an action figure who can go head-to-head with Bumblebee is
weird, at best.

Action Masters didn't factor much into the official fiction, because
Transformers as a brand was on its way out by 1990. All we really know
is that the discovery of Nucleon froze many characters in their robot
modes, so they transferred their conversion powers to their weapons and
vehicles. However, the in-universe ramifications of Devastator becoming
an Action Master are absolutely fascinating. For one, the Nucleon must
have shrunk down Devastator's body significantly, making him the size of
a regular, run-of-the-mill Decepticon. (He's pictured *slightly* larger
than the others in some of the official box art, but not significantly
so!)

But, that's not all. With most of the Action Masters having fueled up
on Nucleon, that just means that Jazz couldn't change into a sports car
and Soundwave couldn't turn into a tape player. But, Devastator was
formed from the six Constructicons, with their six minds competing for
shared control over the combined Devastator form. This means that not
only could Devastator not transform, but the six Constructicons were
effectively stuck with their minds intermingled, unable to separate or
think as individuals. Devastator has always been depicted as a besotted
and somewhat confused robot, given the manner in which the
Constructicons are all in competition for the shared form. Devastator
always represented a temporary state in which the Constructicons came
together for a common goal, knowing that once the mission was complete,
they could separate again. But Action Master Devastator represents a
constant, never-ending psychological struggle, in which none of the
Constructicons ever achieve any sort of respite.

Despite this, the text description in Devastator's clip-and-save bio
card seems to have been partially rewritten. He's described as "awesome
and terrifying," which is consistent with his 1985 tech specs. But
instead of saying something like "he is the embodiment of the six
Constructicons who comprise him," they eliminated that reference
completely, perhaps so as not to confuse kids who might have assumed
Action Master Devastator can disassemble into six parts. Instead, they
cobbled together this awkward and clunky and almost meaningless
sentence: "He is the embodiment of a life form which takes full
advantage of his enemies' weaknesses and uses them for their
destruction." It's so bizarre to go out of you way to state that
Devastator is "the embodiment of a life form." I'll bet you anything it
originally said "he is the embodiment of the six Constructicons" until
somebody at Hasbro told them they couldn't say that, because the Action
Master doesn't work that way.

The figure itself is 3.75 inches tall, designed to be able to fit inside
any of the cockpits for the larger Action Master vehicles. He's based
mostly on the Sunbow cartoon version of Devastator, but with a greater
number of surface details that more authentically demonstrate how his
limbs are made up of different construction vehicles. Rather than
having Scrapper and Mixmaster each break in half at the knee joint, his
leg design is more akin to the G1 toy, where Scrapper and Mixmaster form
the lower legs only. He's one of the only Action Masters who is
bilaterally asymmetrical, having a different design for the left leg
than the right, and a different right arm from his left arm.

He's a fluorescent yellow/green color, and he was gang-molded with Krok,
who shares the same color of parts. His upper legs are dark grey, and
his head is made of grey plastic that's been painted black entirely. He
has a silver face and fluorescent red eyes. He has segmented individual
eyes, which is correct for the G1 toy and for an early Sunbow character
design, not the connected goggles that he tends to appear with far more
frequently. His chest shield (which has his Decepticon sticker) and
forearms and fists are painted purple. There is some grey painted
detail used for Mixmaster's windshield and front grill and wheels, as
well as Scrapper's wheels and the inside of his shovel bucket. There
are also two random red hemispheres on Devastator's back. They
absolutely could have gotten away with not spending the money on this
paint application (who's going to notice it in the packaging?) but they
totally did it anyway.

Now, when it comes to a robot who's built out of six construction
vehicles, what would make sense for his Action Master partner? Some
kind of drill tank, or maybe an excavation tool? A wrecking ball?
Well, if you said "a huge robot scorpion," then you and Hasbro think
alike. His partner is Scorpulator, a mechanical creature with a dark
grey body and fluorescent green claws, mouth, legs, and tail (a slightly
different shade than Devastator). If they had made him green and purple
instead, he would have looked a lot more like Constructicon technology.
Incidentally, Scorpulator is one of the harder Action Master partners to
find intact on eBay, since his legs, claws, tail, and mouth all pop off,
so the ones on the secondary market tend to be missing some or all of
these parts. He's really cool-looking, though, with claws sculpted to
include little cable-hoses and a tail that means business. The claws
can pivot up and down and the tail is articulated at the base.

Devastator carries a rifle called a magnifier blaster, a dark grey
handheld weapon that can also plug into the top of Scorpulator's tail.
It looks like it was designed by the same guy who designed Action Master
Blaster's weapon. When transforming Scorpulator into weapon mode,
you're actually supposed to dismantle him, popping off his legs and
plugging them into Devastator's back, where they ostensibly serve as a
gripper backpack. I never knew about this aspect of the toy's
functionality! It's amazing to me that I'm still learning new things
about this toy line, some 40-odd years later.

Scorpulator transforms by pressing the spring-loaded trigger on his
back, causing his main gun barrel head to flip around, replacing his
head. Devastator's rifle plugs into the barrel on Scorpulator to
complete the weapon mode, which is described as an acid spray gun.
Scorpulator is just small and lightweight enough that Devastator can
actually carry him in weapon mode unsupported, which is a rarity among
Action Masters.

I'm not clear on how much I've spent overall, because I got my
Devastator figure, loose with no accessories, on eBay many years ago. I
know I didn't pay much for him. I finally set about to complete him, so
I picked up his gun for $7 plus shipping and I got Scorpulator for
another $12 plus shipping. You can get a complete figure for about $50
these days, but I didn't need to replace Devastator himself. I actually
have two of them already, and I really didn't need a third! (Ask me
some time about my army of Action Master Prowls some time...)


Zob (seriously, I have a lot)

[JosephBardsley]

Great review, Zob - and, the subtext around Devastator's Nucleon-altered
combined form, and what, specifically, it portends for the individual
Constructicons - is thoughtful and true.

A great read and thought experiment.

Thanks for putting this together!

JB

[Optim]

Post by Zobovor
Devastator was also chosen, and on some level it makes sense. He's a
memorable and instantly-recognizable character, and he's far more
significant than, say, Reflector or Frenzy. But, he's also
traditionally been a very large character who towers over the others, so
to make him an action figure who can go head-to-head with Bumblebee is
weird, at best.
Action Masters didn't factor much into the official fiction, because
Transformers as a brand was on its way out by 1990. All we really know
is that the discovery of Nucleon froze many characters in their robot
modes, so they transferred their conversion powers to their weapons and
vehicles. However, the in-universe ramifications of Devastator becoming
an Action Master are absolutely fascinating. For one, the Nucleon must
have shrunk down Devastator's body significantly, making him the size of
a regular, run-of-the-mill Decepticon. (He's pictured *slightly* larger
than the others in some of the official box art, but not significantly
so!)

I don't see why Devastator was shrunken. I don't think there was any
official fiction of Action Masters apart from Marvel Comics Grimlock and
Optimus that suggested that he was shrunken to regular TF size.
Devastator may still have retained his full height. Megatron may have
preferred that only Devastator undergo the Action Master process, wiping
out the 6 Constructicon components that comprised him once.

There is also Omega Spreem, exclusive to the European Action Masters. He
may also have retained his full height and been Devastator's rival if
there was any official fiction.

I liked the Action Masters. I found it a fresh take on Transformers
which was stale by 1989. It's too bad there was no major official
fiction surounding the concept at the time. I did not like Simon
Furman's take on Action Masters Grimlock and Optimus. It is probably not
surprising because Furman hated the idea and tried not to use it much.

I find Action Master Devastator the best looking in the Action Masters
line.

[Zobovor]

Post by Optim
I don't see why Devastator was shrunken. I don't think there was any
official fiction of Action Masters apart from Marvel Comics Grimlock and
Optimus that suggested that he was shrunken to regular TF size.
Devastator may still have retained his full height. Megatron may have
preferred that only Devastator undergo the Action Master process, wiping
out the 6 Constructicon components that comprised him once.

Well, there's Hasbro artwork of Devastator riding around in one of the
seats of the Neutro-Fusion tank along with Krok and Soundwave. So at
least within the fictional toy-universe, he's the same height as the
other Decepticons.

The UK comics did write an Earthforce story about the Decepticons trying
to rebuild Devastator, so I suppose it could have been the Action Master
version that they were building. So if that's the case, you'd be right,
and he didn't actually shrink down at all. But, it's hard to say for
sure.

Post by Optim
I liked the Action Masters. I found it a fresh take on Transformers
which was stale by 1989. It's too bad there was no major official
fiction surounding the concept at the time.

Back in the day, I had been expecting that in Marvel Comics, everybody
would become Action Masters on planet Klo, and that they would construct
their various vehicles and animal sidekicks on Klo as well. Obviously,
that never happened.

I've often wondered how they would have introduced the Action Masters in
the cartoon if it had lasted long enough. Optimus Prime's death was
reversed, so no problems there. But, Prowl was killed and as far as we
know, his body was incinerated when the Autobot mausoleum went up in
flames. Wheeljack's body was probably on it, too. So, they'd have to
retcon that or ignore it altogether.

On the Decepticon side of things, Starscream had already been
established as a ghost, but Unicron gave him a new body, so assuming he
survived the end of "Ghost in the Machine," no further plot finagling
would be required. Shockwave's death was always off-screen, so they
could have established that he'd been buried in rubble on Cybertron or
something. But turning Galvatron back into Megatron would be
interesting. I guess they could have just blamed the Nucleon, and said
that it reverted Unicron's modifications back to Galvatron's original
and "true" form. I guess the Nucleon could also revert Goldbug back to
Bumblebee.

But, it would have probably been animated by DiC and all the voice
actors except maybe Peter Cullen and Chris Latta would have been ousted
in favor of non-union Canadian voice actor replacements, so perhaps
that's not a cartoon we would have wanted or enjoyed.


Zob (on the upshot, it would be lots of Beast Wars voice actors doing
characters like Treadshot and Rad and Sprocket, so there's that)

[Optim]

Post by Zobovor
I've often wondered how they would have introduced the Action Masters in
the cartoon if it had lasted long enough. Optimus Prime's death was
reversed, so no problems there. But, Prowl was killed and as far as we
know, his body was incinerated when the Autobot mausoleum went up in
flames. Wheeljack's body was probably on it, too. So, they'd have to
retcon that or ignore it altogether.

I could think of a few things to introduce the Action Masters into G1
lore. You could have it set in 1989, before the Sunbow Movie took place.
That means Action Master Rodimus, Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge would not
be a possibility but AM Unicrom would.

Or someone could time travel back to 2005 and alter the timeline such
that the Movie does not happen.

There are other ways I could think of. No one really cared about
continuity. It was harder (and they failed) to have Dark Awakening and
Return of Optimus Prime be compatible with each other. But kids, like
me, didn't care. We wanted Optimus back, continuity be damned.