The original toy got a few repaints, none of which seemed worth bothering with, but it's taken over ten years for Hasbro/Takara Tomy to come up with a new version in a more appropriate size class... and I can't help but think it's mostly due to the explosion of Third Party movie figures, not least the amazing-looking Steel Claw from TF Dream Factory, which is effectively a Masterpiece-scale take on Bonecrusher.
Tempted as I was, I elected to take the vastly cheaper option of Hasbro's Studio Series Bonecrusher, since it's widely regarded as a huge improvement on the old Deluxe... Though I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed...
Vehicle Mode:
The old Deluxe class figure turned into a densely packed block of beige on wheels, and the new Voyager class Studio Series version us essentially the same... Surprisingly similar, in fact. The upgraded size class amounts to about 1-1.5cm extra length, about a millimetre of extra height and negligible difference in width... though the older figure has wider tyres, a shorter bumper and slimmer, taller wing mirrors. The new version has a far longer scoop arm, seemingly with more joints, though most of them serve robot mode rather than vehicle mode.
In terms of specific sculpted details, there are rather more differences between the two and, for the most part, I'd have to come out in favour of the Deluxe. The ladder on the back of this version barely resembles a ladder as it has only one step and seems too narrow to be used by a human... It also leads only to Bonecrusher's claws, hanging off the back in lieu of a rear bumper. The bed area at the back is smaller and shallower on this version, too, to the extent that it doesn't really look like a sunken bed at all.
The panels of the vehicle are broken up with fewer, simpler sculpted details, though they are at least sculpted more precisely. The side view is rather more gappy toward the back, and the black plastic spare tyres on each side are each broken up with a beige hinge. On the upside, each wheel has a painted hubcap, though even that isn't as extensive as on the Deluxe. Both have metallic blue paint for the windows, but the paint on this version is darker and not as metallic, though the rear window of the passenger section was unpainted on the Deluxe. All the mudguards are painted black, and the headlights are painted in silver, but the indicators were painted on the Deluxe, and are unpainted here. Conversely, the protrusions from the roof are painted silver on this version, but where unpainted on the original... though it's not clear on either what they're actually supposed to be.
The much-vaunted scoop arm feels a lot flimsier on this one, not least because the geared mechanism has been removed, and the fork/comb/scoop thing on the end is actually smaller than that of the original, and also seems a little warped on mine as the inner prongs bend away from each other.
What I find most disappointing about this version - other than it looks a little too pristine for the live action movie's rage machine - is that the bulldog cartoon, painted on the side of the movie vehicle and applied as a fairly crummy sticker on the Deluxe, is entirely absent here. I'm sure Reprolabels will pick up the slack, but it's pretty sad that Hasbro neglected to include it, either as a sticker or a tampographed design, considering it was presented almost like a tattoo on the movie robot.
It seems strange for a Studio Series figure to be without any accessories but, let's face it, Bonecrusher seemed to favour hand-to-hand (or claw) combat in the movie and, while the Third Party Masterpiece analogue has a handgun, that sort of thing really doesn't seem appropriate to Bonecrusher. I don't recall him using a gun during his brief fight with Optimus Prime, and this vehicle mode - plain though it may be - does benefit by not being covered with weapon storage ports.
Robot Mode:
While their vehicle modes are of very similar sizes, Studio Series Bonecrusher is about twice the size - and about twice the apparent mass - of his 2007 Deluxe class counterpart. He's far stockier, rather than just having a massive shoulder span, and looks properly hunched over rather than just awkward and comparatively petite, like the Deluxe. He is also, unfortunately, very much boxier in my opinion. Sure, the original had massive panels of wasted vehicle mass hanging off his arms and the vehicle's front wheels splayed out behind the shoulders, but the abiding impression if his arms and legs involved more curves and fewer right angles. From the side, it's also apparent how much flatter the new figure is versus the Deluxe, with his head barely protruding beyond the extent of his chest, while his shoulders are mounted just behind the base of the neck. Technically, this is all more accurate to the CGI than the Deluxe was... but in direct comparison, it looks pretty strange.
There's a lot more sculpted detail on the body and limbs of this Voyager than on the Deluxe, not just because there's more surface area to accommodate it, and the plastic colour is more consistent - certainly none of the strange, greenish plastic used on the original figure. The window details around the shoulders are naturally much simplified versus the CGI, but nevertheless closer to it in appearance - there's even a sculpted (albeit unpainted) window on the back of the shoulder. The arms are framed with vehicle mode panels, but the sculpted detail on the forward faces is more robotic compared to that of the curiously organic-looking arms on the Deluxe, and the forearms, while very squared-off and stuck with a chunk of the back end of the vehicle's cab stick out right behind the elbow, are very nicely detailed. The arm extension gimmick of the Deluxe (recreated on the Third Party MP-scale figure) is only implied, but it's done with an outer shell of beige plastic and an inner core - the actual forearm - in grey plastic. Both parts of the forearm separately hinged, as if some kind of gimmick was intended but abandoned, and now all they do is split apart for no readily apparent reason. It almost feels as though the shell of the cab part on his elbow should have been made to unfold down the forearm to add a bit more robot detail to the outside. Despite the lack of weapon accessories, each forearm features a 5mm port which isn't part of transformation, making me wonder if something was priced out of the package... Had there been an accessory of any kind planned, it certainly wasn't intended to be held in the robot's claws, which open nice and wide, but wouldn't offer any kind of traditional grip.
The legs and feet look a little untidy because of the bits of mudguard sticking forward out of the thighs, just above the knee, and sticking up out of the rear claw/toe but, on balance, the feet are much more accurate to the CGI than those of the Deluxe, and I particularly appreciate the attempt to represent the crossbar joining the front toes to the two on each side of the wheel. The outer one is almost complete, being made of two sections that are only two or three millimetres apart, but the inner ones barely extend out from their respective toes.
As with vehicle mode, paintwork is a little underachieving, with block applications of silver paint on each bicep, just above the elbow joints, as well as on the inner face of the knee joint, the collar, and the grille detail on the underside of the chest. The only other paintwork is on the windows on his shoulders, which are held over from vehicle mode. It's disappointing that there wasn't some sort of metallic paint or black wash on the forks, let alone the robot body parts, as their bare grey plastic looks a little lifeless, especially since they just stick up out of his back just as flat as they were in vehicle mode - nothing was done to allow them to spread out or curl to better resemble the CGI claw. Its reach is significantly better than that of the Deluxe, but its jointing, not least the absence of a similar geared 'grabbing' mechanism, is very disappointing.
I was rather hoping I could switch the Deluxe toy's claw over to this figure, but that's pinned in place, while it's only on mushroom pegs on this version. I don't mind that there's no weapon accessory with this figure, but an alternate set of blades for the claw - like the set packaged with Steel Claw - would have been a huge bonus for this toy.
Much as I liked the weird, very alien and somewhat insectoid head sculpt on the Deluxe, this new version is a massive improvement in terms of detail. It's helped by the fact that it's made of two pieces - the inner part painted gunmetal, the outer unpainted beige plastic, and with his beady, sunken eyes picked out in red - but the extent and depth of the sculpted detail has to be one of the best in the Studio Series line, easily on a par with Blackout. All the CGI robots had heads and faces that were made up of hundreds of small, interlocking and overlapping panels, and Bonecrusher's has been replicated very well. It's difficult to say how accurate it really is since the inner detail on the CGI was so dark it tended to be barely visible, but there's certainly an impression that his face is made entirely of mandibles, and that feels right for the character. The only letdown is that it's barely mobile, with a very tight ball joint on the back of the head, and the neck on a very limited, vertically pinned hinge.
There's a bit more to SS Bonecrusher's transformation - as one is bound to expect from a Voyager class figure versus a Deluxe - but it's remarkably similar except in certain specifics. The arms still form the upper part of the vehicle, from the windscreen at the front to the truck bed at the back, but there's far less wastage hanging off them in robot mode. The legs still fold in under the back of the vehicle and peg in to the sides around the mudguards, though the transformation of the rear wheel is a bit more complicated, rotating pretty much a full 180° on the 'heel', but mounted on the separately hinged outer toe. The front of the vehicle still ends up on Bonecrusher's back, but it's no longer upside down and, unfortunately, ends up being a bit wobbly because the bonnet/bumper/claw arm section doesn't peg in anywhere. The biggest change is probably in the torso, with about a 180° flip of the upper torso, coupled with a 90° shift in the hips/groin, as well as a separately hinged crotch plate and hinged protrusions which flip out from either side of the waist. As mentioned above, it feels like the robot mode could have been improved by opening up the vehicle shell parts on the elbow and allowing them to fold out down the forearm, as the mostly flat vehicle panels left there present a rather abrupt angle that doesn't suit the robot. Getting the legs - and particularly the mudguard panel sticking out of the thigh - aligned for vehicle mode can be a pain but, on the upside, at least the wheels and up at matching angles on this version. Mine is somewhat aflicted by warped plastic on one section of his claw arm, but it pegs together well enough and it's not too difficult to angle the arm to minimise the visual impact of the issue in robot mode.
For such an awkward-looking robot, Bonecrusher is reasonably well jointed, with virtually unrestricted movement at the hip - more than 180° of swing from front to back, and a little over 90° out to the sides, along with 360° rotation of the thigh just below the hip - as well as a touch over 90° of bend at the knee, and even about 90° of inward ankle tilt. The front toe isn't articulated, but the other three offer a certain amount of twist right by the ankle. The arms feel significantly better than those of the Deluxe, despite lacking the extension gimmick. Since the shoulders don't tab into place, the transformation hinge can provide additional articulation, acting as a 'butterfly' joint, thus increasing Bonecrusher's forward reach and allowing him to reach across his chest to a far greater degree than most TransFormers toys. The main shoulder joint technically offers a full 360° of rotation, but the vehicle shell on the arm can clash with the vehicle shell on the body, and the movement becomes very restricted if the shoulder is raised or lowered on the dual-hinged transformation joint. There's an unrestricted bicep rotation joint just above the fairly typical 90° elbow bend. The hands are each made up of a pair of claws - larger, outer fingers as one piece, smaller, inner fingers as the other - hinged at the wrist to allow them to open wide as well as tilt up and down, but there's no rotation. There's no waist articulation except as far as the transformation joint goes, and it's really no good for posing. Finally, as mentioned above, the head and neck are very disappointing - the head's ball joint is on the back of the head, so it can only tilt left and right, while the base of the neck is barely mobile, moving only a couple of degrees left and right. More accurate to the CGI it may be, but I kind of wish another joint, or a whole additional piece, had been added to the neck to extend it and improve its articulation with a bit of up/down movement. It's unfortunate, looking back, that so many of the movie Decepticons were designed in such a way as to make for problematic neck articulation in the toys.
Gotta say, despite the poor paint job and barely mobile head, I'm very glad I bought this instead of holding out for the massive Third Party figure with its LED eyes. Studio Series Bonecrusher is far from perfect, far too beige, and really could have done with some dirtying-up, but for the price, it's good, solid entry into the Studio Series toyline... on balance, I'd even go so far as to say that, pound for pound, he's better than TF Dream Factory's Steel Claw despite its comparative simplicity. A bit more paint would have made him even better, and alternate forks for his claw arm would have made him a must-have. As it stands, it's still very much a worthwhile replacement for the 12-year-old Deluxe, and ideal for those on a budget, be it financial or display space.
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