Armada Wave 1
Demolishor

By Daniel Lipkowitz, Assistant Editor

Mini-Con

Blackout is a fairly nondescript, boxy little vehicle with two large cannons and rolling wheels. His name and features suggest that he may be intended to serve as a transmissions jammer. Flipping up a small dish on the back converts him to "Radar Mode", while raising the dish and swinging his cannons up to the top of the vehicle produces his "Attack Mode". To transform Blackout to robot mode, simply swing his legs out from the vehicle’s undercarriage. Flipping up the dish behind Blackout’s head gives him another "Radar Mode". In robot mode, Blackout has swivel points at the shoulder, hip and (to a very limited extent) knee. His faction symbol appears on the left side of his chest.

Vehicle Mode

In vehicle mode, Demolishor is a squat, heavily-armed tank-like vehicle in red, dark grey, pale tan-gold and silvery grey, with silver, black and green-gold details. A wash of grey paint around his treads makes him look rugged and weathered. A flame pattern appears at the front of his tread armor; at Toy Fair (and on package photos), these marks were a bright fiery red, but now they are rust-colored and less precisely painted, making them look somewhat more like mud splashes. Given the heavy-duty appearance of the vehicle mode, this alteration doesn’t really hurt the design. The tank’s turret can rotate, and the double missile launchers can be raised and lowered. Free-rolling wheels are patterned to match the underside of the treads. A Decepticon symbol is molded onto the forward left portion of the turret.

Vehicle Mode Features

• A seat can be rotated up behind the turret, allowing robot-mode Blackout or another Mini-Con (proportions allowing) to ride in the tank.


• Blackout in vehicle mode can be plugged into the gap between Demolishor’s front treads. Pressing a small button on the back of the tank launches the rolling Mini-Con a fair distance.


• A Mini-Con can be attached to a Powerlinx peg on the left missile pod. This causes the grey front portion of the pod to slide forward. Pulling back on the attached Mini-Con fires the two missiles on that side. Unfortunately, although both missile pods were rigged with this feature at Toy Fair (and on the package and catalog photos), only one is a functional missile launcher on the final toy. Although its missiles are removable, the second pod cannot fire.


• Attack Base Mode: By flipping up the driver seat, rotating the upper tank chassis 180 degrees and partially folding out the treads and robot feet, you can convert Demolishor to Attack Base Mode. This is essentially the tank turret in a stationary surface-to-air attack configuration.

Transformation to Robot Mode

Unfold the treads and rotate out the robot feet. Swing down the rear tread armor, then fold the front halves to form the upper legs. Compress the hips and rotate the upper tank chassis to the back. Pull the shoulders apart to separate the chest halves, then flip up the robot head. Point the missile pods up, swinging down the silver cannons to become Demolishor’s arms and hands.

Robot Mode

In robot mode, Demolishor adds orange chest detailing and white and green face details to the vehicle mode colors. With his fierce scowl, heavy armor and fingers formed from cannon barrels, Demolishor gives the appearance of being tough, utilitarian and martial. His Mini-Con driver’s seat can still be flipped up in this mode.

Articulation

Demolishor has swivel points at the shoulders, double-jointed elbows, a turning waist and hinged knees. His hips are technically mounted on swivels, but because of the way they hinge to transform, they essentially have ball-joint articulation.

Robot Mode Features

• As in tank mode, attaching a Mini-Con to the Powerlinx peg on Demolishor’s left upper arm extends the double missile launcher, and pulling down on the attached Mini-Con fires the two missiles on that side.

Impressions

Demolishor is probably the most well-rounded of the first-wave Deluxe-sized Armada toys in terms of features, complexity, articulation and play value. The elimination of one of the missile launchers is quite disappointing, though, especially since the matching weapon pods would have been fun to fire in tandem.

Return to the First Page