TFC Toys Hercules

 

  (Just for reference, a lot of thought went in to making Hercules the focus of the first third party combiner article. But because it was the first full set collected, and in deference to Devastator’s status as the first combiner, here he is. –mr)

It has taken a long time to get here, the final and completed form of Hercules, TFC Toys’ Devastator, and one of the first Third Party Devastators to hit the market. It took a little over a year, in fact, as the complete set was acquired early last January as a set, and then very slowly rolled out, figure at a time, months after the fact in accordance with the often glacial pace of life at the Coffin. By now, the Transformers community is general accustomed to the 3Ps offering full combiner teams, or some other such complete figure, but at the time of Hercules’ announcement, 3Ps were generally still producing figure add on sets or parts, or were producing what can only be described as altered knockoffs, like the iGear Coneheads: clearly bootlegged Takara Masterpiece Seekers with the necessary alterations to become at-the-time-unavailable Masterpiece-compatible versions of Ramjet, Thrust, and Dirge. Seemingly out of nowhere, competing Constructicon sets began to surface, and the real third party market, the one we still currently inhabit, began in earnest.

TFC Toys Hercules: Mad Blender

 

 Mad Blender is an interesting figure. The Mixmaster and final entry in TFC Toys’ Hercules group, Mad Blender is, on the surface at least, an amalgam of Structor and Dr. Crank, and as both of those are good figures, Mad Blender should be as well.

Not that this article wants to get started with a “should,” but it does, in the least sinister way imaginable. Mad Blender is a good figure, no doubt, but depending on how you look at it, it’s also a little bland.

TFC Toys Hercules: Neckbreaker

Neckbreaker is the first of the Hercules set that feels not so great. The TFC Toys analog for Bonecrusher, this figure shares a lot with Exgraver, but executes not as well.

By now, the general positives of the Hercules figures have been well documented. Fun. Good looking. Nice Cybertron aesthetic. Amusing to transform. Decently but not excessively posable. Neckbreaker exhibits all of those things. But he is a figure that generally disappoints.

TFC Toys Hercules: Dr. Crank

 

 Many, many years ago, a little boy was introduced to the incredible concept of combining robots when, on an unassuming summer afternoon, his grandmother took him to a store and bought him a Transformer. Well, it wasn’t really a Transformer; it was one of the plentiful-at-the-time transforming robot toys that was a Transformer, but not an official one, released by some other company to try and capitalize on the toy phenomenon that was Transformers in the early and mid-1980s. The toy was a red version of Hook, stuffy Constructicon surgeon. It seems that that anecdote is particularly appropriate here, with Dr. Crank, a not-a-real-Transformer version of Hook.

TFC Toys Hercules: Structor

 

It’s been a little while since a Hercules team member got the spotlight here, and in light of recent figure acquisition events, there is a growing fear that, if not completed soon, the rest of the Hercules dudes could be lost to enthusiasm over other, newer acquisitions. So, let’s take a gander at Structor, the Scrapper on the team.

TFC Toys Hercules: Heavy Labor

  

Heavy Labor is the TFC Toys version of G1 Constructicon Long Haul, and he just may be my favorite member of the team individually. The toy, not necessarily the character; that distinction belongs to another, and I have no doubts that stories about him will surface when we finally get to him. But that’s for another time, and now is the time for Heavy Labor.

TFC Toys Hercules: Exgraver

Just couldn't decide, honestly.

I think they both look pretty good.

 

 A few weeks ago, I got an excellent deal on eBay for the full set of six Hercules figures and the Rage of Hercules add on set. So now, I own a full third party combiner. My plan is to look at each figure individually, and then write on the combined form later. I will begin with Exgraver, because he was the first figure from the set to be released.