Review: #881
Name: Long Haul
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Studio Series
Year of Release: 2025
Size Class: Commander
Mold Status: new
PACKAGING:
For the 2025 Commander in the Studio Series line, it is a two pack with Hook and Long Haul.
Together, they come with extra pieces to make the combined mode of Devastator. Given inflation and better engineering of each of the individual figures, they couldn't fit it within the budget of a Titan class this time around.
VEHICLE MODE:
Long Haul transforms into a neon green dump truck, and he looks fine in this mode.
He's gappy at the back, due to the leg transformation.
He still feels big and hefty though, and is bigger than your typical Voyager (but not enough to be a Leader). Unfortunately, he doesn't have a working dump bed at all.
The robot weapon, which is just a small gun, can peg onto the sides.
A quick comparison of him with Hook, the other figure in the set.
In order to have Long Haul be roughly Voyager size and in a similar size as the other Constructicons, some of Devastator's combiner kibble had to be separated out on its own.
It's a trailer for Long Haul, and it attaches via a hitch.
Devastator's other combiner pieces, such as his chest plate and hands, can attach on top of this flatbed trailer.
Long Haul becomes extra long after this.
To be honest, it doesn't look half bad, and it is passable.
Due to the short hitch and the big wide pieces of Long Haul himself and the trailer, Long Haul can barely take corners.
The only play value in this mode are the four rolling wheels of Long Haul, plus the two from the trailer.
It's a decent vehicle mode and does what you'd expect.
TRANSFORMATION:
Despite being such a big figure and being part of a combiner, Long Haul has a very simple transformation. Not being forced to integrate most of Devastator's lower torso plus the thighs means that Long Haul can basically replicate the original G1 toy's transformation scheme. It's almost too easy. The back unfolds to form the legs. The arms from behind the grill, and that's kind of it. It's a transformation scheme that you'd expect on Core class and lower.
ROBOT MODE:
Robot mode is fine, and it is distinctly Long Haul.
The most interesting aspect of his transformation is just folding some pieces of the dump bed on top of each other and out of the way on his back.
The head sculpt is nice, and the silver paint is a great finishing touch.
He's shorter than your typical Voyager, but also quite a bit wider.
There is some size differences between Long Haul and the other members of the team, he's basically still the biggest of them all.
Articulation is fine, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.
He comes with a small gun that he can hold in his hand.
One big benefit from a simple transformation and a huge blocky vehicle is that his has huge feet, and he stays firmly planted in nearly all poses.
The robot gun can store in the same place as vehicle mode, but now it's situated on the side of his legs.
The set comes with Devastator's chest plate (split into three pieces) and his two hands.
These pieces can double as weapons for the individual robot modes, such as a pair of swords.
Or a big gun.
Or a set of large missile launchers. These do add quite a bit of extra play value for the figure.
Due to transformation, Long Haul does have knee joints that are situated higher than you would expect, so his shins feel extra long.
COMBINED MODE:
As mentioned, the set only comes with Hook, Long Haul, and some combiner parts that form the lower torso of Devastator. Perhaps the weakest part of the set is that the combiner parts does not have a token "base mode". So it's either the trailer, or the combined form, which means if you wanted to display Hook and Long Haul in their individual robot modes, then the trailer doesn't do anything.
At least you can form the torso of Devastator from just this set alone, he'll just be missing his limbs. Interesting, you cannot attach the chest plate now, because they actually attaches to the arm components instead (Bonecrusher and Scavenger).
However, even getting into this mode, you can start to see the scale and how big this Devastator would be (i.e. not as big as you would have expected).
OVERALL:
As a set with Hook, and only on their individual strengths, Long Haul isn't quite worth the price. However, if you want to create Devastator, then you have no choice and he is well worth it. This is the best figure we've had of the character yet, and he isn't very compromised in either mode, which is impressive.
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