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"We play dirty." If it can be built, the Demolition Team can bring it down. Every member of the team is an expert engineer, specializing in weakening and destroying the foundation of any structure they encounter. Before any important battle, you'll find the Demolition Team on site, tunneling beneath enemy fortifications. Entire Autobot cities have collapsed in a thunderous cloud of dust because of the work of these three.
If you've been reading our Transformers Tuesday reviews
for any length of time, you can probably guess that Wideload is the main reason I bought the Demolition Team. Construction equipment + green and purple = the win. The funny thing is that just like Demolishor, Wideload is a haul truck, one of the most hugenormous vehicles to roll across the land, yet this highly detailed version is only 2" long. And yes, you can raise the bed of the truck, for real dumping action; though at this scale, grains of sand would equate to a boulder larger than your head.
To transform Wideload, split the bed of the truck, fold out the cab and spin the waist around. In addition to having more paint apps (painted headlights, a puple and silver head, green at the waist),
the promo shots of the figure skip this last step, leaving him looking a bit odd.
Wideload's robot mode is a unique one for TF dumptrucks. Rather than becoming legs, the bed forms the arms, so he doesn't have any real hands. The rear tires (which, oddly, have the interior tires molded in green plastic rather than black) do a good job of standing in for pecs. He's realy hurt by the reduced paint apps, though - if you want this one, prepare to do some touch-ups to make him look more like the proto.
The second piece of construction equipment
in this set is one not often seen in the Transformers' ranks: a backhoe. Well, at least a backhoe of this sort. We usually get the bigger industrial ones. And despite the fact Sledge isn't green and purple, it still looks really good. The combo of black, red and yellow is realy sharp, and the detailing in the sculpt is surprisingly complex. The arms of the shovels even move realistically, for more play options.
Sledge's transformation is pretty good. Fold down the sides to point at the ground, then rotate the yellow hinge up into the body and rotate the legs to face forward. Lift the cab to reveal the robot's head,
and spin the nose around to become the robot's shoulder.
The majority of the robot mode is good, but having to use two different shovels as arms makes for an unbalanced shape. The cab sticking straight up off his shoulder doesn't help, either. Making the backhoe's stabilizer legs serve as the robot's feet is clever, and check out his head: it's designed to look like a hardhat! Ha! Sure, the arms take some getting used to (a lot of getting used to), but that doesn't mean this isn't a really good TF.
The oddball in this set is Broadside,
who is not another piece of construction equipment, but is instead a tank. Not the sort of thing you typically find idling at your local builing site. Still, the sculpt is impressively detailed, particularly for a toy of this size. All the plates, seas and hatches are detailed well, the turret rotates 360° and the barrel raises to aim. Sure, a bigger tank could have more detail, but at only 2½" long, this little guy is packed with texture.
Transformation is a bit weird. The arms and legs both swing out of the back of the tank, the front folds down to become his chest, and the gun barrel flips backwards to reveal his face. His hands fold out of his arms, as well. It's different from most TF tanks, and that can be a good thing.
The robot is 2½" tall, not counting the barrel sticking out of the back of his head.
Broadside has some really long legs, which makes his proportions kind of wonky. The shoulder joints are almost immediately behind his hips, too, which just adds to the unwieldy looks. Given the way he's constructed, you might think Broadside would be hard to stand up, but that's not the case; though the tank's turret sticks straight back off his shoulders, there are tiny bumps on the bottom of his feet that tip him forward just enough to balance it out. His left hand is normal, while his right is a gattling gun - more firepower!
The Demolition Team is a set of three suprisingly good Mini-Cons. They look kind of odd at first glance, but with time they'll grow on you. The scaled-back paint apps kind of hurt the faces a little bit, but that's a minor problem. Not a lot of the Mini-Con sets have three winners, but this one does.
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