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The desert sands quake as Constructicon Overload combines with his comrades to form Constructicon Devastator.
You know the drill by now: none of the movie Constructicons have any personality, because that would take time away from the MA BA-BA SPLOOM!!! of it all, and we can't extrapolate from G1 because he doesn't have any counterpart there - in fact, this was the first character named Overload to not be an Autobot. So unless we're going to assign him the 2015 Robots in Disguise Overload's quirks, he's nothing and nobody.
Speaking of "no-body," Overload did not have a robot mode in Revenge of the Fallen - the Constructicons who formed Devastator just rolled up in vehicle mode, and combined from there. Concept artist did design several for him, including a four-legged crab bot, a scorpion-tailed version that was used for the Legends-class toy, and the version that ultimately inspired this toy. His torso is wide and stocky, with legs to match. There's still a spike sticking up over his shoulders to suggest the other concept's tail, but it just rests against the back, it doesn't rise away from it.
Overload's most distinctive feature, however, has to be his arms. He has four of them, and they all look vicious! On each side,
one ends in a serrated claw, while the other ends in a pair of hooks. They've got the typical Bayverse aesthetic of exposed gears and wiring, and are bent at all weird angles. They're fully articulated, too, with a total of 13 arm joints on each side (four on the hook arm, five on the claw arm, plus another three or four in the shoulder area). It really is a fearsome look for a scary villain!
The first time you look at the instructions, Overload seems ridiculously complex. Trying to understand what they want you to do with the arms is a real mind-bender, until you realize they're taking a dozen steps to basically say "tuck his hands into his armpits. At that point, the only oddity is the way the claw hands have to go in at a slight angle to fit, rather than slotting in straight.
Overload's altmode is an articulated dump truck... though it's lacking the pivot point between the cab and the back that would actually make it qualify as "articulated." The toy is x" long in this mode, and features rolling wheels. In order to create space to hide the arms, they seem to have desiced he'd be a flatbed truck rather than a dump truck, like he's delivering cargo instead of hauling around debris.
Cargo, you say? Yes, he gets something to carry around.
It's not even an accessory for him, but rather a free-floating piece of kibble for Devastator. Hasbro couldn't find a way to adequately create the big guy's full grinder head, so Overload comes with a piece that will attach later and cover the neck. Woo. The little clips are designed to fit into slots on the flatbed here, so at least it will stay in place. Still doesn't look great, though. Additionally, the instructions fail to mention it can be plugged into the robot's back for storage.
The Studio Series Constructicons are
designed to combine into Devastator, of course, and Overload will eventually be the hips. Not too far in the future, honestly, because he was the final one we were waiting for. His instruction sheet includes details on how to plug them all together, so now I'm getting antsy to do just that.
Overload is a Leader Class figure, mainly because of his arms - he's not significantly taller than the Voyager Class ones, but he's a whole lot wider. This size strangeness led to a little bit of confusion at Target, where he was initially sold at the lower pricepoint. Hey, a little gift for all our wallets! Overload is a fun enough figure on his own, but as a component of Devastator, he's indispensable.
Rampage | Scrapmetal | Long Haul | Hightower | Mixmaster | Scavenger | Scrapper | Overload
-- 11/17/20
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