Phil's
Armada, Energon & Cybertron Demolishor
and
Micron Legend & Superlink Ironhide
Review


Demolishor

Demolishor is a missile launching tank. The tank's turret rotates above the treads, and both missile batteries can be raised. There's a five barrel cannon mounted above each missile battery. Both missile batteries and both cannons have minicon pegs. His left missile battery can be fired by putting a minicon on that peg and pulling back once to prime the weapon and a 2nd time to trigger it. Sadly his right isn't functional.

Red is used for the turret - including pivoting sides - and the robot's waist
Beige is used for the missile mounts, the tread covers and the gun units.
Grey is used for the missiles and mid arms.
Dark grey is used for the tracks and Blackout's seat.

The front of the tank turret is painted silver as are Blackout's gun barrels and windows.

There's a launcher for Blackout between the treads at the front , but it isn't on the right level for it to be effective. There's a fold away seat for Blackout to sit in in his robot form so he can act as Demolishor's gunner. In normal tank mode this is fixed between the rear treads, but the treads have this odd double jointed mechanism connecting them to the base of the turret which means they can be folded further to the sides or closer together lower down which enables the chair to rotate with the turret. For a little extra fun the turret separates in 2 down the middle to make it wider, and Demolishor's robot head can flip up. The tank treads also fold out to provide a 3rd base mode of a gunner station.

To TF to robot mode fold the tread units down to form their lower but closer position under the turret. Fold the treads out to the rear of the sides, folding the very end of the treads down to form a foot on each leg. Then fold the red tread covers up to form the upper leg. Rotate below the chair. Pull the turret halves apart, then unfold the missile batteries and cannons so that they are straight to form the arms. Flip the head up.

Robot mode is articulated but there's nothing that does more than move fore and aft - joints at knee, hip, shoulder, and 2 at the elbow plus 2 different waist swivels. No neck. Colours are the same as the vehicle mode, with some more highlighting visible. Hands are non functional for holding standard weapons, but the minicon pegs are now very well placed on forearms and shoulders. The seat remains behind the body so Blackout can piggyback in robot mode.

Overall - a bit blocky, a fixed plane of motion in his articulation, and the hands bother me since he can't hold the combined weapons - a common complaint amongst the Supercon Decepticons.

Demolishor's Japanese name is Ironhide. He and Search (Blackout) were sold as MD-03 and as MS-03 with the Military team.


Powerlinx Demolishor

Demolishor has a seemingly less complicated repaint history than Thrust but it's his missing Powerlinx colour scheme - G1 Six Shot - that caused all the problems with Thrust. When the animators rendered Demolishor in red in the cartoon, that's what the toy makers went with, thus forcing them to change Thrust's colours.

Have you got either your original or Energon Demolishor's to hand ?

Armada's red is a similar but paler grey on the PL Version. Beige is a brick red, grey becomes black and dark grey is a grey brown.

(in case your wondering I envisage that the abandoned Sixshot repaint would be red would become white, beige to green & dark grey to purple respectively)

The front of the tank turret is painted a goldy orange - Mrs Toys was not complimentary about it and described it as sick yellow. Both the grey of the turret and the red of the track covers have a new white camo wash over it..

Overall - probably the best paint job for this toy.

Powerlinx Demolishor & Blackout were sold as Ironhide Super Mode and Sparksearch numbered MD-10 in the Micron Legend range


Energon Demolishor

Again another Japanese imported colour-scheme as a US exclusive. This time Demolishor is a sort of neon green and purple - not quite right for a tank, but very G1 constructicon ish and a herald of the transformation to come. The weaker of the 2, as the colours aren't perfect for what he is - a tank - but they are a traditional mix that works together.

Armada's red becomes grey, beige becomes pale green, grey becomes black and dark grey becomes purple.

Both Cyclonus and his companion Demolishor were repainted late in Armada - Cyclonus had a Sprineresque green colour-scheme, and Demolishor - courtesy of the animators of the cartoon got a garish red and blue which *really* didn't work. I can't help thinking that maybe releasing both of these in their Energon colours then and carrying them over might have been a good idea.

Energon Demolishor was previously sold with an unnamed version of Blackout as Superlink Ironhide numbered SD-02. KB Toys had US versions as an exclusive which were then briefly carried by the Entertainer in the UK.


Cybertron Demolishor

Demolishor returned in Cybertron alongside the Supercon Optimus Prime. Unlike the four Armada toys that had previously appeared in Galaxy Force these two went unmodified in all respects bar one. Neither came with their Minicon. Instead they had a modified Cybertron Planet key which included a Minicon socket on it's back to fit over a Minicon post to activate any gimmick. Demolishor's porbably a bad choice to be modified like this as his modes work so well with his Minicon.

Armada's red becomes a pale olive green. Beige is a dark green, grey is very dark grey and dark grey is a brown.

I think they're looking for a sort of jungle colour scheme but he looks hideous !


Alternate repaints

Apart from the Sixshot inspired colour scheme there's another that presents itself for use on Demolishor: an all black one, similar to that used on the Night Attack Demolishor Built to Rule toy that would pair up with the Night Attack minicons.


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