I've only built the option with the green excavator as the back and arms so far..... "
Having done cars, a fire engine and trains Takara turned it's attention to construction vehicles next Four construction vehicles were selected to serve as Cybertrons. Build Boy as the name suggests is the smallest of the tem and also the leader of the team.
To my mind there are two forms of combining robots toy: Combining Robots - where two or more robot toys can be combined together but only in one way and each robot has only one place it can go. God Ginrai, Victory Sabre & God Fire Convoy are good examples of this first category. A Combining Systems on the other hand allow for substitution of component robots and different combinations - examples would be the Scramble City Combiners, The Micromaster Combiners or the Energon combiners.
Build King possesses a unique Combining System where Build Boy takes his place and the chest and head of the combined robot but any of the others can serve as the arms while the remaining two pieces serve as the head. When combined you can shift from one combination to another by transforming the limbs while attached and moving them relative to Build Boy which I believe is the origin of the names for the three toys that form the limbs - Hurricane, Typhoon & Cyclone are three storms which are basically circular in nature.
To prepare for combination:
Build boy is the centre piece for all possible combinations of Build King and has just one combined mode: Fold up & forward the top of the cab, fold out the larger robot head and close the cab. Separate the shovel, unpeg the caterpillar tracks and fold to the sides. Rotate the tracks so the orange sides face up and then pull the shoulders forward till the end of the track sits between the two slots of plastic sticking out the sides of the vehicle. Fold the shovel support so it's under the front of the bulldozer facing out. Fold down the peg in the back.
I've found this insufficient in the past for holding the tracks & shovel halves out to the sides so what I tend to do is turn the tracks so the shovel halves point up and let the ball joint's socket on Build Boy's arms do the work of supporting the tracks.
Instead of the lasts step here you may want to try folding out the sides of the robot feet from the ends of the tracks.
Arm Mode: Remove the excavator arm. Remember I said I was dreading TFing Build Hurricane to robot mode ? More of the same here. So much so that I'm off to Cobraislandtoys to look at the instructions. Turn the cab so the tip of the T bar is showing in front of the cab window. Pull out the front two thirds of the tracks and the very front of the tracks. Open the doors at the back of the cab and fold out the robot head locking everything above the turntable in place. Pull the tracks out to the side so that the connecting panels at the back of the tracks are fully extended. Pull the tracks down out in front of the T bar and fold the cab sides as far out as possible. Fold both cab side up so they're pointing upwards and rotate so the sloped sides are the same side as the robot head. Swing the connecting panels and the legs round so the screw on the connecting panel points up. Turn just the tracks round so they point out the T bar side again. Open the all three bits of robot feet out. Fold the tracks down at the robot's hips. Turn the bottom two thirds of the tracks so the green painted side faces out with the T bar. FINALLY bend down the end of the T bar.
Far, far too complicated ! More comments to follow when combined.
Arm Mode: Remove the tipper box. Rotate the tipper box support out over the front of the truck and have the cab so the small window faces back. Fold both the feet and heel spurs out. Extend the back of the vehicle but this time you want to fold extra "leg" out from inside the robot's hips. Fold the sides of the front out and then rotate so the front of the vehicle is facing upwards. Pull the robot legs out to the sides. Bend the robot legs forward at the ball joint, bend down at the ball joint and bend up at the robot's knee. Fold down the feet and heel spurs in front of the robot legs/what we will now have to call the combined robot forearms. Bend down the end of the T-Bar.
Arm Mode: Remove the crane arm and cab separately. Fold both the feet and heel spurs out. Extend the back of the vehicle but this time you want to fold extra "leg" out from inside the robot's hips. Fold the sides of the front out and then rotate so the front of the vehicle is facing upwards. Pull the robot legs out to the sides. Bend the robot legs forward at the ball joint, bend down at the ball joint and bend up at the robot's knee. Fold down the feet and heel spurs in front of the robot legs/what we will now have to call the combined robot forearms. Bend down the end of the T-Bar. Reattach the Crane cab.
Once you have your team in the necessary form with two vehicles forming legs and one forming the arms they need to be put together. Take your leg pieces and put them vehicle underside to vehicle underside. Make sure the sides of the top of both T bars facing you is not the screw side. Slot the T bars together. Take your arm component, repeat with the T bar and slot into the spare space at the top of the combined T bars. The combined form now has a circular hole in the middle with three spoke holes sticking out. Slot Build Boy's peg into the hole, turn so he's upright and peg the top of the arms into his back - single peg for Build Hurricane, two for Typhoon & Cyclone.
Extend the excavator arm claw and place in one hand - peg holes can be found on the feet of the robot used to form the arm. Extend the crane arm gun and place in another. Peg the tipper box under the arm.
Con: The folded out connecting panels for Hurricane's legs aren't attached - every movement of the arm causes them to move from their position linking the arms with the shoulders. He should have ball jointed shoulders & elbows in this mode but as I've said the stability of the arms is very poor.
Con: Build Hurricane is a leg, much thinner than it's counterpart and annoyingly slightly shorter creating either a lopsided Build King or one who's other leg is stuck out to the side a bit to loose the height on the connector. We covered the other leg's articulation above and Hurricane's is the same except the joint connecting leg to body is a ball joint and not a bending one.
The problem here in all three modes is Build Hurricane. You either get very dodgy arms or a dodgy leg. I've long been tempted to buy a second of either Build Typhoon or Build Cyclone and substitute it into the mix. Hurricane is an OK deluxe, it just on it's combine form it falls down. I wonder if it might have been better if the third component was built on the same base style as Typhoon & Cyclone ?
Other than that it's a decent combiner, decent colour balance between the component parts and an interesting system of combining them. It's in theory possible to put Build King together and to rotate the limbs through all three modes without taking the toy apart ! All you need to do is turn Build Boy 120 degrees and TF the arms to a leg and a leg to the arms. In practice however ....
Build King was available as a giftset numbered C-022 or by combining C-018 Build Boy, C-019 Build Hurricane, C-020 Build Typhoon & C-021 Build Cyclone
Landfill is almost identical to Build King with the exception of the Autobot symbols added to each of the components.
The initial release of the Build Team & Mega Octane in the UK was an exclusive to Woolworths, but further (imported ?) stock later materialised in Toys R Us.
This set unites the build team for the first time in unified colours - in this case yellow, but a yellow slightly off the colour I'd associate for construction vehicles. The yellow I'd use would match the yellow of yellow Lego bricks. Even saying that this is a really good looking set and the look is improved by having the same colour all over.
This version of Landfill is only available as a giftset.
Devastator can only be formed by buying both of these Ultra packs. Again the unified green and purple colour scheme benefits the toy.