Got my first Transformer movie action figure. Let me explain...

Found it on eBay. "Leader-class" (meaning it's 10+ inches) "Brawl" (or as the 2007 movie deliberately misnamed him, "Devastator"). MSRP of $39.99, and I got it for $12 + $8 shipping. Those who know me know that I am mad at Michael Bay for taking a beloved franchise and bastardizing the movie by making it a cliché alien-invasion story with annoying slapstick humor that almost gives it no re-watch value. And yet, ILM's effects blew my mind, even if the character designs were hard to see with those now-cliché "shaky-cam" action scenes that make it nearly impossible to see what's going on without freezing every frame. This explains why whenever I pop in the DVD, I skip the human scenes and just watch the transformation sequences. I am already sick of the jokes (not sick of Megan Fox though), but I can never get sick of when Optimus first appears (even with those unnecessary flames). This movie is also a huge Chevy commercial. Looks like we will never see live-action Transformers who are foreign vehicles like Volkswagens, Porsches, or Lamborghinis. Yeah, robot-aliens invade Earth and all they can find on this planet are GM cars. Come on! This, in a nutshell, is my love/hate relationship with Michael Bay's stupid but awesome movie. I am not a hardcore G1 purist, nor am I a hater of this movie, nor am I asking for a Shakespearean drama. I just want our Transformers to be played with someone who won't break my Jazz toy in half, and who doesn't think that Megatron should look like Guyver. But I digress...

So back to my new "Brawl" movie toy. I love it. And I didn't think I would. This guy's got guns everywhere! I counted 9 guns, 4 missile launchers, and 2 blades! And they make different shooting noises when you move them every which way. It's like I'm a kid again. It's a shame the movie's camera moves were so quick and distracting that one couldn't see the functionality of this design. The movie design was so detailed anyway that a lot of detail got compromised when it translated to toy form. Ever since I got this I can't stop transforming it. Some of the automated transformations are a nice touch, like if you move one thing a bunch of other things move, or when you push a switch his head pops up and makes a shooting sound.

So why did I finally decide to get a figure from the 2007 movie that I so love/hate? Well it came from a random chain of thoughts I had when I looked at this little mini diorama from Japan that my buddy CM donated to me. It's one of Constructicon Devastator ripping a wall in front of Arcee and Hot Rod.

I thought to myself "Hey, I have a knock-off Devastator that I bought a few years ago for $5. Maybe I should put him on display." So that I did, complete with repainting the head to make it look more like the cartoon.

Then I thought, "Devastator is such a cool combiner. I wonder how he'll be portrayed in the movie sequel. But movie continuity misnamed the tank 'Devastator', so how are they gonna explain that?" Then I thought of the other combiners, like the Combaticons who formed Bruticus, and that when we were kids my younger brother had the tank, named "Brawl". That's when I decided that the movie tank is a nice enough update to the character (I hate that he's called "Devastator"). And even though my prized Transformer is MP-04 Optimus Prime, I am considering getting the Leader-class version of movie sequel Prime because it looks pretty accurate. Maybe I'll paint over the flames.

Anyways, let's take a peek at a Constructicon in the Transformers sequel, who already looks ginormous (to the left is a little Optimus Prime trying to battle him). If this is just one Constructicon, how much bigger will "Devastator" be?