Transformers MPG-18 Road Hauler
Similar to the previous Fuso T951 truck releases, this set comes with an “animated-style” alternate front grill.
Deployable outriggers on the sides.
Road Hauler’s Vibro-force gun can be mounted on the inside of his truck mode.
Same with grapple, the end of the crane can be removed and alternate pieces attached.
Crane grapple attachment.
Crane bucket attachment.
Lol… same as before, I had trouble transforming this guy back to truck mode due to the legs. This is what they’re supposed to look like.
When transforming him into robot mode, you can opt to take out the end of the crane, this helps immensely when trying to push it into the cab for the last part of the transformation.
Robot mode
A former Constructicon who worked alongside Scrapper and the others back on Cybertron. Road Hauler was the only one who escaped Megatron’s Robosmasher reprogramming of his friends. He would later join the Autobots aboard the ark and travel to Earth. Due to his primary function as the ‘bot who searches for energy resources across the planet, Hauler was often off-site and rarely seen, if at all, in the original series (at least that’s the official canon explanation from Takara Tomy and Hasbro).
The figure is a redeco of MP-35 Grapple, released almost 10 years ago.
Road Hauler comes with his iconic Vibro-force gun.
His Earth-auger missiles are stowed away in his forearms, similar to his Fuso T951 mold-mates. Both are present in both arms.
The set includes alternate faces for Road Hauler. Plus an alternate toy-version helmet to boot.
I’m not sure, but I think the faceplates are specific to the toy vs toon helmet.
I’ll stick to the “toon version” look though.
Overall, pretty good. It’s somewhat amazing to believe that this mold came out 10 years ago (2017) and it still stands up to today’s engineering standards. It’s been a long time waiting for Takara Tomy to finally release this guy. I expected them to release this redeco sooner as they usually base releases on E-Hobby stuff from the early 2000s and this seemed like an obvious release. Well, I’m glad they finally did get around to rolling him out.
Now I wonder what else Takara Tomy will do next for existing Masterpiece molds.
Gold
