Hercules: Dr Crank

TFC released the 4th figure in their Hercules line back in December. At the time they were running at full steam after a very successful release of Structor.

Dr Crank is a mobile crane paying homage to the character Hook. In vehicle mode Dr Crank features a crane arm that will extend nearly 3 times the original length. He also curiously features a space for placing a counter-weight and a series of pulleys including a crank handle which locks down the pulley system... if only there were length of string tying it all together. That's right - this toy could have an actual working crane if you take the time to customize it. All the parts are provided to make it happen except for string.

Other than the crane arm, the vehicle mode is quite a brick with not much to get wrong. If there is only one weakness to point out is that he doesn't roll very well due to his small wheels and the tendency for the rear wheels to wobble a bit (these wheels are meant to swivel aside on his shoulders in robot mode.) His crane does have an additional swivel to allow it to offset itself for a variety of purposes (like getting out of the way of Hercules' head in combined mode).

In robot mode, The first thing you see is that he's got a large crane arm sticking out of his back. This does help him stand up however the large block behind his head obscures the light-piping effect. His eyes will only "glow" if you turn his head slightly.

The robot is well articulated with all the usual joints freely moving. The hip is ratcheting and it seems TFC learned their lesson and gave this a very forgiving ratchet. The legs have real "knees" this time along with hidden lower joints like Structor. The knees themselves are clever folding "doors" leaving a near-seamless look for the vehicle mode's from windows.

Optionally if you remove the his crane arm, then you have additional ports to "shoulder" his guns (this is how he came packaged originally). To help him stand, Dr Crane also has additional stabilizers in his legs. These flaps are way too tight on this sample and a hook tool is needed to pull them out.

Changing into Hercules's upper torso and head also requires a tool. There is very little leverage available to pull out the connector pegs from their folded positions. Dr Crank has another yet-unresolved mystery - he boasts 7 connectors ever though only 4 are required. Some fans have used the extra pegs in vehicle mode as "outrigger" bits while the crane is extended, but TFC have not explicitly issued a statement about this.

Hercules's has a silver painted face with lots of light-piping for his eyes an several ports. TFC also released an optional "visor" which was packaged with their following figure. The visor is removable, but can remain installed while Dr Crank changes between modes.

Lastly, as mentioned elsewhere, Dr Crank's Hercules connectors appear to be made of an extremely solid ABS plastic. It is very unforgiving and is not at all like the connectors on Heavy Labor (on my Heavy Labor, those leg connector pegs are showing signs of wear). This means: never swamp arms and legs on Hercules! Once you've pegged the arms into place, those sockets have been conditioned for the Dr Crank pegs and will not fit Heavy Labor's. Likewise, the legs sockets are smaller because they've been conditioned to fit the slight wear with Heavy Labor and would be too tight to fit on Dr Crank. You have been warned!