I know why Menasor was done that way. But now that he's out as the Legacy-era combiner template, the question is how future combiners will be implemented.
Superion generally wasn't quite so much a robot with planes hanging off his limbs, but next year's Superion appears to be a similar set of a Commander torso with Deluxe limbs. We've seen that deluxe limbs don't have the budget for high-quality combiner joints, and Legacy-era deluxes also generally don't have the mass to pull off a full limb for a CW/Legacy-sized combiner. So I think it's pretty reasonable to speculate that Superion is going to be a similar sort of implementation to Menasor. Silverbolt normally transforms from a jet with a big box slung under it to a robot with a folded-up jet hanging on his back. I'm guessing this new Silverbolt will have that box completely disconnect and be Silverbolt, while the main jet body transforms into a Superion frame.
Now, speculating about Devastator is definitely taking it to another level with even less evidence to go by. But we're seeing a pretty similar breakdown so far. His being comparable in size to Menasor implies similarly-sized limb bots, which fits with Scavenger and Bonecrusher being Deluxes. As I'd already mentioned, I don't think a frame with feet would work with Devastator, so it makes sense that Scrapper and Mixmaster would need to be bumped up to Voyagers to include enough mass for the full lower legs and good ankle joints at least. Possibly the knees as well, but I'm guessing the joints will be on the Long Haul side of things.
It's the fact that Hook and Long Haul will be a Commander class item that has me thinking Devastator will align with Menasor and my predictions for Superion. If they're still trying to keep to any sort of common scaling, I'd expect Hook and Long Haul to be close in size to the rest of the team, meaning either big Deluxe or small Voyager. So the question is, can they pack a robot mode, vehicle mode, torso mode connections, and arm/leg connections into two bots of such size within that price point? Or will they just fold up and plug into a frame that handles all the combiner jointing? I'd point out that aside from seeing bits of Hook sticking up, cartoon Devastator's torso is pretty generic and really doesn't show anything identifiable to either bot.
Like I said, I'm curious to see how they handle it. Either is a possibility. But based on what information we have, if I had to make a bet, I'd bet on some sort of frame implementation, even though it makes much less sense for Devastator than either Menasor or Superion. I hope I'm wrong.
