Hightower (Classics)

Hightower is a Constructicon from the Classics portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Continuing the trend of alternate Constructicon cranes to Hook.

Hightower loves making poisons and explosives. He's practically a mobile chemistry lab, ready to whip up any number of nasty concoctions at a moment's notice. Blowing stuff up or melting it down, he's all in.

Inversely, he loathes his Constructicon teammates. Like, a lot. It's an open question as to if he'll end up using some of his creations on them out of sheer spite.^[1]

Fiction

Classics

The Constructicons were among the troops that Megatron covertly rebuilt on Earth after Bludgeon's defeat and exile. Both Hook and Mixmaster were curiously absent from team, with the enigmatic Hightower in their place. When the interdimensional interloper Landquake came to be their captive, the Decepticons discovered that their prisoner was emitting an energy wavelength similar to a power source detected in South America. Megatron led a team to investigate, Hightower among them. Crossing Over, Part 2 Upon their arrival, Megatron had the Constructicons form Devastator to stave off the inevitable Autobot interference. Crossing Over: Part 3 The combiner was broken apart by Grimlock, and despite their attempts to dogpile their opponent, Hightower and the others were unable to match the Dinobot's superior strength. Crossing Over: Part 5 They finally managed to trip him up, and Hightower gloated that the Constructicons would build "a new Hook" out of the spare parts they would get out of Grimlock. Grimlock managed to turn the tables on his opponents again, and ripped off Hightower's crane-arm before joining Optimus in beating back Megatron. Crossing Over: Part 6

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Hightower was a stand-in member of the Constructicons. Decepticon Directive According to unconfirmed reports, Hightower was once part of an alternate configuration for Devastator. The Enigma of Combination

Toys

Classics

Who am I, again?

• Constructicon Devastator (Multi-pack, 2007)

• Accessories: Energon claw, Decepticon-style energon chip

Classics Hightower is a black and purple redeco of Energon Duststorm and Wideload, transforming into a heavy-lifting mobile crane of made-up model. His crane boom can extend to almost twice its length, plus features a 5 mm post-hole at the hook to mount his "energon" clamp-weapon. He also includes a "super energon" Decepticon-style energon star that can be affixed to the spark crystals of most Super Link / Energon molds.

He can also form a leg or arm to any Energon-style "Powerlinx Combiner" super robot, though his nominal placement is as the right leg of Constructicon Devastator. Incidentally, if used as an arm, if you rotate the chest plate upwards and reposition his arms, his waist and hips are free to move, giving the combiner arm a functional elbow.

He was only available as part of the Walmart exclusive "Constructicon Devastator" multi-pack, along with his teammates Long Haul (who shares the same mold), Bonecrusher, Scavenger, and Scrapper.

• More information on Hightower at TFU.info

Notes

• Hightower is... weird, as you can probably tell. He appears to have been a result of Classics Devastator's status as a redeco of Constructicon Maximus, who was a five-part combiner rather than the traditional six, forcing one of the Constructicons to be omitted, in combination with Hasbro not being able or willing to trademark "Hook" at the time. Consequently, Hightower's (albeit brief) segment of Devastator's packaging bio contains references to both Mixmaster and Hook, the two characters left out of Devastator—from Mixmaster, the bio directly quotes the comment about him being "a chemistry lab on wheels," and from Hook, Hightower takes the crane alt-mode and poor relationship with his teammates. "Crossing Over" has a line by him suggesting that Hook is dead or otherwise indisposed in the Classics branch of Marvel continuity, but given his brief appearance, whether Hightower is a rebuilt version of Hook, Mixmaster under a new name, some kind of merged version of both, or simply a new guy acting as their replacement isn't really explained further.

References