BEAST!

I think, reminds you of the beast

 

I did and hated it. Spent more time trying to make a backpack from swoop.

 

Any cases on the clear plastic parts breaking for anybody? I remember reading one where a piece near the shoulder broke off a little for someone, but that was all.

 

This figure turned out better than I expected. Love the transformation, intuitive and can be done fast.

Is there a spot so that a Prime Master or Titan Master can sit in Dino mode?

 

yeah they can stand on the part that becomes the combined mode's crotch piece you should see two tabs sticking on the top of it

 

Finally got the last two dinobots to make Volcanicus and damn he looks good.

The proportions are wonky but that never mattered much to me. Still sounds really strange to hear people complain about alien robots not looking enough like humans. The frame on this guy looks very powerful and aggressive. Perfect for the Dinobots, and that head sculpt is wild.

As far as the team goes, it's great to finally have an official complete team of Dinobots. I would argue that they are a little too geewunny, mainly with the goofy dino modes that look like they can barely move. That said they do have some really nice detailing (something many of the other geewunny designs of late have been missing) and look great as a group. The engineering is also pure G1 in that it is very simple and honestly boring but that actually compliments the scramble city design they've been sticking to. I would've happily tossed the Scramble city uniform for more unique engineering and scrapped the retro designs for something more dangerous looking but they are still damn cool.

And while some people hate the idea of a dinobot combiner team, I always thought it was a good idea. They are already sharing the same deco, combing sounds sensible to me. I would've been okay without it so it's purely bonus.

Yeah they should've been bigger, the Dinobots have always been heavy hitters and it's a bit of a shame that their primary rivals (constructicons, predacons) dwarf them in this iteration, they are still pretty awesome. Bruticus vs Volcanicus will be rocking my shelves for awhile.

 

The way I figure it, the dinobots have always been unstable and agressive. An aggregate of their personalities would probably go totally berserk. However, only Slash (being a city-speaker type) can manage to influence his behavior. Rather than cobbling together some fan mode for combination, she's the one calling the shots.

 

You know, even though Computron is Abominus' nominal rival, I find that pitting Volcanicus and Abominus against each other might make for a good dynamic.

 

Is there any place on Grimlock's dino mode to store the Enigma other than on his Prime armor/combiner feet? I suppose in robot mode, you could store it in his dino head's mouth, but still.

 

Under the volcanicus crotch armor, between the robot legs

 

I seem to have some issues with my Grimlock figure as a combiner torso. The pegs on Grimlock's dino mode hips (the "big round parts" of Volcanicus' shoulders) do not peg in securely to the ports on the undersides of Grimlock's dino mode sides (which form the tops of Volcanicus' shoulders), as seen on 12:35 of the included video review below. Looking at a few video reviews, it seems like those pegs are supposed to click in securely into the ports and hold the shoulders together, but on my figure, they don't stay in place and easily pop out of the ports if you so much as look at them funny. This has caused the shoulders to sag from the weight of the Dinobots being used as Volcanicus' arms, unless extra combiner hands/Prime armor is plugged into Volcanicus' sides to buttress the shoulder up.

Also, the red pegs on Volcanicus' waist, which plug into the ports on Grimlock's robot mode chest (on either side of the tampographed Autobot logo on Grimlock's chest), do not peg in securely either, as seen on 11:31 of the included video review. As a result, picking up Volcanicus from the top of his chest or armpits will cause the waist to come apart from the weight of his legs. Grimlock's robot mode chest also doesn't seem to peg together very well either, especially in combined mode and seems to split apart slightly when it is playing the role as part of Volcanicus' waist. Are these issues common to Grimlock while he is in combined mode or is my figure just a dud? In his robot and dino modes, my Grimlock figure seems to be fairly serviceable. Is there any way to fix these issues, or am I better off brining my Grimlock figure back to the store to exchange for a new one? For reference, my figure seems to be a Wave 3 reissue whcih came out alongside Inferno.

Huh, that does work decently well without the Enigma being too obtrusive in dino mode. Thanks.

 

His dino mode is fine as long as you view him from the front.
That dino head is perfecto. Am extremely happy with it as a gewunner.

Would take up too much shelfspace displayed sideways anyways.

 

Not to my knowledge, but I am admittedly concerned about the longevity of the parts in question.

 

this is why mine isn't displayed in combined mode, as much as I love how it looks. I'm worried since the clear plastic is forced to support the combiner arms.

 

Finally completed Volcanicus. While this is an adequate Grimlock, and I don't think we'll be getting another any time soon given Hasbro's frequency, the way the shoulders are supported entirely by clear plastic still terrifies me. Proping them up with the two guns and extra prime armors kinda helps a bit, but you absolutely need Prime Armors attached to his waist AND feet just to get a stable combiner, and Grimlock's arms don't really peg in securely or hold anything in place.
I can only assume the design process for Grimlock was a nightmare and he got rushed through development. It's the only reason I can think of as to why both the dino and torso mode suffer so much just to make an okay-ish robot mode. I can tell the designers were really constrained by the design limitations they had to work with, having to make a Grimlock who was G1 accurate in both robot and dino mode, was the torso of a combiner, and had to use the clear on gold design aestetic while also staying within budget and parts count.
It's figures like Grimlock that make me question if G1 fever has gone too far since so much has to be sacrificed just for the sake of nostalgic pandering. Sure we're getting faithful G1 designs, but at what cost? Either that or it's the fault of design choices caused by Hasbro's weird idea that they wanted to hide the fact that this line had combiners return. If Grimlock had the ports on his shoulder like the Hotspot mold it might have helped with stability. Heck, Grimlock could have benefited a lot from the design cues from Hotspot, such as not using the Menasor legs again, because that was such an excellent idea the first time.
Grimlock screams "I need 3rd party add-ons to be complete" to me. Some additional support pieces could go a long way in not only making him look more finished but also in keeping him from falling apart on you. Now if only a 3rd party company would be willing to make some replacement parts for the clear plastic pieces that will inevitably break.

 

Another thing that terrifies me is this.

 

Oof yeah. Shame not all of the Combiner Wars deluxes don't have thick pegholes like the Breakdown and Rook molds do. It's the main reason why I'm not getting the PE feet for Volcanicus.

 

Yeah, I heard those feet have pegs that are way too thick and would wreck bloody murder on your figures' pegholes.

 

Due to not really having the money to spend thanks to class starting up, I didn't manage to get any big Power of the Prime hauls in until today. I got Grimlock, and I was enjoying him up until I discovered that my copy has a defect. His left chest panel doesn't have the slot that's supposed to allow to peg onto the torso column, which is just fantastic. I don't know whether to try and cut the hole out myself, get a new one, or just leave it. The stability in robot mode isn't affected by it too much, but it's still super annoying that it happened.

 

For those of you with stress marks/cracks around the clear parts of the torso where the shoulders plug in, did you witness this after leaving Grimlock combined as Volcanicus?