Never written a review before, so please be kind (or tear me to shreds, whatever floats your boat).

Robot Mode:



This is what sold me on this toy. Beefy robot mode with some of the nicest paint I’ve seen on a mainline toy. Makes him looks ancient and battle worn (or he just stood out in the rain for a couple millions year).

Joints are solid, with nice clicky ratchets in the shoulders and hips, and serviceable ankle tilts.



Back cleans up like a champ.

Overall, a seriously impressive bot mode. It’s a shame the other dinobots are unlikely to get this amount of love.

Transformation:

First up, the instructions are useless. May as well have been a picture of giant middle finger. It’s not too hard to figure it out though. Some bits felt frustrating, but it could be because I was going in blind. Some clever moments in there that remind you that Hasbro want to deliver something completely different than past offerings.

Dino Mode:



Kind of in two mind about this mode. A lot of the time it looks good. That awesome paint gives the sculpt so much life.



However, there is some poor intergration of robot parts here. The fake dinosaur head folds in half and kind of just hangs out near the tail. One of the robot arms is clearly tucked up (giving him a constant uppercut) to make the front half of the torso.

Overall, it’s cool but maybe don’t look at it too closely.

Size comparisons:

I don’t have many movie bots, so here he is with Starscream and a generations legend and deluxe. He’s pretty much bigger than some things, but probably smaller than other things.



If you like the movie Grimlock then this is definitely worth the purchase. The positives of the robot mode easily out shine the negatives of the dinosaur mode.

I had sworn of buying movie toys, but the Studio Series has absolutely pulled me back in. Not everything has appealed to me, but Grimlock was an easy purchase and I have no regrets adding him to my slowly expanding movieverse collection.

Thanks for reading

Update: showing off a bit of articulation

 

The best interpretation of grimlock from the movies so far . Great review .
Would add in some points for contention, very soft rubbery material used in bot mode’s horn*, and tail coat, alt mode’s teeth and horns .. doesn’t leave me to believe it will withstand humidity and time well .
Ratchets are strong and arms can do a full 360 however due to design it’s a little impended in some areas such as the maceless arm , has little give way due to the jaw being located there .
Mace-arm is Fixed and intergrated , but nothing to take away from the overall figure , just to note he has only one hand .
Legs can do the van damme, but slightly miss the 90 degree mark front and back due to design of thigh. Head and feets are on a ball joint but restricted

 

Looks damn cool

 

LOOOOOOL!

 

pretty cool, makes me think of an updated dinozaurs

 

Can you please post a pic of voyager last knight prime riding him?

 

This guy looks fucking awesome. My wallet right now:

 

Dayum. It looks downright fantastic.

Great review.

 

Wow I’m jealous you have one already! As soon as he was revealed despite being a character that I didn’t really need more of, he jumped right to the top of my want list for both modes looking great and having an amazing paint job.

I’d appreciate more pics that show off the possibility if you don’t mind! Can he do any decent action poses from the movies?

So ready for this figure. I need a good robot dinosaur to go with Scorn. Speaking of which I wouldn’t mind if they pulled a Starscream and just scaled up and improved on the TLK Voyager with the same paint job as this guy.

 

I’ll post some more pics tonight.

I’d love to see Swoop/Strafe given this treatment. Always thought he had a great design.

 

Lol. That's pretty much what I have thought in regards to Transformers instrcutions lately.

 

Voyager Scorn would look rad with this. I see lots of people have trouble collapsing his left forearm. Is this just a case of bad instructions or is it difficult? Looks like the jaw should sit flush against the arm.

Another Q for anyone who has it - how many pieces of plastic make up the front of its torso? Looks like just one?

Really tempted to buy this after work today.

 

Thanks for the review. You did a good job bro. 

 

Forearm is kind of a pain to get right. Pretty sure it’s not how it should be in my pictures.

Two mains parts to the front of the torso. The static lower section, and the upper section that opens up and rolls inside the chest during transformers.

 

I wonder if any 3P company will make a replacement hand for the mace hand that includes his staff. Would that be possible or is it too integrated into the dino mode?

 

Is it normal to have romantic feelings for a toy?

 

bot mode looks pretty cool. Dino mode reminds me of the old movie voyager. yuk

 

AWESOME job on the review!