Toyworld Grind Rod Pictorial Review

Has been a while....have not been doing pictorial reviews for some time but this guy showed up unexpectedly today as I was at the store. So I am glad to bring him home.

Some in and out of package images:





Item comes with instruction and a very nice card (credit card material and size). By the way, instruction did not safe veal anything about the combination mode or anything of the like.



The different views in alt mode:









Other views of the alt mode in different angles:





Different views in robot mode:







And a close up view of the weapon:



Some dynamic poses:









And finally, the rumored combined mode:





Conclusion:

The plastic used on this piece has a swirly kind of pattern like the previous release, Hegemon. The transformation is simple but not overly simple, in my opinion fitting for a deluxe class figure. Joints are tight, some parts are too tight for my liking but I guess they should loosen up over time.

However I do have some issues initially with the wheel weapon and the his right fist. One side of the laser cannon couldn't be flipped out so I have to sand some bit down before I could flip it out alright, otherwise I could have damaged it. Also the weapon could not fit into his right fist initially, so similarly I have to sand down a little on the inner side of the fist. I didn't want to sand the holder on the weapon to fit the fist cos I found that the holder fitted the rear of the vehicle nicely. So other than these two issues, the figure is actually fine, maybe it could have been just my piece having these two problems and thankfully they can be easily corrected.

The vehicle mode is nice, rolls well. I would have preferred the side mirrors to be a little bigger but that is a minor complaint. In robot mode, the head has very good light piping but unfortunately the light is hindered by the back piece behind the head. Toyworld actually made the effort to add some silver details on the arms and the legs of the figure, which is great, I think. I would very much like to paste an autobot symbol on his chest but there is this grill like pattern on it, wish Toyworld would actually allocate a flat spot for us to paste symbol, well, have to see what Reprolabels will come up with later on. Rumored combined mode.....I am not a fan of it in the context of the throttlebots but if it doesn't sacrifice the beauty on individual figures, I wouldn't mind this extra feature.

I do like this figure and I do recommend it. I look forward to the rest of the throttlebot pieces and complete this throttlebot collection.

UPDATE:

Thanks to a reminder from brother Soundwave that the panel on the forearm can be brought forward closer to the fist in bot mode:

looks quite nice, hows the plastic quality, qc and joints? Anything particularly fragile?

I didn't feel that plastic is bad or cheap, it feels solid and sturdy. There are some tabs which you got to be careful in the process of transformation, if you are rough with it, they could be subjected to breakage....hmmm perhaps something like the FOC swindle.

This turned out really well. I like it, but I just can't justify spending roughly $70 on it.

Why Rollbar? They could make more money with a more popular character such as Gears. They would have been ahead of iGear by a year with their own release.

What I don't understand is why a company that did such a fantastic job creating a classic styled Megatron with Hegemon, wouldn't have gone ahead and made the obvious choice for a successor figure with Galvatron. Instead they choose to use their resources to make characters like Rollbar, or Gears.

They are good characters, but surely Galvatron is the most wanted, and would have been a far better seller. This release doesn't seem to make good business sense. They are a new company, producing the most well known characters as early as possible would establish them firmly with high sells.

I know Optimus is on their release plans, and to me that's a maybe, this release is priced too high in my opinion, but if Toyworld released a Galvatron similar to their Hegemon release, I would have bought thier Galvatron in an instant, probably two of them.

I got this today as well. One note Pingth, the arm plates can shift down a little more to help in the elbow articulation.

Personally this is one of the few third party figures that impressed me so much. Transformation looks complex but is instead very simple. Looks and feels very solid and plastic quality is comparable to old Hasbro abs.

Light piping is huge when you tilt the head. Also nice that the left hand is opened while right hand has a closed fist. Especially love this touch.

Here's some pics of mine to share.


Throttlebot Rollbar by Clement Soh, on Flickr

Throttlebot Rollbar by Clement Soh, on Flickr

Throttlebot Rollbar by Clement Soh, on Flickr

Throttlebot Rollbar by Clement Soh, on Flickr

Throttlebot Rollbar by Clement Soh, on Flickr

Throttlebot Rollbar by Clement Soh, on Flickr

Throttlebot Rollbar by Clement Soh, on Flickr

Throttlebot Rollbar by Clement Soh, on Flickr

Yeah, I must have missed that bit, will check it out more when I get home later. You have posted beautiful pics. The lighting from the top really brings out the nice light piping on the figure.

Video review showing the transformation here:



- Gregg

Where in SG you guys bought it from? Any pointers?