No, it's a 5 mm port.

 

Finally got Dinobot today, and it is such a huge relief to find he is a brilliant mass-market version of the character. After the disappointment that was Kingdom Cheetor, I was really concerned that Dinobot would also prove to be a toy that looked good in pictures but was deeply flawed in hand. Absolutely not the case.

Now, to finally take that *Generations*...thing...and set it on fire as I have wanted to do for years...

 

I have no idea who if anyone is doing upgrade kits for Dinobot but knowing we're getting Golden Disks with the Ark, we need a laser eye effect part now.

 

Who's got four hands but can't handle the pressure of being a Dinobot update? Kingdom Dinobot. And they're four terrible hands, too.

Just when I think I'm starting to like him, I see something else that disappoints me.

The positives:

• Nice head sculpt
• Nice bulk in the chest and legs
• ...

The negatives:

• The choice of sword colour (Did they not get the memo after making the MP sword with a pink tinge that it should be silver (or at the very least grey?))
• The brown... thing (And i say thing because it's not a spinning rotor-blade or even a shield. It's a... thing)
• The beast-mode hands (Ummm...)
  
• The robot-mode hands (It's like they almost thought about giving the large toe/finger it's own articulation at one point, then chickened out)
• The robot-mode shoulders are too small
• The arms are too skinny
• The lack of paint on the legs
• The fact that they went to the effort of adding detail to the inside of his robot leg calves, despite the fact that it's not seen in either mode, even with the gaping hole even when they're closed
• The pieces to create the fake chest don't align with the beast head, resulting in a weird, wonky chest
• The fact they moulded the spine piece, then covered it up with the tail kibble, so you can't actually see it
• The two-tone knees

*sigh*

There's so much potential here, but it's like they ran out of time, money and interest and just put out what they had at the time.

Some of these issues I have with it, I get why they did it. The two-tone knees for example. They wanted it to blend in with the beast-mode, so they're painted grey. But of all the things you should be painting on the legs, the knees isn't it.

The fake chest. Cool idea. Bad execution. This thing is designed on a computer, right? So they should be able to come up with a smoother fit to enclose the beast head.

The beast-mode thighs that split. Leave the bulk of the front piece on the leg. It would then help bulk up the upper robot arm.

I own the MP. I know how impossible this guy is to do. But man, it's like they just stopped caring.

And frankly, the purple sword is inexcusable.

But the thing is, I almost like him. I certainly don't hate him like I hate Kingdom Cheetor and Rattrap, but my god, he could have been so much better.

 

Theres a 3mm port above it that, as far as I can tell, serves no purpose other than being meant for a flight stand

 

Is the purple sword a thing people are mad about because it looks bad or because it looks different?

I kind of like it, it contrasts with the rest of the color scheme and I like the way it looks on its own as a purple chrome-y space raptor's sword. It's goofy in the way that Beast Wars always kind of was.

 

For me, it's that it looks bad. In beast mode, it's a weird inexplicably purple tip on an otherwise completely brown tail. I don't get why they didn't just make the tail cover it entirely. In robot mode, the shape of the sword is so rounded and blunt that it doesn't look like a sword anymore. I get that it's a toy for children, but they've definitely made 'sharper' pieces that look like they could be weapons (e.g. Kingdom Optimus Primal). The color, while not as distracting as in beast mode, makes the effect worse because now it's not only not sword shaped, but not even sword colored. Either making it sharper or neutral metallic colored would have done a lot to help.

Based on the package art and promotional pictures, my theory is that they intended it to be both a sword and a kind of blast effect when plugged into the tail-shield, so the shape and color is a compromise to let it serve both functions.

 

It's brown plastic 3 minutes with a sharp knife or an exacto knife and you can shave the tip down into a sharper point and it is also Brown to match the rest of the tail

 

Is there a trick or way to fix the beast mode thighs so they stay together?

 

This guy remind anyone else of this toy? I had one as a kid and I think it's the tail texture really.

 

That one isn't mine but mine also broke in that same spot.

 

I ended up getting mine early yesterday.

Pros
-I think the proportions of the Robot mode are on point perfect for shoving my memories of Dinobot into a 30 dollar price point in 2021.
-Articulation in robot mode is exactly what it should be.
-Most of the QC on mine was rock solid.
-The color breakup on the robot mode is great, especially the head.


Cons
-The weapons feel too small? I dont mind that the sword is purple but its way duller in hand than I was expecting it to be.
-His thigh swivels are so tight they feel like they're going to snap at any moment.
-I know we're talking about 20 more dollars, but it's a shame they couldn't figure out how to make the thigh framing move like the Leader Megatrons thighs.

I feel similarly about Kingdom Dinobot as I did about the MP. It nails the Robot mode, mostly nails a Beast Mode, the transformation is complicated and surprising but fun. However I'm afraid to touch it because parts of it feel like he's going to explode.

I feel like I've largely dodged a lot of QC woes in the past few years, I hope the thighs don't snap here. Maybe Ill look into shock oil.

 

I used a lot of shock oil on mine (compared to the absolutely tiny amount I normally use).

Since I was unable to open the thigh, I used a safety pin to drip/poke the oil into the gap between the inner thigh and the hip joint. Then I moved it around a bit, then let it sit overnight in robot mode so that gravity could pull the oil further down into the leg.

The next day it had improved a bit, but was still very stiff. So I gave it another application of oil and let it sit overnight again.

It's pretty good now. Still quite stiff, but I don't feel like I'm going to destroy the hip joint by rotating the thigh.


Every toy collector should have a bottle of silicone shock oil. I have lost count of how many joints/figures I have used this stuff on. Having a joint break because it was too tight sucks, and shock oil can go a long way to prevent such breakages.
It can also be good for preventing ratchet joints from grinding themselves away, as I found out recently with Purple Potato (awesome figure).

 

What kind of Shock Oil do y'all reccomend?

 

I don’t have any issues with the thigh swivels on my copy, they’re toleranced pretty well. The knees are ungodly tight, though.

Between that and the slight waist wobble that seems to be a widespread issue, mine is basically perfect as far as QC goes.

 

I just bought a 60ml bottle of "TrackStar Shock Oil 3000" from eBay. I'm not familiar with other types, but this stuff works well and the bottle will likely last me a lifetime. It's fairly thick, which allows me to load a safety pin with a drop of oil and then transfer it to where I need it pretty easily.

I bought the bottle several years ago (it's still about 95% full) and looking on eBay now I don't see the one I got. However I would recommend getting a bottle with a pointed nozzle since it makes it pretty easy to load up a pin with some oil.

Here is the one I got.

 

Got mine yesterday from Amazon. Great figure, especially for the price point.

Question, is is waist supposed to....wobble? It's not loose, but if I hold him by this shoulders, his lower half slightly wobbles.

Other than that, no complaints.

Need Airazor and Tigatron. We'll see about Kingdom Rhinox.....

 

A tiny bit off-topic, but you can close up the smaller flaps on Cheetor to fill out his torso a bit.

 

Not on mine. In fact the waist on mine is quite stiff. In fact a few of the joints on Dinobot feel too tough, almost worrisome. And of course the stupid thing is all pins instead of screws so I can't open his thighs like I could Primal to loosen them.

Actually, I believe that's on purpose. I think it was the Netflix Cheetor thread where people realized you can help minimize the awkward torso proportions on Cheetor if you leave those side panels open. Gives him a bit more of a tapering midsection and less of a weirdly vacant upper body.

 

That would explain why I see that so much. Doesn't look better to me, but I'm not the transformation police.