Just out of curiousity, has anyone tried messing with his alt mode eyes? Like giving them different pupils, slits instead of the Cookie-Monster look he has going on?

 

I did! He looks so less derpy and much better in my opinion:

 

Looks great! What did you use for the hips?

 

Dinobot, one of the most notable characters in Beast Wars, gets an even more modern update in the War for Cybertron line as a voyager-class, but do challenges await...?

Robot mode pluses:
+ great head likeness
+ fairly good body likeness, nice sculpting and large (for WFC) size
+ WFC-quality articulation plus shrug-up shoulders, wrist articulation
+ easy to pose and fairly stable
+ 5mm peg holes in feet
+ can store his weapons on his back via beast mode tail connection

Robot mode minuses:
- Dinobot got a bit chonky
- huge melon! his head seems 25% too big for his body
- chest cheat has faux eyes but the real beast eyes also peek out
- lots of missing deco elements for the character
- arm proportions are off and seem too long due to big hands
- exclusively uses pins instead of screws which leads to random loose joints and potential problems (my copy has a knee that's not fully pinned together, pops halfway apart when moved)
- back of torso is very inaccurate
- waffled forearms
- back kibble doesn't tab together all that well, one tab of the tail always pops out
- wiggly waist
- thigh rotation is very, very tight
- torso has a lot of lesser angles where little gaps show through

Robot mode has a lot of challenges there, the essence of the character comes through well but is halted at nearly every turn by something. I won't knock it for not being able to close its hands at least.

Transformation thoughts:
+ a lot of cleverness going on to invert the dinosaur into a humanoid figure
- too much reliance on materials flex to get parts around, the bot feet around the bot spine is a huge one, it's unpleasant
+ great to see sculpted mechanical detailing in the leg interiors, this is only seen during transformation
- overreliance on thin-walled parts feels flimsy in a few spots, especially the torso halves that become the beast thigh covers
- due to overreliance on thin-walled parts for beast thighs and some badly-considered tabs, less-than-perfect hinge pin assembly results in the thigh shell not closing
- worryingly-small ball joints holding the beast mode hands on their arms
- tabbing all the robot leg parts into the beast parts is clunky
+ once robot leg parts are properly in place, they're quite solid

Transformation is less frustrating once you understand it and can move things more fluidly, but there's still enough clumsy and annoying stuff to keep it from being fun, which is a shame.

Beast mode pluses:
+ he's got the general look of the character
+ fairly decent size
+ the sculpted wrinkles make up a lot of nice detailing
+ his mouth can open and close

Beast mode minuses:
- he's barely poseable at all here, with only the aforementioned mouth, some ugly downward movement to the neck, arm joints, knee hinges, and ankle rotation hinging
- the robot feet as massive dingleberries just hanging off the backside is rough, not only do they not fit the profile, they ruin the lines entirely and they're hollow from behind; worse, they feel like if they had a rotation joint they could have closed together and fit so much better
- robot mode hips become big gold boobs that not only look woefully out of place but force the beast arms further back so they can't pose nicely
- stupid drooping flat hands look so bad, the arms needed at least 2 more sets of joints to make this work (rotation above the elbow and a more free joint at the wrists)
- beast thighs look pretty bad as they are huge, they have big eyes and bot chest sculpted into the back half, big cylindrical hinges on top, and the aforementioned thigh closing issue
- his brown color should have had more red in it; his gray color should have been more beige

Beast mode is such a disappointment, partly because 3 sections that drop the ball the most - arms, thighs, robot feet - all feel like they misfire due to small engineering choices that could have been adjusted at the design stage. There are other issues like the robot hips as breasts, visible cutaways and pins, purple tail tip, and lack of mobility which seem inherent to the design that you either can or can't forgive.

Overall:
If I hadn't gotten him for $5 off, he'd be going back. There's some stuff that's subjective, absolutely, but there's also plenty that's downright flawed design, some leading to defects (the overly tight robot thighs and the non-closing beast thighs seem like a common problem, while the robot knee on mine is a total defect).

That it can't move as well as the original toy from 25 years ago is not helping, but what damns it is that the stuff that works makes it pretty good, but not good enough to escape the reach of the stuff that doesn't. If you just want him for the robot mode, there's an argument to be made there, but as a Transformer it's really hard to get past the many flaws big and small -- especially when this character spent so much time in beast mode on the show.

 

Well, I learned THIS is possible. Takes a little doing, but there's enough balance and grip strength to dangle the rat at arm's length with no external support.

 

Finally got this guy. I like him!

Pros:
- Awesome, well articulated robot mode. Everything compacts really nicely.
- The transformation from dinosaur to robot is awesome, a lot of fun.
- The headsculpt is fantastic, augmented by sharp blue paint on the face.
- Dino hands are not nearly as bad as they seemed in pics, especially if you pose them right.

Cons:
- Could use more gold paint in robot mode.
- The area behind the hips but in front of the tail seems half baked. There is definitely a way the feet could have compacted better to make for a cleaner rear.
- The transformation from robot back to dinosaur is a bit of a pain.

Overall, really solid, another strong BW entry in the Kingdom line.

 

Silly question, but since he is a voyager class I feel it bears asking, but has anyone heard of potential 3p replacements for his dino hands?

They are workable, and I realize why HasTak didn't do this, but the hands definitely could have used individual fingers, even if they all relied on one pin.

Just saying, I'd buy them if just to give them a shot.

 

I’ve seen some Dinobot upgrade kits floating around on eBay that include improved hands.

 

Hey hey, first time posting on TFW2005! Normally I just lurk, but I figured this might be something to watch out for.

Not too long ago I got my first Dinobot copy from the Pulse store. Everything seemed ok until I noticed a split in his right knee, where the two pieces connect. No big deal, I can just glue the pieces together. But then I noticed a crack inside the joint. It was like this right out of the packaging.


So, I sent a request to customer service, and they sent a replacement. My replacement arrived and it's got the exact same problem, except it's on his left knee now. No glue holding the pieces together, and the inside of the joint is cracked. I haven't even cut him out of the box yet. At this rate, I don't know what to do. I'm not sure I'd be so lucky as to get another replacement from them. It's not a huge issue, and it's probably easy enough to fix, but it's still mildly irritating. Does anyone else have this issue on their copies?

 

^

I have a slight crack appearing on my copy as well. No transformations or anything, just straight outta the box.

Hopefully it doesnt get any worse. Im not sure if glue would be the best option as it may fuse the joint itself.

Will keep an eye on it and just be careful with any transformations. Thankfully this doesnt seem to be wide spread as Im sure we wouldve seen more reportings of it here.

 

I also have that knee that's not glued together, but I just checked and thankfully mine doesn't have that cracked joint. My guess is the weak pinning on mine saved it from destruction, but it flexes quite a bit when using the knee so I won't be surprised if it develops.

 

Great new figure, but the Henkei holds its own. Definitely keeping it around for the superior paint apps and light piping.

 

Seriously, is there a fix for the beast mode thighs not clipping together?
Its making me hate an otherwise decent figure

 

It took me a long time to get them, and even then it still gets undone easily, but I think I read that you want to clip them with the thighs sticking out to the side, then tuck the thighs into the side after that.

I wish they used a more solid connection for those parts.

 

Got him about a week ago and I fairly like him, though I have one problem with his tail in robot mode - it either pegs into the left or right slot in the pieces on the sides, never into both at the same time, and it tends to gravitate towards the left slot. Not a huge problem but it makes his back just that tiny bit asymmetrical.

Anyone else have this problem?

Cya
Raziel-chan

 

Great pic, knowing the joints in Dinobot's hands re strong enough to do this makes me a glad lad. Almost picked him up a couple times, but all the copies I've seen in retail so far has some bad case fo paint bleeding around his face. Then again, I also think his face is a little too matt, so maybe i should buy one anyways and paint his face a nice metallic blue. That and I'm vaccinating between making him some new raptor hands from scratch (tempted using Instamorph, as I've yet to get myself a 3D printer) and carving the preexisting ones down to size with exacto knives and maybe a nail filer.

 

same issue with mine. The oil doesn’t seem to be helping at all though

 

Same issue with the gaps at the middle of the thighs in raptor mode. In the first transformation they locked solidly. After the 2nd one, the gapping appeared.
There's no really any fix for that?

 

Anyone also have an issue where one of the Raptor legs not being able to line up with the other. Like it sticks out a little make the beast mode a little lopsided when standing.

The lack of thigh swivels in Beast mode really sucks. Articulation for Beast mode should have been a priority over that stupid show accurate chest piece. This seems more like a glorified R.E.D figure with how much the botched the beast mode. I can see why they went half ass on the Grimlock repaint. Retool this guy with better looking posable Raptor mode before any other redecos happen.

Even if that doesn’t happen I still hope Dinomus has more than the card cause Dinobot needs more exposure in the franchise so he can have more figures made. I really don’t want to wait another 12 years for another underwhelming toy of him. He needs to be milked like Seige Megatron.