By request, some photos and commentary on the Construct-Bots Dinofire Grimlock.
Since I wasn't planning on doing a review of this item, I don't have any construction photos, so will have to be a little more descriptive.

We had quite a few new releases in Australia for the mid-year toy sales about a week ago, and this was one of them.

Official image for reference...


Box images

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It's a big box, and bigger than normal Construct-Bots figure, but didn't take much more time to construct it than other Dinobots. Actually, the Dinobot Warrior packs probably took longer to build.

And the pack comes with an Optimus Prime rider, so no need to buy a separate Construct-Bots rider... but then again, it isn't necessary to activate anything.

Once built, the pair in robot mode.

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Next to the smaller Construct-Bots Grimlocks.


With a range of Movie Grimlocks.


Grimlock next to the other Construct-Bots Dinobots.


Optimus Rider figure, with the single pack version and the Silver Knight version.

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In Dino mode, next to the smaller Construct-Bots Grimlock.


A look at the top/back of the dino mode, showing how bad the tail section looks, and why the promo & packaging images hide it. You can also see that the entire head and back section is one whole piece with the gears and electronics in it. A bit like Lego, the more unique parts you have in a set, the less profitable the set is.... and the reason why these movie Construct-Bots seem to be so much more expensive than the first series - as each has a lot of unique parts in them.


On the packaging and instructions the "tail" is obscured or cut off completely, which is the biggest visual flaw of this figure, in Dino mode.

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A look underneath, again showing how bad the tail section looks, by having the brown parts underneath, and the tail/sword hidden between the robot legs. Even the fore-arms are hidden behind brown panels, which confused me at first when transforming it into dino mode.


The electronic feature is just lights, no sound. Rotating the gear at the back of the toy makes the head move up and the jaw open, while the red light inside the head turns on and the missile launcher inside the mouth fires a missile. Keep rotating the gear at the back and the mouth chomps and fires another missile - three in all.


There are nine missiles on three spinning launchers. The ones on each leg are manually turned, while the one in the mouth is automatic from the gear gimmick.


On the shelf with all the other Construct-Bots that have been released so far.


The Optimus figure was tricky to plug in, as the legs stick out the front way too much. The riders fit on the smaller Dinobots much better.

This is supposed to be about US$40 in America, which is twice the price of the Warrior packs, and four times the price of the Dinobot packs... but I feel that the smaller Dinobots are better value, without the electronic gimmick.
The missile launchers are probably the best element, particularly the "automatic" mouth missile launcher, but is it worth all that extra expense for a toy that is now out of scale with the rest of the Construct-Bots Dinobots.

 

Thanks for taking the time to review this. This really answered some questions I had about it.  

 

(thanks to these questions I went back to the toy and took some more photos, that reminded me of a number of flaws that I didn't remember to mention in the first post)

Yes, the parts and joints would have been mentioned if I was reviewing this when I got it, as some of the joints were dual-ball joints, which were a bit annoying, due to them preventing articulation just to improve strength.
And unfortunately, the one joint that takes the most strain (Dino ankles) were still a single ball joint, making the dino-mode want to face-plant the table all the time (unless you have him pointing his nose up to the sky like an attention-seeking puppy).

The dual-ball joint, that gives more strength to the parts that have them (robot elbows, knees and ankles), but now prevents them from being able to move beyond a one-dimensional "hinge" style joint.


The ankle has a double dual-ball joint that you would think gives you an extra dimension of movement....


...if it didn't have an "Achilles tendon" locking the foot into a fixed position. As such, the feet can only swivel side to side, not front and back. The point of the extra dual-ball hinge is for the transformation to dino mode, not for articulation.


The giant ball joint in the robot wrist, which becomes the dino-ankle. Very loose on mine, but that's probably due to the socket having a larger than normal opening, so that the fist can swivel a full 90 degrees under the wrist (so that the dino feet are flat to the ground). Also, the dino feet are huge bits of kibble hanging off the robot fists, but they can fold all the way forward over the outside of the fist to form "attack claws". I don't really like that though, as it is still just kibble to me.


As I had noted in the first post, the big black back section of the Dino mode spoils the look of this figure... and if it weren't for the dual-ball joints, the robot legs at the back could be swiveled around to have the brown panels on top.


Like this. (legs pulled off and swapped over, and the feet taken off)
It makes it look a bit stumpier, but it gives you more of the tail-sword out the back, and the colours blend together better.




I don't see why they didn't have something like this in the instructions, instead of having their hands tied by being able to convert the toy once it is built. At the very least, it is something you can consider as a personal customization of Dinofire Grimlock, as the first series of Construct-Bots were promoted as customizable Transformers toys.

The "begging dog" pose mine has to be in, due to the weak dino-ankle ball joints... or else it falls face-first into the table. Since there are giant missile launchers and those black spine/blade things crowding the top of the dino-legs, not to mention the Rider, there is not much clearance for balancing the dino mode with a better angling of the hip joints.
And as you can see from the side-view, most of the weight is at the front of the balance point.


I think if it wasn't so crowded on top of the Dino mode and wasn't so front-heavy, the posing of the leg joints (hips, knees, ankles) might be easier to prevent it from over-balancing... so I don't think tighter joints would do much, as play will wear them down anyway.
I don't like putting people off toys, and from Construct-Bots standards, this isn't a completely bad figure... but I fear that some of these flaws from an ordinary toy-collecting perspective might put people off who weren't complete Construct-Bots fans to begin with.
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this thing looks like a digimon lol

 

Could we get a comparison of this and leader grimlock side by side in both modes?

 

Calling Dino Fire owners! Find That Transformer Thread's current challenge is Dino Fire Grimlock! Join in!

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...-transformer-figure-rules-first-post-502.html