My NOT Mint copy from Entertainment Earth arrived today.

I really wanted to like this toy but, I don't. I knew there things I wouldn't like prior to the purchase but, I thought the robot mode (and additional paint apps would save it). I was wrong, so very wrong . . .

Engineering flaws (beast mode):

The Raptor head has no front teeth and it's beyond silly looking. All I can see is Dinobot singing "All I want for Christmas".

The faux Raptor head pieces for the chest don't tab into the raptor claws at all. They are clearly supposed to do so but, it's impossible.

The Raptor wrist balljoint cups had stress marks out of the box which means they are too tight or, to much pressure is applied when tabbing the claws into the Raptor forearm.

The robot ankles should have been able to rotate so that the curved section of the foot would form part of the underbelly/tail (seen from an ant's eye view) instead of trying to force the bottom of the foot to do so.

The beast mode is a giant brick. FFS, Kingdom Rhinox has more articulation.


Engineering flaws (robot mode):

The backpack is excessive. Even 1996 Dinobot had a far more compact backpack (although not an attractive one).

The shoulder pauldrons/spaulders don't have any mechanism to lock them in place in robot mode. As a result, they lift up like you're going to transform to beast mode every time you try to do any lateral raise with the actual shoulder joint unless you hold the pauldrons/spaulders in place or apply pressure on them via the actual shoulder joint.

The robot arms are entirely too long and/or the legs are too short. Shoulder to claw is the same length as hip to toe and it looks terrible. This toy needed either a collapsing/telescoping forearms thighs. It's really the legs are too short based on the size of the head, the upper torso, and the arms. If you ignore the arms, Dinobot looks like a short squat bodybuilder and that's a result of the legs being too short.

The hands are terrible and, that's because of the lack of articulation. They honestly look like they are upside down and attached to the wrong arm.

The faux Raptor head pieces for the chest are 100% going to snap off at some point. I am beyond tired of plastic this thin being used. Yes, the plastic at the pin/hinge is thicker but, it just feels cheap/flimsy. It reminds me of the terrible engineering for the 1996 BW Megatron chest (yes, I know that breaks primarily because of GPS) yet, KBW Dinobt is worse because the rotation pin is only connected in one spot. It's unstable and there is flex. It's Kingdom Tracks legs all over again. e.g. One side isn't pinned in all the way and as a result, the shellformer Raptor thigh won't stay tabbed together.

The waist wobble . . . This shouldn't even be a thing. I know it doesn't bother some people and it's not quite bobble head status but, it makes the toy feel like a knockoff from a company with next to no QA. I can't tell if it's yet another toy where the production line can't drive a pin in properly or if it's just sloppy mushroom peg tolerances. Regardless of what the cause is, it shouldn't be a thing.

It's damned near impossible to use the thigh rotation swivel because they are far, far too stiff.

The knees are Kingdom Cyclons all over again as there is no lock nor stop (other than the knee pad stop used for beast mode.


Engineering flaws (overall):

Everything about the transformation is needlessly over-complicated which is sad because it's not really a complex transformation.


What it did right:

The headsculpt. I believe the head sculpt is the only reason people are willing to overlook so many issues with the engineering of this toy. The same is true for the broad shoulders and the silhouette (if you ignore the legs being too short).


Closing thoughts:

It is without a doubt better than any other mass release general retail BW Dinobot but, it doesn't take much to achieve that. e.g. Putting Universe Ransack's (Cybertron Longrack) head on 1996 Dinobot. Yes, KBW Dinobot is leaps and bounds better than 1996 Dinobot with Universe Ransack's head. However, this just looks/feels like a Prime Wars Trilogy attempt. Yes, it looks better than those lines did but, it has every bit as much engineering refinement that needs to be done. e.g. Metroplex is no where near Scorponok in either aesthetics nor engineering. I'm sure that Hasbro/TakaraTomy will eventually hit their stride and create some truly amazing BW toys in the future. Right now though, they are really struggling with any BW toy larger than a deluxe when it comes to engineering and not making awful compromises in one or both modes.


Closing thoughts (purchase):

I absolutely regret buying this and I only paid $22.49 for it MISB (not mint). For me, it's nothing more than an over-glorified RED figure that's disproportionate. I knew better than to be tempted by the $22.49 price tag but, here we are . . .

 

Damn dude. You're free to not like the toy, but I think you're trying a bit too hard to find things to dislike. You're doing that thing we're you're trying to make your opinions sound authoritative, as if they're objective fact.

I'm not saying that the toy is perfect, mind you. It's clear that designer ambition ran up against budgetary restrictions on this one. But a lot of your issues are very much "you" problems:

I can see where it bugs some people, but it allows the raptor to close its jaw completely without a massive overbite (and without requiring an obtrusive lever tab on the bottom of the jaw to then be able to open it again). The toy doesn't have the ability to retract its teeth like the MP, but a close-lipped expression was pretty common for Dinobot in the show.

So-called "impossibility" works fine on my copy. It's a shallow tab. It's not meant to hold the chest in place. It's to prevent the dino arms from flapping around.

Or the person assembling your copy was just a bit rougher that day. Mine's fine, so it's not a global tolerance issue.

Budget issue. And with the current ankle design, there's not really the room for the extra joint, either.

You can still get some poses out of him. But in my mind, beast mode poseability wasn't the primary design goal here. With the line's focus on more "realistic" beast modes, it seems to me that the designer was more concerned to rectify the major flaw that all Dinobot toys have had previous, that being the mile-wide hips/kite-shaped frame. A distinguishing feature of dinosaurs compared to other lizards is that they had mammal-like gait - their limbs were situated directly beneath their bodies, rather than being sprawled out to the side. Replicating that in plastic simply doesn't allow for articulation range. It can't move like soft tissue and displace itself to make room for the limb movement. To give limbs room for movement, you have to carve massive clearance gouges out of the animals' sides instead to accommodate.

On top of that, Dinobot's current design leaves no space for a rotational hip joint, anyways, with the hips being anchored to an otherwise thin and hollow piece.

I don't know about "excessive". It's only a small part of his mass. It's not like it's one of those egregious ones that spills outwards and is visible from the front. I've never understood the prejudice people have against backpacks, anyways.

I fail to see the problem here. It's just an extra point of articulation. Flat shoulder-lines can look stiff. A bit of a "shrug" joint allows for more liveliness in poses.

Dinobot always had large-ish arms in the show, exacerbated by his inhumanly long hands. Even more pronounced in the show because his arms are also so much thicker there. Maybe they're slightly long on this toy, but it's an issue that's imperceptible if you've got him in any sort of pose, instead of just standing ram-rod straight with arms at the side.

I really don't understand this. He's got better hands than any previous Dinobot toy aside from the Masterpiece, aided by the fact that he actually has wrist flexion this time around, compared to his original self. Or the creepy face-hugger hands of the Universe version. They avoided severely arching his sickle claw even, so it looks more natural as an index figure.

You're being paranoid here. I've transformed my copy a bazillion times already, with zero signs of the chest shell being potentially problematic.

It mystifies me why this bothers people so much. If it actually made the toy floppy, then yes, that'd be a problem. But it's a barely perceptible wiggle. It doesn't affect the toy's poseability at all, nor the joint tightness. It causes the torso to rattle a bit if you shake the toy like a rag-doll, but why are you doing that in the first place?

*Ahnuld voice* You a weak little guhly man.

Yes, they're oddly stiff. No, they're not impossible to move. I've seen no reports of this being an actual problem, with thigh joints shearing off or whatever, so meh.

Again, fail to see how this is an issue. Lots of Transformers have hyper-extension ranges in their joints, either for transformation, or just a bit of joint slop (or in the G1 Masterpiece side of things, absolutely a design feature). Dinobot has tight knee joints, so he doesn't flop forward on them or anything. So just... don't pose the knees unnaturally hyper-extended?

Overcomplicated or not is a fairly subjective opinion. I don't personally find anything about this toy to be needlessly fiddly, except for maybe the iffy step of having to sort of flex the feet around the tail brace to clip them in for Beast Mode.

 

Yet here you are accusing me of:

and accusing me of

I have absolutely no control over what I dislike nor what I notice. I didn't even list everything that I had an issue with like the lower leg opening up to tab in which requires flexing and the feet tabs slotting into the rear which also requires flexing (because while awkward and annoying, it doesn't feel questionably fragile at this point in time). I didn't sit down and think, how can I nitpick this toy to death and back again regardless of what you want to believe. Everything I brought up was from a casual glance out of the box and while transforming it back and forth.

I'm not going to stick a "these are my opinions" disclaimer on a toy review. The descriptions I provided are there because, if they weren't people would ask why. What I said is a factual encounter of what I have an issue with and why. At not point did I say nor suggest everyone else would nor that they should. At no point did I say nor imply my opinions were irrefutable fact.

Again, I never said nor implied they were everyone's problems. Please don't put words in my mouth nor blatantly misrepresent what I said in older to bolster your point of view so you can launch into a tirade about why how I feel about a product that I paid for is incorrect.

I know why it was done, that doesn't negate that I think it looks silly when the mouth is open especially considering it would be open frequently since it would be biting stuff.

Yes, I must have been telling a bald face lie that's it's impossible to get that tab even slightly into the slot in the raptor claws. This entire review was about my copy, as all reviews are. Your copy not having an issue doesn't negate the fact that my copy does. The raptor arms don't flop around because the claws tab into the forearm and then all of that tucks inside and is held in place by both the friction of the raptor's shoulder joint as well as the edge of the faux raptor head chest pieces. Even without that tab, you have to rotate that section up in order to get the raptor arm out unless you force the faux raptor head chest pieces away from the upper torso. Obviously something is wrong with your copy if it has floppy raptor arms just like something is wrong with mine where that tab doesn't function as intended.

Again, you need to stop doing this. At no point did I ever say or imply that is was a global issue. You are continuing to go out of your way to twist what I said. Your copy being fine doesn't negate the fact that mine is not. Your example shows why I included it in the engineering flaws section. There was an issue if heavy stress marks form from popping a balljoint in during assembly (and it's almost certainly the result of the clearances being too tight).

And? That doesn't change how I feel about it. This is yet another example of you telling me what I should and shouldn't think. I also never said nor implied that there was room for anything in the existing design which is precisely why it was discussed as an engineering flaw. Shouting lol budget doesn't negate anything.

Again, none of this nullifies what I said. Did you stop to think that someone might be ok with gaps/linebreaks (KBW is full of them and people rave about it) as a compromise for additional articulation?

That was literally the entire point of listing the issue under an engineering flaw. I never said it could fit in the existing design. It was to point out that the existing design is subpar.

This is clearly a zero sum game for you, that's it's us vs them, and that you are unable to not jump to conclusions. It's fine that I have an issue with it. It's fine that you don't have an issue with it. What isn't fine is that you had a compulsive need to quote this section just so you could complain about people that don't like backpacks. At no point do I say I have an issue with all backpacks. If you had bothered to read my other reviews (e.g. Kingdom Tracks, KBW Optimus Primal, etc.) you would know that I was fine with the size/shape of Tracks's backpack and only wish it had collapsed onto the back a little further (and that I understood why it didn't and what would need to change) and that I like Optimus Primal's backpack. Now, I'm not saying you should do a deep dive prior to ever posting but you also shouldn't jump to conclusions and make wild accusations prior to doing some basic research or you know just asking if it was something specific about this toy's backpack.

Well if you can't see that, that's you're failing, not mine" - Edward Bloom

The problem is I want the area to be secure and to not have the entire section swing up when I'm not trying to make it do so. I explained that in detail. Again, it's fine that you don't mind something, but that has absolutely nothing to do with my review nor how I feel. This is just more of your opinion is wrong and my opinion is right which is 99.9% of your reply.

It's almost like I don't care about show accuracy and want something that looks better. You should only view it from certain angles and only shoot me from my good side is not a defense. People are primarily going to look at the front profile, side profile, the back profile, and the 3/4 views of those profiles when they make a judgement call on aesthetics and proportion because that's literally how everything is seen/judged. Certain angles masking issues doesn't change anything. e.g. When you said you couldn't see Dinobot's backpack from the front (even though you can) and you can certainly see it from any other angle). I'm at a total loss as to how Dinobot's backpack is ok because it can't be seen from the front while it's not OK to point out the length of Dinbot's arm's when viewed from a posed angle.

If you had bothered to read the rest of the section that you quoted, you would know that it's an optical illusion caused by the legs being too short and that everything else is proportional.

I'm not sure what you don't understand about the grip/crush/clutch looking weird and as if any object that is supposed to be held is just floating or being snatched up like a pair of dice. Having wrist articulation doesn't change that but, having a single knuckle joint would.

You went out of your way to be a jackass with this part of your reply. This design reminds me of stuff that have owned that has broken and, I explained that in detail. The thin plastic in KBW is a known issue. I'm thrilled that you don't think it will be an issue but, absolutely nothing gives you the right to hand-wave away anyone else's concerns while at the same time accusing them as being paranoid (which is also a childish attack on anyone with mental health problems).

It's almost as if how much wiggle there is differs from copy to copy and is if some people notice things more and/or it's a bigger issue to some. It's blatantly noticeable any time I move anything involved with the upper torso. e.g. Any shoulder movement causes the upper torso to lean towards the opposite side. You don't get to dictate what people should and should not have a problem with and that's all your entire reply has been thus far.

Personal attack? Check? Telling someone their opinion is wrong and your opinion is correct? Check. Downplaying an issue someone has and hand waving it away? Check. Not having an issue with your copy so someone else is lying and/or using hyperbole? Check. Not reading what was written and rushing to make a reply? Check.

I didn't say impossible. I said damned near impossible. That is a factual account of my copy. It's on the verge of feeling like a frozen joint/swivel on a Marvel Legends figure that will snap off. The robot leg thigh rotation swivel on my copy is far too stiff and it feels like everything is placed under a significant amount of stress which makes the swivel effectively unusable.

Floating knnes look/feel weird regardless of joint stiffness. Again, it's fine that you don't have an issue with. It's fine that I have an issue with it. How about, stop telling people what they should and shouldn't object to and/or to just ignore it?

As are reviews and posts about reviews yet, here you are still acting like I don't have the right to mine because they don't align to yours. The audacity for you to say I was trying to make my "opinions sound authoritative, as if they're objective fact" and for you to post the reply that you have is staggering. For clarity, I don't have an issue with you disagreeing. I have an issue with you telling me I'm that wrong and that I shouldn't hold the opinion that I have and, then there is all the nonsense you accused me of in your opening salvo. Your entire reply went well beyond the scope of I disagree and here's why.

*edited for coding errors*

 

Yeesh dude, did Dinobot, like, eat your dog or something?

I was just providing light counterpoints to some of your hyperbolic hate-parade. Of course I don't necessarily share your exact experiences, variable tolerances being what they are and all, but for everything you listed to be an insurmountable issue for you, you must have gotten the lemoniest lemon to have ever lemoned or something.

I draw special attention to what you call "design flaws", because that implies objective fact, a design error that renders the toy somehow non-functional or potentially self-destructive. When in reality, everything you call out is simply a design choice that you don't agree with. It's a fair enough opinion to have, but it's your wording that makes it sound like you're making an objective decree, rather than simply voicing an opinion.

It then gets extra ridiculous, though, when you feel the need to start dinging him for basic Transformers stuff. Who ever complains about extra shoulder articulation? And omni-directional knees and elbows? They're needed for his transformation. Why does the toy need to actively stop you from putting it in stupid poses? Maybe that's actually useful for someone, like staging a diorama scene where Dinobot got his ass beat and his limbs broken.

You obviously care about this way more than I did if you seem to regard my rebuttal as some sort of insult. Most of the time, I was actually legitimately curious why things were problematic issues for you when they involve your personal choice on how to handle the toy.

Personally, I'm forgiving for a lot of design wonkiness regarding the Dinobot character, because his show model is just a damned near impossibility. So any attempt at replicating it is going to be compromised in some way or another, especially without the unlimited design budget and size of a Masterpiece figure to work with. There are indisputably some really weird tolerance -- I wouldn't say "issues", but -- "quirks" with this figure, but most people don't seem to find them particularly debilitating, once they actually sit down and start working with it.

 

Bro you replied to his review with a light novel, you can’t even be sniffing the “I don’t care/clearly you care too much” card. I’m with Racer J on this. I like Kingdom Dinobot and don’t take issue with him the way he does, but Racer is allowed to have his opinion and explain why. Which is all he did. He gave the same detailed review of Dinobot he gives for every toy he reviews, he just happened to not like this one.

For someone so incensed at the idea of someone who displays their opinion as “authoritative fact,” you really tried to shut him down at every possible turn and invalidate his criticisms to support you own view of the toy. :/

 

Way to snip out the context there. Obviously I care enough because I like the toy. Not so much that I take a differing opinion as a personal affront.

Where I wasn't providing design context, I purposefully left a lot of dangling "why's" in order to invite conversation, rather than act like I was actively shutting him down.

I dunno, maybe being replied to so comprehensively feels more like a systemic attack? I dunno. He raised a lot of points. I had a lot of answers. *shrug* Context through text only gets a bit screwy.

I mean, there was one point where I did "attack" him, so maybe that drew offense. But I thought the classic cartoon strong-man affectation would've made it obvious it was a joke.

 

It's not out of context, you were saying he cares more than you, despite you beat-for-beat deconstructing his post to unnecessary excess. You're acting like he's being unreasonably elaborate whilst posting your own massive walls in response. Twice.

Would it not? Made worse is the fact that almost every one of your points was just some variant of "that's like, your opinion, man."

I think the thing that gets me is you know if he had just made like a half-paragraph "this toy sucks and is shitty" rant you'd then say he didn't give enough valid reasons or something. I don't even agree with his take on Dinobot. I don't think Dinobot's perfect, I just like him, but he raises good points to support his opinion. What's wrong with that?

 

Light counterpoints? You quoted several excerpts from my review and went into a point by point dissertation about how your opinions were the correct ones to hold. Is your love of this mold seriously this fragile? There's no reason to white-knight this hard over a toy nor continue to try and dismissively hand-wave away how someone else feels about it as a hyperbolic hate-parade. I don't like the toy and I explained why, get over it.

This is just another rinse and repeat of your original reply telling me I shouldn't feel how I feel with the addition of moving the goalposts and changing your argument to "it must have been a lemon".

You do understand that design choices are engineering right? Again, the thigh swivels on my copy are unusable because it feels like something is going to snap off (either at the thigh or the hip) due to the force required to rotate that. I understand that your copy does not have this issue but, you need to understand the fact that mine does. I understand that you don't think that the faux raptor head chest pieces are going to snap off but, you need to understand that I do because they are thin, they flex, they feel cheap, and you have no choice but to grab said plastic in order to rotate that section up as well as the other section that shares that hinge.

Again, it's fine that we both feel this way. What isn't fine is your incessant need to decree that my blatant opinions are meant as facts in order to try and discredit them. I addressed this in my previous reply so, I'm at a total loss as to why you are still doing it.

Now we're back to you putting words in my mouth and misrepresenting what I said. I can't tell if it's intentional or if you have absolutely no reading comprehension skills at all. I never complained about additional articulation. You do understand that the shoulder pauldrons/spaulders being able to lock in somehow means that they could also unlock and still provide the articulation you're talking about right? The same is true for the knees.

No, you weren't legitimately curious. If you were curious, you would have asked questions. You didn't ask any questions though. What you did was start off your reply by stating:

and stating:

You literally stated your views as if they were objective facts and then you launched into a point by point dissertation of why how I felt was wrong and you are correct. How on earth do you honestly expect someone not to see that and everything that followed it as a personal attack? All of this was addressed in my previous reply and now, you're trying to side-step it by saying it's not that important to you and that you don't care that much. You obviously cared a great deal or, you never would have made the first reply.

Now we're back to you telling me what I should and shouldn't do. Literally every review on the planet is based upon someone's intended usage. Not everyone is going to have the same intended usage so, I'm at a total loss on why you continue to try and berate me for mine.

This is the tone and candor that I wish that your replies had been full of. It shares your views on the toy and why without being dismissive to others.

This really feels like a final dig to downplay what I said given the totality of both of your replies. Did you ever stop to think that there are people that might not be comfortable sharing their dislike because they are concerned that someone would come along and scold them for doing so? It really doesn't matter if more people like something or not. Review threads are not a popularity contest, the appreciation threads are. You might want to consider sticking to the appreciation threads if a single review can elicit the level of umbrage that you made a conscious decision to publicly share.

Your reply contained only two uses of the word why:

Nothing about those sentences invites conversation. That passage, like your entire replies are nothing but you're wrong and here's why you are wrong. If that genuinely wasn't you're intent, please spend more time in the future considering how something is going to sound to someone else prior to clicking "post reply". I want to believe that it genuinely wasn't your intent but, your opening salvos in both you initial replies were aggressive AF.

You didn't ask questions, you sarcastically and rhetorically phrased a few things to dismiss things as "this shouldn't be an issue for anyone".

No, I have zero issue with a point by point response nor a lengthy discussion. That's not what took place though. The tone and the content of your posts were a systemic attack. Full stop. You didn't have any answers. What you had were opinions and, you presented those opinions as if they were objective facts (which is exactly what you insisted I had done and hadn't) and that differing opinions were wrong and/or childish and/or hyperbolic and/or nitpicking and/or a hate parade and on and on and on and on.

How on Earth could you possibly think that I would see that as a joke other than a dig given literally every sentence that proceeded it? Your entire reply started off as a blatant attack were you stated that I was doing things I wasn't doing and it never stopped. Even the sentence immediately after your "joke" was intended to downplay the issue I have on my copy and that I'm simply to weak to move it because they are only "oddly stiff". I'm curious to hear your explanation of what is funny about said "joke" since that troupe punches down and not up and has always been used to degree others as well as why you thought it could serve as a light heated interlude at that juncture in your reply.

It really feels like you're trying to forcibly change the narrative of what you said after you started getting called out on it by other people.

 

Jeez, my bad. It seemed more clear to me if I responded point by point, rather than with my own wall of text. I personally find responses in that format really hard to follow, when you're trying to break down a complex series of thoughts.

 

Just came in here to see what I might get with my Amazon set as I don’t really care about beasts and saw these last posts.

Grad school long form dissertations. Wow. And can’t tell if these are QC issues or something more.

 

I like pizza

Puppies are cute

Dinobot isn't that bad


Biden designed him

 

For anyone needing a review recap after all that:

Plastic lizard-man yay, but pennies make small stuff cause a cry.

 

Patreon Dinomus
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Just got my Autobot Ark in, so I had to check out the Golden Disks in Dinobot's hands. You would think maybe that given foreknowledge of the disks inclusion with the Ark, Dinobot's hands would be DESIGNED to hold these disks. And you would be wrong. They fall right out.

A simple solution is to use exactly one single ply from a two-ply sheet of toilet paper. Rip it in half, then fold it down. You can only see it from one angle, and it's pretty shake resistant.

 

I like how the rear view makes it look like Dinobot is taking precautions to not scratch the Golden Disks nor put filthy claw prints all over them.

 

New DNA kit

 

Wow I can't even attempt to read some of these lengthy posts but I am looking forward to opening up dinobot when I get the chance.

 

Is anyone else experiencing stress marks at the ankle pins of both Dinobot and Grimlock?