Starting off with the dino mode, and good news to generation 1 fans, it's designed to look like the G1 Grimlock, in that it looks awful if you try and put it in a more "realistic" T-rex pose. Don't get me wrong, he can do it, but its designed to look better in the old T-rex pose. Standing somewhat straight up, tail dragging along the ground, kids if you don't know this one, look up kids shows from the 80's and 90's, Rugrats for example with Reptar. A few exceptions excluded, its hard to tell that he does more than the Robo-dino transformation, but those few exceptions are large exceptions. The back is a bit of a mess and while the tail tip tries to hide the combiner ports in what will be the robot legs, there's nothing hidden about the ones on the dino legs. It's been a problem people have had with the toy since he was shown off because people really hate the fact that he has Combiner Boss obligations now, and I have seen a few people online not seem to grasp that they can't have a cheap combiner torso with a hundred step transformation process with no parts forming, perfect paint and have three flawless modes. Sacrifices have to be made, and while some are here, they were focusing on getting two modes as perfect as possible, cause most of the cuts were made to the torso mode.
While limited articulation and slightly bulky proportions at times are problems with the dino, most of the hits come in the torso mode for Volcanicus. In terms of engineering, he's not a bad torso (though he has Menasor Legs which I'm not a fan of), but the mass just isn't there to make it look good. The stomach and waist are just too small cause most of the mass is in his shoulders, He needed to parts from, or even be a six bot combiner team to pull off the mass needed for this to work. Granted, it would be more work then a Combiner Wars combiner normally is, but this guy needed it. A Third Party company is putting out an upgrade kit for Volcanicus, which I plan to get and review when I do a dedicated review for Volcanicus. Unlike a lot of people, I do actually like the head sculpt for Volcanicus, there's more originality here then the last few times Dinobots have combined officially, in that it's not just a bigger version of Grimlock's head, while still being inspired by it. It looks intimidating, which for this combiner, works really well. It's also the only combiner torso I have that has a waist swivel, in fact, the only Voyager that comes to mind off the top of my head that has a waist swivel is Titans Return Galvatron (in terms of what's in my collection). I get what they were going for, but it wasn't quite there yet. While in combined mode though, Grimlock (and all the voyagers for the line) come with the combined mode feat, which serves as the way to plug Prime Masters into them. While its great that they have ratcheted ankle tilts and don't need to be hands, they look awful in the other modes for the Voyagers I own (Grimlock and Starscream), so they're probably going to be stored away when not being used as combined mode feet. Grimlock also comes with the "Dinobot Enigma" which has all the cross-play of a Titan and Prime Master, with a lot more paint and nothing else to do other than exist. It doesn't transform, it's just a spare bit of plastic. Looks cool, but it does nothing on its own. You can stick it into Grimlock's dino mouth though.
In robot mode, slightly to blocky chest excluded, this is a really good looking Grimlock. The combiner ports are still an issue, but they don't look as bad in robot mode and even with the blocky chest, he still looks like a tank. The product shots do make it look worse, but in hand, I don't find it that bad. Granted I'd have liked the love handles to tuck in a little bit, but its something I can look past. One problem I do have with him is the same problem for all the Voyagers and Leaders of the line and the Voyagers and Leaders of Titans Return wave 3 and onwards (overall), the stickers. While on my Grimlock, they're not as bad as they could be, they are still of the same quality. See, the stickers Hasbro's been using are a low grade foil sticker, factory applied, and I've had far, far too many of these peel off in play due to being misapplied in the factory, my Blitzwing had a scrunched up sticker on his wing, the weather here can make them peel off faster, just nothing but pain comes from them. Grimlock gets away with them as they're nowhere near Transformation joints and they're quite small, when I get to Starscream though, he didn't survive the sticker process, and will one day feel my wrath as a result. The reason for this though is because the paint is expensive, but that argument can be counted by the unnecessary paint use on the toys in the line, especially the Dinobots. Every bit of gold you see on the Dinobots so far, that's all clear plastic painted gold on the inside. Don't get me wrong, it looks cool, but did we need it for things like tampographed Autobot and Decepticon insignias on the bigger figures? The articulation on Grimlock (to get back on topic though) is quite good for a combiner boss. Double joint elbows, ratchets in the hips, shoulders and knees, a waist swivel, the only thing he's missing is feet articulation, cause he doesn't have actual feet, he just has tail pieces acting as feet.
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| I swear when I get time again I'll be going back to taken pictures. Alongside the course, a video is currently in production |
Is he the Generations Grimlock Transformer fans have been wanting for a long time? Probably not, this fanbase can be fickle at times, to say the least. Granted, I've seen far, far, far worse fanbases. Does he scratch the itch for someone like me who's never had a G1 inspired Grimlock and to poor to invest in the high-end third-party masterpiece figures and have to make do on what the elitists call "lazy, pathetic, worthless pieces of plastic that only show how lazy Hasblow's been getting"? Yeah, yeah it kinda does. Is it flawless? No. Is it as bad as some people have been making it out to be? No, at least to me. He does need that upgrade kit though for Volcanicus, and I'd appreciate someone giving these guys some better weapons. Cause he was meant to go against AoE Grimlock this week, that Grimlock will be next week, and to check out the review of Super Smash Brothers Melee on the main site, check here: https://mediaholicreviews.blogspot.com.au/2018/02/super-smash-brothers-melee-sorry-to.html and coming up next for the main site, Mega Man 1.
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