Toy Review - Construct-Bots Dinofire Grimlock

[griffin]

A review was requested of this toy over at TFW2005 because someone saw it in a photo of the Stomp & Chomp Grimlock review.

I should have replicated it here for the local members, but I've been a bit distracted lately with things and kept forgetting.

Dinofire Grimlock w/ Optimus Prime rider
Series - Construct-Bots
Sub-line - Series 3 - TF4 Age of Extinction
Size/class - ??? (Electronic)
Wave - n/a
New/remould/redeco - New (Grimlock) & redeco (Optimus Prime)
Released here - June 2014 (globally July 2014) Could end up being a BigW exclusive if it doesn't show up anywhere else.
Approximate Retail Price - $65? (US$40 in America = AU$46)
Approximate Size - 30cm (Grimlock) & 8cm (Optimus Prime)
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - T-Rex (Grimlock) & truck (Optimus Prime)
Main Features/Gimmicks - Electronic lights, firing missiles, biting dino mouth, Optimus rider.
Main Colours - Bronze, dark bronze, black, red
Main Accessories - Sword, 9 missiles, Optimus & gun.

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.

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.
.

[Dimi194]

I really liked this figure-though the criticisms are certainly understandable. I think the robot mode and dino mode are far more impressive than the normal one. My issue is that the shoulder joints aren't very strong, and I'm worried with multiple transformations they might snap... silly C-clips.
I didn't realise that the Prime was a different colour... I'll have to grab the normal one too!
Also, where did you get Dino Rider Hound and Crosshairs?

[griffin]

Hound and Crosshairs were bought from Amazon.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I've only been picking up the odd ConstructBot and even then only if they are a half decent representation of a G1 character (Hound, Wheeljack, Blitzwing, Ironhide, Soundwave, Thundercracker). Even then I've been foregoing the more popular characters like SScream, Megs, Op & Bbee. I've decided to skip the entire AoE Constructbots toyline in the end and Griffins review has pretty much reinforced my stance. If anyone is after this toyline though, I saw many of them pretty cheap at the Target toy sale this morning

[Zommael]

I thought I'd look again at this figure having just picked it up dirt cheap ($20) from the Reject Shop, where it seems plentiful at the moment, at least in Queensland. Before I say anything else I will say that the low price definitely clouds my judgement of this figure; getting essentially a leader class toy for less than your average deluxe sends the value for money through the roof. That said, I feel there is still a lot of actual value in this toy that justifies those positive feelings.

Firstly, the sheer size of the thing. I've spoken in the past about how judging Transformers by weight - especially as compared to 20 or 30 year old toys - is daft. In this case, however, size and weight are two things that need to be discussed. This toy is comparable, as I said, to a leader class figure, but not your average modern leader. In fact, in sheer size, it's more comparable to a pre-Animated leader figure! The fact that it's self-assembly obviously means Hasbro could give us a heck of a lot more because of the costs saved in assembly.

Speaking of more, the figure is comparable to older leaders not only in size but also in gimmicks. Many have bemoaned the lack of gimmicks on more recent Generations-branded leaders - we're lucky if we get a single working missile launcher these days, when in the past lights and sound were common. Dinofire Grimlock has nine firing missiles, something I don't think we've seen for a very long time, although of them are on pressure launchers. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though - it preserves us from the hair triggers common with spring-loaded missiles.

In addition to the missiles, it also lights up. That's a mixed bag because while light-up gimmicks are always cool, it does affect the sculpt in most cases with the need for batteries and electronics to be housed somewhere. That is particularly evident in this buildable figure, where as Griffin noted in his review the entire head and neck of the beast mode are one separate part in order to accommodate the electronics. However, I have to say I haven't thus far experienced some of the balance and stability issues due to this that Griffin talked about. The joints on mine are all nice and tight and he stands impressively in dino mode.

Unfortunately, beast/dinobot mode is definitely the weakest mode for this toy. While this mode clearly has more parts that are identifiable as movie Grimlock such as the head sculpt and large feet, there is simply too much going on to really make it come together well. The "wings" are completely unnecessary, as far as I can tell, in both modes, apart from as an extraneous accessory which has little use in my opinion. The tail is unconvincing and the dino arms are a little ridiculous by the standards of the dinosaur he's supposed to represent. The toy could have been massively improved simply by making these arms smaller.

Transformation is simple enough. It's complicated by the general weakness of all Constructbots toys which is parts coming off. Since these things aren't held together with pins or screws for the most part, it's very easy to detach pieces when transforming or otherwise playing with the toy. It's a shame, but part of the fun with these toys is supposed to be the build, so it's difficult to evaluate as part of the overall toy. The toy transforms in 14 steps, but basically follows the overall pattern of most of the TF4 Grimlock figures.

Robot mode is my favourite of the two modes. In this mode the two smaller missile launchers become cannons, his dino feet fold forward slightly for the official transformation or all the way for insanely huge Wolverine claws, and he gets the fiery sword that previously formed part of his tail. Add to that a mean looking head sculpt, the general armour-plated look of the both the movie Dinobots and Constructbots generally, and you have one mean looking Autobot!

What he doesn't look like very much is Grimlock, either movie or G1 or any other incarnation. His head sculpt is obviously based on the movie but is far too wide and bulky to really match. In addition, he is missing iconic elements such as the shoulder teeth, dinosaur head pauldrons, and his weapon is nothing like what was used in the movie, being a flaming sword that looks more like a metal fan's overzealous update to his G1 weapon. He's obviously meant to be movie Grimlock - the TF4 branding is all over his box, for goodness' sake - but he doesn't really resemble movie Grimlock that much.

That doesn't take away from how solid the styling still is in robot mode. The sheer size and weight I talked about at the beginning of this review assists with this, giving him a real bulk which the movie model generally lacks. He has armour plating everywhere, a mean looking head and face, SABOTONS NOT ELF SHOES, and overall looks more like something you'd expect to fight in a video game than anything else. I love it.

Building the toy is pretty simple and the uniqueness of the parts mean you won't spend ages looking for the specific piece you need like you would with Lego - er, Kreo, I mean Kreo. It's nonetheless fun to see all the parts coming together to form this enormous, badass looking dinobot.

I would definitely recommend the figure, but not if you're looking for the ideal movie or G1 Grimlock figure. Instead, in my collection at least, he'll stand on his own as a unique character going by his first name, Dinofire. For the price he is currently available for, I would have to say he is highly recommended. Any higher than that and I'd say recommended but with caveats that it's a Constructbot, not a highly engineered Generations toy, and doesn't really look like any other Grimlock toy.

Oh yeah, he comes with a little Optimus Prime too. Not much to write home about there. Nice little bonus.