Toy Review - JP Advanced Dino - AD16

[Ravagecat]

DINO (Mirage)

Series - Lost Age Advanced Line
Sub-line – Movie Advanced
Wave: Wave 2? - 2014
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - Redeco (ROTF Sideways) with new head sculpt
Released here – No
Approximate Price - AU$35-40 + postage
Approximate Size – 15cm (head to toe - 20cm if you measure from doors/wings)
Allegiance – Autobot
Alt-mode – Audi R8
Main Features/Gimmicks – Right arm has a spinning blade that can be moved by hand. Both arms have gears (side of elbow and bicep) that move when you bend his arm at the elbow.
Main Colours – Red, Black
Main Accessories – 2x Arm Blades

ROBOT MODE:

Looks ok from the waist up...Another good attempt at recreating a Bay head from the ROTF movie. The front end of the car look good as his chest and the doors and windows make cool looking wing things Couple of problems though and that is the whole top of the car folds up to become a fairly large backpack making him quite top heavy and just another minor downside is his arms a little long and his hands are a bit blocky but hardly noticeable once you bend them up bit and put his arm blades on...

...waist down ...His groin is wide but short so looks out of proportion IMO. And don't get me started on his legs/feet I got to relive the same frustration with Dino as I had with Sideways when he came out with trying to get him to stand in any sort of decent pose. Skinny legs paired with feet that are way to small to support his top end bulkiness make it very difficult to stand him, limiting his pose ability. It blows my mind why the designers made the feet so small on this mold as there is adequate room in car mode for bigger ones

VEHICLE MODE:

A very good looking representation of the Audi R8. This mold looks impressive in Red. Minor draw back is the painted roof doesn't quite match the rest of the red on the car. It's no Ferrari though

TRANSFORMATION:

Dino is moderately difficult transform, but once you have done it a few times it becomes easier. The trickiest part I found (when converting back to car) is remembering which way to fold his legs and it can be a bit tricky to get his arms/shoulders in the right position (requires a bit of jiggling ) so you can click is doors into place. The rest is fairly obvious and fluent and and most TF collectors should be able to nut it out without needing to refer to the manual.

ARTICULATION:

Not A lot on this guy. Head can move 360˚as do his arms at the shoulder sockets. Elbows allow the fore arm to move 180˚from straight down to straight up. His Thunder thighs allow for 360˚ rotation of the legs at the hips ball joint and the waist can move about 45˚ left and right. The knees can bend 90˚ forward or back and his pins (feet) can rotate 360˚

OVERALL:

Its easy to see why this mold was chosen to represent Dino. The way the door and windows stick up as wings etc. for the robot mode and the fact the front of the car is used to make his chest make a pretty close match to the on screen Dino with his new head. Its just so frustrating that this mold is so ridiculous from the waist down in robot mode The included swords are also a little underwhelming and are angled incorrectly (should follow the curve around his arm more) and not long enough IMO.
A word of warning with this guys is that the side windows (that become his wings of sort) are extremely fragile and can easily break anywhere along the panel if to much pressure is applied. Pretty much any part of the car that has the clear purple plastic looks extremely fragile and over time I can see it breaking in any number of places where pins go through and even where the side windows clip onto the windscreen. Pair this fragility up with the fact that he is top heavy is almost guaranteed that he will fall over at some stage, so if you get this guy I would strongly recommend having him towards the back of your display to reduce the risk of him falling to the ground. (a friend's broke from falling this way). I really can't recommend this guy due to all of his short comings as well as price. He would only appeal to those like me who are desperately wanting to fill a hole in their ROTF display shelf. If you are not interested in movie toys, Don't even bother...

PICS:

[DELTAprime]

I want my FERRARI!!!

[Omega Metro]

It's an ok figure. Not good, not bad. And yes it should of been a Ferrari but what can ya do? I guess I'd rather have half a Dino than no Dino at all.

[Sinnertwin]

i'd forgotten how tiny his feet are

[Mythirax]

Those are some really nice shots.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I really like the paint job on this guy - a really strong red. Good facial representation of the character and the blades are ok. But jeez, I forgot how hard this bugger of a mould is to stand up! But still - happy to finally have a Dino