Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 21, 2010 21:26:56 GMT
Masterpiece Grimlock
Grimlock, the Dinobot leader, is a pretty iconic Transformer toy with a prominent role in both the cartoon and the comics. In fact my feeling is the Dinobots in general play a huge part in establishing Transformers as the brand it was. So there's very few toys more deserving of a Masterpiece edition. Since Grimlock's toy is close to his animation model in both modes there's very few changes that need to be made to bring him closer to what fans expect unlike, say, Bumblebee or Ratchet. So you can concentrate on upping the articulation and polishing the original design. I didn't get on with the only Masterpiece toy I previously owned, the original Masterpiece Prime, which I thought was too big and out of scale with all other Transformers, too heavy and had played around with the design of each mode too much. The Masterpiece jet toys I didn't buy as I felt that the alterations made to make a more authentic jet mode didn't work well on the robot mode, especially in the case of Takara's Masterpiece Starscream who is completely the wrong colour. By the time Masterpiece Megatron came along I was steering well clear of the toys, so it being a hand gun too big too hold didn't trouble my radar. However that's not going to stop me buying the forthcoming Legends Megatron gun.
Grimlock was originally, like many Autobot cars and the other four Dinobots, a Diaclone Toy. Diaclone Grimlock differs from the Transformers version by having a blue waist and a silver chrome sword. Incidentally Diaclone may be the origin point for a couple of the peculiarities seen with the Dinobots in the Transformers cartoon. Diaclone Slaghas the same colour head and chest, albeit in blue, which may have led to the red faced Slag of the cartoons, while Diaclone Swoop does have a blue chest the same as the one in the Transformers cartoon.
By the time Transformers Dinobot Grimlock was released in 1985 the waist and sword were both red albeit in metal and plastic. Grimlock was released the same year in Japan as Transformer #26. He's obviously in the top tier of original Transformers characters from the start getting a decoy in 1986, a Classic Pretender in 1989 whose inner robot is later released in Japan's hero set, an Action Master in 1990, a European classics re-release in 1991 which was followed by him being offered as a mail away in Japan shortly after. Generation 2 Grimlock turns up in 1993 released in blue, grey and turquoise colours scheme. Since then Grimlock has returned several times, but infrequently as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. His first modern appearance is 1997's Beast Wars Grimlock, a repaint of Beast Wars Dinobot was the first Velociraptor version of Grimlock, while there's hints on the tech spec that 2000's Beast Machines Dinobot T-Wrecks, a repaint of the first Beast Wars Ultra Megatron, *might* be Grimlock as a more beast like Tyrannosaur. Robots in Disguise Grimlock in 2001 is an excavator using the familiar name presumably as a trademark securing measure while 2003's Armada Dinobot Grimlock, is another version using the Beast Wars Dinobot Velociraptor mould. Energon Grimlock in 2004 is a Tyrannosaur, packed with a new version of Swoop whom he combines with to form Mega Dinobot but this set was released in very small numbers and couldn't be described as a sucess. 2005's Alternators Grimlock is Grimlock's first vehicle release as a 1:24 scale Ford Mustang, while Classics Grimlock in 2006, returns him to his Tyrannosaur roots albeit as a more modern horizontally posed one. Likewise 2008's Animated Grimlock, is a Tyrannosaur, but done in the Animated style while his final transforming release to date was 2008's Titanium War Within Grimlock, Cybertronian Tank.
TFU, my usual source of pictures, doesn't have any of Grimlock up yet. There's two threads on Hasbro's Masterpiece Grimlock at the 2005 boards, firstly here and then here plus another on Takara Masterpiece Grimlock. I've found another rather good one at seibertron.com and a quick Google Search will give you lots more.
Masterpiece Grimlock come packaged in Dinosaur mode which just looks so much like the Dinosaur mode of original Grimlock that you wouldn't believe. Lots of grey plastic silver chromed tail & arms gold chromed lower chest & neck, the later surrounded by clear plastic. The look is dead on but bigger. In "classic tyranosaurus" pose the top of his head is about level with Metrople'a shoulder. All over the toy there are subtle improvements to the original design. The head still can lean back and the jaw hinges open just like they did on the original but now the teeth are chromed and the mouth is on a spring loaded trigger: press on the left side of his jaw to snap the mouth shut. The arms have had their articulation ramped up with ball jointed shoulders, bending elbows and bending claws. The legs too are ball jointed at the hips with a thigh swivel & double bending knee. There's no problem posing him either as a classic Tyrannosaur or in the more modern elongated pose.The neck turns too which it didn't on the original. In fact this is part of an action feature: if you wave the base of the tail from side to side then the head turns with it. About the only feature removed from the original version is the fold back seat for the Diaclone driver to ride in. Pushing down on the toy causes the legs to rise up the body and the head toi raise. Another neat touch is found on the head: Apparently there's some controversy as to what colour eyes Grimlock should have. The original toy was red, the cartoon was blue. So this Grimlock has a little flip up panel on his head which allows you to turn round a part allowing you to swap the eye colours! Sadly I can't get Universe Legends Wheelie to sit astride his neck but that's more Wheelie's fault for not being able to spread his legs wide enough.
Transformation: Have you ever Transformed original Grimlock? You won't go far wrong here:
Split the whole tail in two and pull each half out to the sides. Fold the grey tip at the end inwards into the chromed section. Fold the chromed section down under the toy, then bend the tops of each half of the tail back 90 degrees. Rotate each robot thigh swivel 90 degrees and fold the chrome section in to become the rear of the robot's leg. Swing the blocks under the foot inwards to form the base of the foot. Split the dinosaur upper chest in two then fold the chest halves and the neck & head back. Pull the gold chromed lower dinosaur chest up to form the robot mode chest - watch how the Autobot symbol inside rises up as you lock it into place. Straighten the hips & legs out. Open a panel on the inside of each forearm, fold out the hands & close the panel up. Peg a weapon into his right hand while the left hand has posable fingers which grip the weapon but with a tiny, 1mm or there abouts, peg that fits into the side of the knuckle to hold the weapon in place.
One of the best compliments I can pay the robot mode is it looks very much like the original version, just an awful lot bigger. Everything is where it aught to be: the grey on the arms and lower legs, the black of the upper legs, hands and head, the red of the waist and the gold of the chest. The only thing missing is the tail halves hanging down the side of the legs which are now integrated into the back of the lower legs. The original Grimlock was limited to arms that turned at the shoulders and legs that bent at the knees. The same is true here...... no not really, there's bundles of articulation. The Dinosaur legs are now the arms with a ball jointed shoulder, bicep joint, double bending elbow and turning wrist. Both hands have poseable thumbs while the left hand has fingers that are hinged. The head is on a ball joint, the chest moves from side to side slightly and the waist turns albeit limited by the back panel. The hips turn & swing to the sides, there's a thigh swivel and the knees bend. In addition the wings on his back formed from the neck halves are hinged at the top so tey can fold a little further out to the sides. So Grimlock can assume a wide variety of poses easily.
Grimlock's robot mode head has the same colour changing gimmick as the beast mode head, albeit implemented differently. There's a little lever on the back of the head that when pushed down changes the eye colour from red to blue. I'm working with the Hasbro version which comes a gold chromed crown for his robot mode head. The origin of this is found in the Transformers comic where Grimlock wore a crown during his tenure as Autobot leader. Grimlock comes with two weapons: His twin stunner lasers and his Energo sword. The laser gun is black, with a clear plastic handle and clear plastic barrels. The sword is clear plastic apart from a red chromed guard. The reason these are made from clear plastic is that the lesser articulated right hand contains a light source. Press a panel on the back of the right shoulder to make the inside of the hand light up and in turn light up the weapon that it's holding. Both weapons have a 5mm peg but to stabilise them in the left hand there's an additiomal 1mm peg to stabilise the weapon. The 5mm peg means that other Transformers can hold his weapons and in turn he can use other Transformers weapons including other light powered ones like Laser Rod Optimus Prime's gun, Armada Optimus Prime's large gun, Armada Starsaber and many Energon weapons. Like the original version you can bend the claws at the ends of the robot mode arms in to use as weapons too.
As I've said I'm working with the Hasbro version here. There's two Takara versions of this toy. The first has similar colours, but no crown. Instead he comes with a sevring tray & apron for the Tyrannosaur mode as seen in the episode "Madman's Paradise" plus the brain transference device used in "Grimlock's New Brain". The second Takara version is an exclusive for Toy Hobby Market, the official shopping site of TakaraTomy. The grey is now more silver, the black is blue, the sword is tinted orange, the panel on the robot chest is clear green and he comes with the crown that the Hasbro version has and not the accessories that came with the previous Japanese version. Both the toy and it's box are an obvious tribute to the version seen in the Marvel comics.
This is how Transformer remakes should be done. Take the original design, iron out any problems, boost the articulation and then add in special features if they will fit. Grimlock might be smaller than the previous Masterpiece Optimus Prime but he's still a large toy compared to many modern Transformers. This feels just the right size, it's got bulk but isn't too heavy. I can't put my finger on or articulate why, but this toy just works in a way that many remakes, especially the high end Transformers ones, don't.
You want a Masterpiece Grimlock. But one now. £60 at Toysrus.
Grimlock, the Dinobot leader, is a pretty iconic Transformer toy with a prominent role in both the cartoon and the comics. In fact my feeling is the Dinobots in general play a huge part in establishing Transformers as the brand it was. So there's very few toys more deserving of a Masterpiece edition. Since Grimlock's toy is close to his animation model in both modes there's very few changes that need to be made to bring him closer to what fans expect unlike, say, Bumblebee or Ratchet. So you can concentrate on upping the articulation and polishing the original design. I didn't get on with the only Masterpiece toy I previously owned, the original Masterpiece Prime, which I thought was too big and out of scale with all other Transformers, too heavy and had played around with the design of each mode too much. The Masterpiece jet toys I didn't buy as I felt that the alterations made to make a more authentic jet mode didn't work well on the robot mode, especially in the case of Takara's Masterpiece Starscream who is completely the wrong colour. By the time Masterpiece Megatron came along I was steering well clear of the toys, so it being a hand gun too big too hold didn't trouble my radar. However that's not going to stop me buying the forthcoming Legends Megatron gun.
Grimlock was originally, like many Autobot cars and the other four Dinobots, a Diaclone Toy. Diaclone Grimlock differs from the Transformers version by having a blue waist and a silver chrome sword. Incidentally Diaclone may be the origin point for a couple of the peculiarities seen with the Dinobots in the Transformers cartoon. Diaclone Slaghas the same colour head and chest, albeit in blue, which may have led to the red faced Slag of the cartoons, while Diaclone Swoop does have a blue chest the same as the one in the Transformers cartoon.
By the time Transformers Dinobot Grimlock was released in 1985 the waist and sword were both red albeit in metal and plastic. Grimlock was released the same year in Japan as Transformer #26. He's obviously in the top tier of original Transformers characters from the start getting a decoy in 1986, a Classic Pretender in 1989 whose inner robot is later released in Japan's hero set, an Action Master in 1990, a European classics re-release in 1991 which was followed by him being offered as a mail away in Japan shortly after. Generation 2 Grimlock turns up in 1993 released in blue, grey and turquoise colours scheme. Since then Grimlock has returned several times, but infrequently as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. His first modern appearance is 1997's Beast Wars Grimlock, a repaint of Beast Wars Dinobot was the first Velociraptor version of Grimlock, while there's hints on the tech spec that 2000's Beast Machines Dinobot T-Wrecks, a repaint of the first Beast Wars Ultra Megatron, *might* be Grimlock as a more beast like Tyrannosaur. Robots in Disguise Grimlock in 2001 is an excavator using the familiar name presumably as a trademark securing measure while 2003's Armada Dinobot Grimlock, is another version using the Beast Wars Dinobot Velociraptor mould. Energon Grimlock in 2004 is a Tyrannosaur, packed with a new version of Swoop whom he combines with to form Mega Dinobot but this set was released in very small numbers and couldn't be described as a sucess. 2005's Alternators Grimlock is Grimlock's first vehicle release as a 1:24 scale Ford Mustang, while Classics Grimlock in 2006, returns him to his Tyrannosaur roots albeit as a more modern horizontally posed one. Likewise 2008's Animated Grimlock, is a Tyrannosaur, but done in the Animated style while his final transforming release to date was 2008's Titanium War Within Grimlock, Cybertronian Tank.
TFU, my usual source of pictures, doesn't have any of Grimlock up yet. There's two threads on Hasbro's Masterpiece Grimlock at the 2005 boards, firstly here and then here plus another on Takara Masterpiece Grimlock. I've found another rather good one at seibertron.com and a quick Google Search will give you lots more.
Masterpiece Grimlock come packaged in Dinosaur mode which just looks so much like the Dinosaur mode of original Grimlock that you wouldn't believe. Lots of grey plastic silver chromed tail & arms gold chromed lower chest & neck, the later surrounded by clear plastic. The look is dead on but bigger. In "classic tyranosaurus" pose the top of his head is about level with Metrople'a shoulder. All over the toy there are subtle improvements to the original design. The head still can lean back and the jaw hinges open just like they did on the original but now the teeth are chromed and the mouth is on a spring loaded trigger: press on the left side of his jaw to snap the mouth shut. The arms have had their articulation ramped up with ball jointed shoulders, bending elbows and bending claws. The legs too are ball jointed at the hips with a thigh swivel & double bending knee. There's no problem posing him either as a classic Tyrannosaur or in the more modern elongated pose.The neck turns too which it didn't on the original. In fact this is part of an action feature: if you wave the base of the tail from side to side then the head turns with it. About the only feature removed from the original version is the fold back seat for the Diaclone driver to ride in. Pushing down on the toy causes the legs to rise up the body and the head toi raise. Another neat touch is found on the head: Apparently there's some controversy as to what colour eyes Grimlock should have. The original toy was red, the cartoon was blue. So this Grimlock has a little flip up panel on his head which allows you to turn round a part allowing you to swap the eye colours! Sadly I can't get Universe Legends Wheelie to sit astride his neck but that's more Wheelie's fault for not being able to spread his legs wide enough.
Transformation: Have you ever Transformed original Grimlock? You won't go far wrong here:
Split the whole tail in two and pull each half out to the sides. Fold the grey tip at the end inwards into the chromed section. Fold the chromed section down under the toy, then bend the tops of each half of the tail back 90 degrees. Rotate each robot thigh swivel 90 degrees and fold the chrome section in to become the rear of the robot's leg. Swing the blocks under the foot inwards to form the base of the foot. Split the dinosaur upper chest in two then fold the chest halves and the neck & head back. Pull the gold chromed lower dinosaur chest up to form the robot mode chest - watch how the Autobot symbol inside rises up as you lock it into place. Straighten the hips & legs out. Open a panel on the inside of each forearm, fold out the hands & close the panel up. Peg a weapon into his right hand while the left hand has posable fingers which grip the weapon but with a tiny, 1mm or there abouts, peg that fits into the side of the knuckle to hold the weapon in place.
One of the best compliments I can pay the robot mode is it looks very much like the original version, just an awful lot bigger. Everything is where it aught to be: the grey on the arms and lower legs, the black of the upper legs, hands and head, the red of the waist and the gold of the chest. The only thing missing is the tail halves hanging down the side of the legs which are now integrated into the back of the lower legs. The original Grimlock was limited to arms that turned at the shoulders and legs that bent at the knees. The same is true here...... no not really, there's bundles of articulation. The Dinosaur legs are now the arms with a ball jointed shoulder, bicep joint, double bending elbow and turning wrist. Both hands have poseable thumbs while the left hand has fingers that are hinged. The head is on a ball joint, the chest moves from side to side slightly and the waist turns albeit limited by the back panel. The hips turn & swing to the sides, there's a thigh swivel and the knees bend. In addition the wings on his back formed from the neck halves are hinged at the top so tey can fold a little further out to the sides. So Grimlock can assume a wide variety of poses easily.
Grimlock's robot mode head has the same colour changing gimmick as the beast mode head, albeit implemented differently. There's a little lever on the back of the head that when pushed down changes the eye colour from red to blue. I'm working with the Hasbro version which comes a gold chromed crown for his robot mode head. The origin of this is found in the Transformers comic where Grimlock wore a crown during his tenure as Autobot leader. Grimlock comes with two weapons: His twin stunner lasers and his Energo sword. The laser gun is black, with a clear plastic handle and clear plastic barrels. The sword is clear plastic apart from a red chromed guard. The reason these are made from clear plastic is that the lesser articulated right hand contains a light source. Press a panel on the back of the right shoulder to make the inside of the hand light up and in turn light up the weapon that it's holding. Both weapons have a 5mm peg but to stabilise them in the left hand there's an additiomal 1mm peg to stabilise the weapon. The 5mm peg means that other Transformers can hold his weapons and in turn he can use other Transformers weapons including other light powered ones like Laser Rod Optimus Prime's gun, Armada Optimus Prime's large gun, Armada Starsaber and many Energon weapons. Like the original version you can bend the claws at the ends of the robot mode arms in to use as weapons too.
As I've said I'm working with the Hasbro version here. There's two Takara versions of this toy. The first has similar colours, but no crown. Instead he comes with a sevring tray & apron for the Tyrannosaur mode as seen in the episode "Madman's Paradise" plus the brain transference device used in "Grimlock's New Brain". The second Takara version is an exclusive for Toy Hobby Market, the official shopping site of TakaraTomy. The grey is now more silver, the black is blue, the sword is tinted orange, the panel on the robot chest is clear green and he comes with the crown that the Hasbro version has and not the accessories that came with the previous Japanese version. Both the toy and it's box are an obvious tribute to the version seen in the Marvel comics.
This is how Transformer remakes should be done. Take the original design, iron out any problems, boost the articulation and then add in special features if they will fit. Grimlock might be smaller than the previous Masterpiece Optimus Prime but he's still a large toy compared to many modern Transformers. This feels just the right size, it's got bulk but isn't too heavy. I can't put my finger on or articulate why, but this toy just works in a way that many remakes, especially the high end Transformers ones, don't.
You want a Masterpiece Grimlock. But one now. £60 at Toysrus.
