Let's go back to Cyberverse once again, as the actual King of the Dinosaurs made plenty of friends during prehistoric times. Despite being unable to save Bumblebee during the Ark's arrival to Earth, Grimlock made up for it as he spent time with the legendary beasts and even adopted a mechanical T-Rex mode! While the explanations for past Grimlocks being based on dinosaurs is usually odd when you consider them existing now (with the only explanations that make sense being from Animated, FOC, AOE, and the fact that dinos are awesome), this Grimlock works well if you ask me. He was the perfect balance between being smart like Bruce Banner and strong like The Hulk. Also funny was that this was more Hulk than the actual Hulk from the MCU at the time Cyberverse debuted. Anyways, onto the review!
Here we have Grimlock in his dino mode. It's a stylized take on the Evergreen design of the G1 character, which means that the missile pods on what will be his shoulders are present and the head's a lot meaner than the G1 version. It also means he has a modern Tyrannosaurus posture that the G1 version does not have most of the time. The sculpted details look fine, and while the yellow looks mostly solid on the gray, I do wish that there'd be more paint on the toy; either that or for his gray plastic to be darker or even a little shinier because it looks kind of cheap and incomplete if you ask me. The articulation on this figure is a little lacking, but what he does have consists of a head that opens at the jaw and legs that move front and back as well as in and out slightly on tight AF ball joints. There are no knees because they bend inward, nor are there any joints for the tiny arms despite them looking like they'd move. At least it looks nice with the crown and flame piece added.
Transformation is similar to the G1 version, what with the tail becoming the legs, the upper part of the dino mode becoming the backpack with the wings, and the legs becoming the arms. Some new additions like the waist swivel and the forearms rotating are there, and a few new hinges that work differently on the backpack than expected. The robot mode is once again based on the G1 design, but the proportions, chest design, and even the feet are different than the norm for Grimlock. It works well, especially given his status as a beefcake boss. He's definitely got bigger arms and legs than the torso, but I like it. The details could be better, though; first up, the gray should still be darker or a little more metallic, and the legs definitely need to be painted yellow and have some red and blue applied for the squares. Also, he definitely has a hidden face on the chest and a slightly more obvious one on the crotch. Otherwise, he looks fine from the back and with the lower legs, too.
Head sculpt is quite unique compared to most Grimlocks in the G1 style, as he's actually got a normal face instead of the visor and mouthplate. Now many G1 purists will likely twitch at one eye, sweat nervously, and begin to reeeee so badly upon seeing a deviation of Grimlock that's not even G1 Grimlock, to begin with, but I think this head sculpt is so refreshing compared to the other toys having the rarely seen mouthplate and visor. One problem I do have is that I wish the head was molded in black so the face can be painted silver as well as have brighter blue eyes! As for the articulation, the head, shoulders, elbows, and hips are on ball-joints. The waist and thighs swivel 360 degrees, the knees bend slightly more than 90 degrees, and the feet can pivot.
His accessories are the same as the dino mode, meaning you can just give him the crown (which does look a little oversized on him) and the flame piece as not a sword but a flaming club. As for the BAF piece, he comes with the right forearm of Maccadam. Same as the other forearm covered in Optimus's review, but on the right side. So Grimlock's a pretty decent figure, yet I need to repeat the same ol' issues I mentioned: He needs to be big, and he needs more paint. Another nitpick would be the lack of articulation in dino mode. Still, not a bad take on the guy. I'm pretty sure you can find him for a decent price online or at Target.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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