The quest towards completing Volcanicus continues with the Legacy Evolution Dinobots! We have two of them this time around, in the form of Swoop and not Snarl but instead, Scarr. Yes, the one IDW-original Dinobot to die unintentionally from Grimlock's then-new dino mode gets immortalized as the sixth member of the team. With how the first three Dinobots introduced in the G1 cartoon already have entirely different configurations this time around than expected from their Power of the Primes toys, we'll see how much of that original ideology is retained with our flying boy Swoop and our not-Snarl fella, Scarr.
Here is Swoop in his pterodactyl mode and Scarr in his Ankylosaur mode. The latter, pictured on the left of the image, is an entirely new design in a way similar to Slash from the POTP line or Grimstone from the Power Core Combiners line. Scarr looks pretty lost with how stubby his legs are while his back is over-sides and floating above him. Not the best-looking design for him. By contrast, Swoop looks pretty much like how he always does since G1: arms tucked away, legs bent 180 degrees, and missiles on the wings. So I feel Swoop's the best one in terms of beast mode, though I wish he had some silver paint rather than the flat grey plastic he is stuck with.
For a group shot size comparison, I gotta say that the rest of the Dinobots are shaping up to be pretty awesome, and ironically, if we were to exclude Scarr, then this would basically be the team as they appeared in the 1986 movie. And despite that, Snarl has his Leader Class toy on the way while Swoop doesn't have one just yet.
Transforming Swoop is surprisingly faithful to the normal transformation he's associated with, and it only makes sense we'd see something like this for a future SS86 Leader Class figure, but with more engineering involved. His robot mode is the strongest out of all of them, with his proportions being perfect and the overall design remaining unchanged compared to the rest of the Dinobots in the line. With the head chest, the wings, and the dino-mode feet on the knees, this guy remains unbeaten. And of course, the cartoon colors help him stand out from the rest, with the blue in the torso and a red helmet that gives him a bit of a Peter Pan look. His articulation is also the best of the team, with a ball-jointed neck, shoulders, elbows(!), and hips; there is a bit of waist swivel (albeit limited), while his thighs have better range, and the knees bend. His weapons are also pretty cool, as he comes with twin blasters that are thankfully painted black rather than left in a dull grey plastic
As for transforming Scarr, it's no different from Slag and Sludge with the upper body being similar to Sludge and the legs being similar to Snarl. A waist swivel is also used. Scarr ends up becoming more on-par with his teammates in contrast to Swoop, but it is amusing how undersized the forearms are compared to the shoulders. Has he been skipping forearm day? Anyways, he's not that much different from the rest of the team in terms of design and Core Class aesthetics. His articulation is back to the typical neck and waist swivels along with ball-jointed shoulders, hips, and knees. His gun is the left fist and remains in one piece while Swoop's guns become a hand.
For a Dinobot size comparison, I'm quite surprised to see how even despite them being the same scale, Swoop feels the smallest of the set, and Grimlock vaguely feels like the tallest one (if you ignore Slag's hood). And if you ask me, as a group of five, it feels like we're just about done with the team before realizing Snarl's missing.
Transforming them into their limb modes isn't too difficult, as you essentially go halfway through the beast modes before attaching the fists on them after tabbing the robot arms onto each other for Scarr and bending the forearms backward on Swoop after rotating his waist. And combined with Volcanicus, you basically get a one-legged gestalt as we wait for Snarl. We'll cover Volcanicus proper after the team is completed, but I'll say it's amazing how the robot is maintaining balance with all the wait that is present on Grimlock and Scarr. But long story short, Swoop's the best Core Class Dinobot while Scarr is okay.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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