Here we have the Dinoforce all together in their beast modes, each of which has their respective weapons integrated for anyone wanting to make these a little more distinct from the Dinobots. I say that because there are no major tooling differences between these and their heroic mold mates. Everything depends on the different color layouts associated with each character. But if you're someone who doesn't care about the original Volcanicus set and would stick with the SS86 Dinobots while getting this instead, you won't have much to complain about. At the very least, these dino modes are meant to be colored like the dinosaur shells.
Let's first cover the leader of the set with Goryu, a redeco of Grimlock. While the tooling between both figures is the same, the plastic and paint operation layout applied to the Dinoforce leader does try to make him more distinct from the traditional G1 Grimlock deco of gray and gold. I do appreciate that the paint apps on the dino head make for a decent attempt at giving a distinct appearance to the Dino head, almost giving the illusion of being newly tooled when you see the snout in green compared to the rest of the silver face, in addition to the narrow eyes unlike Grimlock's.. At least the teeth are painted in silver, with Grimloks stuck in the bare gray plastic like the rest of him.
Transformation is the same for every figure, and you'll still get some of the character-specific details associated with the G1 Dinobots, such as the chest design on Grimlock and the back kibble wings made from the T-Rex body. That being said, the different plastic color layout, combined with the addition of silver for the chest to break up the green from the torso, helps Goryu disassociate himself less from the Dinobot king. His head sculpt, combined with the new club accessory, are new additions to the figure. I don't like that the white plastic looks almost soapy in texture, with the sculpted details lost compared to the gray plastic on Grimlock, and the rest of the toy ends up looking cheap. If a wash were possible, then maybe that would help bring out the details better.
Up next is Kakuryu, a reuse of Slag. Slag's dino mode admittedly looks rather plain with how predominantly gray his dino mode looks, coloring-wise. The gold paint apps and the minor bits of red from the insignia and blue from the eyes try to keep it from looking like a prototype. Kakuryu appears to match some of the color scheme traits of his inner robot mode rather than the Pretender shell, though it does at least means he will match the torso of the combined robot mode better in his butterscotch mustard coloring. Even still, he has a bit of a similar prototype or bootleg look to his color scheme.
The robot mode still retains the same recognition as G1 Slag's design, but I am surprised that within that dino mouth is a new head sculpt with a visor and mouthplate to better match the Dinoforce goon rather than basically be Slag withan evil deco. I do appreciate that the Decepticon insignia is applied onto the chest, and the color-break-up for the forearms and the lower legs are greatly appreciative, especially since Slag's arms and legs only have black for the hands and gold for the toes. He has the new blaster as well as an axe with a twin turret gun attached to the top. Maybe so it can work a la Animated Optimus Prime's axe!
And this is Gairyu, a redeco of Scarr. I feel like this figure was waiting to be redecoed into a Dinoforce character the most out of the G1 Dinobots, especially when the olive green and gunmetal grey/black look great on this non-80s Dinobot character. He reminds me somewhat of those Dino Thunder Biozord decos where they were green before the Rangers purified them. His dino mode matches the deco of the inner robot toy.
The robot mode made up also works best for either character, though Gairyu's got a smirk sculpted in his new head. It's an extra bit of personality that I like seeing on some Transformers figures. You would think his weapons are not new, but what will become the left hand is a new accessory with a wrist swivel and hinge within the forearm part, and it is cast in gunmetal grey plastic without being light grey plastic painted black. Let's hope it stays on better.
Another character in the 6-pack, Yokuryu is made from the Swoop mold. He feels like one of those G2 repaints that leaves the toy looking ghastly, and doubly so with how cheap the white plastic looks. As I said before, having some parts in a wash would have helped make the sculpted details pop especially when Swoop looks mostly fine thanks to the addition of gold for the head and more bits of red and blue. He also has some missiles on the wings that were replaced by the new forearm piece on Yokuryu. The color scheme correlates with the inner robot toy.
Robot mode looks better this time around with the new color combo than in beast mode, with a layout almost like RID Ultra Magnus's. Hell, the new accessory could be a red herring to the Blue Bolts accessory from the car carrier. It may not seem like it, but Yokuryu's head is also retooled from Swoop's, though it's fairly subtle out of the whole set.
With two-thirds of the set covered, we now have Rairyu. He looks like a knockoff of Sludge when you consider they both have gold paint apps with almost identical shades to them, only the grey is replaced with soapy white plastic while some of the red details are replaced with black. The dino mode looks to match the Pretender shell this time around.
The robot mode still shares the wonky birthing hips and the dino shell wings etched on the arms, but they can be hidden somewhat with the giant arm cannons that go on Rairyu. They also distract from the cheap white plastic somewhat, even if you want to notice and appreciate the newly tooled head.
And finally, we have Doryu. He's the last in the set like Snarl was last year, and he, too, feels like a weird mix between G2 reject, knockoff, and prototype when you compare the prominent white and blue versus the traditional G1 colors on Snarl. That's because his deco matches the inner robot toy. I'd say the white and blue, combined with the roundness, probably makes me think of Homer Simpson, but the lack of yellow makes me think more of those really awful Aero Gear and Cop Gear knockoffs of Micromasters and Spy Changers Thew Adams trashed in 2012's Knockoff Beatdown.
The robot mode still has the Snarl-specific details like the torso shape, leg transformation, and the tail half winglets, but at least it's better than having Aero Gear's complete hollowness, cheap nosecone, and rotting wheels. Same goes for Cop Gear's leprosy, aids, production grooves, uneven feet, and the laziest stickers of all time. His retooled head does look like he had his ears shaved off from Snarl's, though! On a side note, he retain's Snarl's dagger while also including a new scythe.
The Dinoforce line-up certainly changes things up from the more traditional and uniform Dinobot group, from the more distinct head sculpts that contrast the more familiar faces to the color break up different from the grey, gold, and black of the heroic moldmates. Anyone find it interesting how Japan usually sees dinosaur characters as villains unless it's tokusatsu? I mean, everyone in the rest of the world would take a look at some dinosaur characters and wonder who'd be good or evil, unless it's a group of dinos representing the Dinobots or four teams of the Power Rangers lineage.
Combining these figures into Dinoking is the same as it's been for the Volcanicus set, right down to the partsforming needed on the stego backplate as well as separating the Tricera rump into a stomach guard and the new head. You have the new forearms to attach to their respective owners' legs to add some needed combiner bulk lacking on Volcanicus. Finally, we have new feet to attach to the legs, which not only complete the look of Dinoking but also add an extra bit of height and articulation. Much like as a group, Dinoking looks better when combined rather than separate, especially when you have some of the cheaper-looking white areas ratio'd by the better-looking areas on the toy, coloring and plastic-finish wise. I also appreciate that Dinoking has a specific form of color asymmetry with the limbs, with the right side having blue and white with the left side having olive green. The butterscotch mustard coloring on Kakuryu doesn't look too cheap when the rest of the limbs are brought together, though I kind of wish Hasbro painted those parts in gold. Overall, a fairly good-looking set for a combiner we'd probably never get in a larger scale.
Head sculpt is the best part about the set, with a blue dome on a silver frowny face that almost looks like a bad guy Ultra Magnus. It's somewhat pinheaded, but it depends on some of the angles you see this mug in. Articulation consists of rotation at the 5mm ports for the neck, shoulders, and the rotation near the knees, hinges for the outward shoulder movement, elbows, and knees, universal joints for the hips, and a swivel for the waist. The feet include ankle pivots for some added stability missing on Volcanicus. Speaking of missing on Volcanicus, Hasbro provided Dinoking the ability to combine the weapons into a proper battle axe with an appropriately long handle and a blaster associated with the old toy. It puts some use to that little dagger
For an idea on what some new parts and an entirely different color scheme can do to a toy, here is Dinoking next to Volcanicus. It's clear to see that the Core Class Dinobots, despite intended to be versions of the G1 characters, were secretly meant to be the Dinoforce group thanks to how they combine as a six-bot team in addition to the layout for each component. Power of the Primes gave us a version of Volcanicus that was, for its time, the best we'd get with CHUG-style Dinobots while having them combine for the line's gimmick. It made sense for Grimlock to be the leader and the torso of the set while everyone else would be a Deluxe, especially if it means planning ahead for retools later down the line. The Legacy Evolution version, meanwhile, features Volcanicus as an example of a planned pretool for Dinoking, yet with Hasbro already having the SS86 Dinobots undergoing completion at the time, it's easy to say that the Dinobots were just a test run to see how people would react to the molds before we'd have the Dinoforce proper. While the price you're paying for this set isn't fully justified compared to buying the individual Core Class figures, this feels like a great way to say goodbye to the Core Class line a la BBM Starscream. Not perfect but still with a good level of effort put into it regardless.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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