Here we have Grimlock in his dinosaur mode. The beast mode generally matches the CG model though we have a couple of oddities specific to the figure: firstly, the jaw doesn't close all the way due to the engineering. You can kind of pose it where it's closed just vaguely, but you won't get it as well as either Leader we got in the past. On the flip side, he has a tongue visible, though I wish the horns were able to stick out a little more since they appear to be undersized and almost feel like a response to when Bayverse haters whined that Grimlock had horns despite this being an alien robot thus not needing to comply with paleontology accuracy. Other than the jaw, the arms are on ball joints while the forearms can rotate, bend at the elbows, and the little claws swivel. The legs can only move at the legs and at the ankles. I get the hips are locked in place during transformation, but we have a much larger size for this figure, so why do we have this thing with less articulation than the other figures we got in the past of this character? As for the tail, I know that it is meant to turn into the weapon while the spikeball is stuck within the rear, but was it hard to have the tail work a different way where it didn't turn into the weapon and instead helped make the armor flaps on the back? Maybe that way it can integrate some articulation, at least tail wagging since the only other figure with that feature is the Masterpiece version from nearly 20 years ago. I know some will say "it's a mainline release, were you expecting it to be like third party quality?", and at the size class as well as demographic we are going for, YES. Something more than just his current range of articulation considering the real estate on this canvas is much larger than either Leader figure. Hell, even Titans Return Trypticon had more articulation than this in the legs, and at least the tail can hinge. That's not me hating on a Bayverse figure; Trypticon came out a decade ago and had more going on in dino mode! So as it stands, the beast mode mostly looks good, but functionality could be better than what's already present. Even a fire effect could help with display options, and I wouldn't mind if they reused the TLK Leader Megatron one.
For a size comparison, the old Leader is so dwarved by the Titan that it blends in so easily with the sheer size. I appreciate that the Titan isn't an upscale of the Leader, yet I feel like the deco between the two isn't that much of an upgrade. We have the same teal patina weathering on the Titan, yet there isn't much else to accentuate the sculpt further since the addition of silver or gunmetal paint could help even further. I mean, they added some bronze around the ankles, but that barely helps as much as the lighter grey feet and teeth do.
Optimus Prime can ride on Grimlock, and while you will have to pull the truck nose kibble further away to make room, it is at least in scale this time than with the old Leader next to this new Optimus (who was shorter then the old Voyager from TLK). There is a peg for the flight stand port to tab into, making this much more secure than it normally would with just sitting him on there.
Transformation is a whole lot more involved than I expected, but once again, most of the work goes to the upper body. The Dino head splits in two so we can get a generally symmetrical design for the shoulder pads, and while we have a few similarities with the old Leader from the head and leg transformation, the Titan thankfully has a few more steps so it's more than just "straighten the legs out". However, the tail contributes in the form of partsforming. The robot mode is just as massive and bulky as Grimlock should be, but maybe the upper body looks undersized? It's almost like they prioritized the dino mode proportions that the robot mode is partially altered, making the legs appear larger while most of the upper body mass was to make the dino mode more proportionate. It makes the waist area appear blockier when it really isn't. That said, the design is at least translated well from the front, because the proportions being slightly off doesn't bother me as much as the back kibble execution. I get they were trying to mimic the back flaps reminiscent of some skirt armor some knights would have, but the result looks more like he is mistransformed from the back, with the bottom piece looking like it should be placed over the back while the other pieces look more like overly spread out ass cheeks. So the robot mode is able to live up to the size we should expect from the leader of the legendary warriors, but the kibble management should be better handled. At the very least, the dino feet can somewhat pass as robot feet by folding the toes and bringing the spikes out, but it's another case of the old Voyager having the most accurate feet out of the normal transforming Grimlocks Hasbro made.
Articulation consists of a seemingly ball jointed neck, though he mostly stays looking down, ratchets used for the shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. Swivels are used for the biceps, thighs, and wrists, and the fingers are on a single hinge for the base knuckles. Considering the budget of a Titan figure meaning more room to add things smaller figures wouldn't normally have, it it hard for him to have as much finger articulation as some Commanders and Leaders? Then again, some of those figures are inconsistent with their finger articulation anyhow, and that's not to mention Voyagers either including it or not. That said, the mace and wrecking ball are able to tab into the pals and cover the hand completely, respectively. The ball lacking paint sucks and takes points away, but the mace's handle is not only split in a few parts, but there are metal pins running through them for better durability.
The mace can be held with both hands provided the tabs align with the position of each arm since you can't rotate each piece on the pegs. Both weapons can peg on the backs without issue, though.
Here we have Grimlock towering over his 2018 Leader counterpart and Optimus Prime. Whole we already know how the scale should be for a Titan, yet he appears a little undersized if the scale charts dictate that Optimus should be at the middle of the knee spikes. And maybe that would explain why Grimlock is shorter than Star Convoy, the first Titan to be shorter than what we already got with the likes of Tidal Wave and everyone before him. I don't have Devastator and Predaking, but I believe they are also known for shorter than the likes of Metroplex and Trypticon also from a decade ago.
Overall, I really want to say that this Grimlock is a slam dunk for our first and long overdue Bayverse Titan, but I can't do that when there are a handful of issues keeping me from fully recommending it. The size is already one checkmark, and the articulation in bot mode is already good, and I like that the transformation is generally different from the Leader, but there was so much wasted with the dino mode articulation, the deco is barely an improvement and in some areas sorely needs paint, and the kibble management is pretty underwhelming from the back. The worst issue comes in the form of the price. Titan prices have fluctuated over the years, starting with $125 for Metroplex back in 2013 all the way up to $200 for Tidal Wave in 2024. The price decrease for Star Convoy was okay, even if it's because of Hasbro shrinking the figure even more. To tell you the truth, I was hoping Grimlock would be $150, and I understand he is also engineered differently from Star Convoy, but he goes for more than what SC did last year. Hasbro can use things like Paramount licensing and the state of the economy or tariffs, but it's all an excuse for people to blame everyone else for the issues of the budget but themselves. I still want to get the other Dinobots, and having Scorn for next year sounds awesome, but I will have to be cautious with the final result. Until then, get Grimlock on sale or wait for a bootleg to do even better than this. I don't know if Titans ever got bootlegs in the past, but I know some other figures in the third party market are better than this.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment