As you may know, I am Emperor Dinobot. I collect a whole buncha action figures, Batman figures, Transformers, Bionicle, Dinosaurs, Jurassic Park toys, Zoids and so on. Interesting thing about me is that all my Zoids are dinosaurs, and I have a special interest in Transformable Dinosaur toys i.e. Dinobots. I have Power Ranger stuff (MMPR Zords, Dino Thunder and I sorta need to make space for Dino Charge, don't I?). Anywho, with the Transformers Age of Extinction movie coming up, Dinobots have become a thing for real this time around.
So very recently I acquired this TFC Not-Dinobots Combiner Robot thing. And I took pictures. I've been waiting for it for several years since prototypes were revealed and let me tell you this is the best dinosaur transformable robot in the market today, beating out the AoE Dinobots by FAR. For those who know me, I'm a big fan of the Michael Bay film Transformer style, and I usually go for stuff like Beast Machines, Transmetals, and more weird stuff like that. If anything the TFC Not-Dinobots are rather "conservative" yet they hold their own.
Here is your first toy review.
Let me tell you something about them. They are AWESOME. The colors work. They are scary. They boast good articulation, come with lots of melee weapons, which I appreciate...they look like a buncha knights. Dino-knights. I have tons of dinosaur themed robot toys, and these are just...great. They look great together and...I'm just kind of speechless. THEY DO HAVE FLAWS. First of all: Combiner mode is ...it doesn't work. This is why I will not post combiner mode pictures. You can find those online. Sorry, but being third party...or more like a "bootleg" (Well, bootlegs are copies of the real deal, so it's not exactly a bootleg). Point is, while sturdy, the plastic does feel kinda cheap, and you can tell this is a bit amateurish, by the way some joints are looser than others, some hinges are loosely screwed (which is why combined mode doesn't work, because the "feet"/"cannons" are so loose they are useless), etc. It's really a shame because that is what keeps this toy from being the absolute best thing ever, which it kind of is.
Sooooo... I'm sure they all have their Japanese names and stuff, but I've decided to give them my own. I can't call them Grimlock, Swoop, Snarl, Slag, Sludge because those are copyrighted names by Hasbro, and have very well defined Dinobot toys (Fact 1: I derive my name from Dinobot from Beast Wars, owned by Hasbro, not by me. Just a moniker I like to use), which I also collect...I don't have G1 but that is a story for another day. (This is called Emperor Dinobot's Musings for a reason LoL).
So without further ado:
Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus/Sauropod: Thunderbot
Stegosaurus: Roof or Rufus
Triceratops: Trikey or Mikey
Pteranodon: Windy
T.rex: Cookie because I couldn't come up with anything better.
Thunderbot (Brontosaurus=thunder lizard) has an unique hinge-y transformation, is every sort of cool. Tail turns into a shield, and he's got plenty of articulation. The sword I gave it came to be with the weapon pieces it came with so whatever. You can build all sorts of weapons with those pieces. Dino mode is cute, an obvious homage to Generation 1 Sludge, which I've never played with or researched well enough. It's got plenty of articulation, as you can see from the picture. Downfall is that in Dino mode the separations in the torso collapse rather easily and the legs are prone to becoming loose easily. Either way the colors are nice, he's just nice.
Roof here has a different transformation following the same formula as Thunderbot. I can't really explain that well, now can I? Dino mode is pretty cool, and like the rest of them, they're stereotypical pre-90's dinosaur artistic iterations. For those who have looked at old children's art books, you'll know what inspired the G1 Dinobots of chunky dinosaurs with all sorts of wrong proportions. Plates too small, body too fat, head too big...etc etc. Well, obviously none of them are going for dino accuracy here. After all they are meant to be modernized G1 Dinobots. Robot mode is nice, with the tail shield being fancier than the others' tail shields because it's got plates and spikes attached to the sides. Same articulation as Thunderbot. Both of them transform into the legs of the combiner mode.
I really dig Trikey. Both in Dino mode and robot mode. He's just as articulated as the two above, but he's one of those transformables that when you move the lower jaw into the body, the head is revealed, but this time it sorta looks like he's got a helmet on. He's very cool, and likely my favorite out of the three. Dino mode, unaccurate of course, but it's definitely a crazy looking blue triceratops. It looks like a knight even in dino mode. It's just very nice. The colors really work here, the blue and grey motif.
Windy here is arguably the weakest one here. The wings are detachable and can be placed on various ports on his body. Did I mention ports? Yes, these guys have hole ports all over their bodies. But they are useless most of the time as some will hold weapons either too tightly or too losely, which is a teller for amateur construction. Anywho, he's got two rotating missiles on his back and has a similar transformation to most G1 homage pterosaur bots such as Energon Swoop and G1 Swoop, thrusters becoming the legs sort of thing. But the pterosaur legs is what bothers me the most. You can position them either up or down, and on mine they are pretty loose. As per usual old fashioned prehistoric fauna imagery, this is a Pteranodon with teeth. Pteranodon means "winged but toothless"... I've always hated teeth on a Pteranodon, but that's just me. Robot mode is pretty nice though. the chest/beak comes apart really easily as it does not plug into anything when transformed. That really bothers me.
Cookie is so damn solid, his robot shoulders don't come out. His arms are pretty much crap, as are his hips. For a combiner center he works, but his robot mode is really disappointing. I gave him a huge custom sword/rifle thing I tried making with most of the pieces. The cannon parts of the pieces don't really work on any of them and you really need to get creative into giving them proper weapons that they can hold. The left ankle is really loose, too so he as a hard time standing up. Dino mode...um...looks like MMPR Tyrannosaurus Zord, right down to the mouth's fire cannons. Tail is really REALLY short, and again, due to the loose ankle he has issues standing up. I call him cookie because he crumbles easily.
So even though I posted mostly complaints, with a few detailed fixes, this is still the BEST DINOBOT OUT THERE. I can't post combined modes because it didn't work for me. Super weak and badly cut ankles would not hold his extremely heavy upper body, so he kept tipping over. Like I said, if someone took the time to polish it and address all the problems I've stated, then he would be really the best thing out there...which he already is. I think that a highly articulated dinobot combiner is an extremely ambitious project, and I REALLY appreciate and love the effort put into these molds. I mean as robot modes they are excellent looking, despite their tiny individual flaws, and as dinosaurs they are just as awesome...heck they all have articulated jaws! Heads! limbs! They are not blocks, I assure you, which is the reason why I do not collect G1.
I got mine for $75, which I perceive to be a good value. I'm kind of a cheapskate so I refuse to spend money on things like third party Caelus/Not Swoop, who is an excellent toy, but Deluxe sized...all for $80. Each individual Not-Dinobot of these is Deluxe sized, with Cookie/T.rex being Voyager sized (Pre AoE. I feel like AoE is going back to BW/BM Basic, DLX, Mega, Ultra etc size). I hope to have more pics of them with their fellow transformable dinosaur robots soon.
I hope you keep looking to the future and appreciate dinosaur robot toys as much as I do. They are the few, they are the strong, they are Dinobots. And I am their Emperor!!!!!!! :D
Let me tell you something about them. They are AWESOME. The colors work. They are scary. They boast good articulation, come with lots of melee weapons, which I appreciate...they look like a buncha knights. Dino-knights. I have tons of dinosaur themed robot toys, and these are just...great. They look great together and...I'm just kind of speechless. THEY DO HAVE FLAWS. First of all: Combiner mode is ...it doesn't work. This is why I will not post combiner mode pictures. You can find those online. Sorry, but being third party...or more like a "bootleg" (Well, bootlegs are copies of the real deal, so it's not exactly a bootleg). Point is, while sturdy, the plastic does feel kinda cheap, and you can tell this is a bit amateurish, by the way some joints are looser than others, some hinges are loosely screwed (which is why combined mode doesn't work, because the "feet"/"cannons" are so loose they are useless), etc. It's really a shame because that is what keeps this toy from being the absolute best thing ever, which it kind of is.
Sooooo... I'm sure they all have their Japanese names and stuff, but I've decided to give them my own. I can't call them Grimlock, Swoop, Snarl, Slag, Sludge because those are copyrighted names by Hasbro, and have very well defined Dinobot toys (Fact 1: I derive my name from Dinobot from Beast Wars, owned by Hasbro, not by me. Just a moniker I like to use), which I also collect...I don't have G1 but that is a story for another day. (This is called Emperor Dinobot's Musings for a reason LoL).
So without further ado:
Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus/Sauropod: Thunderbot
Stegosaurus: Roof or Rufus
Triceratops: Trikey or Mikey
Pteranodon: Windy
T.rex: Cookie because I couldn't come up with anything better.
Thunderbot (Brontosaurus=thunder lizard) has an unique hinge-y transformation, is every sort of cool. Tail turns into a shield, and he's got plenty of articulation. The sword I gave it came to be with the weapon pieces it came with so whatever. You can build all sorts of weapons with those pieces. Dino mode is cute, an obvious homage to Generation 1 Sludge, which I've never played with or researched well enough. It's got plenty of articulation, as you can see from the picture. Downfall is that in Dino mode the separations in the torso collapse rather easily and the legs are prone to becoming loose easily. Either way the colors are nice, he's just nice.
Roof here has a different transformation following the same formula as Thunderbot. I can't really explain that well, now can I? Dino mode is pretty cool, and like the rest of them, they're stereotypical pre-90's dinosaur artistic iterations. For those who have looked at old children's art books, you'll know what inspired the G1 Dinobots of chunky dinosaurs with all sorts of wrong proportions. Plates too small, body too fat, head too big...etc etc. Well, obviously none of them are going for dino accuracy here. After all they are meant to be modernized G1 Dinobots. Robot mode is nice, with the tail shield being fancier than the others' tail shields because it's got plates and spikes attached to the sides. Same articulation as Thunderbot. Both of them transform into the legs of the combiner mode.
I really dig Trikey. Both in Dino mode and robot mode. He's just as articulated as the two above, but he's one of those transformables that when you move the lower jaw into the body, the head is revealed, but this time it sorta looks like he's got a helmet on. He's very cool, and likely my favorite out of the three. Dino mode, unaccurate of course, but it's definitely a crazy looking blue triceratops. It looks like a knight even in dino mode. It's just very nice. The colors really work here, the blue and grey motif.
Windy here is arguably the weakest one here. The wings are detachable and can be placed on various ports on his body. Did I mention ports? Yes, these guys have hole ports all over their bodies. But they are useless most of the time as some will hold weapons either too tightly or too losely, which is a teller for amateur construction. Anywho, he's got two rotating missiles on his back and has a similar transformation to most G1 homage pterosaur bots such as Energon Swoop and G1 Swoop, thrusters becoming the legs sort of thing. But the pterosaur legs is what bothers me the most. You can position them either up or down, and on mine they are pretty loose. As per usual old fashioned prehistoric fauna imagery, this is a Pteranodon with teeth. Pteranodon means "winged but toothless"... I've always hated teeth on a Pteranodon, but that's just me. Robot mode is pretty nice though. the chest/beak comes apart really easily as it does not plug into anything when transformed. That really bothers me.
Cookie is so damn solid, his robot shoulders don't come out. His arms are pretty much crap, as are his hips. For a combiner center he works, but his robot mode is really disappointing. I gave him a huge custom sword/rifle thing I tried making with most of the pieces. The cannon parts of the pieces don't really work on any of them and you really need to get creative into giving them proper weapons that they can hold. The left ankle is really loose, too so he as a hard time standing up. Dino mode...um...looks like MMPR Tyrannosaurus Zord, right down to the mouth's fire cannons. Tail is really REALLY short, and again, due to the loose ankle he has issues standing up. I call him cookie because he crumbles easily.
So even though I posted mostly complaints, with a few detailed fixes, this is still the BEST DINOBOT OUT THERE. I can't post combined modes because it didn't work for me. Super weak and badly cut ankles would not hold his extremely heavy upper body, so he kept tipping over. Like I said, if someone took the time to polish it and address all the problems I've stated, then he would be really the best thing out there...which he already is. I think that a highly articulated dinobot combiner is an extremely ambitious project, and I REALLY appreciate and love the effort put into these molds. I mean as robot modes they are excellent looking, despite their tiny individual flaws, and as dinosaurs they are just as awesome...heck they all have articulated jaws! Heads! limbs! They are not blocks, I assure you, which is the reason why I do not collect G1.
I got mine for $75, which I perceive to be a good value. I'm kind of a cheapskate so I refuse to spend money on things like third party Caelus/Not Swoop, who is an excellent toy, but Deluxe sized...all for $80. Each individual Not-Dinobot of these is Deluxe sized, with Cookie/T.rex being Voyager sized (Pre AoE. I feel like AoE is going back to BW/BM Basic, DLX, Mega, Ultra etc size). I hope to have more pics of them with their fellow transformable dinosaur robots soon.
I hope you keep looking to the future and appreciate dinosaur robot toys as much as I do. They are the few, they are the strong, they are Dinobots. And I am their Emperor!!!!!!! :D
