Dave's Alternators Rant

     9: Grimlock - Ford Mustang GT

     Shipping with Swindle.  Oddly, the store I got it at had two Grimocks
and one Swindle, so either the balance is off, or someone actually wanted
Swindle but not Grimlock.  The mind boggles.

CAPSULE

     Grimlock: Both modes are good, transformation is really tricky (which
can be a plus or a minus).  Recommended, as I found enough minuses in the
transformation to knock it down from Strongly Recommended.  $19.76 at
Wal-Mart.


RANT

     Packaging: Standard second year Alternators red semi-open box.  The
interior continues the usual Alternators practice of having faint
"reflections" of the vehicle mode on the back and interior side panels, with
a ghostly version of the robot mode rising up behind the hood on the interior
back panel.  The corner number is 9, and the Ford logo is on several sides.
The co-sell on the bottom is Swindle.  On the back, it says the engine
becomes a weapon (a double-barreled gun, to be specific) and the drive train
becomes his sword.  
     The instructions baggie contains only the instructions, the weapons are
both "factory installed" as it were.
     Two plastic straps hold the vehicle together inside the clamshell
bubble, one around the middle and one around the front end.  Both bands are
quite wide compared to the usual Alternator straps.  I think this is part to
keep the sword from falling off.


VEHICLE MODE

     Model: This is a two-door 2005 Ford Mustang GT.  Check out this page for
details: http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/mustang/features/specs/ .

     Dimensions: 8" (20cm) long, 3.15" (8cm) wide and 2.25" (5.8cm) tall.
9.5 ounces (268 grams) in weight.  And, because I'm feeling goofy, the center
of mass is about 4.25" (11cm) back from the front bumper, along the
centerline, and I can't really figure out where the height of the center of
mass is. 

     Colors: The main body color is metalflake silver, about the same tone as
Alt. Silverstreak's paint job, if not quite as shiny.  The silver paint
markers sold at Wal-Mart under the "Painters" brand are almost an exact
match, as I found when I had to repair a scratch on one of the rear window
panels (the clear plastic is painted, the opaque plastic is molded in this
color).  The front, rear and rear side windows are a slightly smoky clear
plastic with black borders, while the front side windows are open.  The
interior dash is black, and the front seats are bright red.  There are no
rear seats.

     Front Details: There are four circular headlights in pairs on either
side.  The outer member of each pair is behind a clear aerodynamic panel,
while the inner headlight of each pair is "open" in front of the black
radiator grille.  A chromed Mustang emblem (the pony that gets Mustangs the
nickname "pony car" or even "My Little Pony") is at the center of the
grille.  Clear red turn signal are wide slits below the outer headlights.
There is a vestigal air dam at the bottom, with four vent holes.  The robot
fists are visible below the air dam.  The hood is featureless (no hood
ornaments or air scoops).
     [Later note: I am told that the inner two "headlights" are actually fog
lamps, exclusive to the GT and an homage to a classic car.]

     Driver's Side Details: The wheels are very dark gray rubber with
five-strutted hubcaps.  Brake discs are visible behind the hubcaps.  "GT" is
molded just behind the front wheel.  The rear view mirror housings are black
and immovable, with chromed mirror surfaces.  The door handle is raised, and
the gas tank cover is above the clear red rear turn signal behind the rear
wheel.  

     Passenger Side Details: Identical to driver's side, but no gas tank lid.

     Top Details: Black windshield wipers are molded at the base of the front
windshield.  The roof is featureless.  The rear window is large and sloped,
and has a silver divider down the middle that's an unavoidable part of the
robot mode.  

     Rear Details: The taillights are colorless clear plastic with red
transparent paint on most of the surface.  Between them is the trunk lock
cover with "GT" printed on it.  Above the trunk lock is the raised 'safety'
third taillight, made from clear red plastic.  Above this is a small rear
spoiler.  In the middle of the rear bumper is a white license plate with an
Autobot symbol on the left and "GRIMLOCK" on the right half.

     Bottom Details: The front end is mainly just robot arms and shoulders.
The "drive train" is Grimlock's sword, made from clear colorless plastic
painted with orange transparent paint on the edges and opaque red plastic on
the hilt.  The underside is pretty solid, thanks to some big panels.  There
are dual chrome mufflers/exhaust pipes at the rear, one on each side.

     Interior Details: The front seats are solid red bucket seats that do not
fold forward.  The dash is black and looks to be correct for the vehicle as
far as I can tell.  The steering wheel is rigid and does not fold down,
unlike most Alternators steering wheels.  It does turn, however.  The inside
panels of the doors are black with red paint detailing.  Inside the hood, the
engine block is detailed quite nicely, and is removable as Grimlock's gun.
It's mostly silver with some black, and a molded "pony" at the front.

     Poseability: The front wheels turn, and are linked by the same sort of
pushbar mechanism as seen in Tracks's front wheels.  However, these ratchet
lightly, so that if you turn the wheels all the way over to one side or the
other, they'll tend to stay there.  The hood opens up about 25 degrees to
reveal the engine block (which clips on somewhat loosely).  Both doors swing
open about 55 degrees, and have the usual sliding joint trick to keep them
from getting too much in the way of the hinge.  The trunk opens about 35
degrees, although all that's inside is robot kibble.

     Weird Options: The legs alone can be transformed to generate a sort of
gerwalk mode.  Also, the head can poke out of the hood on its strut, for a
really odd hood ornament.


TRANSFORMATION

     Okay, this is one of the hardest Alternators transformations to do
without instructions.  Part of this is because some of the parts that are
supposed to move are really firmly pegged in place, or stiffly jointed, so
it's not obvious that they're supposed to move at all.  Additionally, order
of operations if vital on this toy, trying to move things in the wrong order
will leave you holding multiple pieces.  I strongly recommend reading the
instructions on this one.  And paying REALLY close attention to how the
shoulders swing around so that you can get them back in place for vehicle
mode.  
     Particular danger points: Shoulders (as mentioned above), the mid-pelvis
swivel (VERY stiff on mine, regularly pop both legs off at the hips while
trying to turn it), roof (if you're not careful, you can break it while
trying to fold it down).  Also, clipping the shoulders under the front
fenders can be a little tricky.
     FWIW, it took me four tries to fully transform Grimlock without popping
at least one thing off.


ROBOT MODE

     Dimensions: 7.5" (19cm) tall at the head, 7" (18cm) "wingspan" from the
doors on his shoulders.  Weight is unchanged, obviously.  The feet are 2.25"
(5.5cm) long, with significant heel spurs.

     General Shape: Like most Alternators, the front end of the car is the
chest of the robot, and the rear end becomes the legs.  The doors become
wings, but unlike most Alternators door wings, these are edge-forward like
Armada Red Alert, not edge-vertical.  The middle third of the underside forms
a single square buttplate that hangs out back like a shirt tied around his
waist or something.  It's joined out back by the front windshield and roof,
which form a sort of short cape.  The front wheels are attached to the
forearms and flop loosely.  The rear bumper splits to form the knee armor,
and the front seats become the feet.

     Colors: The chest, wings, back kibble and boots are silver car parts.
The forearms are a light gray that blends with the car parts reasonably
well.  
     The head, shoulders, upper arms, hands, abdomen and thighs are made of
black plastic.  The head has a pale gold faceplate, blue visor and a red bit
on the crest of what's essentially the classic G1 Grimlock head morphed
partially to the War Within version (no teeth, though).  Autobot symbols are
tampographed on the shoulders in red and white.
     The pelvis and feet are bright red plastic, and there's a bit of black
paint detail on the pelvis.
     There's an interesting clear plastic detail visible inside the shins, on
the black plastic piece behind the car's rear windows.  It looks like a
spring inside a clear block, as if intended to be a shock absorber, but as
far as I can tell it's all molded, no actual spring.

     Weapons: The engine block's two black sides fold forward as barrels and
a silver handle folds down from the center bottom to make a gun that's
reminiscent of G1 Grimlock's twin missile launcher, if wider (2"/5cm long,
1.25"/3cm wide).  The drive train piece forms a 2.75" (7cm) energo-blade.
Both have pegs that snap firmly into holes on the palms of Grimlock's hands
so that the finger joints don't have to do the heavy work.  Cleverly, the
sword's hilt peg is also one of the pegs that attaches it to the underside of
the vehicle mode.

     Poseability: The head is on a ball joint (which will pop off if you
don't get it in the right place when transforming to car mode).  The waist
turns, and since the big buttflap is attached to the pelvis, it doesn't
really get in the way of this motion.
     The shoulders are hinge-and-swivel universal joints, and the door-wings
do not really interfere with the range of motion.  The elbow is a ball joint,
with an extra hinge for transformation.  The wrists are limited ball joints,
and the finger is hinged separately from the block of the other three
fingers.  The thumb does not move.
     The hips are simple ball joints, and pop off relatively easily.  The
knees are hinges that on their own can bend 180 degrees, but the panels on
the back of the boots block them to only about 45 degrees of bending unless
you open up the panels first.  The feet are actually attached near the
fronts, making for some odd jointing, but they have enough freedom of
movement to support a good range of stances.  There is no mid-hip swivel or
its equivalent, somewhat limiting the stances you can get the legs into in
the first place.

OVERALL

     Challenging to transform, even a bit frustrating.  But a sleek vehicle
mode and good (if not the best) robot mode make up for that if you don't like
puzzles.  Of course, if you don't like puzzles, you probably don't buy
Alternators anyway.  :)  Definitely a keeper, although you might want to pick
up one of those silver paint pens to deal with dings.

     Dave Van Domelen, leaves you with this disturbing kitbash:
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/grimproto.JPG