Dave's Construct-Bots Rant: Dinobots Wave 1 Strafe (Two-headed Pterodactyl) Grimlock (T.rex, not bought) Dinobot Slug (Triceratops) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/KREO/ConstructD1 I skipped Grimlock because so far I've only seen these at Toys R Us, and the local TRU was limiting people to two figures. They counted Construct- Bots as figures, but Kre-O as construction, so I was able to also get all four of the new Microchange Combiners, but Grimlock stayed on the shelf. I'm not going to do the usual capsules/rant thing here, just some short and unorganized observations on the two I got, and generalizing as much as possible to how this size class is going to be. Of the two I bought, Strafe is better (Slug is more ambitious, but falls flat). To start with, these use entirely new frames, and pegs are gone entirely. Everything is clipped on, or rubberized ball and socket, like with the Dino Riders. Lots of places to clip things on, lots of spare clips, but no pegs or peg holes (other than awkwardly using a clip for a peg). Even things that look like they should be pegged, like Slug's horns, are clipped. So, while entire limbs can be swapped out with older Construct-Bots, you can't put armor pieces from one line on the skeleton of another. The design is simplified by putting the necks as fixed extensions of the torso rather than separate pieces, so the heads can't be folded away and have to just be covered up. This line adds geared motion gimmicks, where turning an exposed large gear makes something move. Strafe has flapping wings, Slug has his neck frill spinning (which sort of works in robot mode too, but the gear is hard to get at). Slug has way too much mass devoted to his gimmick, leading to a robot with a huge backpack. The backplates for each figure are highly specific (wing mechanism, spinny mechanism), and include a clip for the Dino Rider. A rod on the pelvis of the Dino Rider figures snaps in, but you need to displace their backpacks to get the pelvis close enough to snap in. In both cases, the instructions are kinda vague about how to position the dino mode legs. This is a minor problem on Strafe, but it took me a while to find positions for Slug's legs that didn't make the mode look hideous. And, frankly, there's no GOOD pose, the dino mode looks more like a hound with long rear legs than a trike. In general, these are bigger than the previous Scouts (Strafe is 7.5"/18cm tall at the head)...although interestingly they're labeled as E3:01 through E3:03, suggesting that they're meant to be the new Elite class. The boxes are Scout sized, though, and the toys are $10. The new ball joints aren't as good. They pop apart too easily when you're trying to rotate a piece for transformation. Tails become weapons, although in Slug's case is looks like he's carrying a weird wine decanter or something and is offering to top off your drink.