Dave's Deluxe DinoRant: Dinotron, plus comments on the others Well, looks like the Dinobots hit Wal-Marts around the nation with a vengeance this week (well, a fairly weak vengeance, most only got one box, but still), and I picked up the only one that wasn't a recolor of something I already had. Before I go into detail on Dinotron, I'm going to make a few comments on the others, based on the package pictures (which are scanned on my website) and comments I've read from others. Ultra T-Wrecks: Icky name. See my Beast Wars Classic page (http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom/BW/beastold.html) for an in-depth review of the original Ultra Megatron this is a recolor of. T-Wrecks has not yet been spotted anywhere, but it seems to be a straight recolor, with no spark crystal. And I'd guess it doesn't even have a rubsign. [MUCH later correction: The BW Megatron review is now at: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Phase1/UltraW3] Airraptor: Has the same colors as Archadis, but in different order, more yellowy than green. For this and the next two, consult my BW Japan page at http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom/BW/bwjapan.html for full reviews. No undocumented features on this one, and it has a spark crystal, presumably with the group insignia, the Triceratops profile. [Another later correction: the Japanese reviews are now at http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/reviews.html instead.] Triceradon: A nice brown recolor of Guiledart. His "corpse" mode is apparently not listed in the instructions, and the picture on the package takes great care to hide the meaty ribs on his shoulderpad. To get the corpse mode, push back the front horn (which will make the eyes roll back and the tongue loll out) and pull up the side panels. Striker: And okay recolor of Sabreback, but the colors don't work for me, especially how his front legs in beast mode are differently colored from the rest of his body. He has a flower camoflage mode, which involves his main body splaying down flat while his tail is raised up and opened like a flower on a stem. CAPSULE Dinotron: It's a mold that's been used a LOT (Dinobot, Grimlock, re-issue Dinobot with rubsign, Japanese Dinobot (I think there was a little difference in paint there), Thrustol, Hardhead and now Dinotron), but it's not a bad mold. The body suits a Pachycephalosaur better than a raptor anyway, although there's bits of raptor-ness still clinging to the mold. Nice bonus action feature, good color scheme. Recommended. $9.96 at Wal-Mart. RANT The packaging of the Dinobots is basically Beast Machines carding with "Beast Machines" replaced by "Dinobots" in a sort of bony lettering scheme. Here's the line blurb from the package, grammar corrected where necessary. CALL OF THE PRIMITIVES In a desperate attempt to combat Megatron's techno-organic virus on Cybertron, the Oracle supercomputer reformatted a group of surviving Transformers, rendering them immune to the plague and extremely powerful. Having the DNA schematics of former Maximals Dinobot, each warrior emerged as a hybrid if savage prehistoric power and advanced Cybertronian robotics. The result: the fearsome Dinobots are born! So, they're trying to make this a Beast Machines sub-line, I guess. I'm still counting them as Beast Wars, since all the molds are pre-BMac. (Note: I've decided to stop putting in snarky corrections on the techspec notes and just correct them as I type them. If you want to real techspecs, errors and all, you'll need to check elsewhere.) MAXIMAL: Dinotron Beast Mode: Pachycephalosaurs Function: Ground Infantry Motto: "Never let down your defenses...." Stubborn and surly, Dinotron is the most uncooperative of the Dinobots. He does not care for his new techno-organic design, but he's disgusted by Megatron's "new order," and sees it as the greater of two evils. His diamond-plated "helmet," coupled with explosive speed, sends Vehicons flying. His giant tail can shatter a 20-foot concrete cube, while his titanium hide makes him resistant to most attacks. His tail weapon deploys into a spinning blade attack that immediately carbonizes and disintegrates all alloys with which it comes into contact. [Okay, I didn't say I'd make it make any sense...carbonizing alloys? Um, that can often make them stronger.] STR 7.5 INT 6.3 SPD 4.2 END 6.8 RNK 5.0 COUR 8.6 FRP 7.1 SKL 8.5 Avg: 6.75 Hmm, guess they're back to randomly generating attributes, as those numbers really don't fit his techspec at all. I'd suggest: STR 9 INT 6 SPD 4 END 10 RNK 5 COUR 9 FRP 4 SKL 7 Avg 6.75 This better reflects his powerful hand to hand attacks, strong armor and utter lack of ranged attacks (presumably he also has some minor energy blast system not mentioned). Yes, I'm in a snarky mood (Netscrape 4.7 sucks, but all the older and better versions have expired security certificates, so I'm stuck dealing with 4.7...and Internet Exploder's no better). Beast Mode: Basically the same as the original Dinobot's, but with some modifications. The big one, of course, is the beast head, with is now a Pachycephalosaur's (the head-butting dinosaur). Well, the big one if you don't count the color change to green with black spots. }-> Anyway, if you pull the jaw down, Dinotron's yellow cranium rises up in a ramming action. It's not spring-loaded, and if you try to move it quickly you usually end up dislodging the whole head as it's not very securely set in place, but it's a nice gimmick to add. Another remold is the belly, formed from the shins of the robot mode. Rather than being molded like ribs as on Dinobot, they continue the skin pattern on the outsides and have technobits on the insides. This makes them look less like something hanging off the belly. Finally, that mysterious peg on the back is still there, but you can almost do something with it now. While the hole on top of Dinobot's tail unit was too small to fit on the peg, the fit is just right on Dinotron. If you leave the tail base down in robot mode, you can use the peg as storage for the weapon, I suppose, but it looks kinda bad. Or you can mount the tail on his back in beast mode and open up the halves for a sort of jet-powered dinosaur mode. Unfortunately, there's not quite enough clearance for the tail to spin while open and attached to the peg, because that would be cool if it worked. What is unchanged, however, can lead to some incongruities. Dinotron still has the claws and combat-toes of a raptor, features a bit out of place on a plant-eater. Also, apparently the piece on the back of the neck that flips up to let the head through in transformation must be on the same mold piece as the hips and forelegs, since it's black and kinda stands out. Of course, on Dinobot it was the right base color, but unpainted so it stood out anyway. Some things never change, I guess. Transformation: Identical to Dinobot, Grimlock, Thrustol, etc, with one little difference. He has little tabs on the fold-out part of his feet to make them easier to grab. Robot Mode: Because of the way the legs rotate during transformation, Dinotron's robot legs look a lot more robotic than Dinobot's, as his technobits are now on the outsides. Also, he lacks the stupid mutant head feature Dinobot was saddled with, and his remolded head looks rather nice. The green, black and yellow color scheme is much more harmonious than Dinobot's beige, brown and translucent orange scheme. Also, his heel spurs are a little longer, giving him more stability. Finally, Dinotron seems to be overall stiffer and higher quality than Dinobot. This may be the result of aging (I don't think I've played with Dinobot enough to really wear out all the joints), or simply of the new plastic curing slightly larger and hence tighter. Overall: This is a good remold of a decent mold, and overall a pretty good toy. And in a reversal of the usual pattern, Hasbro took a Japanese mold and gave it a better color scheme (Hardhead was an awful blue and purple mess). I guess it's less "Takara has better color sense" and more "given another try, anyone can make it work better." }-> Dave Van Domelen, putting Dinobot back in his place on the file cabinet as Slide Rule Stand....