BEAST
WARS: TOY REVIEW
Name: DINOBOT
Allegiance: Cybertron
Function: Specialist
Beast Mode: Velociraptor
Average Price: 1500 JPY
BEAST MODE
Height: 10cm
Length: 21cm
A fairly well moulded Velociraptor toy with a very organic
"reptilian" look to it. The moulding on the head is really nice, especially
the eye (which resembles the reptilian eye on the Western Beast Wars packaging).
The jaw also swings open to reveal an array of pointed teeth!
The most unfortunate feature of this mode is the "undercarriage."
I'm talking about the robot legs, which stick out like the proverbial sore
thumb. Not only is it bulky in comparison with a relatively streamlined
body, but it's a totally different colour from the rest of the toy. Ah
yes, the colour. *shudder* How shall I describe it... perhaps the word
"vomit pink" will do. It's disgusting, really. There are some nice looking
dark brown stripes which accent the toy, but the pink is really, really
horrid. As for the robot legs, they're coloured a tranparent amber and
the lack of any fleshlike moulding worsens the contrast.
Overall, this mode is really well moulded, but it suffers
from a poor colour scheme and badly placed robot legs.
TRANSFORMATION
The tail section is removed and divides to become a spinning
shield and sword. The back section is then raised and the "undercarriage"
swings round to form feet and legs ("and I'll form the head!"). The feet
also have heels which swing out. The sides of the dinosaur (including the
legs) swing up 180 degrees to form the robot arms and sides of the torso.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 13cm
Articulation: 17 points
A totally dorky looking robot unworthy of the name Dinobot.
I'm sure if Dinobot himself were to see this toy, he'd say, "What in the
name of the Inferno is this?!"
First of all, the sickening pink colours really make
the toy look bad and the gumpy robot legs don't help much either. The lower
leg sections, coloured transparent amber, are moulded to somewhat resemble
bones, giving a really lame 'fossil' look. This look is exacerbated by
the lame-arse mutant head. It's just two transparent amber skull-like pieces
of plastic which envelope the robot head. And the worse thing is that it
doesn't open up all the way, so the mutant head is still very visible when
it's open. At least Rhinox's mutant head opens up at a full 90 degrees
angle, giving him a sort of "Wheeljack" look. But Dinobot's mutant head
opens up about 35 degrees..... making it seem that the robot head has 'hatched'
out of the mutant head. I've personally ripped the mutant head off and
thrown them away. However, the one (and arguably only) saving grace would
be the robot head. Sure, it doesn't look much like the way he looks in
the TV show, but I think it's a pretty nice looking head. The face is blue
with yellow eyes, and the rest of the head is brown with a yellow back.
Obviously, there was going to be one of the "glowing eye" gimmicks, where
light comes in from the back and the eyes light up, but for reasons unbeknownst
to me, they decided not to go through with it. Shame really, because it's
a fiendishly simple yet fantastically great looking gimmick!
In this mode, Dinobot wields a sword and spinning shield.
RUB STICKER LOCATION
None. Lame-arse.
OVERALL
Other than the horrid look, Dinobot is actually quite a fun
toy to play with simply because it was well constructed and has good articulation
design. It's the opposite of a MacFarlane toy (which look good but are
dead boring to play with).
RE-ISSUE
In 1999, Hasbro reissued Dinobot, except with a different
and more metalllic colour scheme as part of the relaunch of the Beast Wars
Transformers TV series on the American network Fox! Kids. In this version,
the pink is replaced with a brownish-gold, the brown stripes replaced with
red stripes, both eyes are now solid green, and the transparent parts are
now dark brown, along with brown shoulders, sword, and beast arms, silver
inside the spinning blade, and a red mouth plate. Though oddly enough,
the recolour was based on the Grimlock mould, as he has a rubsign indent,
and his arms are held on by pins instead of screws. Though no other mould
changes were made.
.
(Photos courtesy of Benson
Yee. Text courtesy of Kasady
Voorhees)
BEAST TRIVIA
The word Velociraptor means "speed predator." A member of the Dromaeosaurid
family, Velociraptors are grouped under Therapoda (which includes carnivorous
dinosaurs), which itself is a subdivision of Saurischia (reptile hipped
dinosaurs). The Velociraptor differs from its fellow Dromaeosaurids with
its low and narrow head. Dromaeosaurids varied in size. Like its cousin,
the Dromaeosaurus, Velociraptor was 1.8 metres in length. This made Velociraptor
a relatively small dinosaur, especially if it stood next to another relative,
Deinonychus, which over 3 metres!
Velociraptor lived during the Upper Cretaceous period (about 70 million
years ago). Preserved Velociraptor remains have been found in Mongolia.
During the early 1990s, the Velociraptor was popularised through Steven
Spielberg's Jurassic Park movie. The Dinobot toy was based on that
movie's Velociraptors.
Bibliography: Children's
Musuem of Indianapolis
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