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Dinosaur warrior Dinosaur Bot POWERFUL
Another crappy review with scaled down high quality images by someone who knows nothing about the art of toys
(if any)
My first venture into toy reviewing isn't one I look proudly upon because the Revoltech line is awesome, but spending £20 on a Megatron figure whose only real improvement over the significantly cheaper Mega SCF line being his leg movement and improved poseability factor wasn't exactly something I took lightly. But it's awesome! Ignore the whining!
And thus, my second attempt focuses on something that cannot be countered with
popular opinion; obscure unlicensed knockoffs! I picked up this bad boy in
Spain, where Beast Wars is still a popular target to make similar products of,
apparently, and some weren't exactly subtle about it; one of them had Rhinox
quite clearly visible on the boxart along with all new characters! I was spoilt
for choice, but admittedly the choices sucked, and I only picked this one
because A) it's a velociraptor, thus allowing me to recreate the kitchen scene
from Jurassic park with a transformation gimmick; B) it's head looks like Optimus Prime, and
C) it doesn't even need to transform to munch on a few heads.
If it's jaw could actually move, that is.
For being €5, Dinosaur warrior Dinosaur Bot POWERFUL is a pretty good deal; in
robot mode he stands at about five or six inches tall, give or take if you count
his ludicrous tail decoration, while in dinosaur mode he's roughly 4 and a half
inches, which means he kind of towers over the rest of my Transformers except in
dinosaur mode, in which case he becomes an unsteady, far-too-tall steed for
those that can actually sit.
Poseability, however, is not exactly in abundant amounts, but I can't say I'm
complaining. The shoulders can rotate, the forearms can move in and out (which
is more for the transformation than anything), the elbows can turn, the hands
can swivel and he can bend down slightly. And the dinosaur arms can go up and
down. Oddly, in dinosaur mode that is the only articulation he has; the last
part of the sequence is to lock the legs into place on the torso, keeping them
in place but nowhere else, and comes across as a little unnecessary. What's the
point of being a raptor if you can only hobble after your prey? Ain't gonna
catch a gazelle that way, no sir.
In addition to being a mothertruckin' raptor, Dinosaur warrior also comes with a
pea green AK47 and a ludicrously huge sword. There isn't much worth saying about
the gun, I must admit; it's a gun that's totally green and is actually in
semi-proportion to a robot that turns into a dinosaur. His sword, on the other
hand, is HUUUGE. It's almost as tall as Dinosaur warrior in robot mode, and
bigger than all of the Mega SCF figures! It's a flat-out hilarious sight seeing
this guy wield a sword almost as big as himself, especially with Star Saber and
his wimpy blade standing right next to him.
I'd like to note that his hands aren't exactly good for holding things, as the
handles of his weaponry get a little scraped when being removed, though
considering I kept thinking the big guy was going to break all the way through
his transformation, no big deal I suppose. And who else would actually get this
figure?
Like every time I've got a new figure that isn't one of them non-transformable
ones, working out what goes where can be tricky, and as everything the fear of
breaking it is always evident, especially with it being a toy with no year of
manufacturing date, who made it or anything like that. The first thing the
odd-looking instructions say is to push in his feet and retract his legs until
they meet his waist, which is no problem on the right leg, but the left has been
a major pain in the ass to do the same with, and ultimately I'm not even sure if
I can get them in far enough as they're intended.
The torso is then raised until it can lie backwards and form the raptor's back,
which is something that isn't made clear by the instructions but is easy to
accomplish; the waist is then pushed upward to allow the legs to form the
stomach, the knees becoming belly blasters or something. The arms become the
legs of the raptor, thus the hands have to be pushed in and rotated so the
dinosaur feet face forward, and you direct them downwards and connect them with
the torso or else the poor guy wouldn't be able to stand. And that's terrible.
Finally, you connect the tail and push his head into his body, and tada! The
warrior is now a Dinosaur and can go about munching on Bumblebee 'til the cows
come home.
This is all fine and dandy, but how does he look? Well, dinosaur mode is
obviously the highlight of the figure, despite my preference towards robot
modes, and it all looks very nice even with the giant bits of yellow robot
sticking out and those out-of-place belly blasters. The fact that only it's arms
can be moved is a bit of a bummer, though skipping connecting his legs to his
torso gives the opportunity for slightly broader posing, though naturally you
can't make it run without looking stupid.
The robot mode isn't as pretty as it could be, but considering any more colour
applications would mess with the dinosaur's look, it's understandable. The fact
he's got four arms is pretty rad, and there's just something appealing about
having the front of a velociraptor sticking out of your chest. The main choice
in picking this figure, however, was the fact Dinosaur warrior's head is more or
less the same as Optimus Prime's; it's an ugly shade of yellow, admittedly, and
it's missing the little pointy "ears" Prime has, but it's a good looking face.
However, his head is also his ass.
Not a pretty sight.
So yeah. Dinosaur warrior Dinosaur Bot POWERFUL is a pretty rad figure,
especially for being so cheap; if I didn't have to go to Spain to get more of
these wacky knockoff figures I'd happily get the rest, what with the
real deals being far too expensive in the eyes of a tight arse (me), and there's
just something interesting about their wacky designs. I mean, one of them looks
like a pteranodon had some sort of illegitimate liaison with the Tin Man.
That's frightening, and also a very awkward way to end my rambling. More reason
to do precisely that!
BONSU!!!
Turns out these guys are available online!
The Dinosaur Store has the whole crew available with prices ranging from $7.99 to $17.99. Factoring in shipping costs, it's definitely cheaper getting them in Spain, but then there's the fact that going abroad ain't exactly free either. What to do, what to do!
BONSU 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO!!!
Have some photos I didn't have space to work into aforementioned rambling without things getting ugly.
Dinosaur warrior's back, which isn't actually eye-pleasing but it shows how his mechanics work in transformation, which naturally I find interesting.
Size comparison with Classics Starscream. Roughly the same height, but Starscream's a lot stockier.
Blurrier look at the dinosaur mode without Hot Shot taking the spotlight.
Chillin' alone.
Chillin' with Optimus Prime. Sadly, Dinosaur warrior can't hold either weapon with both hands, so he has to settle with overcompensating.
Jurassic Park dinosaur (aka Space Dinosaur) as Dinosaur warrior's dinosaur mode's steed. And the Homestar Runner Wiki on my monitor.
And best of all...
The other Dinosaur warriors and their transformations, all in wacky colours that are definitely not right!
