Saturday, April 19, 2008

Me Grimlock!

Guess what? I was able to pick up a classic deluxe Grimlock for 500 bucks! That's cool considering that before his price was jacked up ridiculously to 1200 Pesos! So, when I saw him I immediately grabbed him and headed straight to the cashier!




Here he is in package, and all he really comes with is his electro sword / gun / missile launcher. I didn't care however, I wanted him since I saw him 2 years ago!




After opening the packaging, you are greeted by every TF owners worst nightmare. The dreaded twist ties!

These are sheer lunacy! I mean there were 6 of them on this deluxe figure alone, when I brought Galaxy Force Primus 2 years back he had like a million of these things, I was afraid I would never get to play with him...

Grimlock on the other hand only came with 6, so I managed.




Sheer madness!




Here he is freed from his plastic and carton confines. He actually looks really good. No robot kibble to speak of, cept maybe you can see his chest from one side, and that's only if you look in between his leg and body.

He holds up pretty well, joints are sturdy and can hold a standing position. So I'm happy with that, however the joints were a little loose when I rotated them from left to right... So he can't cha cha cha, still a good buy!




So, next up is his robot form, I have heard rumors that his robot form is flimsy and doesn't hold well together, no better way of finding out than to see for myself. So here he is beginning his transformation.

First up, we separate the neck and gullet area from the main body.




Then we pull down the flaps on the side and pull down the tail section as well, this reveals his head.




After rotating his legs and upper body, we get a seemingly tangled mess. This is where Grimlock becomes unique, to facilitate his alternate form, they were a little creative with how you turn the rex legs into the arms. It involves rotating one leg until its oriented towards the other side of the body as seen above. Then you swivel the arms / shoulders into place to complete the transformation.

There are tabs located at the side of his collar that supposedly lock the swiveling shoulder mechanisms in place, however the collar piece is reversed on my Grimlock (a result of shoddy QA or a mold defect) this prevents the tabs from doing any actual locking, this is what every Grimlock owner complains about apparently.

However, I don't think it's a big deal. Mine is stable even without the locks, and is not flimsy at all. Maybe after a couple dozen transformations the swiveling mechanisms will loosen up, but for now it's ok.




Here he is in robot mode! A handsome fella even if I do say so myself...




Here is a closeup of his head, there is red piping making his visor glow with the light, cool. I just love the detail of his head!




Here is another shot of his body in robot mode, the rex head as feet are not too bad also, you can pose him, but it may take a while. Aggravating that might be that the ball joints for hip connectors are loose, but a little transparent nail polish should tighten those joints up nicely.




With his electro sword thingy.





A back side view. Notice the tail making his back detail a little more dinosaur like.




He can also equip his tail as some sort of whip weapon or maybe as an homage to Beast Wars Megatron!




Grimlock waving buh - bye!

Grimlock is a FANTASTIC buy for 500 bucks, I can see that someone paying 1200 Pesos would probably complain, but hey, I'm perfectly fine with my 500 Peso buy!

This should tie me over until I get my hands on the animated voyager version of Grimlock!

Peace O_o x

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