From a side view, the 1-step changer of Grimlock's "t-rex made of knives" mode doesn't look half bad, particularly for the subline. The head is quite nicely proportioned with the horns more prominent and closer to how they look on the movie than on most of Grimlock's other AoE toys; his arms are fairly proportioned as well. His tail is just a tad short and his neck-to-stomach area is just a tad long, but both of these are fairly easily overlooked. He's also got tons of mold detailing as well, with armor plating and semi-jagged teeth-like details everywhere. He's got a pretty good amount of paint detailing on him, with nearly all of his underbelly coated in a nice dark metallic gunmetal gray that contrasts with his main color of a brownish bronze very well-- sure, it's not movie-accurate, but it DOES look good. The silver on his face is also placed well, and his blue eyes really stand out against their surrounding colors. There are a few areas-- his hips and the top of his tail, mainly-- where another paint app or two would've helped break up all the brown-bronze, but overall I'm satisfied with this aspect of the toy. The only robot extras in this mode are the fists obviously visible on the back of the dino feet, which is fairly minor. However, this mold has a major flaw in this mode and that's-- well Grimlock's got BACK. From viewed from any angle remotely approaching a top-view the width of Grimlock's hips is downright ridiculous, being nearly twice as wide as the rest of his body, and oversized in terms of their general proportional size as well. His dino legs are also a bit squat too, but this could simply be because of how small they look compared to his enormous hip pieces. Grimlock, sadly, can't move at all in this mode, beyond ever-so-slight side-to-side articulation at the legs, slightly below the hips.
    To transform Grimlock to robot mode, you simply take his hip pieces and pull them apart, and the entire toy auto-transforms from that motion. Grimlock's robot mode isn't as good as his beast mode, with the proportional maladies multiplying. His hips were way too wide in beast mode and those pieces-- which are the shoulders now-- are way too wide in robot mode. His chest is ridiculously wide as well, and this is made worse by his lower body being a bit skinny proportionally; most of his legs are merely the halves of the front half of his t-rex mode split apart slightly, and his waist is made up of only a few minor plastic bits, with his tailpiece going down the back. That said, there's certainly SOME positives about this mode. The dark gray plastic that's seen in this mode is very close to the shade of metallic gunmetal gray paint used, and both look pretty much like the same color next to each other. The gray is a bit more prevalent in this mode, adding more contrast, and Grimlock's headsculpt is pretty spot-on and well-detailed, with it looking like he's got some teeth behind a partial faceplate-- definitely a very unique and frightening-looking head, there. The "teeth" detailing on his chest is also done well, and I love how little parts of his t-rex head actually rotate around so he has his "knight shoes". His arms also look pretty good, for what they are. For articulation, Grimlock can move back-and-forth at the shoulders. Not much movement, but then again that's not the point of this simplified subline.
    Age of Extinction One-Step changer Grimlock is my least favorite of his various toys throughout the line. He certainly has some positives, like a good amount of paint detailing, some great mold detailing, and a decent color scheme, but all of this is overshadowed by his severe proportional issues-- most especially his ridiculously wide hips in t-rex mode and his ridiculously wide shoulders and chest in robot mode. If you want a simpler toy of the AoE Grimlock design, go for the Flip 'n Change version instead.
 

Review by Beastbot

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