Grimlock's movie version has the beast mode of a t-rex, just like he's pretty much always been, but it's a t-rex that looks like he's half-armor, half-knives. This is one FEARSOME looking T-rex, and definitely doesn't even pretend to pass for a realistic one-- he's even got little "demon horns" on the back end of his head, though they're stubby on this toy for safety reasons, of course. The voyager version of this design has a t-rex mode that is decent, but when compared to the robot mode you can definitely tell that-- unlike with most Dinobot toys-- this was the lesser priority of the two modes. The legs look great, as does the t-rex head (even if the proportions of the latter are a bit stubbier, with the jaw not as impressive as on the CGI toy), but the main body is a bit misshapen given what he has to turn into. The back has an odd little hump to it (that's used to mostly cover up the robot head), and the robot chest details are obvious on the lower back. The front lower section below the neck is also a bit hollow, with only two slightly curved panels partially covering up the obvious robot hips and upper legs down there-- and these two panels do not sit flush with the legs, a missed opportunity to make this section of the mode look better than it does. There's also two little t-rex limbs attached to these limbs on ball joints, but they're honestly a bit small even for a t-rex. The tail is very obviously the robot feet pressed together with a noticeable gap down the middle, which isn't TOO bad of a tail, if a bit short-- however, the weapon storage involves sliding the mace head onto the end of the tail, which makes the tail waaaay too dang long. (Unfortunately, there's no other way to store the mace weapon in this mode.) On the plus side, as I briefly touched on earlier there's LOTS of excellent mold detailing-- his multi-ridged eyes look bizarre and awesome at the same time, he's got way too many teeth and bone or armor-like ridges everywhere, huge claws on his feet, and generally just looks like a powerhouse. His color scheme isn't movie-accurate, but for me that's acceptable for a mainline release-- given how silver he was on-screen, making him all gray plastic would've been a bit boring. Instead the bronze-brown is a pretty nice shade that both contrasts and complements with the silver, black, and gray quite well. (Unfortunately, yes, his gray plastic is that really blah milky gray plastic that's used on way too many movie TFs in particular, but at least much of it is painted silver on this toy.) For articulation in this mode, Grimlock can move back and forth at the ear-horns (individually), at the neck, at the hips (at two points), knees (at two ponts), ankles, and at the arms (at two points). For a gimmick in this mode, pressing in on the gray tab on the side of Grimlock's neck causes his jaw to close in a little "chomping" action, though once you let go of the tab his mouth gapes open again; I would've preferred more straightforward mouth articulation.
    Grimlock's robot mode is where the really impressive design work went, and it looks incredibly well done-- he's slightly less bulky than his movie model, but given physics I can give the designers an easy pass in this respect. He's still pretty darned well-proportioned, with nice, thick arms, armored and spiked legs, really neat "hip skirts" made out of the flaps with the t-rex arms on them from beast mode, and the way his dino-head halves frame his robot head as shoulder pads looks REALLY awesome-- I'm glad it was replicated with so many of the other TF4 Dinobot designs. There are a few extras that don't look as good, though; the most egregious are the panels hanging off his back-- a panel of his dino back is hanging off his upper back, and his dino jaw is hanging right off his butt, neither of which look good from side angles. The dino feet are stuck on the back of his lower arms in this mode, which succeeds in making said arms "meatier", but at the same time aren't movie-accurate at all and just too obvious. They also make Grimlock's wrists stuck in one position unless you untab the feet from the lower arms, which can then allows the wrists to rotate-- but then the foot pieces don't secure well to his lower arms. Le sigh. As I've already mentioned, Grimlock's mold detailing is nothing short of stellar, with a very unique head design with a large, single horn, and a helmet flanking fierce, narrowed eyes, and what looks like a mouth full of teeth partially hidden by a mask. The fake dino teeth on the chest also look mighty nice, and all the armor ridges and pointy toes really help to sell his "knight" look, as does all the silver paint-- Grimlock's not lacking for paint apps, here. Grimlock is also quite articulated-- he can move at the neck (at two points), shoulders (at two points-- three more if you include his shoulder pads and dino horn-ears), elbows (at two points), hips (at three points), knees, tilt joints just above the ankles (!), and one point at each foot. Thus, he's very stable, with the lack of waist and knee rotation being the only really missing points, here. Grimlock's mace weapon-- quite impressive in its length, with some pretty huge spikes-- can be held in either of his hands, but oddly, the handle for it sticks out of the side of the shaft, which isn't at all how a the weapon is supposed to be held. Why they couldn't just make the hands able to just grasp the handle like someone would a real mace, I'll never know.
    AoE voyager Grimlock is the better of the two "Generations" molds of him. The beast mode has several iffy aspects, to be sure, such as some odd protrusions and robot kibble around the main body, but it still looks good enough. His robot mode is absolutely stellar, with great proportions, articulation, detailing, and is just generally fiercesome-looking in all the right ways. My personal favorite mold out of all the different toys of this design.

*There is an online retailer "Platinum Edition" version of this mold released with Evasion Optimus Prime. Neither are very different from the originals; regarding Grimlock, the only real noticeable difference is that some of his head, jaw, and back of the neck are chrome silver, and there's a few silver paint apps on his dino legs/robot arms. Personally I like the mass retail version a bit better as the chrome looks a bit "forced" and gaudy on the Platinum Edition.

Review by Beastbot

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