Dinotron
Beast mode is a pachycephalosaurus
(try saying that five times fast). Upon a first glance, one can easily
tell that this is a remolded and repainted version of the original
Dinobot toy. It is also a repaint of the Japanese Beast Wars toy, Hardhead.
The detailing, color scheme, and molding of this toy is very nice. There
is a cool action feature that has both a good side and a bad side. When
you open up Dinotron's jaw, his forehead plate moves up, the "head-butting
action". This is pretty cool, but considering that you have to open his
mouth to do this, it sorta makes it look like he's saying, "WHOA!". There
are several downsides to this mode, however. For one, because this toy
was originally supposed to be a raptor, it's not entirely accurate in this
mode. From what we know, pachcephalosauruses longer and skinnier tails,
they aren't that hunched over, and they don't have sharp teeth and clawed
hands and feet- they're plant eaters. Another downside, and probably the
most obvious, are the enormous extras on Dinotron's neck and underbelly-
his robot legs. These stick out a bunch, and while they don't get in the
way much, they make this mode look a little odd and a bit too bulky. They
also do not completely cover up the robot head in the neck, and thus, the
forehead of the robot head shows a little in this mode. Another downside,
although it is minor, is that the tail doesn't stay still, put twirls around
pretty easily. While this originally wouldn't be much of a problem, it's
very noticeable because of the spots on the upper side of the tail.
A little thing I noticed
during this bot's transformation: HE HAS NO SPARK ORB! That's right, Hasbro
made a big boo-boo with this toy in that aspect of it. And no, it doesnt
have a allegiance symbol square that you can rub either. This toy simply
has no allegiance symbols on it whatsoever. Just another example of the
effort put in by Hasbro to assure that none of its toys have defects. (In
case you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic there.)
Robot mode is very nice.
The only extras in this mode are the raptor arms on Dinotron's lower body
sides and the upper tail on his back, but these are very minor and don't
get in the way much. In this mode, it becomes apparent what parts were
remolded from the original Dinobot figure. They are: 1. The dino head &
jaw. 2. The robot head. 3. The robot legs. 4. The back ends of the robot
feet. A nice detailing feature in this mode is the cool "half-metallic,
half-organic" look on the legs. The weapons are pretty cool as well. The
spinning shield rotates when you press a button on the stationary part
of the weapon. While this is cool, make sure your finger doesn't get smacked,
as the button that rotates the shield is very close to the rotating part
itself. The sword looks pretty cool as well, although the fact that is
bent a little detracts from the menacing look of it a bit. The robot head
is MUCH better than the original Dinobot's head, in my opinion. It doesn't
have any stupid mutant mask on it that always gets in the way, and the
face reminds me a little of an organic, red-and-green G1
Hot Rod's face. The beast head sticks out a little too far from the
chest for my liking, however.
Although the beast mode
is a little worse than the original Dinobot's, the robot mode is better,
in my opinion. This probably would have been my favorite Dinobot if he
had not already been a repaint and remold of another U.S. figure.
Review by Beastbot