Grimwing's the only one of the Prime Predacons that doesn't seem to be any sort of dragon, having more avian features. It's been said by the designers that he's a take on an "ursa-griff"-- half bear, half griffon-- though I've never been aware of that kind of fantasy creature. Grimwing's beast mode is quite solid, keeping the wide wingspan of many Predacons while having a curvier, more powerful-looking body than most of them-- that's the "bear" half, I'm guessing. His proportions are generally solid, though his back legs suffer from the "stand me up and flip my head" transformation by being a tad too long proportionally-- this is emphasized by Grimwing's short stubby tail and the large green "clamp"-like pieces that become his robot heels. Beyond the aforementioned clamp pieces and thumbs on his front feet, Grimwing has no robot mode extras at all in this mode. His mold detailing is excellent, blending in an armor-style look with the curves and relatively sparse detailing on most of his body with a feathery look on his wings (the individual "feathers" look like blades, a nice touch) and some Cybertronian runes here and there on his body, though the large ones on his wings are the only ones that are actually painted. (I'm not a fan of the hollowed-out plastic on the back side of his wings, however, which is more visible in this mode.) Grimwing's beast head is done particularly excellently, with dragon-like head crests but an otherwise avian-looking head, complete with a beak and bird eyes. His weapon is actually a little partner figure, "Blackbeak", which is basically a claw-push missile launcher with some decorative detailing and runes that has a face on the front. It's a shame Grimwing wasn't in the show-- the dynamic between him and Blackbeak, hinted at in his bio, would've made for some interesting dialogue. Regardless, it's a fairly solid claw launcher, and the claw is on a string that can (mostly) fit inside a little compartment on Blackbeak so the string doesn't stick out too much when the claw isn't fired. As far as the color scheme, this is the one area where I think Grimwing falls a little flat here. Having two different complementary shades of green looks nice and helps differentiate him from the other Predacons (the light green isn't sickly pale in person like it appears in the above pics), and the semi-metallic greenish blue is an EXCELLENT shade of plastic that goes with all the other colors very well, and I wish had been used more. However, too much of Grimwing is just a dark flat gray that just looks rather bland in the large amounts it's used. Most of Grimwing's paint budget is used on his wings and heads, so his appendages tend to be fairly sparsely painted, as well-- more of the decorative runes on his body in particular would've looked quite nice painted. For articulation in this mode, Grimwing can move at the mouth, neck, shoulders (at four points), front knees (at two points), front ankles (at two points), hips (at three points), rear knees (at three points), and rear ankles (at two points), while Blackbeak's mouth can open at the base of each "beak" half. Grimwing's wings can only rotate at the little talon pieces on the ends, so I wish his wings could move more, but other than that he's quite poseable in this mode.
    Grimwing's transformation is very much your typical beast "stand me up and flip my head" sequence, so he largely looks like his beast mode standing up with a new head in robot mode-- which is pretty much exactly what he is. This kind of transformation is okay on a deluxe-or-smaller toy, but at a Voyager size class I want a little more interesting of a transformation than this. What's worse, Grimwing's bird head-chest and neck section come down in between the side body pieces, which split apart a bit for the transformation. The light green pieces on Grimwing's chest are SUPPOSED to lock his chest and neck assembly into place, but they really don't. It's not outright floppy, but this means that when fiddling with this section of him his chest/head can start to move up or his shoulders move down unintentionally, which is a huge oversight-- I'm not sure why just a locking tab or two wasn't included with this step, it would've solved everything. As it is, the upper body is a little annoying to fiddle with, and there's noticeable gaps in between his head/beast neck pieces and his shoulders, making it look like the latter parts are sagging a bit. Other than this big downside, this mode is pretty solid-- mostly because, again, it's just the beast mode standing up. There's no extras to speak of, though the rear "clamp" heel pieces do look a little out-of-place on what is otherwise a rather curvy 'bot. His headsculpt is pretty interesting, being fairly round while also having "antennae" that resemble his beast head crests. The whole chest design does LOOK good as well, even if it doesn't connect together well, with lots of colors and armor-like detailing all coming together with the bird head top at the center. Plus, with Grimwing's substantial heels, he's quite stable in spite of being a little back-heavy because of his wings. In this mode, Grimwing can move at the neck, shoulders (at four points), elbows (at two points), wrists, at the bottom of each thumb, and at the hips (at three points), knees (at two points), at the heels, and at the ankles (at two points), so he's fairly poseable in this mode as well. And yes, Grimwing can hold Blackbeak in either of his hands, along with storing the little guy in a port on Grimwing's back. A "hidden" feature is that Grimwing's green parts on his shoulders can slide out and be held in either of his hands, like some sort of hammer head weapons.
    Grimwing starts out pretty nicely with a solid beast mode that differentiates itself from Grimwing's fellow Predacons quite well and looks good to boot, but his color scheme isn't the best, and in robot mode the inability of his chest and shoulders to lock together is quite annoying, even if his proprtions in both modes are basically kibble-free. Despite his transformation being very much "been there, done that", he'd still be an easy recommendation if his robot mode chest stayed together well, but as-is, I'd only give him a mild recommendation.

(Continued from Chapter 14, Deluxe Dreadwing)
The higher he soars into the unfamiliar sky, the more his mind clears. Grimwing remembers his time in the Hyperevolution Chamber. He remembers the "lessons" fed directly into his brain by Shockwave. But he also knows there must be more to the world into which he has been reborn, and he is determined to discover it. That's when his highly sensitive optics spot a Cybertronian signature on the ground below. Judging by the size and power of the stranger, he knows it must be a brother warrior-- a kindred spirit. "Yes! Fight!" screeches Blackbeak, but Grimwing shakes his head. "No. We seek knowledge, not battle. For now," he says, and banks, descending toward the distant stranger.
(Continued in Chapter 16, Voyager Ultra Magnus)

Blackbeak:
-Semi-intelligent companion to Grimwing. Does not always offer the best advice.
-Fires a powerful claw that grips and crushes targets.
-Can fly and fight independent of Grimwing.

Strength: 10.0
Intelligence: 9.0
Speed: 8.0
Endurance: 10.0
Rank: 9.0
Courage: 10.0
Fireblast: 9.0
Skill: 9.0

Review by Beastbot

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