Cindersaur
(Power of the Primes)
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to PotP Dinobot Slash. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of PotP Dinobot Slash here.)
Cindersaur is an unexpected
repaint/remold of Dinobot Slash, but the colors work well on... him? (The
various card bios use "her" in one of them, but "him" in another one. I
guess I'll go with him for this review since Cindersaur's been male before
this, but given that this toy is remolded from a fembot, hey, if you want
to make Cindersaur a female for this version go right ahead.) Anyways,
the main colors are a reddish purple-- just a titch away from being called
fuchsia, but still just a tad too purple-- and a dull, mustard yellow.
The yellow is used mostly on the dino tail and on the main body. I wish
it had been used just a little more on the dino legs/robot arms and/or
robot legs, but it's still a pretty decent, unique color scheme. Most of
the other paint apps are some variation of gray, with silver on the dino
eyes and inside of the jaw, a light gray on parts of the chest and stomach,
and some dark gray paint apps on the lower legs and on the sides of the
chest. There's also some clear plastic in the same spots as the clear plastic
on PotP Slash, but most of it has been painted over with purple. (The clear
bits on the dino hips/robot shoulders are the most obvious exception to
this.) These rather neutral colors don't add much to the color scheme,
but do at least break up the purple a bit more. There's also some light
green on the robot face, to fit him in with G1 better.
Cindersaur does have
one mold change compared to Slash, and that's a new headsculpt. It's a
rather round head, with a couple of simple ridges on the sides and on the
forehead, two large rectangular eyes, and a "normal" nose and mouth painted
green. The front of the head is also painted purple, but the rest is a
dull mustard yellow, which I rather like as it calls back to the fact that
the original Cindersaur's head was just kinda wedged into the side of his
body, and not a noticeably separate piece like on this toy. Overall, I
like not just the new headsculpt, but the way the colors play off each
other.
If you're looking for
a faithful G1 update, Power of the Primes Cindersaur ain't it. Cindersaur's
original alt mode was a monster, not a raptor, and the original body was
MUCH more squat than PotP Cindersaur's rather lean form. I don't mind reinvention
of characters, and I do like the new look and color layout in robot mode--
but not so much in dino mode, as despite it being a reinvention I would
have preferred a more monstrous, fictional alt mode. I think Slash's color
and character wear this mold noticeably better, but if you want a Cindersaur,
this is pretty much your only relatively cheap option as of this writing
(2/23), and it's still a pretty nice mold overall.
Review by Beastbot