The packaging says that Grimlock is a backhoe, but he's actually a construction excavator vehicle. This mode looks pretty nice overall, with a very nice color scheme. Unlike Heavy Load and Hightower, Grimlock does not have a "kiddy" look to him in his vehicle mode. It's very well-balanced overall, and the shovel-arm is the perfect size. I especially like the gold trim on the end of it. Grimlock can swerve his upper part around 360 degrees in this mode as well, which is a very nice touch and allows for some "poses" in vehicle mode. The thing that really bugs me about this mode, however, is the fact that Grimlock's connector (used only for combining into Landfill) sticks out rather blatantly in between Grimlock's two treads. Speaking of the treads, the tab that connects them to the main part doesn't hold them in that well, so they can disconnect from the main part entirely too easily in this mode, which is rather annoying. Not to mention that part of the robot feet are clearly visible on the inside of the treads as well. The treads aren't rubber, but making them such would be impossible due to the transformation. So, there's just two little plastic wheels on the bottom of the treads to move him around. It actually moves bettter than rubber treads would have anyway, so I'm not complaining. The back of his robot head is also a bit visible in the back part of the main part of the vehicle mode, but this is rather minor. A rather neat secret for this mode not talked about in the instructions is that, by pressing down on a small tab near the bottom of Grimlock's shovel-arm, a "lower jaw" snaps out on a spring, which actually makes the shovel-arm look a bit like some kind of mecha-dinosaur mouth. A nice touch.
    Grimlock's robot mode really doesn't look that good, and is even less playable than it looks. For one, Grimlock's arms are articulated, but all in the wrong ways. There isn't really any kind of arm pose you can get him in that looks normal. He almost always looks like he's some kind of weird praying mantis, the way his arms are positioned. His arms are also rather asymmetrical, and not in a good way- one of his lower arms is transparent and slightly larger than the other way. Originally, such in X-Brawn's case, this asymmetry is good when taken to an extreme, but in such a small case as this, it just looks... wrong. The upper part of his arms also doesn't "lock" into any sort of position, so it's easy to accidentally turn them upwards and dislodge the shoulder blades. Rather sloppily-built, there. Grimlock's legs are rather long, but they wouldn't look that bad if it wasn't for the fact that his waist has no "set" position where it's locked. Because of his, his legs are usually in an uneven position unless you're really careful. His lower legs also look a bit hollow, and rather detract from the appearance a bit. At least he's rather large for a deluxe, which is a plus. Grimlock's shovel detaches from his vehicle mode and re-attaches on his back in this mode, making it look like he has some kind of cool scorpion tail. Nifty! However, it fits into Grimlock's back tab a bit loosely, so it falls off a bit easier than I'd like. Grimlock's back connector tab (used when combining into Landfill) also sticks out of his back a bit too much for my liking. Grimlock's face and chest are very well-done and detailed; Grimlock's face looks like it has a miniature shovel on the top of it, which hints at his vehicle mode. He also has a nice grin detailed onto his face, which adds to his character. On his chest, you can see all sorts of neat patterns, and some mechanical tubing in the lower regions. A nice touch.
    Becomes either both the arms or one of the legs for Landfill, depending on the configuration.
    Although Grimlock has his nice points, including a robot mode with a lot of character and a pretty decent vehicle mode, he has a lot of flaws, too. My least favorite of the Build Team members.

Review by Beastbot

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