The Knight Armor Turbo
Changer Grimlock toy is the only large, new-mold toy released for the character
for The Last Knight (though given the number of toys on him released in
this movie's line, you'd be hard-pressed to know it). As such, not just
the coloration, but the mold details themselves are definitely more accurate
to the movie model than his other TLK toys. In beast mode, Grimlock's teeth
are more insanely long with larger demon-like horns on his body, a better,
more "spiny rock" tail, and just a heck of a lot of impressive detailing
on his neck and legs that almost all line up with the show model. Which,
given all this and his beady red little eyes, makes him look even more
like a bad guy than many of his other toys. Anyways, the proportions in
this mode are largely pretty good overall, though perhaps his body could've
used a BIT more girth. Also, there's a couple of kibble issues; like with
the AoE Flip 'n Change toy, the robot
chest and arms are right there underneath the front section of the body,
and the chest in particular really sticks out. The Knight Armor helmet
that gives the subline the name for its gimmick also just hangs off the
end of his tail without any attempt to hide it-- which, given how many
spikes are on the thing, makes it pretty darned obvious. The color scheme
for Grimlock fits his AoE/TLK coloration pretty well, with some dull brownish
gray making up most of his plastic (though with more of an emphasis on
the gray than the brown, when compared to most brownish-gray shades), along
with-- unfortunately-- a lot of that awful light milky gray plastic on
his feet, arms, and much of his face. There's also some silver paint on
his hips, knees, horns, and the "smokestack-like" upper back spikes. A
metallic version of the brownish-gray plastic is also painted on some of
his face to help break up the light gray. So there are a fair number of
paint apps-- particularly for a simplified toy-- but he still just has
a very dull, boring, monochromatic color scheme that I can't say I dig,
even if it's fairly movie-accurate. I also really would've liked some paint
on his claws. For articulation, Grimlock can move his dino arms back-and-forth
at the shoulders, and his feet can rotate. That's really it, but Turbo
Changers have never been particularly poseable.
To transform Grimlock
to his robot mode, just flip up his tail piece and connect it to the black
clip on his back-- the rest of him will mostly auto-transform, though you
may need to give his dino head-shoulders a bit of an assistance by separating
them a little manually. The end result is a bit better than his beast mode,
even if the legs here are kept the exact same as his dino legs, complete
with the toes. The dino head-halves make for excellent shoulders, with
arms a titch stubby, but still functional. The extras are more easily overlooked
in this mode, being just the dino arms on the back of his upper robot arms,
and the knight helmet behind and above his normal head (which I'll get
to shortly). The mold detailing continues to be incredibly good in this
mode, especially for a simplified toy. He's got excellent robotic detailing
on the inside of his dino-head halves, making them look quite creepy (especially
with faux eyes painted on the inside of each!). His chest has faux dino
teeth and jaw bits on the chest, some wires on his stomach, and some more
armory-looking bits on his waist. His head is now much more accurate to
his movie design than any of his other toys up to 2017, with a more bird-like
silver maw compared to the more "no-mouth" look of his other toys, and
with smaller red eyes, organic-looking details on the sides of his rounder
head, and of course still his long forehead crest, which is painted black.
Black also makes itself known a bit more on other parts of this toy, like
the stomach and some small parts on the arms and waist, where it was almost
completely absent from beast mode. This gives him a TOUCH more color, but
he still definitely needs some more. His faux teeth on his chest, lines
on his upper inner shoulders, and small gears on his lower shoulders show
off some additional silver paint apps-- which is certainly good, but I
wish they had added some paint to his arms. To activate Grimlock's "Knight
Armor" gimmick, press the small black button on his upper back in this
mode, and the helmet will spring forward onto his existing head-- well,
it would, if the horns on the shoulder halves didn't get in the way slightly.
It's a small matter to move them aside slightly, but still, kinda puts
a damper on the "automatic" gimmick. Grimlock's face is still kept the
same, but he now has some WILD bone-like armor crests and horns sticking
out of the front and sides of his head. There's also some faux evil-looking
eyes in the upper sides of his new helmet, along with some more helmet
bone-like bits around his head proper, with some light forest green "war
paint" on them, giving some much-needed extra color to this mode. For articulation,
Grimlock can move his arms at the elbows (at two points) and, again, can
rotate his feet. That's it.
Knight Armor Turbo Changer
Grimlock is a pretty decent large, simplified toy for the line-- due to
the animalistic nature combined with the gimmick, not compromising quite
as much as some of the others in the subline to still look fairly accurate
in both modes. His biggest obvious selling point is the wicked-looking
helmet, but honestly more importantly, it's the only new-mold, more model-accurate
Grimlock toy in the entire TLK line. He's my most-recommended simplified
Grimlock toy from either AoE OR TLK, despite his bland color scheme.
Review by Beastbot