Grimlock (Knight Armor Turbo Changer)
Beast ModeRobot ModeKnight Helmet On
Allegiance: Autobot
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Light milky gray, dull milky brownish gray, and some silver, dark red, light forest green, black, and metallic brownish gray
Rating: 7.5

    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

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