Dinobot (Universe 2.0)
Beast ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Predacon/Maximal
Size: Deluxe
Series: Beast Wars
Difficulty of Transformation: Medium
Color Scheme: Dull pale fleshy brown, dull golden yellow, and some purple, light muddy tan, silver, metallic golden yellow, black, bone white, and transparent orange
Rating: 8.4

    At long last, the popular Beast Wars character Dinobot gets a badly-needed toy update! In beast mode, Dinobot is still a velociraptor, but significantly streamlined when compared to the original Beast Wars toy. It's considerably more lean and avian-esque in its stature, while still looking as powerful as a raptor should. The mold detailing is very well-done, giving all of Dinobot's beast parts a very organic, leathery dino-hide look to them-- particularly on the head and arms. His tail is also molded in a slightly askew position, so that it doesn't look so unnaturally ramrod-straight as it did on the original toy. However, one major thing bugs me about the look of Dinobot's beast mode, and it bugs me quite a bit since the 10th Anniversary toy of him got this wrong as well-- namely, his color scheme, while still fitting for a velociraptor (at least, that's how it looks to me), is STILL OFF. Dinobot in the show was light brown with dark brown stripes, not visa versa. It's aggravating that they've come so close to giving Dinobot a true update, but left that major detail unfinished. Dinobot also has some robot mode extras, though none of them are nearly as bulky or mode-ruining as they were on the original toy. His robot mode lower arms are quite obvious sticking out of his stomach, and though they help Dinobot look "bulkier" but adding mass to his stomach, they're still obviously his arms. Some other, minor robot parts can be seen in this mode, such as the upper robot legs on the inside of his beast mode upper legs and the robot feet on the backside of his raptor feet. In this mode, Dinobot can move at the mouth, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles-- so he's not super-posable for a dinosaur, but certainly adequate in that category.
     Most of the effort in Dinobot's redesign, though, clearly went to his robot mode. It's clear that the designers went out of their way to make Dinobot as show-accurate as possible (at least when it comes to the mold), with a spot-on face mold, good "light piping" on the eyes, some nice "ribs" on his lower stomach, and a physique similar to how he looked in the show-- the velociraptor arms sticking out of his shoulders are the only blatant beast mode extras. His proportions are great, though his arms could stand to be "bulked up" a bit more like they were on the show. There are two things about this new design that I particularly like-- one is how the "fleshy" parts of his upper legs move on down to his lower legs with little spiky "bone" pieces flipping out of them to surround and bulk up his lower legs, just like on the show! A totally unneeded, but very cool little extra there. Another cool thing about him is his hands-- namely, if you want, you can have them in the pseudo-dino-claw form that he has in the show, but if you want him to have more normal hands and be able to hold stuff, just flip the hand pieces around and voila! There they are! In addition, Dinobot has a faction-change gimmick rooted in the lore of the show-- flip around the small square bit on his dino-head-chest to switch his faction symbol from Predacon to Maximal and back again! Just like with the beast mode, though, Dinobot does has some definite flaws in this mode, the most egregrious of which is his weapon. It's made up of his entire tail section (which is larger proportionally compared to his body than on his original toy), and it's one of those weapons that just weighs the figure down and is so darned cumbersome it's just better to leave it off and out of the way. His tail splits into three sections, though they don't spin at all-- instead, the whole big thing acts as a missile launcher that fires off a missile that can double as his traditional sword. However, the sword itself is also pretty underwhelming-- it's entirely transparent orange plastic-- not silver at all-- and given the overly rounded nature of the top and its shortened length to fit inside the launcher, it looks more like some kinda lollipop than an actual sword. Very unfortunate, given that the sword and spinning shield were two of Dinobot's bit trademarks. Also, his dinosaur head doesn't fit very snugly in his chest-- it and his shoulders tend to flop around a little. And, just like in his beast mode, Dinobot's color scheme-- while decent in and of itself-- isn't accurate to his show version. Instead of a tannish brown he has more of a pale yellow on his robot bits, in addition to purple replacing dark blue on this toy. Dinobot's articulation is pretty decent, though-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows, at the base of his dino-claw fingers (with the outer three claws treated as one pice and the inner two claws treated as one piece on each hand), and at the hips, ankles, and knees.
    Universe 2.0 Dinobot is quite a decent update-- certainly better than Universe 2.0 Cheetor-- though he does come with a few drawbacks, such as the blatant arms in beast mode, the loose chest/shoulders and underwhelming weapons in robot mode, and his frustratingly "off" color scheme. However, these caveats aside he's a pretty darn good toy with plenty of things to like about him, and a must pick-up for Beast Wars fans.



Dinobot Bio:
Within the chassis of Dinobot beats the spark of a warrior. Victory won with honor is the highest aim to which he has ever aspired. It is an aim that seems more and more remote, the longer he spends under the command of Megatron. Duplicity is not the warrior's way. As the battle on this strange, primitive worlds rages, it seems to Dinobot that true honor may come only through the Maximal way.
Strength: 8.0
Intelligence: 5.0
Speed: 9.0
Endurance: 5.0
Rank: 6.0
Courage: 9.0
Fireblast: 6.0
Skill: 6.0

Review by Beastbot

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