Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Core wave 5

Grimlock (T.rex)
Thundercracker (Kingdom Starscream redeco)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Core5

The wave also includes a Nemesis Prime redeco of Kingdom Core Optimus
Prime, I haven't seen it on the shelf yet and am not interested enough to buy
it online. I got Grimlock and Thundercracker at GameStop, of all places.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/CoreK2 - Starscream mold
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/CoreK1 - Optimus Prime mold

CAPSULES

$12 at GameStop.

Grimlock: Robot mode is a bit misproportioned but otherwise okay, dino
mode has an unreasonably large butt, leg mode is okay. Mildly recommended as
long as you temper your expectations.

Thundercracker: Original mold was strongly recommended, and this does
finish off the original Seeker trio in this mold (although Skywarp lacks the
arm lasers).

Nemesis Prime: Original mold was recommended, and I suppose if you're
not tired of Nemesis Prime redecos this is worth picking up on the shelf. I
may or may not get it if I ever see it in person.

RANTS

Packaging: Same as wave 4.

AUTOBOT: GRIMLOCK
Assortment: F7173
Altmode: T.rex
Transformation Difficulty: 10 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: None
Function: Dinobot Commander
Special Unit: Dinobot (Volcanicus 3 of 6)
Origin Universe: G1
Signature Weapon: Double-Barreled Rocket Blaster - Launches high-combustion
rockets that cause massive damage.

Grimlock is the most powerful of the Dinobots. His merciless demeanor
and fearsome strength strike terror into his enemies. Combines with other
Dinobots to form Volcanicus.

STR 10 INT 7 SPD 3 FRB 8

Packaging: Two twisted rattan strings hold the robot to the card, one
twisted string holds the "weapon" to the lower right of the card. No need to
undo the string to get the weapon out.

Robot Mode: Well, it's kinda recognizably G1 Grimlock, although his
boots are enormous and his wings are attached lower on his back. He's almost
like a 90s graffiti version of himself, with oversized hands and feet but
tiny head. There's also a bunch of stuff behind the head, transformation
hinges for both dino mode and leg mode. The sole of the left boot has a
bigger gap in it than the right boot, for reasons I have not been able to
figure out...it doesn't have to fit around something in either dino or leg
mode. Maybe it's from an abandoned feature?
3.75" (9.5cm) tall at the backpack, a little shorter at the head. Like
the other Dinobots, he's entirely made of light gray plastic. There's gold
paint on most of the chest front (the transformation hinge pieces for leg
mode are unpainted), as well as on the wrist claws. The head and fists are
gloss black, the visor is metallic blue, the narrow waist and horizontal
bands on the shins are gloss red. A red Autobot symbol is printed on the
center of the chest.
The neck and waist turn smoothly. The shoulders and hips are ball
joints. The knees are also ball joints but restricted enough that they might
as well be hinges...only a little wiggle room in the swivel direction. The
wrists are swivels for transformation purposes, no elbows. The fists hold
3mm pegs, there's a 5mm socket on each shin (for leg mode), and that's it for
connectors usable in this mode.
The gun does vaguely resemble G1 Grimlock's rifle, but all in gray and
with a big hollow tail shell piece tacked onto the back. Also, it's a lot
shorter. Like, an inch (just under 3cm) long and about as wide. On the plus
side, both barrels end in 3mm studs. It's held by a 3mm peg on the underside
of the back, and has two 5mm pegs on the back for connection to non-robot
modes. There's no paint on it, which is a shame since paint on the barrels
would help it look more like an actual gun.

Transformation: Lift arms to the front, turn wrists to have claws on
top. Fold the backpack up over the head and snap it together, making sure
that the combiner peg fills the gap in the back of the neck. Then tab the
boots together and fold over the back. Finally, peg the gun into the two new
5mm sockets revealed under the knee joints.

Altmode: Oh dear. Like a lot of the worse Grimlock designs, he has a
really fat tail. In fact, it looks like he's strapped an arms locker to his
butt. Or maybe Teletraan-1. Definitely an obligate taildragger, the butt is
way too big to stay standing in a horizontal spine pose.
3.25" (8cm) tall. New paint includes metallic blue dino eyes, a gold
collar, and silver forelimbs. The Autobot symbol is now on the belly
button.
The hind legs retain robot arm articulation, the head can lift up and
down. The forelimbs are fused in position. The shin 5mm sockets are now on
the tail about midway down, the gun's 3mm peg grip now sticks up at the end
of the tail for what little good it does.

Combiner Mode: Forms the left leg, just like the T.rex shelled Goryu
does in Dinoking. From robot mode, fold the arms forwards, peg the boots
together and fold up behind the back, fold up the connection peg and just
sort of position the dino head and upper body parts to avoid getting in the
way of the other leg. There's a tab inside the chest part that goes onto the
side of the neck, but the instructions are a little hard to interpret...
basically, you make half of a bonnet. Technically you could complete the
bonnet with the other chest half, but it's needed to cover up that
Inexplicable gap in the sole of the left boot. The gun goes on back as a
heel spur.
It's...a chunk with four gold claws? I actually managed to get my
three-Dinobot Volcanicus to stand on one leg, the footprint is 2.5" (6.5cm)
long and a little over 1.25" (3cm) wide. You can sort of make it work as
either boot, but the tab for holding the half-bonnet in place is only on one
side.

Overall: Him, Grimlock, have too much junk in trunk. Smaller boots
could probably have managed the combiner transformation just fine without
being such a problem in the other two modes. Still, as long as Sludge
exists, it's hard to be the worst of the set.

DECEPTICON: THUNDERCRACKER
Assortment: F7179
Altmode: Jet
Transformation Difficulty: 17 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: Gen:Kingdom, Legacy
Function: Warrior
Special Unit: Seeker
Origin Universe: G1
Signature Weapon: Null Rays - Fire lasers of pure energy with deadly
accuracy. [Um, ooookay?]

Thundercracker believes anything that can't fly is inferior, often
targeting groundlings with Null Ray blasts for fun.

STR 7 INT 5 SPD 9 FRB 7

Notably not his G1 techspecs, but the original Seekers did supposedly
get their numbers switched around.

Packaging: Two twisted rattan strings hold the robot to the inner tray,
while the "null rays" are loosely held by folded out corners of the tray (but
not so badly they'll fall out in-package).

Color Swaps: All of the plastic is bright blue. Under UV it glows
almost white.

Paint Apps: Gloss black on the helmet, forearms/fists, feet, and the
vertical tail fins. The right and left chest are painted silver, as are the
air scoops flanking the head, and the face. The fake chest cockpit and the
real cockpit windows are painted golden yellow. The eyes and wing stripes
are red, and no-outline purple Decepticon symbols are printed on the top
faces of the wings.

Mold Changes: None that I noticed.

Other Notes: Based on the original Starscream mold, not the new-weapon
Skywarp version.
I suspect that next year, when the Rise of the Beasts toys have started
petering out, Target will get a redeco three-pack of this mold in the Storm
trio colors.

Overall: Well, if they're gonna go the full trio route again, at least
this is a good and inexpensive mold (well, compared to the Voyager molds that
got massively redecoed in Siege and Earthrise).

Dave Van Domelen, at barely over 6" (15cm) tall Volcanicus is a rather
underwhelming almost-Commander.

On Sunday, May 7, 2023 at 1:46:06 PM UTC+10, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Core wave 5
>
> AUTOBOT: GRIMLOCK
>
> Robot Mode: Well, it's kinda recognizably G1 Grimlock, although his
> boots are enormous and his wings are attached lower on his back. He's almost
> like a 90s graffiti version of himself, with oversized hands and feet but
> tiny head. There's also a bunch of stuff behind the head, transformation
> hinges for both dino mode and leg mode. The sole of the left boot has a
> bigger gap in it than the right boot, for reasons I have not been able to
> figure out...it doesn't have to fit around something in either dino or leg
> mode. Maybe it's from an abandoned feature?
>

The gap is to allow Sludge's thigh to avoid colliding with Grimlock when the combiner knee is used. When you bend the knee back (with grimlock's head coming with it more often than not) the ridge on the back of the thigh fits into the long gap, allowing it to bend up just short of 90 degrees.

(Personally, I'm more desperate to get Slug, because the one store I could find these guys in did not get Slug or Soundblaster alongside Sludge. Weird shipping distribution...)

In article <dd4fc482-4014-4fcb-bb6e-ac4fc8e34c0an@googlegroups.com>,
ChojinPatriarch <chojinpatriarch@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Sunday, May 7, 2023 at 1:46:06 PM UTC+10, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
>> Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Core wave 5
>>
>> AUTOBOT: GRIMLOCK
>>
>> Robot Mode: Well, it's kinda recognizably G1 Grimlock, although his
>> boots are enormous and his wings are attached lower on his back. He's almost
>> like a 90s graffiti version of himself, with oversized hands and feet but
>> tiny head. There's also a bunch of stuff behind the head, transformation
>> hinges for both dino mode and leg mode. The sole of the left boot has a
>> bigger gap in it than the right boot, for reasons I have not been able to
>> figure out...it doesn't have to fit around something in either dino or leg
>> mode. Maybe it's from an abandoned feature?
>>
>
>The gap is to allow Sludge's thigh to avoid colliding with Grimlock when
>the combiner knee is used. When you bend the knee back (with grimlock's
>head coming with it more often than not) the ridge on the back of the
>thigh fits into the long gap, allowing it to bend up just short of 90
>degrees.
>

Okay, I see it now, thanks.

Dave Van Domelen, off to edit the website version.