Iron Factory EX-01 Dinoarmor and Rifle

The following words I do more as a public service announcement versus a review. A little over a year ago, Fall of Cybertron Voyager Class Grimlock was released to much fan fare as the majority of the FoC line had fallen flat with most collectors. Even with Grimlock being a great figure and perhaps the best one in the line, it was missing something. Even with those stubby arms, you can easily put your finger on it and that was the glaring hole in the middle of, oh what am I saying here, OK, the complete lack of a chest and belly in dino mode. In my research for this kit before my original purchase, I found the lack of information outside of what online retailers were saying very disturbing, so without further delay I present to you my public service announcement for all Transformers collectors out there.

Thankfully much like the add-on kit for FoC Ultra Magnus to set him apart from his mould mate Optimus Prime (click here for my review) Iron Factory came to the rescue with their EX-01 Dinoarmor and Rifle. In the small box you receive the parts to fill in the gaping hole in Grimlock's chest, a G1 inspired gun and a some smaller pieces that I will explain later on what their purpose is.

Out of the box you may wonder how a square box will fit in with the curved lines of Grimlock in his Dino Mode but surprisingly it works well.
Using the two posts on the underside of the add-on, and the two conveniently placed peg holes on the underside of Grimlock the whole assembly easily slides in and fits snugly. The colour match is spot on and can be easily mistaken to be part of the figure originally, that is if you didn't know any different. I do not own the Platinum version of Grimlock to test on, but from what I've seen in photos, the Iron Factory kit will also be a good match for the grey used. The main difference between the two being that vacuum gold finish on the chest and neck in the Platinum Version, so I don't see why it wouldn't work.

I know what you might be saying, do I own another add-on that resolves one issue but will I just be left over parts when I transform him? The short answer to that is, no. The chest spits into two and on the ball jointed arms that tuck away on the inside. those two parts move up and out of the way just enough to keep the add-on in place while you complete the transformation as instructed.

Once in bot mode you can position those pieces in behind the shoulders thanks to an additional joint in the centre in the centre of the panel into a similar fashion of the G1 counterpart. Still not 100% certain why it is there, but on the inside of the main panels there is a smaller panel that can be extended out. Maybe someone could answer that question in the comments?

I know to complete the G1 look, those stubby arms need to be hanging off the sides of the panels. I can tell you that Iron Factory was thinking of the G1 purest when designing this set.

The additional parts I spoke if earlier allow you to complete what is called Classic Mode. There are two additional posts that secure into the ports on the chest section. Once pegged in you remove the arms from their original position on the toy and attach them. To complete the look you will need to unpeg the chest panels from the once hidden arms and use the additional parts to peg those panels onto the ball joints that the dino arms were once attached to. Now this does complete the G1 look, I will mention why this is not my preferred mode. One reason why I personally won't be doing this often, is because one of the ball joints that hold the panels was lose from the box. I have gone ahead and placed some clear nail polish on that joint and now the panel and joint hold onto their pose.With all the joints being popped, replaced and repositioned, to limit the wear and tear and for the purposes of photos, this will be the last time.

In the end the G1 look of Grimlock is complete, but you lose so much of what makes this kit great. The first thing is you lose are the joints that assist in transformation, hide in dino mode and hold those panels up in robot mode, now just hang out the back of Grimlock like a couple of useless appendages. A kit that was designed to allow simple transformation between the two modes now becomes a partsformer. You need to pop off the dino arms, their new pegs, and the additional positioning arms and store them where they won't be lost. Once all removed you need to reatttach the chest panels back to the original posts and the dino arms back onto the main Grimlock body. Granted I generally display my figures in bot mode and they are rarely transformed afterwards, but I like to have the option of taking my Grimlock off the shelf and playing with him, transforming him without the need and chance of losing parts. It is for that reason the additional pieces will forever remain in the little bag they first came in.

The next addition to this kit and in all honesty when I picked it up I had completely forgotten about, and that would be the G1 inspired rifle. Yes I know it is on the box and you can see it through the window but it was not until I held the package in hand I recalled it even being there. The dual barrel baster is an upscaled version of the original G1 version. A part of me is tempted to paint it black to match even further to the original, but how will that look in dino mode? Yes Iron Factory even went as far to think of weapon storage in dino mode. The blaster splits in two and using the 5mm ports that hold the original sword and shield, you can attach the two halves of the gun. The snug fit would ware off any paint that I could or would apply but may resolve the anpther issue I do have. While the mounting pegs are a snug fit, the handle of the gun is not. It seems as if the pegs are 5.1mm, while the blaster handle is 4.9mm, just enough that while Grimlock can hold the gun, it does fit loosely in his hand.

Is this kit worth your time, energy and most importantly your money? It does sell on the majority of online retailers sites for under $25US (without shipping) So if you are not concerned with doubling the cost of the Voyager class figure for the sake of filling in a gap I say go for it. I know I was not disappointed with my purchase. The addition of the panels in robot mode do not seem to add an additional kibble. Being on ball joints and the pivot point in the middle of the panel, you can position those panels closer to the body.

The choice of two different display modes and an added weapon are always a bonus. Ease of installation is less than a couple of minutes without any needed kitbashing is also a bonus. Using the ports present on the original model is a great design choice, that in the end would be your choice to glue those posts into position or not. This is a well thought out add-on kit and is a most welcomed addition to my Fall of Cybertron Grimlock even with its flaws of a loose ball joint and small peg on the rifle, but those are little complaints for an add-on that I feel came directly from the Hasbro design table but due to budget constraints was handed off to Iron Factory.  

TheRealRonin
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*EDIT* Well silly me was not thinking when I displayed even all that briefly the kit in Classic Mode. I made mention that the original arms that held on the panel would just be hanging off the back of Grimlock, that statement is wrong. Those arms are held on the same assembly that plugs into Grimlock to which can easily be removed and set aside. The downfall with that is every time you which to transform the figure into Dino mode, you will need to reinsert the assembly, pop off the panels and reattach everything. A bit of a pain in my book but if you want a clean classic look and not worried about the transformation I say why not go ahead. 

Me Grimlock no Bozo, Me get Review.

Funny story happened today, or at leat funny to me. I went to my local Toys r Us looking for a Masterpiece Grimlock. After finding not a single one on the shelves but the SKU Code still there I asked a very helpful associate if by chance there were any in stock. 10 minutes later he told me that there were 4 in stock, so my hunt began! He asked a couple of his other co-workers on where they might be hidden as I kept my eyes peeled for one that might be in a spot it should not be, but after nearly an hour of my looking I had to give up the search and the fight.

During my search, I did grab a couple non Transformer related items and since I was there and I went there for a Grimlock, I will be leaving with a Grimlock! Thankfully to a little known movie called Transformers 4 Age of Extinction that came out, have you heard about this? Well apparently there are Dinobots in this movie along with some other transforming robots. So in keeping with my promise of leaving the store with a Grimlock I added to my growing TF4 collection with Age of Extinction Voyager Class Grimlock.

The figure comes in the new style packaging that were are becoming familiar with the new releases. Standing proud and mighty in robot mode, Grimlock greats you in the large window opening with a picture of Grimlock in accurate movie colours. On the back you have the bio as well as the normal photos in both alt and robot modes. The latest gimmick Hasbro is telling us is that the transfomation only takes 'X' amount of steps and in Grimlock's case that number is 18.

Time for a small rant here. I am not against a simpler transformation if done right, but I feel the math Hasbro uses does not add up. I say that because a figure comes with 2 arms, 2 legs and a few other pieces that might be doubled, but when the count is tallied up they count moving both arms separately as one move, where in my opinion that is two separate actions or steps. To further add to that count, when our figures are displayed sometimes (and I know I do) a mistransform to give them a better pose or look and by doing so we would either add or subtract from the total number of steps taken in the official transformation.

Another little pet peeve of mine comes with the instructions. Most of the newer figures I have gotten my hands on, the instructions have been in reverse. For example we will use Grimlock here. In the package he appears in Robot mode, but the instructions start him off in Dino mode. The first time I completed the transformation I had some great difficulty figuring out how the T Rex head assembled and actually faced forward to the rest of the body. Once you figure out where everything fits, slips through, or under the actual transformation is quite intuitive but I did learned one small tip. When working with the Dino legs or Robot arms, it is best to move them off to the side on the shoulder joint to allow more than enough clearance during rest of the transformation.

Starting in Dino mode you see a very different take on a robotic dinosaur. With all his spikes and amour plating Grimlock looks more like an upgraded battle cat. If you have seen the new movie I can understand your confusion as the colours, as they are no where those in which we saw in the theatres. The paint scheme all though very sharp and applied in the right areas. With a change in the paint barrels I feel that they just starting pumping these out on the same line in which they did the Transformers Prime Predaking on and did not inform the staff. The head is very large compared to the rest of the body, but I do like it. Even with the large teeth, Grimlock's grin makes him look friendly, but that grin does come at a price. There is a gimmick with the lower jaw that when you press a button on the left side of his head, it chomps up and down. I personally would want that gimmick to have a lock so the mouth does not need to be open at all the times. The short stubby arms are on a ball joint and can assume some expressive positions but the chest piece does not clip into anything so they tend to move along with the arms. The legs are fully poseable with joints that work in the hips, knees and feet but for the later you will need to start the transformation to get the feet free and into poses. From the great legs we get to a stubby tail.

Now I do not feel this tail is short or stubby but from certain angles it does give that impression. If you feel the tail is to short you can fix that with weapons storage. The mace that comes with Grimlock can clip on the tails tip adding a ridiculous length and look. At least it will stop you from hitting people in the head with it causing a concussion. 

It is in Robot mode where Grimlock begin to shine. The short tail, large head and nice legs all fit in beautifully and with surprisingly very little alt mode kibble. Why not I get what I feel is a small amount of kibble out of the way and start with the Gorilla arms. You can see the remainder of the Dino feet hanging from the forearms and thankfully the arms and hands are not in their position permanently.
With a slight mistransformation by unpegging the kibble from the forearm and you can freely rotate at the hand at the wrist. Doing this comes in handy when wielding the large mace in Robot mode. The large skull tucks away fairly nicely. The top half splits into two, to become the shoulder pads with what is left over hanging off his back like a hoodie with the hood down.

The head sculpt is different than what we have seen with previous Grimlocks but at the same time familiar. Behind the faceplate you see teeth, something that has been appearing in the latest versions of his head from third party companies. The overall look is of the Dino Knight motif, that is somewhat explained in the movie. All the clues are there from the helmet, amour plating and spiky boots.

The figure has all the standard ball joints in the shoulders and hips with pivot joints in the elbows and knees. There is no waist movement, but there is an ankle tilt. Surprisingly there little movement in the head with it just on a pivot joint considering the majority of figures appear to be connected with a ball jointed neck. Overall is this figure worth full retail? I will say no. With the flood of movie figures that have come out, Grimlock along with his other wave mates will be on sale later in retail if not sooner. Already teased with a SDCC and overseas exclusives, the G1 repaints are right around the corner. If you are a completionist like myself, Grimlock will stand proud along with the other Dinobots that have been released as they all share the knight look and would look good standing guard on your display shelf separate from the latest line of movie figures, but if you have patience I say wait for the sales, or the G1 repaints that will soon follow. I say give Hasbro or Takara another year for those. 

TheRealRonin
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