Chomp & Battle Grimlock [Cyberworld]

Transformers Cyberworld is the newest Transformers mainstream series taking over for EarthSpark with a new cartoon and toy line. I've been pretty excited for it since the series reveal as it looks really fun and feels like a spiritual follow up to the Beast Alliance toys from Rise of the Beasts that I enjoyed immensely. While the various figures haven't shown up at my local stores just yet, the large sized Chomp & Battle Grimlock is readily available on Amazon.

I got mine during Memorial Day weekend and today we'll be taking our first looks at Cyberworld. The larger toys in Cyberworld are neat as they serve as vehicles for the standard sized toys with the upcoming Scorponok even doubling as a play set. The smaller figures are more basic toys that can interact with these larger toys in a variety of ways. Grimlock, for example, can be ridden in dinosaur mode. Dinosaur mode also forms an exo-suit and arm bits can be removed to form a neat hover bike. Cool huh? Since I obviously don't have any other Cyberworld toys yet, I've demonstrated those features in the post pictures with a Micronaut as Cyberworld has a very 90's Microman vibe to it. This is going to be fun.

Grimlock is 9" tall and of course turns into a T-Rex. In robot mode he features limited, but meaningful articulation. Shoulders, elbows, legs and knees move respectively. He can move at the waist, but it's similar to a classic He-Man figure in that Grimlock will swing back into place giving a punch. His right arm is the T-Rex head, similar to Beast Wars Megatron. It's spring loaded and closes with a snap when opened. I can see some smaller Decepticons being held in it. The left arm features a rotating chain-gun tip. There's a sculpted fist as well, so you can remove the chain-gun barrel for a more traditional looking arm.

The chain-gun rotates with a satisfying clicking noise. Removing the dino head and chain-gun parts at the elbows and combining them gives you a cool hover bike mode a standard figure can operate. Though removing those parts is HARD. I was worried about breaking my figure while doing it, so be careful. Those things are really on there. Fortunately the top half of the dino head comes off easier as that's not only part of the hover bikes conversion, but also for Exo-Suit mode. Fold Grimlocks robot head down and place that dino head on his shoulders. The chest plate folds down to create a seat, there's even a little bar to secure the driver into place. The right hand is a claw of sorts without the head portion and that chain-gun provides some firepower.

Rescue Bots Optimus Primal's design was clearly used as a design template as there's some very similar engineering. It's noticeable when looking at his legs and in transformation to beast mode. While obviously not the same, that transformation is very similar. Not a big deal, but worth noting. That being said, transformation is very easy. The arms are held out with the obvious ends forming a head and tail. You can adjust the legs some to make it more natural and those tiny T-Rew arms move into place. The little cover for Grimlocks robot head forms a bit of a saddle for a figure to ride the dinosaur.

It's nice to see Transformers embrace being toys again and feature all sorts of silly gimmicks. While there still is Generations and other lines more geared with more serious tone... these are toys and I can see children having fun making Optimus ride Grimlock around. As a guy who likes robot toys, Cyberworld is a return to older style toys and gimmicks that I like to revisit. Not to mention, there's nothing like a big ole chonky robot toy. Cyberworld is going to be extremely fun to write about here and I'm really looking forward to it.