Beast Lord Dino Robot

Dino Robot is a set I've been tracking down for a few years now. Thanks to Shawn's tip, I found a set at my local Rose's. A store I often forget exists. As you can tell by looking at the pictures Dino Robot is a knock off of Go! Goradora/Beast Hunters Abominus/TF5 Infernocus. Specifically it's a K.O of Goradora as those are the closest in colors it comes to. The individual combiner members are sized up a little being closer to Core Class scale than the Legion/Legend scale the originals were. I'm a fan of both size classes (as you probably know by now), but having more Core Class bad guys is definitely a good thing. I have both versions of Abominus, Infernocus, and multiple (but not all) of the individual uses of these molds... but no Goradora. So Dino Robot is a good substitution for the Goradora I don't have. However, I'll be refereeing to the set at Dino Robot the rest of this post because I kinda love that name. It's a discount store bootleg robot toy... it damn well better have a name like Dino Robot.

Speaking about names... these guys man. Each member's name is their alt mode, or what the shady company that made the set thought their alt mode was. Jurara is named Tyrannosaurus Rex, which is a stretch. However the original mold has been used for Grimlock a few times, so I guess it works. Barara is named Pterosaurs. Which I guess works, even though he's more of a take on Firebird from the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla cartoon. He's supposed to be a dragon of sorts, but now you can't unsee it either. Burara is Monster... which fits. Lastly both Dorara and Garara are named Double Dragon. Which is awesome. However as they both are named Double Dragon... I guess one is the NES port. These are not complete 1 for 1 matches to the originals as the colors are not exact. Dino Robot is closer to this team than the others, however.

This is a pretty good set for some knock off toys. For Twelve dollars and ninety nine cents I got what the box advertised as an 8 piece set. The Five In One Dino Robot and three weapons. Yeah... they counted the weapons as pieces to advertise on the box. The figures are larger than their original use as I said above, but don't look too bad. Considering the age of the original toys and multiple uses they look pretty sharp. Of course I don't know when this mold set was made off the original toys or if it's just a  stolen CAD file as the box art is CGI models. There is some loose joints here and there, but for the most part the figures are decently sturdy enough. Pterosaurs is probably the worst of the batch when it comes to that. Those three weapons... the group does have a problem holding them correctly and they don't connect together well either. So I just kinda had to make them work where they could.

I was pleased with how stable they were combined together. When it comes to these sets the combination is either sorta ok or a complete shit show. These guys were pretty high in the sorta ok end of things. Everything actually worked pretty well, but the legs could have been a lot better. Admittedly the original toy's legs were never so great either. This was during an era of Transformers where there was obvious sandbagging when the creatives didn't want to do something the higher ups commanded. You'd think HBK was loosing the match with those legs. Honestly, the arms are a little half assed too design wise, but considering it's supposed to be a monstrous robot... it works. Just the legs could have benefited from a little more effort. To be fair they were small toys sold at a pretty low price.

I am pretty happy with Dino Robot as is, not only does he make a good stand in for Goradora but at that bigger size makes for a great villain for the upcoming Core Class Volcanicus to fight. It's been a while since I've bought a discount store robot and that's an itch I've been needing to scratch that Dino Robot fulfilled. Despite some hit or miss points in the toy, it is a satisfying experience. For twelve dollars and ninety nine cents you're not getting a lot these days, hardly even lunch at a fast food place. So a somewhat decent robot toy set that didn't crumble in my hands (it has happened before) that definitely has a purpose... yeah. Dino Robot's ok.

Bios: Cutthroat

Function: Shock Trooper

"Compassion is the currency of losers."

Not a trace of mercy can be found among his microchips. Insatiable lust for destruction. In battle, lashes out with wings, beak, and claws to cut everything to ribbons. In creature Mode can leap 4 miles in one jump, breathes flame. In robot Mode, carries double-barreled magnetizer that oppositely charges any metal target so it tears itself apart. Combines with fellow Terrorcons to form Abominus.

Terrorcons And Technobots Down Under

The Australian version of this commercial is pretty much the same as the American one. Aside from the voice over. Which sounds like the voice over for a local supermarket.

GIG Cominer gift sets commercial

I wish the store employees were this happy to sell me Transformers at Target.

Demon General Abominus

I got the rest of the Terrorcons this past weekend at my local Walmart (because wave 3 is going to be impossible to find *snicker*) and am really looking forward to assembling my Abominus on July 4th. I got Rippersnapper with my birthday presents in March and Hun-Gurrr some time back, now all I need is the spare time of a holiday to enjoy them all. I was pointing out to my wife that Abominus is my favorite combiner and realized, I sure do have a lot of him. The original (including countless individual Hun-Gurrrs), a great color reversed ko, two different variations of the Beast Hunters version (I think I got extra Hun-Gurrrs there too), the Kre-O version, Infernocus, (who's basically the movie version, and is made of the Beast Hunters Abominus) and now the POTP version. Honestly, I could use a couple more. I find myself often wishing there was an Action Master or a SFC version.

What's not to love about that abominable fella?

Abominable Beastking thinking

Earlier, I lucked up on finding Hun-Grrr from Power of the Primes when the Walmart by my work apparently got a few cases of Voyagers. I had been slightly worried as the Terrorcons are kinda a big deal to me and I had been hoping to get my new Abominus without much trouble. I've had Rippersnapper since March when the wave 2 deluxes were part of the birthday presents from my wife. Then as luck would have it, POTP toys started getting spotty distribution for awhile there, I started to worry I'd have to pay too much on ordering him or the Takara version.

It doesn't help that so much doom and gloom is going around and making the outlook look like we'll never get these figures. Facts are facts and we know POTP is shorter than anticipated and Transformers is having a bit of a slowdown. But if one remembers the giant leak from last summer, it outright outlined the majority of the toys in the line. It just so appears that the line is a bit shorter than we're accustomed too for whatever reason. But assuming Studio Series is in the general same arena as Generations toys to the corporate offices of Hasbro, it might be a little more easy to see. And frankly, if War for Cybertron is running side by side with more Studio Series figures (and by all accounts looks to be) it may be a little shorter as well. Because they may consider it in the same basket at those corporate offices (it's not a stretch to see how and why they might). Or they all could simply be coming from the same factory in different production cycles.

What helps me form that train of thought is looking at how the line has played out in release. First waves were at stores right before Christmas. Second waves started right as spring started hitting and by late spring it was all Studio Series. Until what is now early summer as those are at retail saturation for the first waves and what do we have? Well the rest of those POTP wave 2 voyagers have been popping up as well as the third wave voyagers are showing up. It's like something came unplugged in the distribution channels all the sudden right? Looks like the Studio Series initial push might have bottle necked things a little, at least to me (this is all my opinion after all). But thinking about it, since wave 2 was so sparse after first showing up 2-3 months ago, I wonder if it's still shipping?

Now, what about those wave 2 Legends. Well, wave 2's are usually harder to find in any line and man I really hope I find them sooner or later or I'm going to cry a big old pile of tears. BUT, what about that dooming and glooming that's been crying out? What about wave 3 deluxes, will we ever get those? Well, look at that pic of Abominus above. It's an official image, it's from those image leaks from last October, before all the recent doom and gloom. Read the other three members info.

Coming late 2018

So, seeing as we don't know about things until after the decisions are already made (everybody is just an arm chair quarterback in this game after all), I think the rest of POTP is intertwined between batches of Studio Series and that first batch of Cyberverse (due in the fall). When in that Financial call report, it's reported that by December 2018, "Power Of The Primes will effectively close down the Prime Wars ‘event’ which took place under the Generations banner.". So going by the picture up top, that report, and just putting things together, I think everything's going to be fine. Just spread out and maybe a little janky in distribution (there could be another dry patch in between batches). Though I have been wondering if Hurricane Harvey might have caused a brief plastics shortage since it happened. That could have also come into play if it did have any cause and effect.

Of course I don't know for sure, I don't claim to know everything. Just I've been at the TF game for a long time, and I've learned how to anticipate things. Professionally, I've worked a lot in logistics and various contract based businesses that require multiple factors and different hands at parts of the process to complete a product on time. I have seen what issues can and will happen if one of those hands has a problem and boy it can be a mess. Hell, maybe the sky is falling and it's as grim as the gloomy prediction readers see in their java script crystal balls. Who knows for sure? Time will tell, but we just have to wait for time to tell.

We must fight these TERRORcons

So... exactly what is Blot again? A monster nose?