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.

Shattering Prime's Glass

 

Sticking with the concepts that never became a reality subject, Hayato Sakamoto also pitched a pretty simple, fun idea around the same time as Bravemasters. Transformers Prime: Shattered Glass was exactly what it sounded like, a Shattered Glass version of Transformers Prime. It makes perfect sense for an exclusive to E-Hobby line as the Prime toys were winding down around this time. Prime itself was a very popular series.

Providing Prime fans another outlet was a no brainer, not to mention, Shattered Glass itself has been pretty popular. So much that it's found it's influenced other properties. Personally, I really liked the Prime toys and would have enjoyed the new decos on the toys. While the concept of a mirror universe is fun, the cool colors have been my favorite part of Shattered Glass. Seeing that idea on Prime toys would have been pretty great.

Go! Transform!

Beast Hunters

Transformers Prime as a series ran from late 2010 through 2013 with a 3 season cartoon and direct to video movie. The toy line was released in late 2011 and ran through 2013 (it was delayed in part to the Dark of the Moon push). The series was a mixture of traditional TF and movie flavors that for the most part was well received. As with most Transformers series, the line show/toy line got a refreshing and that's what I'm here to talk about today. The third season (and movie) of the show and the second half of the toy lines got rebranded as Beast Hunters and with it the entire direction changed.

The most obvious addition to the line was the 'beasts', which in this case was a new faction of dragon based Predacons. These served as antagonists to both Autobots and Decepticons, ala The Evil Horde. However, on the show was limited to only one character (later 3 in the movie) and was sided with the Decepticons. The Autobots and Decepticons were in turn changed to 'hunters' who now had spiffy armor to hunt these dragons. New mold figures mostly (not all) had removable armor pieces, while older figures were remolded with the armor on their body. Neatly enough, the armor was a mixture of mid-evil and animal theming. This led to some really creative designs. Bumblebee for example had bird themed armor that worked out in a very spiky 'Mad Max' looking car, while Knock-Out had a crocodile theme that carried over from robot to car.

I had mentioned the tv show earlier, which is a good start to addressing the fictional setting. The show was a CGI cartoon entering it's third season. With the show well on it's way before the Beast Hunters theme was applied, there wasn't a lot of wiggle room to add the Predacons in easily. This lead to one character, Predaking, to be worked into the cast. Optimus too was given a new body, which some could argue that the resources could have went to another character. However as his design wasn't as beastly as the others, I wonder if that was in place prior to the new theme. Ultra Magnus also joined the cast, whose appearance was a modified version of the earlier Optimus Prime model. Joining the Deceptiocons was Shockwave, whom also was more traditional. In the direct to video movie which followed the season finale, two more Predacons joined the cast fortunately.

IDW launched a Beast Hunters comic series as well, which followed the adventures of the Dinobots on Cybertron after their Fall of Cybertron comic instead of the toys or cartoon. While I enjoyed the comic during it's brief run, it was disappointing that it wasn't a better adaption of the namesake. Honestly one has to wonder if somebody in that department just didn't want to tell that story. Fortunately Hasbro included a pack in prose fiction on the instructions of the toys called 'Tales of the Beast Hunters'. This story was more following of the toy line and I super appreciated it. It was a nice addition and allowed for the toys to have more life than just existing. In Japan another smaller series followed named 'Triple Combination: Transformers Go!'.

Go! was comprised of animated shorts packed in with toys of new mold Autobots and a new group of Predacons made from the prior dragon molds. Go! was a bit of a departure from Prime before it and was more like a Brave series. The animated shorts are available online and man I wished I'd had gotten some of the toys. Though I suppose I still can.

Transformer fan reaction was mixed as usual and as usual I loved it. Beast Hunters was the original working title for Beast Machines and that excited me instantly. While I liked Prime as is, this new direction appealed to me as it combined beast era with more super robot themes. The toys were really neat and I found myself liking the 'hunter' figures more so than the 'beast' figures oddly enough. The armor just made for a creative and cool toy that captured my imagination. While Wheeljack is my favorite of the group, that Bumblebee is a close second.

It's funny how something from the mainline not that long ago can go borderline obscure in time, but Beast Hunters just isn't that talked about anymore. This of course is the nature of things, especially in an ever changing long running franchise. I wonder if a time will come where Prime is looked back upon fondly and how Beast Hunters will be remembered. Time will tell I guess, but during it's time, Beast Hunters was a great time.

Well, I need to grab a copy.