A few years back, I read all of Marvel’s original Transformers comics, as a part of a book club. One little idea that we settled on while reading it concerned the original Grimlock. As written under late-era Budianski, and most of Furman’s run, Marvel Grimlock still had his broken “Me Grimlock” speech pattern, but had a normal bot’s intelligence, though he was still a brutish, rough warrior. Because of this, we decided his speech patterns made sense if you gave him an Eastern European, or Russian accent.
Just try reading his dialogue that way, trust me.
And years later, the Cyberworld television show did just that!
Something Something Outsmart Bullet.
Granted, since he’s prominently armed with a huge gatling gun, the accent might just be a reference to the Heavy Weapons Guy from Team Fortress 2, since this show loves its internet memes. Either way, he’s a fun take on the character, due to both the accent, and how he’s pretty Marvel-esque in his writing. So, naturally, I wanted the figure, like with the rest of the Cyberworld line.
Peep that pricetag!
And what a figure it is! He isn’t a miniature Cyber Changer, like the guys I reviewed last time, but a large figure, seemingly made as a one-off, instead of part of a specific size class. Depending on where you get him, he’s somewhere between 40 and 42 Canadian dollars, or around five-ish dollars more than a mainline Deluxe. And even before unboxing and looking at him, he already seems worth that price. But let’s dig in and have a closer look.
Robot Mode
He was nice enough to take his gatling gun off for this photo.
To get the literal biggest thing out of the way here: Grimlock is taller than a modern Leader-Class figure, by a wide margin. He’s even about a head taller than Age of the Primes G2 Grimlock, reviewed here, and that one’s specifically a larger-than-normal Leader-Class.
Part of me hopes they do Cyberworld Grimlock in blue, too.
So this guy, he’s got size and mass on him. I do think he looks a bit weird proportionally, like his head’s a bit too big, but it fits the cartoony vibes of the design, and he’s very animation-accurate.
“Your accent, it’s familiar somehow, yesss…”
Grimlock’s body plan’s interesting, because while the general aesthetic of him matches what you’d expect a G1 Dinobot to look like, everything’s laid out differently from a normal G1 Grimlock. He’s got his dino-head for a right arm, a big gatling gun over a sculpted fist for his left arm, and dino-feet boots on his legs. In fact, it’s basically the same layout as Beast Wars Megatron (as recently seen on his Kingdom leader, reviewed here), just with the organic aesthetic replaced with square, chunky robot vibes. No panels of dino hide on his back, though, it’s sculpted very clean. The only obvious bit of altmode hanging off of him’s the t-rex arms on his shoulders.
“You know difference between us? Me Grimlock am in good current fiction.”
Speaking of that overly-large head of his, it’s sculpted to be a pretty straightforward G1 Grimlock Animation-style head, largely the same as the Age of the Primes version.
Class photo.
Initially, I thought that it didn’t look very Cyberworld show-accurate, but I re-watched some episodes of the show, and figured out that he does actually look like this, it’s just that the show recolors his head gray, and gives him a cylon-like eye-glow in the center of his visor, compared to the solid black head and solid red visor here.
“Are we from same region of Cybertron?
As for the rest of him, his layout’s unusual, but the colors are 100 percent G1 Dinobot: Dark gray, with bits of light gray, black, red and gold, the latter two mostly done through paint apps. It’s very complete-looking, and, aside from the head, very animation-accurate.
He’s trying to teach him to Naruto Run.
There’s a unique problem that you’ll have to contend with when you buy one, though: His head is 100 percent slathered in paint, and brushes against a plastic twist-tie when he’s packaged. Because of that, and the fact that, at least locally, it seems customers like to de-transform his head into his body, I found it really hard to find a sample without paint scrapes, or damage on the head. So, buyer beware, I guess.
“Puny Prime!”
Speaking of build quality, other than that one issue, this is a very solid, chunky, hefty figure. Like the smaller Cyberworld guys, though, you’re not going to mistake him for a mainline Transformer, if only because he’s made of that same shiny, smooth, “Prime Wars-era” plastic that feels a bit different in your hands than modern Generations and Studio Series offerings. Some might say “cheaper,” but he doesn’t feel any less durable for it, really. His legs are kind of light, though, mainly because of how his lower legs are almost totally hollow when viewed from the back, which is a disappointingly bad visual to have to see.
Few have seen his back and lived.
That, and his head’s also hollow from the back (character-appropriate, a little). Still, at least he can stand nice and stably on his big stompy feet.
All those weapons, and he opts for a kick.
So, articulation. It’s the other big obvious cheap-out point. While he *is* more articulated than the smaller Cyber Changers, it’s a very slight improvement. For one thing, he’s got forward-and-backward ankle rockers on his feet, though they can actually only ratchet between two positions. Going up, he’s got swivel knees, and ball-joint hips. His waist joint’s odd, in that it’s there, but it’s spring-loaded because of his transformation.. You can tilt it to his left, but it springs back to neutral, until you hit 90 degrees to his left, where you can lock it in.
He can either be in neutral, or a Bigfoot Twist.
Going up, he’s got a pair of swivels that make his shoulders universal, and he has elbows! Well, not really. He’s got rotation at the elbows, so you can spin his dino head, and his gatling gun, but they can’t swivel or anything. And that’s it! So, yes, this is why he’s cheap, he can’t pose very much. But it doesn’t feel as bad on him as it does on the little guys.
Meanwhile, he’s making the little guys feel reaaaaal bad.
I think the reason I don’t mind his lack of articulation is because he has so many gimmicks. Like, he has the energy of a 90’s Beast Wars Ultra-Class figure, to me. So let’s run through them.
My camera was a bit too good to capture much of the blur from the gun spinning.
Firstly, you can press a switch on his left arm to spin his gatling gun, with a loud snappy ratcheting to go with it. This is an excellent stim activity, I’ll tell you what. You can also pop the gatling gun off, if you want him to be able to use his fist normally. I’ve also managed to get some blast effect to fit into the ends of it.
If this was actually the 90s, he’d have shooting missiles, though.
Over on his other arm, the T-Rex head’s got a basic spring-based feature, where when you open the dino-mouth, it snaps shut.
Raise it up….
…And snap it down!
Now, onto the more complicated stuff.
Like his prehensile chest arms?
Firstly, he’s got a Mech Mode of sorts, where you flip down his chest, and flip up a pair of control arms, and a control stick. From there, you remove the top of his dino-head, and place it on two 5-millimeter pegs above his robot head, making a control chair over his torso.
It’s like one of those hoodies with a pouch for your cat.
Any Cyber Changer can fit there, and presumably pilot him.
“Get in the slagging robot, Snarl!”
There’s no tabs or pegs or anything to secure the rider, though, but this also means that it doesn’t have to be a Cyber Changer.
Beachcomber’s about to self-destruct from the cognitive dissonance.
A Blokee, a Core-Class figure, any ‘bot the right size can pilot him.
Pretty sure this happened in the IDW Beast Wars comics.
I appreciate that, and I also appreciate all the tech detailing inside his chest. Oh, and that his dino-head can still snap without its top, it’s just a big claw now. Funny enough, this “Mech Mode” hasn’t been used on the show, so I’m uncertain of what it means fictionally. Is he not in control anymore? I’m interested in finding out.
Not that something this fun needs fictional justification.
For another feature that actually did make it onto the show, you can pop both of his arms off. They’re on some pretty tight mushroom pegs, so it’s a bit of a struggle. From there, you can take the T-Rex head’s top half off again, and move it down the claw, to create a funky little hovering escape vehicle, as seen on the show, rideable, again, by any small figure.
Admittedly, it doesn’t look like much on its own.
Me trying to do the Bit from the Show.
As not seen on the show, you can also attach his gun-arm to one of the 5-millimeter ports on the front of the vehicle, and turn it into a turret!
Sometimes, you literally have to bring out the big guns.
It felt appropriate.
Of course, this leaves the main bot literally dis-armed, but I’m told you can give him the arms of the larger Scorponok toy.
He looks so sad!
Me, I just turned him back into Mech Mode, hid the robot head, and made it an AT-ST-type situation.
There’s a little bit of Diaclone DNA in here.
Did someone say AT-ST?
Lastly, like the smaller ‘bots, he’s got plenty of 5-millimeter ports on him. I count 7 of them, plus 4 pegs, and that’s before getting into the additional ports and pegs that get exposed when you remove components. So, you can certainly arm him up!
This combination feels a little forbidden.
Transformation
This isn’t his G1 transformation, but it’s as simple as a G1 bot. You snap his waist sideways, flip away his head (with a panel to go over it)…
….like so….
…straighten and peg in his arms to make his head and tail, flip out his arms, and fold and compress his legs down. Honestly, while it’s not much, there’s enough going on to make it a fun set of big, chunky motions, the way the best G1 transformations can be.
Dino Mode
Some kinda Creature.
Okay, let me just say this: He looks better in person. People pretty rightfully roasted the stock images of this mode for clearly being a folded-up humanoid, but, like, it works better when you’re looking at it in real life.
And he’s about to make the Fallen look worse!
I don’t know if I totally believe he’s a T-Rex, but I do believe he’s some sort of dino-beast. I think the headsculpt really helps sell it, I love how he’s kind of doofy-looking, and in a totally different way from the Sunbow design that modern Grimlocks usually channel.
I bet they’d have some interesting conversations.
I can hear the Cyberworld guy’s voice coming right out of him.
How could you not love a mug like this?
Color-wise, thanks to the way he’s laid out, he’s a lot more of a solid, unbroken gray, with the other hits of color being limited to his legs, one side of his torso, and his red eyes. At least they picked a decently shiny shade of gray. I wonder if his robot mode might have been hidden a bit better if they’d done the same hits of gold, red and black on both sides of his torso, though, and not just the side his robot chest is on.
He’s pretty plain from this side.
Grimlock’s still rock-solid in this mode, with the only downgrade being it can be very mildly tricky to keep him balanced on his feet, depending on which way he leans. Not too tricky, though.
I can get him to do this, at least.
His articulation is…okay, I think? At least by beastformer standards. You don’t want to move his legs around too much, lest you expose that they’re folded-up humanoid legs, but I’ve gotten him into a good running pose with them. His t-rex arms are on ball joints, his mouth has the opening-and-shutting gimmick. His robot arm joints can actually get put to good use here, letting his head quizically tilt, as well as raise and lower, and the same goes for his tail.
Is this anything?
He’s not as articulated of a Rex as Kingdom Megatron, but few ‘bots are, and I’d honestly compare him pretty favorably to Age of the Primes Grimlock. He’s not on his level, but he’s getting there.
Insert Jurassic Park quote here.
So, gimmicks! There’s one interesting new one in this mode. You can extend a little pole on his back, and flip a peg on it forwards, to create a mounting bracket for a Cyber Changer to ride him in dino mode.
It’s impossible for me to put Snarl here, and not use his sword to give him a kaiju-esque horn.
This is specifically why they all universally have 5-millimeter pegs on their backs, just so they can do this.
Universal Cyberworld compatibility.
You could also balance a non-Cyber Changer figure there, it just wouldn’t be nearly as stable.
I didn’t even try, though, I was too busy having fun.
Most of his other gimmicks are still accessible in this mode, still. The gatling gun can spin on his tail, and his mouth can snap shut. Technically, you can remove his head and tail to make the hover-turret, but this leaves him gruesomely mangled. That, and the mech mode would now involve going sideways, instead of forwards. But, hey, it’s your robot, mess him up if you must!
Oh! And you can still use all of his 5-millimeter ports!
Overall
I really like this guy. He’s got his shortcomings, sure, like his lack of articulation, his simple transformation, and his slightly-dodgy dino mode, but at the same time, he’s so laden with gimmicks, and just so charming in his execution, that the complaints vanish.
He’s a whole playset unto himself!
Plus, he’s a good representation of a Guy from a Thing that I like, and that always gets me.
And he’s about half the price of The Fallen!
A key thing about the whole package, compared to the smaller Cyber Changers, is that he doesn’t feel budget-crunched the way they do. It feels like they designed the figure first, and then came up with a price point after, and that price point is just slightly more than a Deluxe, for something the size of a Leader, with a 90’s Ultra-Class figure’s worth of gimmickery. And most of that gimmickery doesn’t even require you to own any of the smaller Cyber Changers, either, just any little figure. I do recommend pairing him with Snarl, though, because they’re partners on the show, he’s a good little figure, too, and they just match well.
Travelling companions.
So, if the lack of articulation doesn’t bother you, and you remember the olden days of big chunky gimmick-driven Transformers, then this comes with a strong recommendation.
And maybe get him his Battle Buddy.
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