TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

zeoman4.5's review: Dinotron

Name Dinotron
Function Ground Infantry
Group Dinobots

"Never let down your defenses..."

Stubborn and surly, Dinotron is the most uncooperative of the Dinobots.
Does not favor his new technorganic design, but is disgusted by
Megatron's 'new order'. Diamond plated 'helmet' coupled with explosive
speed send Vehicons flying. Giant tail can shatter a 20-foot concrete
cube while titanium hide makes him resistant to most attacks. Tail
weapon deploys into spinning blade attack that immediately carbonizes
and disintegrates all alloys with which it comes in contact.

This little Dinobot is one of the oldest surviving figures in my TF
collection. I had gotten him 8 years ago. This figure is probably the entire
reason why I am collecting today. I had been collecting Beast Wars figures
up till 1999, when my mother in an attempt to stop all the fighting between
my siblings and myself, trashed and then burnt all of my toys. That was a
crushing blow for a little kid and I actually lost interest in everything. Later
I got my first toy since that incident, Mirage, yes not Dinotron. It was cool
but I didn't feel like he was what I was looking for. Many months later I
found Dinotron, his similarity to Dinobot gave me hope that I could get back
what I lost and do even better.

Dinotron is one of the Beast Machines Dinobots. This short lived line had
8 members. These Dinobots were featured in one on of the Botcon Wreckers
comics. They were for the most part repaints of previous dinosaur Beast
Wars figures. Dinotron is a repaint of Hardhead from the Japanese series Beast Wars Neo. Not much else to say about the history of this guy, so on to the review.

Beast Mode
Dinotron is a pachycephalosaurus, a dinosaur known for the plated skull it
used for a battering ram. He is a poor representation of one though. He
really looks like, well, a Veloceraptor with an armored skull. This makes
sense as the figure's moulding is a re-tool of the Dinobot mould. The color
scheme is basically green. He has black spots covering his back, sides, legs
and tail. His hips, claws, and arms are black. The main contrast in this is
that his eyes are red and his skull plate is yellow. I have to mention the
most recognized problem with this mould, the chest. It is formed from the
parts that form the legs of the robot. Making him look like he is very
deformed. Plus the exposed peg on the tail is kinda bad looking. His only
gimmick in this mode is that if you open his mouth his skull plate rises up.
Why? I don't know, but he does it. It looks a little silly. Nice articulation for
a beast mode. Overall he is a good for play in this mode, but a display piece
he is not.

Robot Mode
After the transformation I memorized years ago, he is in robot mode. It looks
very good, well proportioned and good in over all appearance. He is still
basically green and black, his legs are yellow on the sides. He looks much
more robotic than Dinobot, his legs have exposed servos and his head lacks
the mutant helmet of Dinobot. The head is actually completely different from
Dinobot's. It is much more streamlined and has an exposed face. They painted
his face red, with yellow eyes and his mouth wide open. The positioning of
his dino parts to make the robot mode is almost perfect. Dino legs are now
arms, chest is now the legs, dino head as a chest plate. Looks great, even
better that Dinobot in my opinion.

The articulation of this figure is superb. Four points on each arm and on each
leg, plus movable head and grasping claws. Very well balanced and posable.
His weapons are derived from his tail, which becomes a spinning weapon, and
a sword stored inside of it. They can be used separately, placed in either
hand or they can be put together to make sort of a drill weapon. The
spinning blade is moved by pressing the long tab on the bottom to the handle.
The weapons can be turned back into the tail and stored on his back as well.
He is a very fun toy, I used to (and even still do occasionally) enjoy making
this guy slag the living daylights out of any Vehicons I could get my hands on.
All the fun of BW Dinobot, but with a cooler paint scheme and look.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation 4 for difficulty, but it is very fun.
Durability 8 He is pretty tough, but his dino toes/robot claws come
loose very easily as do the tail pieces on the spinning blade.
Price 9 back then he was well worth the $10 I spent on him, but today
he is probably much more expensive.
Fun 9 A lot of fun to be had. The only reason I took off points was for
the appearance of his beast mode.
Overall 7.5 I really like this guy, but I realize that he is not a must have
nor a really memorable figure, but I have a soft spot for this guy and suggest
if you get the chance, go for it.