Indulge me in my gushing for a bit. In a 3P market where the only remaining niches are overly detailed "cool" robots that transform into junkyard scrap, MP-scaled Sunbow and tiny Sunbow, I had just about checked out aside from finishing TFC's Abominus. Then these guys came roaring out of the gate with their Devastator. No silhouette reveals, no teasers, no garbage, just straight up the entire team in all modes in physical form. Good robot modes, clean Earth mode altmodes and good combiner mode. Not content with the unofficial and official toys' frame combiner approach, these people went out of their way to build in all the combiner parts into each Constructicon. They switched the configuration of the arms/legs and Scrapper in particular isn't all that accurate but if you're okay with the swapped limbs, that's a non-issue. They released all of them within a year, in two-packs costing about Hasbro Voyager price for each robot. They were big, like, around Leader height, with die cast, ratchets and paint applications out the wazoo. Most importantly, the transformations were sublime. They were all relatively simple and intuitive, with simply perfect tolerances. Suffice to say, I was chomping at the bit for their next project, which funnily enough, they already revealed alongside the Constructicons, with a Grimlock torso. This October, they finally revealed the other two members: Slag and Swoop who will be the arms of their Volcanicus.
They gave Volcanicus a chestplate formed by the t-rex tail and two shoulder cannons but nothing too crazy. Of note, unlike other Volcanicus designs, the triceratops and pteranodon heads mount on the wrists. I also like the idea of visually balancing the wings on the Swoop arm with the triceratops tail. Much better than making Volcanicus a predaking ripoff.
Grimlock's got a somewhat derpy looking t-rex mode with exhaust pipes on the sides of his head. I don't really mind. Not particularly articulated but all things considered, it's alright. Grimlock features a new transformation, with the forearms made of the jaws, the arms the dino torso and neck and the legs as legs.
Slag is alright. Not much new aside from the chest being kibble instead of the real lower jaw. the ab crunch is the elbowjoint and the hand is presumably hidden in his torso. He's not all that impressive but looks solid.
Swoop is insane. His pteranodon winds fold up to form his legs like TR Mindwipe and this results in a relatively flattened pteranodon that still hides a combiner joint and hand. Simply ingenious.
The prototype has Sludge and Snarl detailed legs but those are single hunks of plastic used as placeholders.
I have the DCS Dinobots on preorder but I will probably buy into this set just for the engineering. They're also working on Overgear-esque Bruticus and Vehicle Voltron with robot modes, apprently but I don't care as much about them.
They gave Volcanicus a chestplate formed by the t-rex tail and two shoulder cannons but nothing too crazy. Of note, unlike other Volcanicus designs, the triceratops and pteranodon heads mount on the wrists. I also like the idea of visually balancing the wings on the Swoop arm with the triceratops tail. Much better than making Volcanicus a predaking ripoff.
Grimlock's got a somewhat derpy looking t-rex mode with exhaust pipes on the sides of his head. I don't really mind. Not particularly articulated but all things considered, it's alright. Grimlock features a new transformation, with the forearms made of the jaws, the arms the dino torso and neck and the legs as legs.
Slag is alright. Not much new aside from the chest being kibble instead of the real lower jaw. the ab crunch is the elbowjoint and the hand is presumably hidden in his torso. He's not all that impressive but looks solid.
Swoop is insane. His pteranodon winds fold up to form his legs like TR Mindwipe and this results in a relatively flattened pteranodon that still hides a combiner joint and hand. Simply ingenious.
The prototype has Sludge and Snarl detailed legs but those are single hunks of plastic used as placeholders.
I have the DCS Dinobots on preorder but I will probably buy into this set just for the engineering. They're also working on Overgear-esque Bruticus and Vehicle Voltron with robot modes, apprently but I don't care as much about them.