Zob's Thoughts on the Unlicensed "Reissue" Dinobots
Zobovor
'em for a bit.
General comments—I am not experiencing the issue with the die-cast
painted parts that Deathy previously reported. With that said, the
paint on my Grimlock and Snarl is significantly less glossy than that
of the other three, so is it possible this was a problem with early
versions of the toys that has since been corrected? I don't have all
the answers. So, let's look at each toy in further detail...
GRIMLOCK
Grimlock and I are star-crossed lovers with a tragic past. When I was
in fourth grade, a friend of mine, also named David, had let me borrow
his Grimlock toy for a bit. I hadn't thought much of it and sat him
proudly on my desk in my bedroom, but as soon as my mom saw it she
freaked out, accusing me of stealing it and driving me over to his
house so I could return it right then and there. It remains one of
the most embarrassing experiences of my life that didn't involve women
or donuts. The second Grimlock that came into my life was maybe a
year later, when a buddy at daycare named Cody had broken his and I
offered to take it home and fix it, since I'd had some good experience
super-gluing toys back together. I kept this one well hidden from my
mom, but by the time I'd gotten him fixed, the daycare had
inexplicably instituted a "no Transformers" rule. Apparently they'd
either had a scare with a Megatron toy or had heard about somebody who
had. I didn't want to risk trying to smuggle Grimlock back into
daycare and risk both of us getting in trouble, so I ended up keeping
him. I felt guilty about it, though—and I was mad that Cody never got
to see my awesome repair job! This is the first G1-style Grimlock
that is unconditionally and unequivocably mine. (I have the G2 toy,
but it's the wrong colors so it's just not the same somehow.)
The unlicensed reissue is great. It looks and feels and handles
exactly like an original G1 toy, and since this is the closest thing
we're ever going to get to a true reissue, it's not just good enough—
it's spectacular! I think this knockoff was probably created using a
G2 toy to make new molds, since the original Grimlock had two small
connector pegs that held the dinosaur chest together, but they were
omitted from the G2 release, perhaps because they were too fragile.
This toy is missing them, too. Some G1 Grimlocks had a plastic bar
at the top of his dinosaur head to impose a limit on how high you
could raise his dinosaur head, but it was removed at one point,
improving his articulation. This toy is the same way. I cannot,
however, get his Diaclone cockpit open to save my life. It's jammed
together really tight. Good thing I don't have any Diaclone drivers!
I want to say something about the stickers, too. The consumer-applied
labels on a lot of newer toys (Hasbro reissues and Takara reissues
alike) have had adhesives that just don't stick to the toys very well.
All my toys from the G1 days have stickers that are permanently
adhered to the toys, and they won't come loose unless I scrape them
off with my thumbnail. I hate it when I go to pick a reissue toy off
my display shelf only to find that one of the stickers is starting to
peel off or has fallen off entirely. Stop doing that! The unlicensed
reissue stickers are great, though. They're extremely thin and even
though they don't feel that sticky to the touch, they cling to the
toys like gangbusters! I swear, these things are straight out of the
1980's. (Grimlock's sticker sheet has that pre-Transformers logo with
the funky, diagonal-slanted letters.) Grimlock's got a rub symbol
that you can also apply; in the interest of authenticity, I stuck it
on his left robot foot. It's such a bad place to stick it—it's a
rounded, curved surface and I've seen plenty of rub symbols peel off
this spot—but it's where the thing goes, so I stuck it there.
There are lots of little oddities on the packaging that are the result
of Hasbro not being entirely sure where the Autobot symbols were
supposed to go on Grimlock. His box art shows a symbol on the top of
his chest, right under his chin, probably because this was the only
logical blank spot they could add one to the existing Diaclone
artwork. The box photos, meanwhile, show one cut in half and slapped
on each half of his dinosaur chest, which would become the basis for
his animation model. The final instructions, however, say he's
supposed to have a small one on the top of his dinosaur head (which
will get scraped right off, thanks to the absence of that plastic bar
on his noggin) and a large one on his chest (which is really too big
to conceivably fit where they want you to put it). One oddity that
was not a Hasbro artifact, but an artifact of this being a foreign-
language reproduction of the original packaging—apparently, Grimlock
has been promoted to Dinobot Bommander. You know, he's the one who
issues the bommands. He has a real bommanding presence.
SNARL
I consider Snarl the most beautiful of the original Dinobots, probably
because he's got the most visible vaccum metalized parts as a
dinosaur. I'll always have immensely fond childhood memories of Snarl—
he was the first Dinobot toy I ever saw close-up in person, during
lunchtime during second grade in the school cafeteria when a classmate
pulled the toy out of his backpack. The way the light reflected off
his stegosaurus plates was absolutely hypnotic to me. Snarl also
ended up being my first Dinobot—I got him and Smokescreen and
Starscream for Christmas in 1985, among the first Transformers I ever
owned.
Unlike Grimlock, which appears to have been cast from the G2 version
of the toy, Snarl is an authentic G1 replica. For the G2 run, a
couple of locking tabs were removed from Snarl's rear dinosaur legs,
resulting in a less secure hold on the lower legs (the tabs were
originally there to keep the robot fists from springing out). The
tabs have been restored for this "reissue," which means that either
somebody used a G1/Diaclone toy as the basis for the knockoff molds,
or they used a G2 toy and undid the changes Hasbro made. One
improvement I know for sure that they made to the toy was getting rid
of the locking gimmick to his Diaclone cockpit, so it swings open and
closes freely in a manner more like Bombshell. Snarl has always been
the most difficult toy for me to get the cockpit open, and my G1 toy
still has the indentations in the plastic where I used a sewing pin or
a pair of scissors to try to pry it open. (I never had fingernails
when I was growing up. I was always biting them, and I hated it when
Transformers toys required using them.)
Snarl stands out from the others in my mind because his color scheme
is not wholly authentic to the G1 toy. The missile launcher on the
unlicensed reissue is entirely black, whereas the version I got as a
kid had a grey launch trigger. I don't know if Snarl's launcher
changed colors at some future date, and perhaps this is accurate to a
late version of the G1 toy that I don't know about (Slag was available
in at least a couple of different color variations, after all) but I
thought it was worth mentioning. Grimlock's still got his grey-
colored launcher trigger, so why not Snarl? Also, the mounting peg
for the launcher is actually just slightly too large for the hole in
his shoulder—you can wedge it in place if you really force it, but I
just knew I was going to snap the peg off when I removed it, so I
gently wiggled it loose and whittled down the plastic a little.
Something that was bugging me about Snarl was that his rear
stegosaurus legs refuse to touch the ground—he's a tripod dinosaur,
held up entirely by his tail and his front legs. I couldn't figure
out which part of the toy was making him do this, so I did a
comparison with my G2 toy, and guess what? He doesn't stand up
correctly, either! I never noticed that before.
Snarl's stickers were less professional-looking than Grimlock's, with
a sticker sheet on a larger backer sheet with the Avery-Dennison logo
on the back (meaning the bootleggers bought some store supplies and
used those to print the stickers). His instruction booklet also had
dotted line perforations along the folds, apparently stamped on the
paper to serve as a guide as to where to fold the instructions. It's
a very minor detail, and doesn't detract from my enjoyment of owning a
minty-new G1-esque Snarl, but I wanted to mention it because the folks
who make these are generally such sticklers for accurate detail that
any deviation from that does surprise me. The colors and design of
the labels are accurate to what I remember—the slightly pinkish hue to
the triangles that go on his legs; the Autobot symbol with the fat
nose (which I suspect was intended to be cut in half with scissors so
you can slap them on each half of his dinosaur head).
SLAG
I got my first Slag at daycare from another kid named Dylan. I think
I gave him some Garbage Pail Kids cards for it or something. Slag was
missing all his accessories, though, and Dylan was significantly
younger than me, like maybe seven years old, and he'd done a poor job
of putting on the labels. I was glad to own Slag, but he looked
horrible, with crooked stickers that made him look like a piece of
junk. I finally got a new Slag when I bought the G2 toy, but aside
from being the wrong color, he was also missing one of his three
weapons. This is the first time I've ever even seen a Slag missile
launcher, and it's the weirdest way to mount a weapon that I've ever
seen. You just plug it in like a drain stop. I love it!
I don't have much to say about Slag since the unlicensed reissue is
very close to the G1 toy in every respect. Actually, it's even closer
to the Diaclone toy. I believe Hasbro added some reinforcing struts
to the inside of Slag's wings to make them more durable, but they
interfered directly with the placement of the stickers that were
supposed to go in there. This has always bothered me. This "reissue"
doesn't have the reinforcing struts, so either somebody used a
Diaclone toy to cast this mold or, more likely, modified the toy to
better accept the stickers. Way to go, guys! There's also a
connector tab that holds his robot knees together when he's in
triceratops mode, which my G2 toy hasn't got. I can't seem to find
any photos of G1 Slag with this connecting pin intact, so either it
broke off from everyone's toy, or it was never there, and is also an
artifact from the Diaclone days. (Either is possible. For what it's
worth, the copyright stamp says only "TAKARA JAPAN," with no mention
of Hasbro. All the copyright stamps for the other Dinobots have a
false Hasbro marking.)
My toy has really tight wings, but they're held on with a pin, and for
some reason these manufacturers (wish I knew what to call them) can't
quite seem to get the hang of pins. Also, his Diaclone cockpit is
extremely difficult to open, and his dinosaur jaw is likewise very
difficult to move. (This actually creates a problem because it
interferes with a little sticker-application trick of mine. I like
having the Autobot symbol on his chest, but I hate when he's got one
on his tongue in triceratops mode, so I cheat. For my G2 toy, I put
the sticker on the Diaclone canopy glass, and when I transform him to
robot mode, I tuck the dinosaur jaw inside the Diaclone cockpit.
Can't do that when I'm unable to open the canopy!) This version of
Slag has gold chrome on his Diaclone cockpit instead of red, which is
an unfortunate inaccuracy, but wouldn't be too difficult for an
enterprising collector to fix with, say, a red permanent marker.
SLUDGE
Owning a brand-new Sludge is truly a religious experience for me. I
knew yet another kid in daycare named Steven who had brought a
wingless Skywarp along one day, and I'd desperately tried to get him
to sell it or trade it to me, since I wanted his orange canopy glass
for my Starscream toy. He refused, but many months later, the day
before he moved away, he gave me his wingless Skywarp and a broken
Sludge as a parting gift of sorts. (By this point, Skywarp was
missing his cockpit and was completely useless to me, but it was a
nice gesture.) Sludge had a broken leg and a broken jaw, both of
which I'd managed to repair, but it just ain't the same. I've still
been trying to arm my old Sludge toy with some accessories as recently
as last year, when I bought a rifle for him so he could have the
weapon he carried in the cartoon. Of course, it turns out that Sludge
is the only one of the Dinobots who carries his missile launcher, not
his black rifle. Oops!
I'm seeing some differences in Sludge, but as I'm less of an expert on
the toy (there was no G2 equivalent, though they were at one stage
planning to release him—in purple, no less!) I may be missing some
things. For starters, my G1 toy has a groove on his legs where his
factory-applied stickers are supposed to go, but on this "reissue"
there's no such groove. His Diaclone cockpit seems to sit in a
recessed groove, whereas my G1 original had a cockpit that lined up
better with the lines of his die-cast metal chest. Also, did Sludge
always have Snarl-style spring-loaded rear legs? My G1 toy doesn't
have springs, and I have no memory of removing them, so this is a
total surprise to find them here. Also, the launch button on his
missile launcher has been painted silver (not chrome) in an attempt to
make it look more G1-esque, but it's an inauthentic move that I
dislike, as the paint is ugly and splotchy and a little sticky.
Still, it's a minor inconvenience for an otherwise pristine, minty-
new, super-shiny Sludge.
As an aside, I have absolutely got to get another set of the cartoon-
style reproduction stickers from Delta Star that I designed for
reprolabels.com, because having an eyeless Sludge is just creepy.
SWOOP
Do you really want to hear my tragic G1 Swoop story? Most of my store-
bought toys don't really have an anecdote to go along with them, but
the ones I acquired second-hand almost always do. I didn't get my
original Swoop until I was in sixth grade, at a point where most of my
peers had outgrown silly things like Transformers. I'd made a new
friend in orientation for that school year named Brian and I'd gone
over to his house, and he showed me his fairly extensive Cabbage Patch
Kid collection. We even changed a few of their outfits. At one
point, I'd made an off-handed remark about it, something like, "I
can't believe we're both in middle school and we're playing dress-up
with dolls!" but I instantly regretted it because I realized I'd hit a
soft spot. At the end of the visit, I'd noticed that he had a basket
of older G1 toys and I picked up Swoop, which I'd never even seen in
person before. He told me he had gotten tired of it and that I could
have it. He was broken in three places, and in retrospect I wonder if
he was just trying to save face in light of my faux pas, but that
didn't stop me from taking Swoop home and trying to mend his broken
wing like a baby bird. (I hate to see a pteranodon in distress.)
I saved Swoop for last because I was a little bit scared to open him.
I've heard plenty of horror stories about what a piece of junk the
unlicensed reissue is, and since it was the very first one of these
counterfeits I remember seeing floating around, I was afraid it was
the result of being an early attempt by these guys to copy a G1 toy.
Nobody's first try hits it out of the ball park, so I was completely
prepared to come crashing down from my glorious Dinobot high. I'm
pleased to report that he's fantastic! Nuthin' wrong. Seriously.
He's great. Maybe this is a later-run toy where they finally worked
out all the kinks or something, but he's fabulous. Everything moves
the way it's supposed to. Wings fold up beautifully. Feet click into
place. Beak, landing gear, everything's kosher. My toy even came
with two swords—a dark one and a slightly lighter, more opaque one.
Mistake? Attempt at covering both versions of some G1 variation I
don't know about? Not sure.
There are, if I'm not very much mistaken, versions of Swoop with rub
symbol indents affixed to the wings. Both wings, as I recall. Maybe
I'm getting his shiny wings confused with Kickback's. Anyway, this
version of Swoop doesn't have special spots for rub symbols at all,
which I happen to like in my 1984 toys. (It's okay on 1986 toys,
sure, but definitely not first-year specimens.) Unlike Slag, this is
very clearly a Hasbro-based toy, with that big, round, knobby beak and
stupidly knobby tail that's a little less pointy, less, but also a lot
less accepting of the sticker that was designed for the Diaclone toy.
(I suggest cutting the sticker with scissors rather than trying to
get it to wrap around that huge, knobby tail. It just ain't gonna
happen.) Speaking of stickers, Swoop has got the absolute smallest
consumer-applied stickers I have ever seen in my life. I mean,
they'd, like, literally fit on the head of a pin. That's ridiculous.
Anyway, minor problems aside, I'm very pleased with these toys. If
you have the means, I highly recommend them. (Yes, that was a Ferris
Bueller reference. I'm a child of the 80's.)
Zob
Uriel Ventris
> I am spoiled, and I got Dinobots for my birthday. Imma write about
> 'em for a bit.
Again with the "Imma".
I had this sudden vision of the Dinobots having to queue around the
corner at the DMV for their licenses.
"Me Grimlock not need license to stomp Decepti-cars!"
Onslaught Six
> It remains one of
> the most embarrassing experiences of my life that didn't involve women
Your mom isn't a woman? ;)
> or donuts.
Woah, wait. There's a story here. And the rule is, if you offhandedly
reference a story, you have to tell that story. Also, I like to make
up rules.
> The second Grimlock that came into my life was maybe a
> year later, when a buddy at daycare named Cody had broken his and I
> offered to take it home and fix it, since I'd had some good experience
> super-gluing toys back together. I kept this one well hidden from my
> mom, but by the time I'd gotten him fixed, the daycare had
> inexplicably instituted a "no Transformers" rule. Apparently they'd
> either had a scare with a Megatron toy or had heard about somebody who
> had. I didn't want to risk trying to smuggle Grimlock back into
> daycare and risk both of us getting in trouble, so I ended up keeping
> him. I felt guilty about it, though—and I was mad that Cody never got
> to see my awesome repair job! This is the first G1-style Grimlock
> that is unconditionally and unequivocably mine. (I have the G2 toy,
> but it's the wrong colors so it's just not the same somehow.)
Somewhere, Cody is bitching about the guy that stole his Grimlock.
> The unlicensed reissue is great. It looks and feels and handles
> exactly like an original G1 toy, and since this is the closest thing
> we're ever going to get to a true reissue, it's not just good enough—
> it's spectacular! I think this knockoff was probably created using a
> G2 toy to make new molds, since the original Grimlock had two small
> connector pegs that held the dinosaur chest together, but they were
> omitted from the G2 release, perhaps because they were too fragile.
> This toy is missing them, too. Some G1 Grimlocks had a plastic bar
> at the top of his dinosaur head to impose a limit on how high you
> could raise his dinosaur head, but it was removed at one point,
> improving his articulation. This toy is the same way. I cannot,
> however, get his Diaclone cockpit open to save my life. It's jammed
> together really tight. Good thing I don't have any Diaclone drivers!
Is anyone doing reproduction Diaclone drivers? That'd be neat. Being
that most of my G1 guys have been replaced by modern-day reimaginings,
I've kind of toyed with the idea of just pretending all my G1 toys are
Diaclones.
I never liked G1 Grimlock, his head is set too far back behind his
shoulders.
> One oddity that
> was not a Hasbro artifact, but an artifact of this being a foreign-
> language reproduction of the original packaging—apparently, Grimlock
> has been promoted to Dinobot Bommander. You know, he's the one who
> issues the bommands. He has a real bommanding presence.
Actually, the way I hear it, these errors aren't done because of
language issues, but on purpose, to differentiate these from the real
thing. This way, someone can't take one of these productions and sell
it as a legitimate minty G1 Grimlock--a discerning fan will look at
the package, see "Dinobot Bommander" and go, "Oh, okay! This isn't a
G1 original toy, it's just one of the copies."
In fact, when these first started coming out, I remember in-depth
guides comparing them to legitimate G1 packaging showing all the
differences. (I think Sunstreaker or Shockwave or somebody has a small
chunk of the artwork missing on his foot or something.)
> (I never had fingernails
> when I was growing up. I was always biting them, and I hated it when
> Transformers toys required using them.)
I'm still this way, unfortunately. Every once in a while, on a new
toy, I'll have to shrug and go to my girlfriend and go, "Hey, pry this
open."
> or, more likely, modified the toy to
> better accept the stickers. Way to go, guys!
For some reason, this reminds me of how Optimus Prime has those
annoying rivets on his shoulders that prevents a good Autobot logo
from going there.
> As an aside, I have absolutely got to get another set of the cartoon-
> style reproduction stickers from Delta Star that I designed for
> reprolabels.com, because having an eyeless Sludge is just creepy.
They still sell those?
> Anyway, minor problems aside, I'm very pleased with these toys. If
> you have the means, I highly recommend them. (Yes, that was a Ferris
> Bueller reference. I'm a child of the 80's.)
You're still here? The review's over. Go home!
...Also Known As Thunder
> Grimlock and I are star-crossed lovers with a tragic past. When I was
> in fourth grade, a friend of mine, also named David,
Did anybody else read this part and think "David? His name's Zob!"
before correcting themselves? :)
t.k.
Zobovor
> Woah, wait. There's a story here. And the rule is, if you offhandedly
> reference a story, you have to tell that story. Also, I like to make
> up rules.
Problem is, I like to make up stories. (The definition of humor is
lying in an amusing way, when you get right down to it.)
> Actually, the way I hear it, these errors aren't done because of
> language issues, but on purpose, to differentiate these from the real
> thing.
That could very well be the case, but the spelling errors don't seem
to be present on every example of unlicensed reissue packaging—just a
few of them. (My Wheeljack packaging said he was a "Mechanical
Engineerp.") I really don't think it's being done on purpose, because
the omissions are also in the instructions. At one point in Swoop's
instructions, his weapon is labeled as a "THERMAL SWORO," which seems
like the result of somebody not familiar with the language getting a
capital "D" mixed up with an "O"—which you obviously can't see if
you're examining the packaging and trying to determine whether it's a
genuine G1 release or not.
I'm not a collector of packaged toys, so I really don't own any
original G1 specimens still in the box. There are lots of obvious
differences between this unoffical packaging and the real deal,
though, not the least of which is the alternate font they've used for
the biography and tech specs. I think that knowledgeable, discerning
fans will not be fooled by the new packaging, and unfortunately, less
educated fans probably will be. (I saw an eBay auction the other day
where some poor sap had managed to piece together a complete
Reflector, only to find out that two-thirds of it was an impostor. He
sold it because it suddenly wasn't good enough for him. Funny how
that works.)
> I'm still this way, unfortunately. Every once in a while, on a new
> toy, I'll have to shrug and go to my girlfriend and go, "Hey, pry this
> open."
Swoop's instructions say right here, clear as day: "Use fingernail to
pull shoulders out." That offends the hell out of me. They just
assume that part of my anatomy is going to be intact! (I've got a
whole list of G1 toys that annoy me because of the fingernail thing—
Cerebros, Pounce and Wingspan, Snarl and his stupid Diaclone
cockpit...Cyclonus' landing gear used to be on that list, too, until I
discovered that you just push on the top piece and it pops open.)
Speaking of instructions, there's a serious oddity in Sludge's
booklet. Every G1 instruction book I've ever seen includes the
phrase, "Missile launchers are designed only to hold missiles;
therefore, propulsion will be weak, if at all." Sludge's does not say
that. Instead, Sludge's says, "For your safety, rocket pod is
designed to hold rockets in place. Rocket fire should not exceed
eight inches." What, a child's esophagus isn't eight inches in
length? That's so bizarre.
(I bet if Shockwave and Skids and the Dinobots had full-color
instructions, then nobody would ever question whether they were 1984
toys or not.)
> For some reason, this reminds me of how Optimus Prime has those
> annoying rivets on his shoulders that prevents a good Autobot logo
> from going there.
Yeah, that's just obnoxious. I finally shaved the rivets off when I
got my Hasbro reissue. (They tampographed the symbols on the 25th
anniversary toy, which I think was a Very Good Move.)
> > As an aside, I have absolutely got to get another set of the cartoon-
> > style reproduction stickers from Delta Star that I designed for
> > reprolabels.com, because having an eyeless Sludge is just creepy.
>
> They still sell those?
Imma go find out. Even if they're not listed on the site, I bet you
can ask for 'em.
Zob
Onslaught Six
> Problem is, I like to make up stories. (The definition of humor is
> lying in an amusing way, when you get right down to it.)
This is true!
> Swoop's instructions say right here, clear as day: "Use fingernail to
> pull shoulders out." That offends the hell out of me. They just
> assume that part of my anatomy is going to be intact! (I've got a
> whole list of G1 toys that annoy me because of the fingernail thing—
> Cerebros, Pounce and Wingspan, Snarl and his stupid Diaclone
> cockpit...Cyclonus' landing gear used to be on that list, too, until I
> discovered that you just push on the top piece and it pops open.)
Man, that sucks.
> Speaking of instructions, there's a serious oddity in Sludge's
> booklet. Every G1 instruction book I've ever seen includes the
> phrase, "Missile launchers are designed only to hold missiles;
> therefore, propulsion will be weak, if at all." Sludge's does not say
> that. Instead, Sludge's says, "For your safety, rocket pod is
> designed to hold rockets in place. Rocket fire should not exceed
> eight inches." What, a child's esophagus isn't eight inches in
> length? That's so bizarre.
That whole thing's very strange. That they'd admit you have to use
fingernails astounds me. Maybe the Japanese have some thing against
biting your nails?
> (I bet if Shockwave and Skids and the Dinobots had full-color
> instructions, then nobody would ever question whether they were 1984
> toys or not.)
I think you've hit upon something that none of us ever considered.
SteveD
>Swoop's instructions say right here, clear as day: "Use fingernail to
>pull shoulders out." That offends the hell out of me. They just
>assume that part of my anatomy is going to be intact!
It doesn't say it has to be _your_ fingernail. Or still attached...
G.B. Blackrock
Agreed (not just on whether or not we've considered it--although *I*
certainly haven't--but also on being a significant point)
G.B. Blackrock
Gustavo Wombat
> > (I never had fingernails
> > when I was growing up. I was always biting them, and I hated it when
> > Transformers toys required using them.)
>
> I'm still this way, unfortunately. Every once in a while, on a new
> toy, I'll have to shrug and go to my girlfriend and go, "Hey, pry this
> open."
You will never play the banjo if you keep that up. Not the right way.
Zobovor
> You will never play the banjo if you keep that up.
Tell that to Kermit the Frog! Not only does he not have any
fingernails, he manages to play even with those funny little rods
permanently stuck to his wrists.
Zob
Zobovor
> I'm seeing some differences in Sludge, but as I'm less of an expert on
> the toy (there was no G2 equivalent, though they were at one stage
> planning to release him—in purple, no less!) I may be missing some
> things.
I took apart his upper chest today to find out what was going on with
his Diaclone cockpit, and I noticed a small omission to his assembly.
The toy originally had ratcheting shoulder joints—the pegs on his arms
terminated in octagonal knobs, and they rested in grooves that each
had a small metal plate. The metal plate bends slightly when you bend
the joint, but it springs back into shape afterwards to hold the arm
in place. (Nowadays they would just go it with a ball joint,
probably, but plastics lacked the kind of resilience that they do
today, so you couldn't just rely on friction without wearing the
plastic down very quickly.) Anyway, the metal plates are missing in
the unlicensed reissue, but it's not a huge deal since Sludge's arm
joints are so tight to begin with. I did miss that familiar "click-
click-click" when I moved his arms, but I didn't think to mention it.
Zob
TigerMegatron
Zob,I'm kinda curious,what condition did the 5 dinobots KO boxes
arrive in? Were the boxes really beat up with huge corner
dents,creases & so forth. was the inner plastic bubbles properly
sealed to the cardboard backers inside the box?
Zobovor
> Zob,I'm kinda curious,what condition did the 5 dinobots KO boxes
> arrive in? Were the boxes really beat up with huge corner
> dents,creases & so forth. was the inner plastic bubbles properly
> sealed to the cardboard backers inside the box?
They were a gift from my wife, but she told me that the seller had
shipped the toys with the boxes folded flat and the Dinobots
themselves still on the inner bubbles. He knew there was some concern
with the toys popping off the bubbles (this happened with the
Wheeljack I got for Christmas) so this was his work-around for it.
The boxes were literally brand-new—they'd never even been folded up
into a box shape before.
Zob
Onslaught Six
> You will never play the banjo if you keep that up. Not the right way.
I don't need to play the banjo, I can play the guitar. If I need a
banjo player, I'll just call my friend, er, ah...the hell's his
name...Jared. Yeah, him! The ginger kid.
TigerMegatron
Zob,thanks for the info.
I think the seller I bought these 5 KO dinobots a year plus ago was
called "Toyarena" & his ebay user name is Liqdueal.
Zobovor
> I think the seller I bought these 5 KO dinobots a year plus ago was
> called "Toyarena" & his ebay user name is Liqdueal.
The seller my stuff came from goes by the name t800pro on ioffer.com.
I recommend him, though I've also never dealt with anyone else so I
have absolutely no basis of comparison to go on.
Zob