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Zob's Retro Review: Pretender Classics Grimlock (1989)
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Zobovor
Mar 11, 2021, 8:13:19 PM3/11/21
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I just got a replacment outer shell for my Pretender Grimlock, since I had customized the old one with permanent markers years ago, making it unsuitable for The Collection with a capital "C." So, while he's not a new toy to me by any stretch of the imagination, I wanted to talk about him for a while.
Pretenders had been the dominant gimmick for the 1988 product line, and evidently they were successful enough that they continued the idea in 1989, offering spin-offs on the initial idea like Mega Pretenders (the outer shell and inner robot both transform!) and Ultra Pretenders (it's a car that hides inside a jet that hides inside a tank!). Another idea was the Pretender Classics (sometimes erroneously called Classic Pretenders), to bring back older characters introduced in 1984 and give them updated toys.
Now, back in the day, this was a rarity. You didn't expect it. When Bumblebee got brought back as Goldbug, it was a strange and exciting one-off. When Optimus Prime got brought back as a Powermaster, it was a magical and novel experience. By 1988, there was no Transformers cartoon on the air, and Marvel Comics was the only existing media. I remained a steadfast fan, but it was hard to get attached to characters with no media exposure. That's why the Pretender Classics were so exciting! These were characters I loved and was familiar with, and they were getting all-new toys! I generally wasn't a collector of Pretenders, but you'd better believe I spent all my allowance to acquire them all—even though the $12.99 or whatever they cost me, four times over, felt exorbitant at the time.
Jazz and Starscream had a patently inferior design (and weird colors), and Bumblebee inexplicably had Cliffjumper's face sculpt. Grimlock, I think, is the only one of the four who was a decent toy in his own right. Given that the character transforms into a dinosaur, you'd think something like a cave man motif might have been appropriate for his Pretender shell. Instead, he seems to have some influence from ancient Roman soldiers (the helmet in particular) but also seems to incorporate some Aztec design elements. The jagged triangle shapes on his armor could represent dinosaur teeth, I suppose, though it's very abstract. In a world (cue Don LaFontane) where a lot of Pretenders had animalistic-themed armored shells, Grimlock is one character who would have come by it honestly, but never got it.
His outer shell is predominantly grey, with a painted blue abdominal section and upper legs. He has red painted parts on his chest and pelvis. His arms and helmet are made of a slightly softer, rubbery brown plastic. They don't seem to have developed spots like the plastic does on a lot of Pretenders, but maybe they're just invisible due to the dark brown color. The face sculpt for the shell seems older than most Pretenders, looking like he's in his 40's or 50's, and vaguely resembling an older Milton Berle. Not sure if this was intentional or not.
By 1989, the removable belts had been eliminated from the Pretender design, probably for cost reasons, so Grimlock's only removable equipment remains his helmet with the Roman crest on the top. Repeatedly attaching and removing the helmet tends to scrape off the paint for his hair, though, revealing the grey plastic and only amplifying his aging appearance. He equips two weapons, the dinosaur tail from the inner robot, which has a laser barrel on the end of it, as well as a black bayonette-type rifle that doubles as a sword. He can grasp it by one of the two pegs so he's weilding it either as a gun or as a blade. Because of the odd tilted angle of his tail-gun, the peg-hole in his left fist is actually angled as well, towards his fingers, so that he can still position the gun pointing forwards when his arm is outstretched. The gun seems to be based on G1 Snarl's gun, particularly the hose dangling from the underside.
The inner robot is a much smaller toy than the original Grimlock released in 1984. His robot mode is a mere three and a half inches in height. His coloring and paint applications are fairly sparse; he's grey with black parts, and his upper chest is painted metallic gold. His eyes and mask are both painted orange, a strange choice (on the G1 toy, the eyes were red; in the cartoon, his eyes were blue; his mask should never have been painted at all). Interestingly, in the 1989 catalog and in his box art, the eyes were painted blue. It's clearly a budget version of the character, but it's more durable than the 1984 toy, which was extremely fragile. On this toy, the dinosaur arms hang off the sides of the legs and the dinosaur head is folded up on his back. The small robot can carry the tail gun, but not the blaster/sword.
To transform him to dinosaur mode, you turn him upside-down, with the robot arms becoming the T. rex legs as expected. The robot legs fold up to form the dinosaur's upper body. The tail plus into the back of the robot head. He's got six moving parts to his name, plus the dinosaur arms which do have some articulation as well. The dino eyes are painted orange, and remains the only painted deco for this form. His jaw does not operate. He stands at about three inches in height, and is close to five inches long from head to tail.
His styling is interesting, since it deviates quite a bit from his original look. Where the other Pretender Classics seemed to be an attempt to copy the design of the G1 toys, for the most part, Grimlock is a DGTOW (Dinobots Going Their Own Way) and the design is a radical departure from his original look. He's got lots of new surface detail and honestly, despite his diminutive size, he looks pretty powerful.
The design of the shell is interesting because it was partly influenced by the space Grimlock takes up when he's inside the shell. The large hump on the outer shell's back is only there to accommodate the dinosaur head on Grimlock's back; the square-shaped vents on his back are only there because the dinosaur arms on the inner robot's legs occupy that space. By 1989, Hasbro had given up on trying to get the legs of the Pretender inner robot to occupy the space created by the legs of the Pretender shell; there's now a block-shaped space occupied by Grimlock, which extends to a block that connects together the upper legs of the outer shell. We're just supposed to pretend it's not there, like the zippers on the Ewok costumes.
Later in 1989, all the inner robots from the Pretender Classics were offered as Kmart exclusives, sans Pretender shells, and sold as "Transformers Legends." They took the time to change their biography and tech specs, to omit the references to their Pretender shells (Grimlock's bio originally said he was "particularly nasty when reminded that he now resembles a human"), but they usually didn't change the consumer-applied sticker sheet, and just wanted kids to slap the extra stickers for the outer shell on the inner robot somewhere. The Autobot symbol for Grimlock's outer shell went on his dino tail gun.
The existence of the Pretender Classics led to their inclusion in Marvel Comics, which itself is kind of ironic, given that Bob Budiansky was forced to kill off dozens of characters to make room for the new product that Hasbro consistently churned out from year to year. The story called for Grimlock and the others to be essentially brought back from the dead, by which point Simon Furman had taken the reins. Grimlock having a new toy, but none of the other Dinobots, informed the story to some degree, depicting Grimlock on a quest to restore the others to full function. (One supposes that, given the introduction of Action Master Snarl a year later, he would have brought back at least one of them.)
We've gotten much better Grimlock updates in recent years, particularly this year's Studio Series edition. It's everything I've ever wanted in a Grimlock toy—it's large and articulated and accurate to the cartoon design. But, we had to start somewhere. I still love this toy on its own merits, but I freely admit my perception of it is clouded with nostalgia.
Zob (Mister Television has the power to surprise!)
Pretenders had been the dominant gimmick for the 1988 product line, and evidently they were successful enough that they continued the idea in 1989, offering spin-offs on the initial idea like Mega Pretenders (the outer shell and inner robot both transform!) and Ultra Pretenders (it's a car that hides inside a jet that hides inside a tank!). Another idea was the Pretender Classics (sometimes erroneously called Classic Pretenders), to bring back older characters introduced in 1984 and give them updated toys.
Now, back in the day, this was a rarity. You didn't expect it. When Bumblebee got brought back as Goldbug, it was a strange and exciting one-off. When Optimus Prime got brought back as a Powermaster, it was a magical and novel experience. By 1988, there was no Transformers cartoon on the air, and Marvel Comics was the only existing media. I remained a steadfast fan, but it was hard to get attached to characters with no media exposure. That's why the Pretender Classics were so exciting! These were characters I loved and was familiar with, and they were getting all-new toys! I generally wasn't a collector of Pretenders, but you'd better believe I spent all my allowance to acquire them all—even though the $12.99 or whatever they cost me, four times over, felt exorbitant at the time.
Jazz and Starscream had a patently inferior design (and weird colors), and Bumblebee inexplicably had Cliffjumper's face sculpt. Grimlock, I think, is the only one of the four who was a decent toy in his own right. Given that the character transforms into a dinosaur, you'd think something like a cave man motif might have been appropriate for his Pretender shell. Instead, he seems to have some influence from ancient Roman soldiers (the helmet in particular) but also seems to incorporate some Aztec design elements. The jagged triangle shapes on his armor could represent dinosaur teeth, I suppose, though it's very abstract. In a world (cue Don LaFontane) where a lot of Pretenders had animalistic-themed armored shells, Grimlock is one character who would have come by it honestly, but never got it.
His outer shell is predominantly grey, with a painted blue abdominal section and upper legs. He has red painted parts on his chest and pelvis. His arms and helmet are made of a slightly softer, rubbery brown plastic. They don't seem to have developed spots like the plastic does on a lot of Pretenders, but maybe they're just invisible due to the dark brown color. The face sculpt for the shell seems older than most Pretenders, looking like he's in his 40's or 50's, and vaguely resembling an older Milton Berle. Not sure if this was intentional or not.
By 1989, the removable belts had been eliminated from the Pretender design, probably for cost reasons, so Grimlock's only removable equipment remains his helmet with the Roman crest on the top. Repeatedly attaching and removing the helmet tends to scrape off the paint for his hair, though, revealing the grey plastic and only amplifying his aging appearance. He equips two weapons, the dinosaur tail from the inner robot, which has a laser barrel on the end of it, as well as a black bayonette-type rifle that doubles as a sword. He can grasp it by one of the two pegs so he's weilding it either as a gun or as a blade. Because of the odd tilted angle of his tail-gun, the peg-hole in his left fist is actually angled as well, towards his fingers, so that he can still position the gun pointing forwards when his arm is outstretched. The gun seems to be based on G1 Snarl's gun, particularly the hose dangling from the underside.
The inner robot is a much smaller toy than the original Grimlock released in 1984. His robot mode is a mere three and a half inches in height. His coloring and paint applications are fairly sparse; he's grey with black parts, and his upper chest is painted metallic gold. His eyes and mask are both painted orange, a strange choice (on the G1 toy, the eyes were red; in the cartoon, his eyes were blue; his mask should never have been painted at all). Interestingly, in the 1989 catalog and in his box art, the eyes were painted blue. It's clearly a budget version of the character, but it's more durable than the 1984 toy, which was extremely fragile. On this toy, the dinosaur arms hang off the sides of the legs and the dinosaur head is folded up on his back. The small robot can carry the tail gun, but not the blaster/sword.
To transform him to dinosaur mode, you turn him upside-down, with the robot arms becoming the T. rex legs as expected. The robot legs fold up to form the dinosaur's upper body. The tail plus into the back of the robot head. He's got six moving parts to his name, plus the dinosaur arms which do have some articulation as well. The dino eyes are painted orange, and remains the only painted deco for this form. His jaw does not operate. He stands at about three inches in height, and is close to five inches long from head to tail.
His styling is interesting, since it deviates quite a bit from his original look. Where the other Pretender Classics seemed to be an attempt to copy the design of the G1 toys, for the most part, Grimlock is a DGTOW (Dinobots Going Their Own Way) and the design is a radical departure from his original look. He's got lots of new surface detail and honestly, despite his diminutive size, he looks pretty powerful.
The design of the shell is interesting because it was partly influenced by the space Grimlock takes up when he's inside the shell. The large hump on the outer shell's back is only there to accommodate the dinosaur head on Grimlock's back; the square-shaped vents on his back are only there because the dinosaur arms on the inner robot's legs occupy that space. By 1989, Hasbro had given up on trying to get the legs of the Pretender inner robot to occupy the space created by the legs of the Pretender shell; there's now a block-shaped space occupied by Grimlock, which extends to a block that connects together the upper legs of the outer shell. We're just supposed to pretend it's not there, like the zippers on the Ewok costumes.
Later in 1989, all the inner robots from the Pretender Classics were offered as Kmart exclusives, sans Pretender shells, and sold as "Transformers Legends." They took the time to change their biography and tech specs, to omit the references to their Pretender shells (Grimlock's bio originally said he was "particularly nasty when reminded that he now resembles a human"), but they usually didn't change the consumer-applied sticker sheet, and just wanted kids to slap the extra stickers for the outer shell on the inner robot somewhere. The Autobot symbol for Grimlock's outer shell went on his dino tail gun.
The existence of the Pretender Classics led to their inclusion in Marvel Comics, which itself is kind of ironic, given that Bob Budiansky was forced to kill off dozens of characters to make room for the new product that Hasbro consistently churned out from year to year. The story called for Grimlock and the others to be essentially brought back from the dead, by which point Simon Furman had taken the reins. Grimlock having a new toy, but none of the other Dinobots, informed the story to some degree, depicting Grimlock on a quest to restore the others to full function. (One supposes that, given the introduction of Action Master Snarl a year later, he would have brought back at least one of them.)
We've gotten much better Grimlock updates in recent years, particularly this year's Studio Series edition. It's everything I've ever wanted in a Grimlock toy—it's large and articulated and accurate to the cartoon design. But, we had to start somewhere. I still love this toy on its own merits, but I freely admit my perception of it is clouded with nostalgia.
Zob (Mister Television has the power to surprise!)
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