What’s up guys. Christmas is over and it’s time to get back into the Toy Chest!
Last time I talked about the one that got away, Superion. I also went on at length about how cool it was that the Autobots countered the Decepticon’s first combiner team with a combiner of their own.
BUT!
What I did NOT talk about was how Superion was not the FIRST answer to the Constructicons!
Was this an intentional omission to service my Christmas narrative OR is my 46 year old brain beginning to lose its abiltity to remember trivial details accurately?
I’ll let you the reader decide the answer to that.
What I will say is that Devastator’s first defeat did not come at the hands of the Aerialbots. Thanks to a chance discovery of fossiles embedded in the walls of the volcano where the Autobots’ space ship was lodged, and the genius that is Wheeljack, Devastator’s first ass kicking came at the hands of…the Dinobots!
The leader of this uncontrollable force was one of the greatest characters to emerge from the Transformers universe. The mighty sword wielding Tyrannosaurus, Grimlock!
Grimlock
Company: Hasbro
Acquisition Year: 1985
Acquired via: Christmas gift
Years In Possession: 35
I can still remember the first time I saw this guy in toy form. My best friend in 5th grade (and fellow TF fanatic) got ahold of one first and smuggled him into school in his backpack. I remember sneaking a look during class behind the bookshelf at the front of the room. It was so cool looking!
I remember thinking that the dino head looked exactly like the cartoon (which was pretty rare for these toys, that let’s be honest, tended to be on the clunky/ugly side).
Grimlock was another hard to find character. The Dinobots in general were scarce enough, but Grimlock seemed even harder to find.
Even the way he transformed was unique. The way his chest split open, and how the dinosaur head flipped back to reveal the robot head was so much fun.
That’s one thing that isn’t talked about enough when it comes to Transformers, the way they’re engineered to convert from one form into a robot. They’re sculpture puzzles, Rubik’s Cubes in robot form. Each one with a different solution. I think they had a big impact on developing my memorization skills and problem solving abilities. It was always a proud moment when you had the transformation moves committed to memory and didn’t have to refer to the instructions.
Another thing that stood out about all the Dinobots was all the chrome and gold and red. I can’t really think of any other characters that had the same amount of shiny metal bits as the Dinobots.
The one aspect about Grimlock that I always found a little comical was his tiny little robot head. It’s absurdly small compared to how big his chest and shoulders are. But I guess it makes sense, small head = small brain, and he was definitely no Mensa candidate.
Anyway, that’s it for this installment. Sorry about the gap between posts, I hope to get back on a semi-regular schedule soon, as I’m currently reorganizing all of my collections so that they’re easier to access and photograph for this blog.
Thanks for reading, see you next time!
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