The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[sh9000]

TFC makes some of the most fugly looking combiners.

[David Hingtgen]

Their Seacons are looking pretty good so far:

[Scyla]

This. I don't know if they just got carried away with their re-imaginings or if they were afraid that they'd get sued if their transforming-toys-who-are-not-Transformers looked too recognizable, but Hercules was just off, and Ares, Uranos and Prometheus are way off.

That said, I'm kind of waiting to see how their not-Piranacon shakes out, if only because no one else is doing one and Piranacon will be the only non-Micromaster G1 combiner I'll be missing after I finish Ordin and Feral Rex for Abominus and Predaking and after I get a Combiner Wars Computron.

Depending on how disposable my disposable income gets, though, I'm open to replacing every one of the Combiner Wars guys with a better third-party product.

Speaking of finishing Ordin, the four limbs I need to go with Siegfried just shipped. I have no idea what's up with the remaining two Feral Rex dudes, though. When I preordered them back in January, they were expected to ship in Q1 2016, and that what it still says on Talon and Tigris' pages, but we're running out of Q1.

IIRC you are missing Talon and Tigris. They are available over at PSX. Since they get the stock first I think your retailer will get theirs shortly:

http://www.planetsteelexpress.com/r-02/

http://www.planetsteelexpress.com/r-06-tigris/

[anime52k8]

Their Seacons are looking pretty good so far:

I really cannot keep track of 3rd party combiners. they're doing Seacons now? I also just found out today that somebody did Terrorcons over a year ago.

Could anyone be a super awesome nice guy and direct me towards a comprehensive list of 3p combiners that doesn't involve reading a 5,000 page thread on tfw2005? please?

Edited March 26, 2016 by anime52k8

[Scyla]

Well you could just ask in this very thread.

[anime52k8]

ok, could someone give a rundown of what third party combiners are out or are coming out?

[Scyla]

I'l try...

Abominus:

Unique Toys -> Ordin

Bruticus:

Warbotron -> WB01

FansProject -> Ammunitioner (Swindle) & Explorer (Blast-Off) upgrade set for Energon Bruticus

Microblaze Crations -> MBC002 (Onslaught) upgrade set for FoC Bruticus

Computron:

MakeToys -> Quantron

Warbotron -> WB03

Defensor:

TFC -> Prometheus

MakeToys -> Guardia

MMC ->Maximas Pro

Devastator:

MakeToys -> Green/Yellow Giant:

TFC -> Hercules (and Perseus aka Shattered Glass Devastator)

Generation Toys -> Gravity Builder

ToyWorld -> Constructor

DX9 -> Hulkie

Dinobot Combiner:

ToyWorld -> TWD Dino Combiner

GCreation -> Shuraking

Dinoking/Monstructor:

FansProject -> Ryu-Oh

King Poseidon Piranacon:

TFC -> Poseidon

Liokaiser:

TFC -> Hades

Menasor:

FansProject -> M³

TransFormMission M-01

Bold Forms -> Lonewolf (only Motormaster but CW compatible)

Predaking:

MMC -> Feral Rex

TFC -> Ares

Unique Toys -> Warlord

Superion:

TFC -> Uranos

Throttlebots:

Toyworld -> TW Gestalt

These are all I can remember from the top of my head. TFC also did some official combiners called StarCats I believe and I'm pretty sure you can make another Devastator from the Crazy Devy upgrade kits.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Scyla

[anime52k8]

Ordin looks cool.

So I just bought Gravity builder Scrap(p)er and Toy world not-Scavenger. I'll see how they are in a week, then I'll know which giant ass expensive devastator I'm gonna get.

[David Hingtgen]

Technically, since they have individual robot modes, TFC is doing Piranacon, not King Poseidon.

[mikeszekely]

Ordin looks cool.

My thoughts on Siegfried (Ordin's not Hun-Grrr torso) are on page 71 of this thread. I'll talk about the rest soon, now that they're shipping.

IIRC you are missing Talon and Tigris. They are available over at PSX. Since they get the stock first I think your retailer will get theirs shortly:

http://www.planetsteelexpress.com/r-02/

http://www.planetsteelexpress.com/r-06-tigris/

This is good to here! I've been playing with the other four for three months now, and a one-armed, wingless Feral Rex is... well, he's still pretty freaking cool, but I really do want to complete him.

MMC ->Maximas Pro

I got excited for a minute here, since I hadn't heard about this. I don't exactly have a ton of experience with third parties (just ToyWorld, Unique Toys, and MMC) and even I've already come to love MMC. But I saw that this is part of their OX series, not ReFormatted, and he's going to be MP scale. This is good for people who are into that sort of thing, but I'm more interested in CHUG-scale, so MMC's Defensor will be too big.

[anime52k8]

Liokaiser:

TFC -> Hades

Liokaiser: YAY!!! TFC: boo...

[David Hingtgen]

TFC's recent combiners (Liokaiser, Piranacon) are much better than before. New designer.

Though neither are even half-way complete yet, so we don't really know how the final form will turn out.

[mikeszekely]

TFC's recent combiners (Liokaiser, Piranacon) are much better than before. New designer.

Though neither are even half-way complete yet, so we don't really know how the final form will turn out.

Liokaiser is one of those guys I had to look up on a wiki to even see who the heck he was, so I've got zero interest there.

I'm still tempted by TFC's Piranacon. I'm worried the rest of the team could turn out to be a crap sandwich, but the test shots of the first three limbs looked pretty good. And the color shots of not-Skalor are ticking all the right boxes.

[David Hingtgen]

Regardless of Liokaiser-knowledge, this should make any "transforming jets fan" interested:

Ironically, they seem to have made much better jets this time, than they did for Superion. Yes, there's still "robots under the plane" but it's better than before. And robot modes and coloring are much improved compared to their Superion.

PS---even if you don't know Liokaiser, you've likely heard of the infamous "Breastmasters". These are them.

[anime52k8]

Liokaiser just looks really cool, the combined form is an awesome robot, his components have great heads and cool vehicle modes (three jets, an AA tank and a drilltank), and breast animals are fun little gimmicks. also there's amazing naming going on (hellbat, killbison, breastmasters, come on that's fun).

TFC's Hellbat has a great head sculpt and a really good jet mode so that's what's got my attention.

:edit:

BTW, apparently some people are complaining about the fact that hellbat has landing gear bay doors that have to be left open to deploy the front landing gear. Where's a facepalm emote when you need one.

Edited March 26, 2016 by anime52k8

[Scyla]

So I've dusted off my toy collection today and I have to say out of all my 3rd party robot toys MMCs Warper is still the best overall package. Articulation, paint application, auto morph, mech alive, engineering. Everything is there and executed well. Sadly MMC has abandoned the HoS bots. Hopefully they come through with their DJD line and don't stop them prematurely.

[David Hingtgen]

BTW, apparently some people are complaining about the fact that hellbat has landing gear bay doors that have to be left open to deploy the front landing gear. Where's a facepalm emote when you need one.

Yeah, I see that complaint a lot. It's not worth the effort to explain.

[mikeszekely]

PS---even if you don't know Liokaiser, you've likely heard of the infamous "Breastmasters". These are them.

I seriously don't know jack about the Japanese cartoons. I tried watching Headmasters, thought it was awful, skipped ahead to Masterforce, and thought it was similarly awful. Never touched Victory or Zone.

[David Hingtgen]

Headmasters is better than Masterforce, but that's not saying a whole lot. I went for "decreased time, increased enjoyment" after a few eps of Masterforce---I'd just fast-forward anytime kids were on screen. Did my best to watch only robot scenes.

[dizman]

Victory is fun, but it's not something I could recommend . Here's a short little clip to introduce you to Liokaiser in all his glory (oh and a transformers wrestling match too).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbEplajTPiw

I'm not really sure if I want to jump into TFC's Liokaiser yet, guess I'll wait for more pictures of combined mode.

[mikeszekely]

Well, the rest of my Ordin team arrived today. Kind of surprised by the boxes... I'm used to MMC Feralcons' boxes, and Siegfreid's is about the same size, but the rest are in much smaller boxes. In any case, I piled them on the floor then grabbed one at random, so today I'll be talking about Fenrir, UT's take on Sinnertwin.

In bot mode, Fenrir's honestly really great. He's got great plastic quality and UT did a fantastic job updating Sinnertwin's appearance from the simple G1 toy or animation mode without going overboard (*cough, TFC, cough*) or making a too that's too simple and G1 (like UT's earlier Warlord). He does a great job hiding his kibble, with the beast mode's rear legs tucking inside the back of his bot mode legs. The only real kibble are the beast heads on his back and the claws on his elbows. Even the combiner port is well-hidden.

He's got very good articulation, too. His head is ball-jointed, although way it's attached means he doesn't have a ton of up-down range. His shoulders can rotate all the way around, and swing out to the sides a little under 90 degrees. He's bicep can swivel, and he's got a double-jointed elbow that will let him curl his arms until his forearm armor hits his shoulder armor. His wrists and waist can rotate. His hips can swing forward a little less than 90 degrees. They can swing back a bit, but not nearly as far (which, I guess is fairly human). They can swing fully out to the sides, so he can do the splits no problem. His knees can bend fairly deeply, until the backs of his calves meet his thighs. His feet are on a pin, so then can't really rock outward but they can rock inward a full 90 degrees, so not only can he do the splits but his feet can sit flat while he does it. His toes can point downward but they can't go up. He's got heel spurs that can go either up or down. Between his thick legs, heel spurs, and ankle tilt he's a very stable figure, even with the back kibble.

His included weapons are, honestly, crap. He's got two... hooks... that are his alt mode tails, plus the included Ordin foot breaks apart into two guns and a missile launcher. Thing is, there's really no place to stick the missile launcher and his forearms kind of interfere with the guns if you put them in his hands armor side up. You can put them in the other way, but then there's a gap in the back of the gun. Luckily, if you have Siegfreid and the included big gun for Ordin, it splits into four smaller guns. Giving Fenrir one of those works A LOT better.

Fenrir is decently-sized, shorter than Siegfried or Combiner Wars Optimus, but still taller than a Deluxe.

I have just one complaint about Fenrir's bot mode, and that's the teal part of his chest. It's actually a panel. Moving it out allows the head to fold into his chest and to reveal the combiner port. The problem is that the panel doesn't tab in. It's like it was designed for the friction of it sliding against the yellow parts to hold it in place, but there really isn't any friction. So, if you're playing with him and you bump his head the whole thing is going to open. That's not a deal-breaker, but it's a shame because it's probably Fenrir's biggest flaw.

Anyway, onto alt mode.

So his alt mode isn't his strongest mode. It's kind of long, which I can forgive, but I wish the legs collapsed a little better. You can see a little bit of his robot thighs from the sides. His rear legs are similarly-articulated as Siegfreid's beast rear legs. Since his front legs are his bot arms they've got good articulation for making clawing poses. He retails his waist swivel, but there's not a lot of posing you can do with it since the rear legs can swing out. You can rotate the tails, and they're kind of bendy since they're made from a rubbery plastic, but they're not articulated. His beast heads have several ball joints, but the shape of the neck segments interferes with how much they can bend, plus you kind of need the base of the beast necks to cover the combiner port (although they don't peg in anywhere). I've found that this makes his beast heads harder to pose at different angles than Siegfreid's. The jaws on both heads can open and close.

I think my gripe here his that Fenrir isn't as dynamic as Siegfreid. He sort of comes across as a brick with movable legs, although, to be fair, that's G1 accurate. And, to be fair, it's not bad, it's just not great, either. But, Fenrir's got one more mode... a leg!

That's a pretty solid leg, yeah? It's very stable- I had it sitting on my bed, and it didn't tip when I sat on the bed next to it. I've heard complaints that the alt-legs don't tab in, but I can say that the beast legs by his ankles definitely do.

If we peak around the back, it's not as neat (then again, neither are the Feral Rex legs, and everyone loves Feral Rex), but it's not as bad as you might think, either. His shoulders do peg into his back. Although his arms don't really tab in, the claws do slot into the gap in his shoulder armor which creates some solidity. The beast heads do kind of just hang there, but the base of the beast necks rest against the arms, so it's all fairly solid. I'll concede that it's not tabbed as neatly as Bovis and Fortis, but it's honestly not that bad.

Oh, and if you want, you can stick the tails into the slightly exposed fist holes and store them even in leg mode.

Well, this is a tough call. Fenrir is a good toy. If you're completing the Ordin team I don't think you're going to be sorry you bought him. He's a great robot and a solid leg. But, if for some reason you were just a Sinnertwin fan and only planned on buying Fenrir I kind of think good might not be good enough, especially with his best weapon being packaged with Siegfreid.

EDIT: I plan to have reviews up for the rest of the Ordin team up this week, but a review of Ordin himself is probably going to have to wait, because Fenrir is probably going to have to go back to TF Source for a replacement since he came with two left hands.

Edited March 30, 2016 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

Again, in no particular order, here's Hagen, UT's Cutthroat.

Hagen, like Fenrir, is a good bot that updates Cutthroat's G1 appearance without going overboard. That said, I don't really like his bot mode as much as Fenrir's. For starters, the only accessory he comes with is a hand for Ordin. I mean, Alberich has guns, and even if they sucked Ordin's feet break apart to give weapons to Fenrir and Troll. That's a big blow for anyone interested in collecting just Hagen, but again if you're going for the whole team Siegfried has four guns and two scimitars that the other guys can borrow. For two, Hagen's got a little more kibble, and it's a lot less necessary than Fenrir's. I'm not even talking about the wings, which are totally removable. No, he's got his alt neck, which isn't so bad, and his alt tail, which just folds up and hangs there. This was true for Siegfried, sure, but that was accurate for Siegfried. If you look a the G1 toy, Cutthroat doesn't have a tail. Even the animation model just has a little purple thing. Oh well.

Hagen's about the same size as Fenrir, and slightly less articulated. He's still got the shoulders biceps, ankles, hips, ball-jointed neck, knees, elbows, and waist. He's lacking wrist swivels, though, which is a bit of a bummer, but considering my favorite 3P toy doesn't have them either I'll forgive Hagen.

His alt mode is better than Fenrir's in some ways, but odd in some ways, too. I should mention that while Fenrir's transformation is blindingly obvious and stupid easy, Hagen's is nearly as easy and obvious but with a few tricks that make him a little more fun to transform. For instance, one major oddity is that the forearm panels that open to allow his fists to be folded in can't close all they way with the fists folded in. He's got that tail, which isn't G1 and fixed to boot, so no articulation there. Also, like Fenrir, his torso is a little too long in this mode. With Fenrir, though, you sort of felt like maybe they could have crunched his legs a little better, but there wasn't a lot they could do. With Hagen, though, if they'd had the beast legs attach just below robot knee instead of above the robot ankle, he'd be pretty much the same proportions as the G1 toy.

From other angles, he looks fine, though, even with the new tail. Due to the way it covers his head his alt neck doesn't move. His alt head can look up and down and rotate, and even get a tiny bit of side-to-side movement. His beak can open and close. Also due to how he transforms he loses his waist swivel. His beast legs are his arms, just turned around, so he's got hips that can rotate and bend out, knees, and ball-jointed claws. Because of the way they fold up in bot mode, you can even bend his backward-pointing talon inward like he's going to grab something with his claws (although they're not curved enough to actually hold much). Despite limited articulation on his body, he can get some really dynamic poses almost entirely due to the wings, which can fold in and out and rotate where they're pegged into his body, extend in and out on a joint near that peg, extend in and out on a joint below his wing-claws, and he's got a two pins where the segment that's connected to the peg connects to the segment with the claw that can fold in and out but also allow part of the wing to slide forward or behind the other part. This same articulation can be used in bot mode to allow him to unfurl his wings or practically hide them.

On Ordin, Hagen's an arm instead of the leg that Cutthroat was on the cartoon. A minor gripe, since Abominus was a Scramble City combiner and it's not like Cutthroat couldn't have been an arm. Anyway, I'd say he makes a pretty good arm. His beast parts don't tuck away as well as the Feralcons, but they're out of the way and don't interfere with his arm movement. It's true that his bot arms don't have dedicated pegs or tabs to hold them in place, but it's not as bad as you might think. See, what I've found works best is moving his wings from the holes on his sides to the holds on his back. This will help keep them out of the way and cover his alt-tail, but it has another benefit. The peg holes on his sides are raised a bit. Remember how his forearm panels don't close all the way when his fists are folded in? You'll notice on the side of the bot-arm that rests against his body in arm mode has a circular spot cut out. While this is intended to fit around a circular part on the other side of the bot-arm, it can be used to clamp the forearm panel and the rest of the forearm around the peg hole, holding the bot arms in place.

Another thing I really like about Hagen's arm mode is that Hagen's torso extends to expose a hidden, dedicated elbow joint for Ordin. I think that gives Hagen more natural proportions as an arm than any of the Feralcons. Speaking of the Feralcons, Ordin's hand connects to Hagen pretty much the same way that Rex's hands connect. Ordin's thumbs are similar to Rex's and like Rex Ordin's fingers move where they connect to the hand and at one knuckle. Ordin's knuckles can get a little straighter, though, and the fingers are connected with balljoints.

At the end of the day, I think Hagen's a little bit better than Fenrir, and possibly worth buying on his own if it weren't for the fact that he doesn't come with any weapons. He's still got a few flaws, though, that you should be aware of going in.

[anime52k8]

Hey, does anyone have any thoughts on 3rd Party Grimlocks? My understanding is the options for a large-ish grimlock figure are:

Planet X Vulcan

Gcreation Wrath

Fans Toys Grinder

ToyWorld Grimshell

FansProject Servo

Of those, Vulcan is WFC styled which I don't care for. Wrath looks like crap and seems massively compromised to be a combiner torso which is something I'm never going to do with it. Grinder is a masterpiece style figure and while it looks better than the current MP, it's seems kind of chubby and he's the most expensive. Grimshell looks really good but I feel like you're paying for combiner mode parts that I'm never gonna use. And Servo is a fansProject toy which sort of speaks for itself.

Anything I'm forgetting? Any recommendations?

[mikeszekely]

Today, we're going to talk about Alberich, UT's version of Rippersnapper.

Out of the box, Alberich has a lot going for him. I dig the white and dark blue of Rippersnapper more than the colors on the other three Terrorcon limbs, and Alberich tosses in a little gray to keep things interesting. And unlike his fellow arm Hagen, Alberich actually comes with weapons! This is undoubtedly to copy the look of Rippersnapper with the missile launcher that was his fin on the original toy. Instead of the entire fin detaching, though, the guns just pop off the sides of the fin.

When you start to play with him, you quickly realize that Alberich shares a lot of parts and engineering with Hagen, although credit where credit is due UT has done a pretty good job masking that so Alberich and Hagen look and feel more different than, say, Bovis and Fortis or Tigris and Felisaber. But on careful inspection, you can see that aside from shins his entire body from the waist down is the same as Hagen, as are his fists, hands, and the panels that move his arms from his bot mode to his alt mode. I'd also assume some parts of the torso are probably the same, too. They have different shins, forearms, shoulder armor, heads, chests, shins, at least some of their backs, and their beast talons are different. Transformation is nearly identical with the way the legs fold up, the tail pegs into the feet, the arms swing down and spin around to become beast legs, and the way their torsos collapse. The only real difference is how their beast heads transform and fussing with Hagen's wings vs Alberich's little front arms.

Alberich is about the same size as the other Orin limbs, only appearing a little taller due to his relatively thin appearance and his alt head jutting up behind his bot head. And since he shares Hagen's engineering, he's got the same articulation, which is to say that it's quite good but again is missing a wrist swivel. What makes a difference, though, is that Hagen's alt-neck, extended torso, and tail just make for kibble on his back, but Alberich's alt-head, extended torso, and tail make him look like a bot with a shark for a backpack. This is both kinda cool and fairly accurate to at least Rippersnapper's animation model. So my only complaints, aside from the lack of wrist swivels, is that it'd be nice if there was places to peg the alt-arms and tail into the back, although the way they fold they're not really going anywhere.

Alberich's alt mode is still a sort of shark that grew some stumpy limbs and started walking around upright. In this mode, as was the case with Hagen, his rear legs are his arms pointed backward and have all the same articulation. His front arms can rotate at the shoulder and bend at the elbow, and that's it. His fin can rotate... perhaps to aim is weapons? and his beast head can look up and down and open its jaws. As with Hagen, he looses the waist swivel due to his transformation.

A common complaint about Hagen, Fenrir, and Alberich is that their alt-bodies are too long, but I don't really feel that's the case here. Sure, the G1 toy was pretty stumpy, and the cartoon ran with that. But sharks are long and sleek, which Alberich not only captures but enhances with a more streamlined tail. The rocket booster detailing takes that sleekness and makes it seem fast and dangerous. And, despite his length, his joints are solid and he can hold himself in both a classic upright stance and while leaning forward. Needless to say, I like his alt mode a lot, although again like Hagen the forearm panels don't close all the way with the fists folded up.

And, last and, I suppose, least, Alberich forms one of Ordin's arms. So, the pluses are would be that great hidden elbow joint, the fact that alt-kibble doesn't interfere with his function as an arm, and like bot mode the alt kibble looks less like kibble and more like Ordin's got a shark for shoulder armor. The minus here would be the lack of a good way to store his bot arms. As with Hagen, they weren't designed to peg anywhere. Unlike Hagen, there's not peg hole rim for this forearm armor to pinch onto, either. What works best for me is, as seen in the picture, tucking his elbow flap under his alt shoulder, then wrapping his alt claw around his forearm. This isn't a deal breaking issue for me... it folds up better than some of the Combiner Wars figures. Still, for a toy that nearly costs as much by himself as a whole Hasbro combiner you can't help but wish for better, especially if you're used to MMC's Feralcons where pretty much everything tucks and tabs together snugly.

Despite the similarities, I think Alberich is definitely a better toy than Hagen, and the inclusion of weapons without relying on guns that come with another figure means that I can wholeheartedly recommend him as both a member of the Ordin team and as a stand alone figure.

Edited March 31, 2016 by mikeszekely

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Hey, does anyone have any thoughts on 3rd Party Grimlocks? My understanding is the options for a large-ish grimlock figure are:

Planet X Vulcan

Gcreation Wrath

Fans Toys Grinder

ToyWorld Grimshell

I only have Vulcan out of all the Grimmys listed. I liked FoC's Grimmy, so getting it was a no brainer for me. Vulcan definitely improves on the official version in size and articulation, a worthy purchase. I know you don't care for the design, but Vulcan makes a great Grimlock.

And thanks for your thoughts on Ordin, MikeZ. It helps me figure which side of the fence I'm gonna fall in the future.

[mikeszekely]

And now, the final member of the Ordin team- Troll, UT's take on Blot.

My first impression of Troll is that he makes for a pretty sleek, clean-looking bot. I mean, the original toy was a chunk, but Troll manages to retail some key details like the gray sides on his chest while having much more normal proportions. What's more, he does this with just a nondescript squarish backpack and some folded up alt-legs on his lower legs as his only kibble. The only accessory Troll comes with his one of Ordin's feet, which again splits apart into two guns and a missile launcher. The guns work pretty well, better than they did for Fenrir, either has a handheld weapon or as arm-mounted cannons. That said, Troll's still getting one of the guns that came with Siegfried.

If you haven't figured it out by now, Troll is the same size as the other limbs. He's got the same articulation as the other limbs too, including the wrist swivels that Fenrir has. He even has a waist swivel, but it's a little lower than you'd expect. His feet are a little different, though. Instead of having true feet and ankle tilts like the other three limbs, just the little silver part on the front moves. He also doesn't have heel spurs, although he stays balanced on what he's got just fine without them, despite his backpack.

One big knock on Troll's bot mode are these exposed, hollow spaces. The other three limbs had covers for where their fists folded in, so it's a shame that Troll doesn't. Likewise, Troll's legs could have benefited from something like Fenrir's where the alt legs could have tucked in there.

The guys who designed Troll pulled off something pretty impressive here. Instead of taking the easy way out and going for the animation model, which looked like Blot hunched over a little, put on a mask, and replaced his hands with clamps, UT went for the toy's look, which means a big upper body with big arms and small lower body and tiny legs. And they really nailed it, with probably the most involved transformation of any of the Ordin team (including Siegfried). His backpack unfolds into beast arms almost magically swallow up the bot arms into his beast forearms, the inside of his waist makes his lower body, and his bot legs fold up into a new backpack while managing to leave his little beast legs behind. Of all the Ordin limbs, Troll is the only one I needed to consult the instructions on, which is good because the instruction sheets for these guys flat out suck and leave a lot out. Really disappointing if you're used to MMC's booklets.

Troll's alt mode articulation is found almost entirely in his arms and legs, which are just as articulated as his bot arms and legs, right down to wrist swivels and ankle tilts. His claws are all ball-jointed and can be moved around as well. Sadly, he loses his waist swivel in this mode, and his head has basically no articulation. It can only look down a little before it starts folding into his chest, and unlike the rest of the Ordin team he doesn't have a working jaw. In fact, the bottom of his head is hollow, and if you turn him upside down you can see his bot head hiding in there.

Troll's feet guns can peg onto his beast arms, and while pictures show him wearing the rest of the foot missile launcher I can't seem to get it to stay on his back. The peg holes on his back are too small for the pegs on the foot, and the pegs on his back seem too large for the peg holes on the foot.

In alt mode, aside from the aforementioned lack of head articulation, his biggest flaw is that the combiner port is clearly visible on top. All the other limbs use their alt-heads to hide it. Also, Troll's beast-arms don't have the deepest of bends. They can't even make it to 90 degrees. You can actually get more bend if you turn the arms around, but that makes his folded up bot-arms clearly visible as chunks and gaps and spoils the cleaner look that the other side has.

With Hagen as an arm, Troll moves down to a leg spot. Like Fenrir, he's a good leg. In fact, despite being very different overall, Troll manages to capture the same sort of look as Fenrir with a broad bot-torso that tapers toward the waist filled out by the parts behind it, Troll's beast head serves the spot of Fenrir's teal chest flap, they both have their beast legs pegged in near the ankle, and Troll's bot feet stick up like Fenrir's knees. Heck, there's even a screw hole visible that's analogous to the port on Fenrir's pelvis where a weapon can mount in his beast mode. From the back, Troll's a little cleaner as a leg than Fenrir, since his folded-up arms aren't showing. Like Fenrir, though, his shoulders do peg in back there, and his beast arms sort of dangle where Fenrir's beast heads do.

Well... in some ways, Troll is perhaps the most-flawed of the Ordin limbs, with the hollow bot-limbs, un-articulated alt-head, hollow alt-chin with the bot-head showing, and visible combiner port in alt mode. However, his transformation is so interesting and the way his beast arms and bot legs become such clean backpacks also make him the most fun of the limb bots, so I can recommend Troll without hesitation as both a part of a set and as a standalone toy.

[Scyla]

Hey, does anyone have any thoughts on 3rd Party Grimlocks? My understanding is the options for a large-ish grimlock figure are:

Planet X Vulcan

Gcreation Wrath

Fans Toys Grinder

ToyWorld Grimshell

FansProject Servo

Of those, Vulcan is WFC styled which I don't care for. Wrath looks like crap and seems massively compromised to be a combiner torso which is something I'm never going to do with it. Grinder is a masterpiece style figure and while it looks better than the current MP, it's seems kind of chubby and he's the most expensive. Grimshell looks really good but I feel like you're paying for combiner mode parts that I'm never gonna use. And Servo is a fansProject toy which sort of speaks for itself.

Anything I'm forgetting? Any recommendations?

I'm on board for the Fans Toys Grinder because I collect their Dinobots. If you don't want to go down that rabbit hole or care for the Masterpiece aesthetic I would go with Planet X Vulcun if you need a single representation of Grimlock and you want it now.

I wouldn't go with the two combiner torsos since they have to many compromises and you have to pay for engineering and parts that you will never use.

The FansProject one is ok but the company had a major drop in quality, fit and finish and engineering after their first three Function X releases so their Dinobots are not that stellar.

[edit:] There are also a few other options:

Gigapower is doing also Dinobots but they only released Guttur (Snarl) so it might take a while till they get to Grimlock or die along the way.

There is Warbotron WB03-F which is a companion piece for their Computron combiner (image courtesy of tformers.com):

If you like SD dinosaurs you might also be happy with Tiny Rex. He is a bit pricey for what he is but maybe he is the right Grimlock for you (image courtesy of tfw2005.com):

There is also a review by peaugh if you want to check him out:

Edited March 31, 2016 by Scyla

[anime52k8]

I want to like grinder, I really do, but I just can't get past his weird looking barrel chest.

seriously, that looks awful. what the frakk is even going on with that?

What really pisses me off about it though is that as I was doing some more searching, I found out that this was their original design for him:

That looks so much better in every way. But no, we get shitty barrel chest because 'fans' cried GEEEWUNNN!!!

seriously, I hate transformers fans sometimes.

Edited March 31, 2016 by anime52k8

[Scyla]

I want to like grinder, I really do, but I just can't get past his weird looking barrel chest.

*snip*

seriously, that looks awful. what the frakk is even going on with that?

What really bothers me about it though is that as I was doing some more searching, I found out that this was their original design for him:

*snip*

That looks so much better in every way. But no, we get shitty barrel chest because 'fans' cried GEEEWUNNN!!!

seriously, I hate transformers fans sometimes.

I hate them all the time.

[anime52k8]

Maybe once it's all shiny and chrome I'll like Grinder more.

of course, Fans Toys seem to be the only company interested in doing G2 color dinobots, so I may just end up getting Grinder in the end because it'll be the only way to get the blue Grimlock I really want.

Edited March 31, 2016 by anime52k8

[JB0]

Tiny Rex is objectively superior to all other offerings.

[anime52k8]

Tiny Rex is objectively superior to all other offerings.

well yeah, that goes without saying.

[mikeszekely]

And thanks for your thoughts on Ordin, MikeZ. It helps me figure which side of the fence I'm gonna fall in the future.

Hopefully, I'll have Ordin himself up tonight.

Hey, does anyone have any thoughts on 3rd Party Grimlocks? My understanding is the options for a large-ish grimlock figure are:

Planet X Vulcan

Gcreation Wrath

Fans Toys Grinder

ToyWorld Grimshell

FansProject Servo

Of those, Vulcan is WFC styled which I don't care for. Wrath looks like crap and seems massively compromised to be a combiner torso which is something I'm never going to do with it. Grinder is a masterpiece style figure and while it looks better than the current MP, it's seems kind of chubby and he's the most expensive. Grimshell looks really good but I feel like you're paying for combiner mode parts that I'm never gonna use. And Servo is a fansProject toy which sort of speaks for itself.

Anything I'm forgetting? Any recommendations?

Well, what can I say? It seems like you listed what's available, short of SD Grimmy, and you listed the cons of each. So, I guess go with whatever con bugs you the least, unless you can wait and see how Gigapower's offerings shake out.

Personally, I'm looking at Grimshell, but then again I am sort of interested in the idea of a Dinobot combiner and, even though ToyWorld's combiner looks a little unstable I think he looks better than GCreation's. Then again, I'm strangely interested in 3P combiners in general, with my eyes on TFC's not-Piranacon, and MakeToys Guardia. Heck, if he drops to $250 again I'd consider Make Toys Quantron, and if FansProject ever does another run of him I'd really like to have Intimidator.

[technoblue]

I have Planet X Vulcan. The FoC look doesn't bug me as much as I thought it would in person. Actually, it turned out to be rather nice in hand and these dinobots also look good with a Transformers Prime display.

Anyway, since he is not your thing I'll move on.

Gigapower's dinos are big and chunky, like upscaled versions of the old toys. The bigness may be a distraction. At least, it is for me. Guttur is top heavy and looks a little too beefy. Grassor looks like he may be better, but he is due out...sometime. I have no idea when they plan to release their not Grimlock. Maybe next year if we are lucky.

Most of the Grimlocks in your list try to keep a G1 look, which means that Vulcan is the only design that goes off in left field. Unlike Giga, FansToys sticks closer to the G1 toon (as you've discovered). Their not-Snarl is also a head shorter than Giga's release. It will be interesting to see if that size difference remains consistent.

If I were interested in the dino combiners at all, then I would probably look at the ToyWorld releases too. I like how their individual transformations look. They seem more pleasing to me than GCreations. But if I could only get one Grimlock, I would go SD.

Edited March 31, 2016 by technoblue

[anime52k8]

I think I'll get the Tiny Rex when I get around to ordering the rest of ToyWorld's Devastator. I wanna try the one part I've ordered out before I decide how much money to throw at them. (Friday! )