After getting Voyager Grimlock I had really high hopes that Leader Grimlock would make up for some of his shortcomings, this proved to be wrong. The figure while engineered to obviously be much bigger is in many ways more simplistic than the voyager mode and overall I was not particularly happy with him.
One huge call out to start us with… the chrome, my god the chrome! If you feel that Hasbro hasn’t been using chrome enough then this is the guy for you because he’s covered in it. And in a lovely turn of events it begins chipping pretty much right out of the box. I have several spots on mine (mostly on the T-Rex head) where chrome has already flecked away. Such a pain!
Box:
Bot Mode:
Fresh out of the case he is in his bot mode, his directions however have him in T-Rex mode and it can be a bit of a pain to follow them backwards, but that’s jumping ahead.
Leaders have apparently gotten smaller. Grimlock is dwarfed by every other movie leader I own and while height wise he looks just slightly shorter, you can tell when holding him that there is much less mass in the figure then there have been in the previous movie leader-size figures.
He has 17 points of articulation, depending on how you’re counting. His head turns, but cannot be moved in any other way. His arms… are a pain for posing! Here are his shoulders folded all the way down:
Here are his arms the very next click outwards:
Let me make this clear, there is no in-between on these two points! You’re left trying to pose his forearms as much as possible to make up for this. Speaking of his forearms, the kibble from his feet is much less than that of Voyager Grimlock , but it in turn leads to the legs of T-Rex mode looking much more simplistic.
I have some good news for you if you’re not a fan of the whole elf shoe thing that Grimlocks have been sporting. Here is how the directions say his feet should be:
Here is how I believe 95% of the fandom will choose to keep theirs:
Weapons, he comes with his big mace thing and a shield that clips on to his forearm. The mace grips in very tight with his hands you shouldn’t have trouble posing it. Both combine to form the tail in his T-Rex form.
Some comparison shots:
T-Rex Mode:
I would not call this a T-Rex anymore. He is clearly an Asian themed dinosaur/dragon thing. Unlike the voyager, his horns/ears cannot be folded down or in any way covered up. They are out there permanently.
Size wise he is maybe 30%-40% larger than the voyager in this mode, but much less poseable. His arms fit so high on his body that when fully extended they barely clear his chest, let alone his head. His tail has no articulation at all. In fact his tail is so short it’s almost funny.
His jaw is poseable, unlike the voyager one, but that’s really one of the few areas where he is superior.
Are those his bot fists clearly sitting on the back of his feet? Why yes they are!
My original plan was to keep voyager in T-Rex and leader in bot mode. Then when I saw how weak the voyager T-Rex was I planned on doing the opposite. Now however I have switched back again and Leader will be remaining in his bot mode. So long as it is very far away from every other leader I own so that he doesn’t look tiny in comparison!
Overall:
I’d still get him, because I’m a hardcore Grimlock fan, but I see a lot of fans passing on him and/or being disappointed with him.
too much package for those items
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