Video Review Round-Up for Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-41 Dinobot

Well, after having Dinobot to play with for a weekend, I think I may be getting rid of it, if it's selling well on eBay.

While I liked the figure at first, I'm souring on it more and more:

The transformation gimmick for his arms/raptor feet really limits articulation in both modes.

On my copy, the robot ankle joints are very week, so getting him to stand is a challenge.

The "neck" joint makes any kind of head posing look a bit ridiculous.

It really points out how bad of an animation model Dinobot has.

The cost. The more I handle this, the more upset I get at the price I paid.


I love this character, but I'm just running out of desire to own the figure.

Dinobot by ME_Counterpunch, on Flickr

^I'm glad to see I didn't have to hard sell you on Dinobot. Fun pic!

shajaki wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Thanks Shaj! I'll news some of those up here later tonight.

My Dinobot came in stock, and is shipping, hopefully I'll have him by the end of next week, hopefully!

Yeah I'm hoping mine will will be in next week sometime

I'm hoping so too! He shipped out, so all I gotta do is wait for him!

Jobby has finally gotten to Dinobot
Some might consider this to be 18+... fair warning!

The mailman left me a notice of the Dinopackage, and I picked it up this morning on my way to work. It was a slow afternoon so I busted him open at my desk!





So. I don't see how it can be done any better. And to address the fragility, I think he'll be fine so long as he's not hamfisted. He looks PERFECT in bot mode, and near perfect in beast mode. The beast mode faults I'm willing to let slide because of his raptor head. It is incredibly expressive, in hand I didn't think I'd be this impressed.

However, the isn't the most impressive MP (engineering-wise). He basically just flips inside out all explody-like, and it's been done. I still find the Inferno and Sunstreaker molds to be more groundbreaking. But he's still jaw dropping

Dinobot, oh man. Once I transform him a few times and loosen some of those hinges from use, he will work better. But dang, he is so goooooooooooooooooooood. I have not gotten him in the stand or using a face or accessory besides the sword and shield yet, and he has no batteries either, but dang is the base figure lots of fun. He is so posable! I took him to work and man, he is heavy and fun. The level of detail and paintwork are astonishing. I love him.

Anyway, pics!

More Dinobot love. Wonderful

I know Densh wasn't overly impressed, but Dinobot is absolutely slaying it for me. This is why I love the comparatively few MPs I own, they mean something to me in some capacity. And Dinobot, an awesome character and one of the best we have ever gotten in Transformers period, is so perfect. I'm in love with him.

BEAST MODE!!!! MAXIMIZE!!!

So, a little over a week ago, I got Masterpiece Dinobot in the mail.



I’ve have mixed emotions ever since. To be honest, all of my reluctance to fully embrace this figure comes from his price, and the complete lack of justification for it in hand. I’ll go into that a bit more at the end, because cost aside, it’s a pretty sweet figure. So lets do a pictorial. We’ll start with the box.





Pretty standard, as you can see. Takara has, as I much appreciate, kept a very standard design theme for their MP figures. That’s saying something after 15 years.



Taped to the bottom of the plastic shell you can find the display stand Takara used to help ‘justify’ the jacked up price. Mine will never be taken out of package. Yes, my Dinobot has trouble standing, but to me, using a display stand defeats the point of a Masterpiece figure.



Also included is the now normal face pieces to change expression, and you can see more display stand parts.



In the package with the instructions, you’ll find a bag containing the golden disk, a little clip for said disk, and the light up eye beam accessories for when you get around to putting batteries in his noggin. I’m still kinda debating keeping him, so I haven’t put the buttons in yet, though I probably will.



Then we have Raptor mode. This is very well done, given the limits imposed by the design of the cartoon model this figure is based on. Yes, its very panel liney. Yes, you see lots of exposed robot parts. Yes, the folded feet underneath look like a really deformed nut bag.



It still looks and works great. You can see the scale design on his skin, and it has a very nice paint job.



His tail has bendable sections to give added articulation. Like his robot feet, the raptor ankles are weak on mine, making posing a bit of a challenge. Lets go over a couple of the neato raptor features.



Thanks to a handy clear clip on piece, he can hold the golden disk in either mode.



He has a familiar eye swapping gimmick.

The following pics show how his teeth work.







As you can see, the teeth are designed so you can have them hidden or exposed when his mouth is closed. It’s a really clever and nice touch. When the mouth is open, he has a nice beg tongue as well. I kinda wish it had an alternate version that let him lick his lips.

Now we get to the transformation. While I don’t really judge the figure on this metric, and it is by no means bad, its isn’t the most amazing out there. I’ve said before, and still maintain, that MP Cheetor’s transformation is more complex. Dinobot is the first Masterpiece Transformer, official or 3rd party, that I’ve gotten in a very long time and haven’t needed the instructions for any part of. To sum it up in the most basic terms, you just straighten out his legs, and fold his belly over, and you are pretty much done.





To be fair, bases on the cartoon model, I don’t see how you could do this better, and it works very well.

This also points out one of my major gripes with this figures design, his arms.









As you can see, in raptor mode, his robot hands tuck into the back of his thigh. In robot mode, his Raptor feet tuck into the back of his bicep. In the last picture, you can see how it pops back out when bending the elbow. I find this to be very limiting in terms of articulation.

Also, the piece the neck is attached to pretty much has to be pulled up and out to achieve dynamic poses, and it can look quite silly.



You do get a very good looking and show accurate Dinobot out of all of this. He truly looks like he stepped right of the screen, and onto your desk. I, of course, prefer the cocky looking face for Chomper here, but the selection is quite nice. Yeah, he has a hell of a backpack, and with the weak ankles on mine, it’s a pain, but by this point, I think we are all used to this. Again, I don’t see another way to do it, and the panel pieces around it do help smooth it out. Just ignore those raptor fingers poking out.



He looks good with his fellow Beastie MP figures.



One of my preferred features, he does have weapon storage.





As earlier mentioned, he can hold the golden disk.





All said and done, Dinobot is a very good figure. While I’ve mentioned complaints, they are very tolerable. The weak ankles on mine are super annoying, but from what I’ve read, this is by no means a common issue. All of my complaints come back to the price. He just isn’t a $210 figure. He is a $150 dollar figure, maybe $175. All the excuses and explanations I’ve read and heard for him just don’t cut it for me.



You can clearly see that he is, while not by much, smaller than MP Megatron. He has a more simple design than Megatron by an order of magnitude. He even has far less accessories than Megatron, and yet, he costs 30 bucks more. It feels like Takara swindled us. I’m sorry, but that’s just how I see it.

In conclusion, if you don’t mind over paying for a figure (and I’m trying to get myself to that point), this is a good figure to have for a masterpiece collection, a Beast Wars collection, or just a Dinobot fan. You do have to be willing to swallow the price though, and if that is giving you hesitation with out having it in hand, I recommend passing, or at least trying to wait for a better deal. Be warned though, Dinobot is a popular figure, and there is every bit a chance that he will only go up in price. Maybe at the end of the day, that is the whole reason for his price tag: Takara just wants a piece of the secondary market price mark up that always seems to come with the highly popular figures

"Unlike you, Cheese Eater, I do not run from battle!


Heeeeeeeey! are you callin' me chicken, Chopper Face?




AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!




(go to 2:48)

My take on this MP hobby.Complaining is like tilting at the windmills as this is for those with "disposable income". It isn't a necessity in life to purchase any (hobby) company's product unless its food etc. Just walk away from the "order" button.

It expensive then don't buy. Plain and simple.

They, Takara/Bandai etc) is in it for the money/bottomline/stockholder's happiness. That's their priority. Takara's products, the MP class that is compare to Bandai's SoC is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper. I own a few of them. Those I really dig. But some, even if love 'em to death, I can't get because it ain't within my price range.

OK, question for those who also own Dinobot: are you shoulder joints a bit creaky? My left shoulder is good and nice and posable and smooth, but the right shoulder is a bit creaky and stiffer. It's less creaky if I hold the gold shoulder piece in place, but it still kinda bothers me that both shoulders are different sounding/functioning.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:OK, question for those who also own Dinobot: are you shoulder joints a bit creaky? My left shoulder is good and nice and posable and smooth, but the right shoulder is a bit creaky and stiffer. It's less creaky if I hold the gold shoulder piece in place, but it still kinda bothers me that both shoulders are different sounding/functioning.

The shoulders on mine are good. Only joint issues are those blasted ankles. I have heard of others having shoulder issues though.

Mine was delayed by a couple weeks from Kapow Toys. I've seen reviews and such since and I can't say I have any complaints with what I've seen nor what has been said. In all honesty, I keep my MP figures in Bot Mode. I transform them once, out of the box, then they go on display. I appreciate that for the price point, and level of intricacy, they are not action figures for continual use.
I think of my Boss Fight Studios' Bucky O' Hare set in the same light.
With all 14 characters of Season One, alongside whatever redecos follow Shadow Panther, I might even pay for a display cabinet. I don't begrudge the price point of any of them so far, including Megatron, because that is how I view them. In essence, Collector statues. Your typical variety of which is often far more expensive than the MP Collection and come with far less.

I love this guy so so so much! This really is the Dinobot we always needed. He's a great figure!

Thanks for the response densh. I'll just keep an eye on that shoulder

The stand....

If anyone has ever seen my MP display, you'll know I want to focus to SOLELY be the figures. In order to fit more stuff, I layer the shelves with stands (bleachers almost) which, are made up of clear plastic dealies.

Any action stands I own are clear plastic, because I hate to see any focus taken away from the figure I'm displaying. And the stand Dinobot comes with certainly qualifies as thunder stealing. So even if I need a stand of some sort, it won't be that big grey monstrosity he's boxed with

I like the base of the stand as a ship floor or Cybertronian terrain, but I would have preferred the arm was clear.

Emerje

Ironhidensh wrote:All said and done, Dinobot is a very good figure. While I’ve mentioned complaints, they are very tolerable. The weak ankles on mine are super annoying, but from what I’ve read, this is by no means a common issue. All of my complaints come back to the price. He just isn’t a $210 figure. He is a $150 dollar figure, maybe $175. All the excuses and explanations I’ve read and heard for him just don’t cut it for me.

First off, great review. It's always nice to see non-video reviews these days.

Here's my question for you regarding the cost. Would you rather have your $210 back and never have MP Dinobot? Factor in love of the character and the quite long list of features you just wrote about.

What I'm getting at is, sans justification, are you happy with the Opportunity Cost of MP Dinobot ownership?

Those of us that hunt for rare figures often deal with this on a routine basis. Should I drop a few hundred on a Minicon set? Probably not. However, what is the cost of never finding it again? Some degree of product cost, collectible tax, and satisfaction reward all factor in to whether or not to spend the money.

Have you looked at it in those terms?

Personally when it comes to the Beast Wars Masterpiece line specifically, the price isn't a factor in my decision to buy a given figure.

1) Do I want to complete the entire line?

2) Am I happy with the figure presented?

Those are my motivators. Number one especially, given there are some characters in Season one IE Blackarachnia, Scorponok, Airazor I couldn't care less about.

Dinobot (who arrived today and is Sublime) cost me £180. I paid approximately the same for both Generations Trypticon and TR Fort Max (on sale). Yet I think it would be a false equivalence to compare the two purchases. Sure I got more "toy" for the money with the City Bots, yet they are essentially all the same in terms of display pieces.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Personally when it comes to the Beast Wars Masterpiece line specifically, the price isn't a factor in my decision to buy a given figure.

1) Do I want to complete the entire line?

2) Am I happy with the figure presented?

Those are my motivators. Number one especially, given there are some characters in Season one IE Blackarachnia, Scorponok, Airazor I couldn't care less about.

On the other hand, those three characters in particular would probably cost much less than Dinobot since they were among the smallest of the Season 1 characters.

True. That is why I don't begrudge the price of Megatron as much as others have noted. He is the biggest and tallest from Season one. Megatron represents the ceiling of the Beast Wars set. Other than Rhinox, Tigatron, Inferno and Terrorsaur, everyone else is Cheetor sized and/or smaller. The line therefore can only get significantly cheaper with the release of Dinobot and Megatron.

Now would I pay equal value for the possible redecos/tools of those models IE Grimlock, T-Wrecks et al ... Undecided, at this point. My hope is that Redeco MP Grimlock would be a significantly scaled back Dinobot, such as no light-up features, reduced accessories etc Likewise with T-Wrecks.

As an aside, I spoke again with my friend the other day and informing him of Dinobot's release, he is still annoyed that in Ten Years of the Masterpiece Collection, only Grimlock and Dinobot bear the name.

Counterpunch wrote:Have you looked at it in those terms?

Yeah, and at the end of the day, its why I decided to keep Dinobot. I'm still not happy with the price, but I'm living with it.

Ironhidensh wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:Have you looked at it in those terms?

Yeah, and at the end of the day, its why I decided to keep Dinobot. I'm still not happy with the price, but I'm living with it.

this statement made me happy. Glad you like him enough to keep ole chopper face

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I love this guy so so so much! This really is the Dinobot we always needed. He's a great figure!

Thanks for the response densh. I'll just keep an eye on that shoulder

I'm very pleased with my Dinobot. Only grips I have are a paint flaw on the side of his head (urgh) and I continue to think he's too big, even in hand. Scale aside, I don't need my Transformers toys to strictly adhere to cartoon scale, which varied wildly anyways. Dinobot can be bigger than Optimus Primal, sure, but I certainly didn't need him to be this huge. While I can't wait for Beast Wars Megatron, I have a feeling that his massive scale is just going to seem out of place. Dinobot looks amazing, but his size is so much larger than Primal and Cheetor that he looks like he's from a different toy line altogether.

In addition, I don't get the stand. It looks like it will connect with other base stands, but I don't get why it's a Cybertronian looking stand. Seems like it would have been a great opportunity for him to come with a rocky/earth type terrain for a stand. Something reminiscent of the actual environment they were in most of the time, sans the Axalon.

For those of you wondering, his box is about the same size as an MP-10 Convoy mold sans trailer (i.e. Nemesis Prime, etc) if I recall correctly (I don't have that box here for comparison).

Concerning the size Takara chose to build him, if he were a bit smaller, would that not affect the "sturdiness" of the transforming parts? Even the final transformed mode.

There are some stuff you can implement on a glorified puzzle toy in a much larger scale than on a smaller one.

See how THS-02 turned out! Excellent robot mode crappy truck mode. Now if that was upscaled to DX scale?

I must admit, the more I see him on my desk next to the other MP figures, his size does bother me. The size is show accurate, I know that and I do look forward to MP Rhinox being able to hold him up by the throat (with the stand, I imagine) and how absurd MP Rattrap will look next to him. However, there is something about him I find off. To the naked eye, where he has so much plain, lightly decaled plastic in his shoulders, arms and everywhere else sans legs, he doesn't seem as intricate as the other two MP BW figures.

I'd have to say MP Primal is still my favourite of the three, with Dinobot second and Cheetor third.

Maybe they chose the scale based on Rattrap? However big Dinobot and Megatron are going to be, Rattrap would have to be that much smaller...

shajaki wrote:Maybe they chose the scale based on Rattrap? However big Dinobot and Megatron are going to be, Rattrap would have to be that much smaller...

Well during Victory (if memory serves) Megatron did hold Rattrap (in beast mode) in his T-Rex mouth, so we are on track with scale in that respect. I don't have a problem with using show accurate scale. As I said before it will make everyone after Megatron a lot cheaper. Especially when we get to those tiny bots like Rattrap and Blackarachnia.

I just hope Rattrap is rightfully smaller than his all too big Generations Deluxe toy.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I love this guy so so so much! This really is the Dinobot we always needed. He's a great figure!

I loved him too and he was gonna be toy of the year for me. And I wasnt gonna mind the price.

But then his robot mode head broke off.

And now I am thinking of my options, this is truly depressing.

I will be posting pics of the horror later.

Here he is, my broken Dinobot




I am so fucking pissed right now

How did it happen?

Ironhidensh wrote:How did it happen?

I dont know. When I was transforming him from raptor to robot (for the 3rd time), I simply opened the back flap to see the head floating around in there broken.

Of the issues I've heard about with this figure, this is a new one. Sorry to hear WJ

shajaki wrote:Of the issues I've heard about with this figure, this is a new one. Sorry to hear WJ

Not as sorry as I am

william-james88 wrote:

shajaki wrote:Of the issues I've heard about with this figure, this is a new one. Sorry to hear WJ

Not as sorry as I am

So what's your course of action? Where'd you buy him?

shajaki wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

shajaki wrote:Of the issues I've heard about with this figure, this is a new one. Sorry to hear WJ

Not as sorry as I am

So what's your course of action? Where'd you buy him?

Anime Export, I contacted them by e-mail. Will see.

william-james88 wrote:Here he is, my broken Dinobot




I am so **** pissed right now

"Alas, poor me. I knew me, Horatio."


But, seriously, that bites, man.

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Here he is, my broken Dinobot




I am so **** pissed right now

"Alas, poor me. I knew me, Horatio."


But, seriously, that bites, man.

GPS?

After his release from customs (15 days), Just got to transforming chopper face.

. A work of art! Just like previous MPs to name a few (MP10, WJ, the IH mold, Hotrodimus, UM and Sunstreaker). Just how DID Takara accomplish this wonderful puzzle piece?

In any other scale, I don't think it can be done(smaller that is)!

Going for his melee weapons now.

P.S. That ball joint angle of his head could be problematic. Maybe like don't stress it too much as it is meant to be angle and not flushed/lock into the shoulders.

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Here he is, my broken Dinobot




I am so **** pissed right now

"Alas, poor me. I knew me, Horatio."


But, seriously, that bites, man.

GPS?

Hardly, just putting too much force on a (stiff) joint on a fragile section.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Here he is, my broken Dinobot




I am so **** pissed right now

"Alas, poor me. I knew me, Horatio."


But, seriously, that bites, man.

GPS?

Hardly, just putting too much force on a (stiff) joint on a fragile section.

I don't think so. There aren't really any fragile parts on this toy. Hell, the ankles are so floppy on mine, its fallen off of the shelf to the floor several times now, and nothing has broken. I have a lot of issues with this figure, but being fragile is not one of them. I think poor Will just got a bad copy.

Injection molding isn't 100% infallible, sometimes tiny air bubbles can get inside thin parts and weaken them. Other times parts are just mishandled in assembly and get stressed without the buyer doing anything. It sucks, but it's usually nobody's fault, certainly not the owner.

Emerje

Whatever the cause is, it isn't really the main point of concern. How are you going fix things, Will? Contact the seller?

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Whatever the cause is, it isn't really the main point of concern. How are you going fix things, Will? Contact the seller?

I contacted the seller and Takara on facebook and twitter.

I know i wont get this toy since he is sold out everywhere, but I would at least like my money back and then hopefully get another chance to own him when he is rereleased later.

Of all my attempts to get someone's attention, here is my favourite:

https://twitter.com/WillMorizio/status/ ... 5106930693

william-james88 wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Whatever the cause is, it isn't really the main point of concern. How are you going fix things, Will? Contact the seller?

I contacted the seller and Takara on facebook and twitter.

I know i wont get this toy since he is sold out everywhere, but I would at least like my money back and then hopefully get another chance to own him when he is rereleased later.

Of all my attempts to get someone's attention, here is my favourite:

https://twitter.com/WillMorizio/status/ ... 5106930693

If it was broken outright straight from the box you might have a chance. Amiami replaced one of my MP Primal's faces(the one with the lips ) because it was chipped outright (fyi people, watch out for that issue when you keep Primal in munky mode with the lip mask) when I just opened it straight from the post office. They sent me a replacement mask.

Your unit had multiple transforms. The store you got them might have a hard time accepting a return, especially at his price range. Just saying is all and good luck.

Anyway, back on Dinobot as a whole. Fiddling him and all, his torso is quite heavy in warrior mode. His thigh joints basically carry the weight (center of gravity) spread down to his legs unlike, UM for example. The latter's spread down to the metal feet and gives him stability.

Dinobot's lack of ankle ratchets are indeed problematic (is the cost too much huh Takara ). I was considering using the "Pledge floorshine" fix as stopgap but did not push through because even if it adds a bit of resistance, the fragility of the connection where the rivets are connected can also lead to it breaking in the future due to the stress/resisitance.

Heck, this MP could almost have been perfection itself (speaking from a non BW fan who recently got to appreciate the character).

As an aside, this is technically 3P but as it is related and extremely rare for 3P to ever bother with Beast Wars typically, I thought to add this here:







Shockwave Lab SL-33 MP-41 Gun

When did Dinobot wield a small hand pistol in the cartoon?

Sabrblade wrote:When did Dinobot wield a small hand pistol in the cartoon?

I seem to recall Rattrap tossing him one at one point.