Beast Wars Dinobot (Transmetal 2)

Robot Mode: In many ways TM2 Dinobot displays why the final wave of Beast Wars toys wasn't all that good. In robot mode he is a very mixed-up collection of parts that don't quite seem to fit together. I'm still not quite sure how his hands (such as they are) are supposed to be positioned. His huge shoulder pads make it impossible for him to look sideways. His tail, while dangerous-looking, is made of some kind of rubber (much like TM2 Megatron's neck), and can't really be posed all that much. His feet, while once again cool-looking, don't stay in position all that well, making him prone to toppling over backwards due to the weight of his tail.

As far as detailing goes Dinobot features the strange patchwork pattern characteristic for most TM2 figures, but due to his mostly-white colouring you don't really see too much of that. Which is kind of a blessing in disguise, actually. His posability is excellent, as with most Beast Wars figures, but his stability issues make putting him into poses a little difficult. So all in all, TM2 Dinobot doesn't do all that much for me in robot mode.

Alternate Mode: Like his predecessor, Dinobot TM2 transforms into a Velociraptor, only in his case not an organic-looking one, but rather a purely technological beast. Look-wise the Raptor is the better of Dinobot's modes, looking pretty sleek and deadly. The tail isn't in the way or causes the figure to unbalance in this mode, so thumbs up for that. Dinobot's beast head takes a bit of getting used to, but looks okay, too, and has a movable jaw. The one thing I can't quite get behind are the Raptor's arms (or forepaws?), which result from the robot mode's legs. It takes some doing to position them in such a way that they look short enough for this shape's proportions. Still, Dinobot looks pretty decent in beast mode.

Remarks: TM2 Dinobot was created in the third season episode "Feral Scream" where Megatron fused Transmetal 2 technology, DNA taken from the first Dinobot, and a portion of Rampage's spark. While serving as a loyal killing machine at first, he regained some measure of his earlier personality following Rampage's demise and helped the Maximals win the Beast Wars in the end, paying for it with his own life.

While his origins and development in season 3 (such as it was) is interesting, Dinobot's toy version sadly doesn't really measure up. He combines some of the worst traits of the Transmetal 2 line of characters and the resulting package is very much lacking. There isn't anything big wrong with him, but a lot of little things that are just not all that good. So while the original Dinobot figure has its own problems, it is still far superior to this Transmetal 2 version.

Rating: D+