Both Energon Swoop and Grimlock commit the cardinal sin of having a robot mode head visible in beast mode. The video's right - both toys are hampered by the combining gimmick - which wasn't good at all and not worth it.
Swoop's dino mode is terrible. It's a little articulated, but not by much, especially since his head will play peekaboo if you turn him upwards. I mean they did alright by making the legs thrusters, but it didn't translate to a good robot mode.
Grimlock is better, but not great either. Sure he has the "no abdomen" torso many did in the Energon line, but that's no excuse. His fists stand out as being unnecessarily simplistic. Overall he's just wonky and weird in bot mode.
His beast mode is better than Swoop's but not better than many other dino toys. They somehow took the transformation of G1 Grimlock, simplified it, added more articulation ... and somehow it came out WORSE!
Energon wasn't bereft of good moulds either. Galvatron was great, despite being stiff, Starscream was good, Arcee was a fun little figure and FINALLY gave us a toy version of the character. Energon's entire line was murdered by it's gimmick and that includes Energon Grimlock, but I don't think it gets a pass for all of that.
I will say Grimlock (not Swoop so much) is a nice enough TOY to mess with, but as one of the top Dinosaur robots? No way.
william-james88 wrote:Thanks Gauntlet! You just helped me make up my mind about how I will do things. There will be an article after all (like in a year from now) and it will be thanks to your crafty and succint way of explaining the beauty of the G1 dinos and how they can be summed up in one awesome toy
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