The Energon Pub

I too would like to see some feathered DInobots. I'm not sure it would work for "G1" styled figures, but for other aesthetics I think it could be awesome. Slash actually looked OK (even if functionally he was pretty "meh") and if they actually went for BW/BM esque technorganic looking figures I reckon it could look truly amazing. Granted I'd want to see a return to BW-levels of paint apps before they attempted such a project, if only because gorgeous gribbly Kenner-esque sculpting without equally gorgeous airbrush work and sculpt highlights is like a really good Victoria sandwich with no buttercream or jam.

Would Arcadis/Airraptor count for this discussion? The robot mode was certainly unique, and he turned into a fairly convincing Archeopteryx! (I hope I got the spelling right there...)

^ Archadis does count! The Archaepteryx was a dinosaur, unlike the Pteranodon (Looking at you Swoop)

As a dinosaur enthusiast, I am itching for more accurate depictions of dinos which allude to modern discoveries. Although it hasn't been proven that T-rex had feathers, close relatives and raptors do have them. Technically we already have the Raptoricons, but they are unfortunately comic-only. http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Raptoricon

While I do like the list, I do have a couple of alternatives:

I'd probably place the original Dinobot together with the TM. Although the TM version doesn't have blatantly obvious chest-legs, I feel the original's design is iconic enough to warrant him a spot.

I'd also slot the Deluxe 20th anniversary Megs with Scorn, considering as figures they share similar engineering. He's a streamlined update to BW Megs (apart for an unfortunate cyber key slot) while just as detailed and fun.

Finally, a shout-out to AoE Slug, my fav from the AoE line. His Triceratops mode is incredibly well detailed with all its jagged edges and hides his bot mode kibble splendidly. His robot mode is a stark contrast to his beast mode and arranges the kibble so that it adds to his knightly look. His articulation is also on point with double-knees and no gorilla-arms!

I like Slug (AoE), in his dinoform, but i think the swords are not well include to the toy (not at all in fact). Scorn, and Snarl have better hiden weapons. And better Bot's design (I think).

I'm a little surprised they never resculpted that scorn into beast wars megatron. Though at this point I'm just hoping for a masterpiece beast wars megatron.

Umbra wrote:I'm a little surprised they never resculpted that scorn into beast wars megatron. Though at this point I'm just hoping for a masterpiece beast wars megatron.

Megatron Would be nice.

There are other Master piece I would love to see coming. Air Razor, Tarentula, Terrorsaur.

And of course I'm looking forward to see Dinobot BW.

Probably should find a genuine Scorn. I picked up the KO because by the time I got to the store they were all gone. I thought the company I bought them from would do well, as this one's pretty decent.

Turns out the head didn't work. Welp. Time to look for a second-hand one.

Great list, Will! MP Grimlock easily takes first for me, and I have yet to own him. :p

Would BM Skydive be a possible runner up? He has a pretty cool look to him, all spindly and Xenomorphesque, and some pretty neat colours. His pterosaur mode is good looking and his robot mode is actually fairly cohesive for a BM Maximal.

Black Hat wrote:Would BM Skydive be a possible runner up? He has a pretty cool look to him, all spindly and Xenomorphesque, and some pretty neat colours. His pterosaur mode is good looking and his robot mode is actually fairly cohesive for a BM Maximal.

I never handled him so I cant say. On thing cool though is that Skydive is the very first TF designed by Hasui, the legendary Takara MP master who now does RID 3step changers.

Speaking of Pterasaurs...

Viollustre wrote:^ Archadis does count! The Archaepteryx was a dinosaur, unlike the Pteranodon (Looking at you Swoop)

Ah but we are not in the same paradigm. You see, we are judging these toys and their status on what the TF universe claims is a dinosaur (like, as Fenrir pointed out, Skylynx being a dinobird). And in the TF universe, Swoop is a dinobot and thus is considered a dinosaur. So, in that context, he's fair game (same for Plesiosaurs being Dinosaurs within the context of Power Rangers Dino Charge).

Viollustre wrote:As a dinosaur enthusiast, I am itching for more accurate depictions of dinos which allude to modern discoveries. Although it hasn't been proven that T-rex had feathers, close relatives and raptors do have them.

If anyone cares, I see the feathered T-Rex pop up in this discussion quite a bit and I would like to comment on it. The latest scientific belief is that the T-Rex was NOT covered in feathers. With his mass, feathers would have made him too hot. Plus we actually do have skin imprints which show scales. IF he had feathers, they would be in the back of his neck or early on when they are small eventually shedding them.

By the way, Power Rangers really went all out with the feathers on their interpretation of the T-Rex

Am I the only one who thinks that the spikes on the AOE Dinobots could be a recreation of the feathers on real dinosaurs?

Just me? Okay...

Dr Lockdown wrote:Am I the only one who thinks that the spikes on the AOE Dinobots could be a recreation of the feathers on real dinosaurs?

Just me? Okay...

But doesnt Slash show us that if Hasbro wanted to show feathers then they would just design feathers and not spikes?

william-james88 wrote:

Dr Lockdown wrote:Am I the only one who thinks that the spikes on the AOE Dinobots could be a recreation of the feathers on real dinosaurs?

Just me? Okay...

But doesnt Slash show us that if Hasbro wanted to show feathers then they would just design feathers and not spikes?

Feathers/spikes is probably closer than leathery skin.

Probably just trying to justify the designs to an enjoyably awful film though.

as long as the dino mode looks like a dino and the robotmode doesnt suck i dont think it really matters whos in the top 5

I'm surprised there was no mention of Magmatron.

Not only does he have a cool name. He has 3 of the best Dino Alt modes around, with essentially no robot kibble.

And he's made from 3 different dinos.

william-james88 wrote:If anyone cares, I see the feathered T-Rex pop up in this discussion quite a bit and I would like to comment on it. The latest scientific belief is that the T-Rex was NOT covered in feathers. With his mass, feathers would have made him too hot. Plus we actually do have skin imprints which show scales. IF he had feathers, they would be in the back of his neck or early on when they are small eventually shedding them.

Well, there is Yutyrannus, which was 30-foot from nose to tail and covered in feathers. At the very least it provides a fun alternative "big carnivore."

(also, looking into it, the T rex skin imprints are... rather lacking. I mean, there there, but it seems like they're mostly tiny scattered patches that are either associated with the underside of the tails or bellies, or nowhere in particular)

william-james88 wrote:

Black Hat wrote:Would BM Skydive be a possible runner up? He has a pretty cool look to him, all spindly and Xenomorphesque, and some pretty neat colours. His pterosaur mode is good looking and his robot mode is actually fairly cohesive for a BM Maximal.

I never handled him so I cant say. On thing cool though is that Skydive is the very first TF designed by Hasui, the legendary Takara MP master who now does RID 3step changers.

Huh, that's pretty cool. I might have to track him down in that case and report back- he looks neat and if he's a Hasui creation then he must be at least decent.

Actually, that gives me an idea for a list: Top 5 (or 10) creepiest/scariest looking Transformers toys. Granted, BW, BM and Movie toys might dominate it a little, but oh well.

lose killer punch since hes terrible and replace him with undermine, that was an awesome figure and extremely surprised hes not on the list. You could also argue that the original dinobot should be on it too since you picked BW megs cause of screen accuracy, DBs pretty screen accurate.

Megatron Wolf wrote:lose killer punch since hes terrible and replace him with undermine, that was an awesome figure and extremely surprised hes not on the list. You could also argue that the original dinobot should be on it too since you picked BW megs cause of screen accuracy, DBs pretty screen accurate.

The cartoon model velociraptor had two giant tumours under it's neck?

Joking aside, I think the original beast wars dinobot toy is one of the least accurate BW toys. Cant wait for the MP.

Also, I really wouldnt recomend undermine. That robot mode is super weird, especially the face, and all the ones I had suffered of gold plastic syndrome (another reason TM2 megatron isnt here).

william-james88 wrote:Also, I really wouldnt recomend undermine. That robot mode is super weird, especially the face, and all the ones I had suffered of gold plastic syndrome (another reason TM2 megatron isnt here).

Did you have the green version or the Repugnus redeco? IIRC it's Repugnus that suffers from GPS- Undermine himself should be fine (unless the Wiki is in error, which wouldn't surprise me).

Black Hat wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Also, I really wouldnt recomend undermine. That robot mode is super weird, especially the face, and all the ones I had suffered of gold plastic syndrome (another reason TM2 megatron isnt here).

Did you have the green version or the Repugnus redeco? IIRC it's Repugnus that suffers from GPS- Undermine himself should be fine (unless the Wiki is in error, which wouldn't surprise me).

I've had two, by coincidence, for years and they're both perfectly fine when it comes to plastic stucture. Even after years of play through my younger years.w
Edit: And just to clarify I was talking about Undermine.

Black Hat wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Also, I really wouldnt recomend undermine. That robot mode is super weird, especially the face, and all the ones I had suffered of gold plastic syndrome (another reason TM2 megatron isnt here).

Did you have the green version or the Repugnus redeco? IIRC it's Repugnus that suffers from GPS- Undermine himself should be fine (unless the Wiki is in error, which wouldn't surprise me).

I was referring to the repugnus redeco, i mixed up the names.

Feathers shmeathers, good dino transformers shouldn't even have skin, let alone feathers.

It occurs to me, you could fill a list like this with just Grimlock figures if you wanted to. He's the bumblebee of dinoformers. but cooler.

Optimum Supreme wrote:Feathers shmeathers, good dino transformers shouldn't even have skin, let alone feathers.

As someone whose first ever transformer as a kid was Beast Wars Megatron I take offense to that.

I also object to the claim that's been tossed around that dino head hands are a bad design. I think that they're good in moderation, they certainly shouldn't be used for all dinoformers, but one or two can utilize it as a unique design. Hell, AOE Scorn looks better with a dino head on his arm than the actual hand that's sculpted into it, even if it's screen-inaccurate (hopefully everybody noticed the bits on his hips are supposed to be the dino's lower jaw).

Anyway it's a fairly good list. I don't have experience with about half of these toys so I can't weigh in so much. I own Magmatron and I honestly don't agree with the suggestions that he should be on this list because his individual components.... aren't that great. As a robot he is more than the sum of his parts but this is about dino modes mainly. Animorphs Tri-Rex has a fantastic t-rex mode but the individual modes suffer heavily for it (also I'm eternally bitter because I broke the clips that keep the tail in place the first time I tried to take it apart). BW Megs was my first TF like I said, and he was fun even if he didn't have hands. The original Dinobots are iconic of course, but maybe not that good if you take away the nostalgia. There are a lot of 3P versions of Dinobots as someone said previously, but they're almost exclusively G1, MP, or FOC versions, and even a few sets of Dynobots, so they're pretty much all trying to accomplish the same thing. And a list comprised of just the G1 dinobots in whatever order would be a disservice to all the great dinosaurs from the past 30 years.

But Crashbash deserves an honorable mention.

King Kuuga wrote:Anyway it's a fairly good list. I don't have experience with about half of these toys so I can't weigh in so much. I own Magmatron and I honestly don't agree with the suggestions that he should be on this list because his individual components.... aren't that great. As a robot he is more than the sum of his parts but this is about dino modes mainly. Animorphs Tri-Rex has a fantastic t-rex mode but the individual modes suffer heavily for it (also I'm eternally bitter because I broke the clips that keep the tail in place the first time I tried to take it apart). BW Megs was my first TF like I said, and he was fun even if he didn't have hands. The original Dinobots are iconic of course, but maybe not that good if you take away the nostalgia. There are a lot of 3P versions of Dinobots as someone said previously, but they're almost exclusively G1, MP, or FOC versions, and even a few sets of Dynobots, so they're pretty much all trying to accomplish the same thing. And a list comprised of just the G1 dinobots in whatever order would be a disservice to all the great dinosaurs from the past 30 years.

But Crashbash deserves an honorable mention.

Thanks so much for understanding exactly what I was trying to do with this list.

I like the list and the more extended blurbs in the honorable mentions section.

Geez, people think TFA Swoop and TM2 Dinobot are bad? My TFA Swoop isn'r floppy at all. Hell, he's the best Swoop I have! (And I have it, G1, Energon, that small minicon, 3P FoC, 3P FP, and 3P TW so this is an informed opinion.) In as much as the robot mode in no way compromises the dino mode and vice-versa.

TM2 Dinobot was one of the first toys I got when I got into collecting. My only gripe is the paintjob and plastic colour.