The Dinobot leader Grimlock returns in the Classic/Henkei series and is ready to crush any Decepticon forces that come his way. Transforming from powerful robot mode and into deadly T-Rex mode those Decepticons better watch out because Grimlock is back and meaner than ever.
 
Sadly I'm going to start this review with the honest truth about this mould and tell things how they are because sadly not many review of this figure are honest and I mainly think this is due to fans who just love Grimlock to much. The sad truth about this mould is this - its awful, pure and simple its just awful.
 
To explain in a bit more detail on this here is an explanation of the robot mode. When you first see robot mode you think 'what the hell is up with the legs?' in some odd way I think Hasbro must have been trying to do what they did to Alternators Grimlock but to this toy, what I mean by this is that with the Alt version of Grimlock he uses the car seats as FEET for the robot mode and in the Classics Grimlock toy he seems to use the Dino head as feet which if anything just looks a bit stupid. Some people say that when you look at Grimlock he almost looks as if he is wearing PVC thigh high boots because they seem to not look right at all! there is a mod out there which shows how you can make the legs work how the G1/Energon versions work and to make him look more accurate (were the legs flip downwards so the larger top bit is used as the feet) and this is tricky to do but makes the mould look much better rather than leaving it as it is.
 
The top part of Grimlock in robot mode is fine however, well almost... The face look perfect and the chest area is good as well and the arms kind of work if it wasn't for Dino feet hanging off the underside of the arms. Aside from that slight problem then the top half of Grimlock is perfectly alright...if you can ignore the lower waist/legs part that is. The arms rotate fully and the head can move side to side and Grimlock also gets two weapons to use. One is a type of sword which is actually his tail and sadly that just does not work to well, if anything he looks as if he is just HOLDING his Dino mode tail for no reason. However there is an attachment on the back that you can slide this into if you don't want to use the sword/tail weapon. The other weapon is his Blaster which has a sharp sword type part to it (this of a musket) but if this was also meant to be used as a type of sword for Grimlock to use then it seems odd that there is no handle for his to actually hold the Blaster upwards and use it as a type of sword, instead it looks like a Blaster with a sword part attached under it but will probably not be used.
 
Dinobot mode is much better than the robot mode but still suffers from some slight problems such as the color of the Dino head seems rather bland in comparison as it could have done with being a bit darker to show off the Dinobot head more. The head also has some clear transparent parts which show off the eyes and also a small part on top of the head section but because the color of the head is so bland it feels a tab wasted because ideally the head should also have been the same color as the other grey parts on Grimlock's body to help match it up more.
 
The Dino arms move up and down and from left to right which is a nice added bonus rather than them just being made stiff parts. The upper area of the body has a Autobot Rub-Sign symbol which changes color from blue/brown/green/red just like the original G1 toys used to have which again is a nice added bonus and really adds to the nostalgia of the toy. The Blaster cannon can also be attached to the top of the body via a slot and looks good on top of the Dinobot mode and helps to make him look more menacing.
 
The figure is better produced from Hasbro in comparison to the Takara version which just seems way to covered in chrome and looks way to shiny. I understand Takara does chrome for the Henkei release of the figures but the chrome on Henkei Grimlock is just way to much which makes the Hasbro version look much better in appearance if he only had a slight better paint scheme. The lower body could have done with being painted red like how he is meant to look but instead he is black here which just looks and feels lazy from Hasbro, then again Takara does have the right paint scheme but has overloaded the figure with chrome so basically its up to you to choose which you think is the best out of the two of the releases.

The packaging was basically the same as the first 'wave one' basic designs and has Grimlock in a carded style design with him displayed in Dino mode with images on the back of both his robot and Dino modes and also displaying his stats and bio. Nothing to exciting basically which is a rather shame considering his repaint -Overkill- was sold in a fancy style black box with shiny images of the toy/figure on it.

An ok figure but if anything you just feel left disappointed with classics Grimlock on several points - 1) The way the legs work for robot mode is just awful 2) No other Dinobots seem to be in the Classic making Grimlock kind of seem all on his own 3) The weapons are rubbish unless your able to afford the Fans Projects G3 Trailer and are able to get a hold of the Chrome sword for Grimlock. The way this figure was done just feels as if he was done quickly and on the cheap because really for a Grimlock figure this could have been so much better.