Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Leader Wave 12

#86-19 Dinobot Snarl (Stegosaur)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/LSnarl

Fourth of the five Dinobots who (sometimes) appeared in the 1986 movie
(they never did have all five in the same scene). Will Swoop get made as a
Leader? They could probably do a decent job at Voyager size, but then again,
by the time they get him made what was a Voyager size when Grimlock came out
would probably count as a Leader size due to shrinkflation. Maybe they'll do
Swoop as a Leader with an accessory figure like a Quintesson. Anyway, time
for weirdly proportioned Dinobot Snarl!

CAPSULE

$56 at Target (I had a $10 off $40+ code, though, so paid less)

Dinobot Snarl: Looks good in robot mode, but feels hollow. Decent if
sometimes frustrating transformation, and I guess we're kinda stuck with the
deformed butt and tail design for Snarl beast modes going forwards? At the
low end of recommended.

RANT

Packaging: Same as other Studio '86 Leaders. As with others, the art on
the front and sides shows dino mode, in this case firing energy beams from
his thagomizer as he fights in some wreckage that may be intended as part of
Autobot City.
Well, it looks the same, the cardstock is a little thinner, so they had
to include a small corrugated cardboard "roof" on top of the backdrop to keep
the top of the box from collapsing when grabbed.

AUTOBOT: DINOBOT SNARL
Assortment: #86-19
Altmode: Robot Stegosaur
Transformation Difficulty: 31 steps
Previous Name Use: Legacy (and plenty of just "Snarl")
Previous Mold Use: None
Movie: TfTM
Scene: Battle of Autobot City

SNARL and the AUTOBOTS must find a way to destroy UNICRON before
Cybertron is destroyed.

(Um, what the heck kind of lazy bio note is that? Of course, since he
barely appeared in the movie, I guess that's about as much as they could
say.)

Packaging: Five twisted-end rattan strings hold the robot mode to the
inner tray, with a second sheet of corrugated cardboard in the back of the
tray to strengthen it. The spine back piece is held in the lower left corner
via a flap of the tray, while the sword is wrapped in tissue paper and taped
to the lower right corner.
The image on the backdrop is the same Autobot City scene used for #86-03
Blurr.
The instructions do have a three step "how to finish assembling Snarl"
section, since with his back piece on he'd be too thick to fit in a Leader
box. It takes a bit of force to get the tab to go in far enough to stay.

Robot Mode: Like the other 86-series Leader Dinobots, this basically
looks like the animation model with extra panel line detailing and a few
beast mode bits they couldn't completely hide. Well, to the extent we ever
saw the animation model of robot mode. Most of the Dinobots spent the
majority of their time in beast mode, after all. The animation model from
The Ark books matches this toy pretty well, only missing the fore-feet on the
wrists and having the thagomizer spikes pointed differently, otherwise it's
just higher resolution line details and some colors that this toy adds. So,
good on that front. On the down side, it just feels a bit light and hollow
compared to Studio Series Grimlock, as if they didn't realize when they
committed to the bit that they couldn't possibly keep the same level of
quality for several years even with the class's price point rising slightly.
8.25" (21cm) tall at the head, with the tail halves over the shoulders
rising to 9" (23cm). He's in the usual Dinobot colors, although some of the
gold is gold paint and some is golden yellow plastic. Bright red plastic is
used for the torso except for the centerline, the abdomen, the backpack, and
the pelvis/hips section. Golden yellow plastic bordering on yellow-orange is
used for the tail halves, the forefeet on the forearms, some internal
workings in the boots (including the hidden dino head halves), and the toes.
The backplates and sword are made of golden yellow plastic that's a little
more flexible, with different plates being more or less flexible depending on
their size and thickness. The head, collar, central torso, shoulder roots,
fists, and thighs are black plastic. The rest of the plastic in the arms and
boots is slightly silvery medium gray. (Given that all the backplates are
painted anyway, it's a bit odd that they didn't go with silvery gray flexible
plastic instead, to save on painting the sword.)
Slightly shiny gold paint covers the tail halves and the molded
backplates that are on the backpack piece and the shins. The face is silver,
and the sword is painted silver except for the hilt and side peg. I'm not
sure if the belly screen with the crosshairs is supposed to be the same
silver or a duller silver, but the screen is painted some kind of silver with
red around it. There's also silver on some bits on the inner faces of the
boots to hide the fact that they're halves of the dino head (which is golden
yellow plastic). Red is also used on some round details near the bottoms of
the shins. Round details on the outer faces of the shoulders are painted
black, while a dark gloss gray (supposed to be black and missed?) is used on
the outer faces of the lower boots. The eyes and details on the sides of the
boots are bright medium blue, and a red Autobot symbol with silver border is
printed on his sternum. The helmet's forehead vent is unpainted, which is in
keeping with the animation model but contradicts the G1 toy coloration. The
molded details do match a lot of the toy sticker patterns, making for good
guidelines if anyone wants to paint them on (but causing problems for any
ToyHax stickers).
The neck is a restricted ball joint, so he can cock his head to the side
in confusion. The waist is a simple smooth swivel. The shoulders have
ratcheting swivels where they connect to the torso, and the inner bit is
somewhat L-shaped so that the smooth lift-up hinges are above the axis of the
swivel. There's smooth swivels right above the hinge elbows, and the wrists
are snap-on swivels (so if there's any mold flash inside, you might end up
removing a fist by trying to turn it past an obstruction). There's also a
snapped-in joint between the shoulderpad and the bicep for transformation,
but you can use it to let the arms bend double. The hips use the "a third of
the pelvis is a swivel with the thigh on a hinge inside" system, with the
swivel being a ratchet and the hinge being smooth. Upper thigh swivels,
ratcheting hinge knees, instep hinge so the feet can lay flat. The toes are
hinged to fold down for transformation, not very useful otherwise unless you
want that Don Martin look.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs, there's 5mm sockets in the center of the
outer faces of the shoulderpads, one under each heel, and one in the center
of the back for sword storage. There's a 3mm socket in the back of the
pelvis, but this is kinda a big toy for the 3mm peg stands. The longer of
each pair of spikes on the tail halves end in 3mm studs, so he can do the
"energy blasts from the thagomizer" trick in dino mode. Because the tail
halves connect using a 3mm peg and a 3mm socket that connect to each other,
you can technically put a 3mm socket fire blast on the back of the tail, or a
3mm peg weapon on the other side.
The sword is a single piece of slightly flexible full gold plastic 4"
(10cm) long with everything except the two 5mm pegs (hilt, and one sticking
out of the crosspiece for storage) painted silver. It has a little more
detail than the animation model, with a sort of power conduit cable down the
fuller. There's also two rectangular slots on the crosspiece on the other
side from the peg, these are used for storage in dino mode.
There are no other accessories, because the whole Leader Class Dinobots
thing has been an exercise in trying to hold the line on size during several
years of budget shrink. Not that Snarl is known for accessories. Or being
in robot mode. (Some dedicated Fire Blasts would've been nice.)

Transformation: As with the others in this grouping, it's fairly close
to the G1 transformation in broad strokes, with the arms becoming hind legs,
front legs and head halves stored inside the boots, and the tail folding shut
from the shoulder spikes. And as with the other three, a lot of little
details are added to let the robot mode stay more true to cartoon
proportions, as well as close up some of the gaps and open panels on the dino
mode. Getting the arms transformed was a little tricky since the joints
holding the dino lower legs inside the forearms were very stiff on mine, and
some of the boot panel stuff has to be done in the right order or things get
in each other's way. Part of the problem is that the panels on the backs of
the lower boots only fold BARELY out of the way, so there's no wiggle room
for having things a little misaligned. There's also a "stretch the spine"
step that's not immediately obvious, but if you don't do it the boots can't
tuck into the chest. (The chest, for its part, has a hinge that lets the
bottom swing out just enough for the toes to slide under it.)
Going back to robot mode, it can be difficult to get the fists back out,
I recommend finding a long 5mm peg (the sword hilt is a little too short to
make easy work of this) to use as a lever. Also, the center part of the
chest does snap down but it takes a LOT of force to accomplish this.