The Dinobots are my favorite group of Transformers. It’s great that there are so many options for a complete set of these guys. The GigaPower Dinobots stand out because of their aesthetics and size. Graviter is an excellent display piece that I’m glad to have on my shelf floor.
He is an absolute beast in brontosaurus or brachiosaurus mode. I don’t remember FansToys Stomp being this large. I love all the line work and little details. It’s like a nostalgic blast of my childhood toy, but with a much improved look and design. His tail kind of sticks out weirdly in the back. I wished it angled to the ground.
His head is on a swivel and hinge. The neck also swivels and hinges at a couple of spots. While he doesn’t have the crazy neck articulation of FansProject Columpio, Graviter can be pretty expressive with his neck and head. His mouth opens pretty wide to reveal independently articulating mouth cannons. While his front legs share his robot shoulder and arm articulation, his rear legs are not of his robot hips. They are only on a swivel so they can not splay outward. They also do not swivel at the thighs. Both sets of legs are single-jointed. All his toes articulate independently. Despite the segments, his tail only waggles at one spot.
Transformation back and forth is not difficult. The legs are the most involved. There are a couple of areas where clearance may be an issue - the wings moving past his shoulders and the two panels on his underbelly moving past his leg panels. So far, I’ve managed to avoid the wings scratching his shoulders, but you have to be cautious. The belly pieces have scraped his leg panels though. I forgot to extend his biceps for robot mode.
Robot mode is suitably large and imposing. The red and gold pieces tie in really well with Gutter. The piston details on the back of his elbows are a nice touch. The head sculpt looks great. It avoids the derpiness that is common with FansToys sculpts. Too bad the dinosaur hind legs don’t collapse. There simply is no more room in the feet and shins.
His head is on a ball joint, but the range of motion is sort of limited. His shoulders are on ratcheted hinges and swivels. He can raise his arms out and up to 90 degrees. His elbows are single-jointed. Strangely, they started out ratcheted, but stopped being clickety-clackety after only a couple of curls. I wonder if I’ve broken both ratchets. He can only curl his arms about 90 degrees. His thumbs are on hinges while the rest of his fingers are on individual joints. All his fingers articulate individually, have two knuckles, and can splay ever so slightly. He swivels at his biceps, wrists, waist, and thighs. His hips are on ratcheted universals. The ratchets are not quite strong enough to hold the weight of his legs. He can perform a full side splits, but not quite a full front splits. His knees are single-jointed and ratcheted. They can’t curl very much. Because of the transformation joint, he can bend his lower legs sideways at his knees. He has no ankle rockers or tilts. His toes are on hinges, but they don’t move very much. They can hinge side ways though. Overall, he isn’t exactly the most posable figure.
His accessories include his large rifle, a sword, a pair of smaller rifles, some flame effects, an alternate head, transparent neck and tail pieces, and a strip of blue sticker. All the weapons are nicely detailed, but have zero lick of paint. At least the sword has a translucent blade. The large rifle and sword feature light-up effects, but I don’t have any of those little batteries. All the weapons sit well in his hands, despite using Masterpiece-styled tabs. The flame effects wrap nicely around the blade. They add a lot of weight. If Gutter is anything to go by, I won’t be leaving the sword, heavy with the flame effects, in his hands for long. The weight seems to have weakened the ratchets in Gutter’s sword arm. His alternate head has an angry expression. It simply pops on and off the ball joint. The transparent pieces are great if you want to achieve that G1 toy look in dinosaur mode. I don’t know what the sticker strip is for.
Graviter will stand on my Masterpiece shelf. It has the aesthetics and size that really sets it apart from Stomp. It will probably take another couple of years, but I can’t wait to complete this set.
