Although I love having extra Dinobots, I would have preferred that FansProject had completed the core team before moving onto characters of their own creation. Echara and Comera are interesting but mostly unnecessary additions to their Dinobot line.
As dinosaurs, I suppose Echara is a pachycephalosaurus while Comera is some sort of velociraptor. They look alright; nothing great. They are lithe and and maybe a little too sleek, closer to Volar in size and form than to the other Dinobots. Are they scaled well as dinosaurs? I haven't a clue. Except for the dinosaur heads and feet, both figures exhibit the exact same line work. Too bad the robot hands are visible right behind the dinosaur claws. The paint applications on the heads are similar to the previous Dinobots, with the black eyeliner and red eyes. While technically there are no storage points for the weapons, their robot hands are somewhat usable in this mode so you can have sword and rifle wielding dinosaurs.
Their dinosaur heads are on double hinges, but the base of the neck doesn't really articulate without breaking the sculpt. There are no neck swivels. Both their mouths can open a reasonable amount. Both sets of arms are on ball joints, with single-jointed elbows and swivels and hinges at the wrists. Although their hips are on ratcheted universals, you won't be using them much in this mode. Their knees are double-jointed and their feet are on ball joints. Balancing them can be sort of tricky, but they do come with display stands.
Transformation in and out of dinosaur mode is fairly straight forward. One tricky part is splitting the dinosaur heads and tails without scratching the gold chrome and paint. Going to dinosaur mode, a very obnoxious part involved these two small, ball jointed pieces at the crotch. I found it easier just to pop them both off, connect them, and then pop them back into their sockets. I would advise to ignore this step entirely because separating these pieces is a real pain when coming back to robot mode. It makes very little difference in the dinosaur form. There is one rather unfortunate step involving a plug and a hole on their butts. In either direction, there is a bit of parts-forming with the front claws.
Robot modes on both are extremely kibbly - split dinosaur heads and claws hang off of shoulders and hip skirts stick out quite a bit. The hip skirts aren't all that useful and really can be a hindrance in posing their arms and legs. Echara has a face plate while Comera has an actual face. Both look really great. The various paint applications seem to be well-applied. Echara has an overall darker paint scheme. Her torso, hips, and thighs are painted in reverse to that of Comera. For me, Echara somehow exudes more menace in robot mode than Comera.
Both have the exact same articulation. Heads and shoulders are on ball joints. The bases of their heads obstruct any upward motion. Their arms can't quite reach out and up to 90 degrees because of the dinosaur claws on their shoulders. Hands are fixed in an open grasp, but they have wrist swivels and hinges. They do not have bicep swivels, which is really disappointing on Voyager sized figures. Their waist and thigh swivels are ratcheted. Single-jointed elbows can only get to about 90 degrees. Double-jointed knees can get to almost 180 degrees. They have the ever so slightest of ab crunches. Their hips are on ratcheted universals, but articulation is a little obstructed by protrusions on their thighs. They can achieve the full front and side splits. Their feet are on ball joints, with separate toe and heel tilts. The tails can be useful in keeping them from falling over since they are rather back heavy.
Echara comes with two large rifles, two sais, two kunai, and two shurikens. Comera comes with two large rifles, two small rifles, and a sword. There is some minimal line work on all the weapons, but none have any paint. The sword blade is red transparent plastic. All have side pegs to facilitate storage, but the small rifles' side pegs seem to be too small for any of the ports. The large rifles are ridiculously oversized. All four appear to be identical. Each pair can combine to form display bases for their dinosaur modes. All six rifles, the sais, and the shurikens slip easily into their hands but swivel around loosely. The sword and kunai are rather fiddly to get into their hands.
For now, I'll be displaying Echara and Comara with the other FansProject Lost Exo-Realm Dinobots alongside Maketoys Cross Dimension figures. I like the way the two highly stylized aesthetics work together. I'm not disappointed in the pair since I do love how they fit in with the core members of this team. Just Snarl left to complete this set.
