So should I call him Snarl or Slag during this? Ah well, I guess it doesn't matter.

My TRU got wave 3 in! Woohoo! Unfortunately, there were a ton of Oil Slicks, no Jazz's, and one Snarl. Who is now in my possession.

This guy feels REALLY strong. He's small, of course, but he has that feeling of being the short guy who's gonna kick all your asses. He has a ton of leg articulation, especially aided by slightly twisting feet, heel extensions, strangely bending knees (they can go side to side as well as front/back), and great hip articulation. Similarly, his arms have 3 different hinge joints. While not as good as his legs, the fact of the matter is that he can get some REALLY dynamic poses going.


His mace looks like a carrot. I plan on fixing that, but I'm not sure the best way to replicate Grimlock's paint scheme.

I did want to point out one thing that was wrong in the TFormers pictures. His shoulders, once separated, are on a hinge that allows them to slide downwards. They can keep doing this until they eventually lock into place, creating a flat collarbone look. When done like this, it makes his head seem to be sticking out of the mold thanks to the collar he wears. It also makes more sense with his triceratops head, making his lines flow a ton better. It doesn't look like he's looking over his head!

This is going to be a fun little bruiser, and it alone has convinced me to pick up Swoop. I must have all the dinobots now, if they all share this level of quality.


... Now I just need to go apply some nail polish to his hip hinges, so they'll stay together...

Slag kicks ass.

But mine came mispackaged, it says Snarl. Clearly this is a simple factory error.

I was seriously bummed out yesterday upon returning to Target, the day after i bought Soundwave, to grab Snarl, and he was all gone. There were 3 on Monday, then none last night. I wasn't entirely sure on this guy, then I finally found Grimlock, and now I must have Snarl. Swoop looked great from the beginning, but yeah now, all Dinobots, hopefully we get 2 more toys, other than the 3 we know/have. I would love a nice new set of 5 Dinobots (that aren't BW repaints, I'm looking at you RiD Dinobot 2-packs, not that I kind of don't still want them too).

the masochist in me kinda sorta wants to still track down the Energon Dinobots. I don't know why, though.

I realize this thread is worthless without pics. So without further ado:


























I tried getting him to hold his flame in his mouth, but to no avail. Which really sucks, considering there is a small tab in his mouth that could've worked perfectly, if a bit front heavy.

Shoot a PM my way, I'm getting rid of mine.

I still say, in robot mode Snarl reminds me very much of GWAR's Beefcake the Mighty.

^ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...e-mighty-04.jpg!

wat

I think that's one of the "newer" Beefcakes, he used to be shorter, so his head looked a lot more stubby sticking out of those huge shoulder pads. But regardless, I still see proportional likenesses. Large stout shoulders with a tiny head sticking out, and a smaller face inside, on top of a almost portly torso.

Whoops! Forgot some VERY important pictures.


(Yes, I know, I have the worst shooting locale in the world. I'm making due, forgive me. The point is to show posability more than anything.)

I totally agree, though I don't think I'll wait for Hasbro to produce them.









(I'm not holding my breath, I mean)

He looks goofy, but I want him. The Dino mode is pretty darn sweet!

Welp, looks like I'm heading back to Wal-Mart right about now (picked up Oil Slick and Soundwave earlier). Those pics just sold me, I was sketchy on the articulation.

I always forget that they intend GWAR to be a legacy.

old school pic http://www.starkult.de/downloads/content_pix/gwar2.jpg not old old school but yeah, that's him.

Couldn't find a War Ghoul video outside of some video game thing. But here, Gwar at it's finest!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWRKlNlRsgI

Snarl is like this line's Cybertron Backstop to me.. (which is still a complement in the long run) .. his transformation is certainly unique.. I can't totally figure out why he's got that clear box on the back of his head.. nothing on his face is light pipped. He's best as a dino me thinks.

i picked him up on a lark this evening and am severely underwhelmed.
I should have grabbed OilSlick (But I keep telling myself to hold out for the potential repaint...)

According to the TFormers review, it pipes through to his horns, which would enhance the flame asthetic he (and all the dinobots) have.

I went through a bunch of my recent acquisitions and applied nail polish where needed tonight. This includes Snarl's hip joints. Unfortunately, it looks like the tabs are just a tad too small for it to be super-effective on. It holds better, but I think that is due to the stickiness of the polish and not the added volume.

I suspect that Snarl was supposed to be just a tad bigger. Not massively so, but looking at some of his design changes I think he would've been on the bigger side of the Deluxe scale if things panned out right. Note I have nothing to back this thought up, of course, but the engineering is almost Universe Galvatron small.

I heard that there is a certain way to transform his chest so it looks right (instead of sticking you like a sore thumb boob.) anyone care to shed some light?

Thats what I kind of thought.. but it looks like his horns are painted too.. I'll have to try again with a more powerful light. I did see some orange glow behind his painted eyes, but that was about it.

yes, I can't get you a pic cuz I'm on my phone and away from home. work with it a little. the part that makes his crotch behind the dino head is the problem.

the crotch does lock in.
is there anythign to lock the dino head in? how do you know when its in the right place?

I seem to have found 3 spots that "feel right" but all three look like @$$

Here is how I transform him:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

sorry for the lousy pic quality

Here's what I do:

The red crotch piece that forms the underside of his dino neck has to be swung forward before it locks in to the black leg/waist/hip/whatever connector behind it. Otherwise he won't stand up straight.


see my handy visual guide (this is a view of the piece on his right side)

Click to view attachment

Huh.

Taking advice from posters here, and Madhammer's pics, I think I've got him in a slightly better position. And what's more, it's flexible. I'll have pics shortly.


Basically, I think the inherent problem with transforming him is that he has a ton of tabs and notches. And everyone knows you are supposed to fill the notches and insert the tabs, right? So that leads to one putting his neck/hip piece into the black T that the front legs are attached to, or sticking his dino mode nose into said hip piece, or leaving the front chest out in front of his shoulders/sides because they are curved that way. But here's what I've found:

1) When the shoulders are fully extended and plugged in, the neckpiece can fold all the way back, such that the red flanges are in front of the neck. This creates a recessed cavity that lets Snarl's head get much closer to his center of gravity.

2) the leg "T" (the black piece) has a tab that fits into the bottom of the neck / hip piece. BUT, that same T has a curve to it -- a curve that EXACTLY matches the bottom of the neck! So if you rest the neck into that curve, you get a situation where just a small part of the tab fits into the neck piece. It still secures, although not as well. My guess is that with some fiddling, one can find a position where that tab can fully insert. As it is, like this the black T extends just a bit lower than the neck, but I don't think that is a huge deal, aesthetic wise.

3) With the two above positions for the neck, the dino head becomes much easier to deal with. If you extend it downwards, you get Madhammer's pic above, which has a much, MUCH smaller gap between the dino head and the body. But if you want, you can leave the head up and use the crown to cover the holes. I personally like it where Snarl's autobot logo is parallel to his spine, standing proud. He can still see over his dino head in this position, and there are no major gaps on the top (although there is one on the bottom).


I think the main problem with this guy is that he has a REALLY funky piece in the arm that holds the dino head. It reminds me of the piece on Alternators Skids, which again causes a lot of consternation to transformation. But it also leads to flexibility. Transform him how you like, damnit!


Edit: Damn, two posts while I was writing this! And with a diagram to boot! My methods above don't match Madhammer's, so I'll have pics soon.

I'm really looking forward to getting this fig. Though I'm a little strapped for cash. (spent it on all the wave one deluxes, Grim, and OP )

(Edit: Images broken because of better ones below)

Alright, incoming! (I should mark this thread NSF56k, I swear. And I am shocked my Photobucket account hasn't gotten pissed.)



Here's my preferred transform for the guy right now. Again, this isn't Madhammer's transform, so I'm still playing with things.


[i.mg]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/Athenor/slagjoints001.jpg[/img]



[i.mg]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/Athenor/slagjoints002.jpg[/img]




Now that's with his crown/cowl partially up. Here he is with it down:


[im.g]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/Athenor/slagjoints003.jpg[/img]



Here's how the joints look in side profile:


[im.g]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/Athenor/slagjoints004.jpg[/img]



And here's the inside:


[im.g]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/Athenor/slagjoints006.jpg[/img]


I'm still playing with it / perfecting it, so expect more as more opinions come in!

Yeah dude all you have to do is pivot the crotch piece back at the bottom, then it'll line up perfectly with the black hip tab.

edit: that is, move the TOP of the crotch piece forward as you move the BOTTOM of it back.

That's how I did it before this, and it's still easy enough to do. What I'm looking for is a way to have the top piece as far back as it can go and have the bottom piece in the tab.

Edit: There's one place where the top and bottom parts line up that the tab fits, but that causes the head to stick out. So... yeah. I'm just playing around.

You've already got the top piece as far back as it will go. ...Well, okay, I can get it back 1/8" more if the bottom piece isn't connected to the tab, but it's a negligible difference.

*stares at diagraim*

... OH, shot Madhammer! I need to apologize. I was reading your diagram wrong -- I thought the left side was the front, when it was the RIGHT that was. Lemme try that... I think it'll work better and line up his spine better as well.

Well, to be fair, it is a fairly sh*tty drawing.

ok - i improved my Snarl 100% but he's still SH!TY

Harumph! I still like him.


Okay, here's new and improved pics!










And the joint:





And just so you know how much clearance there is:

I picked him up today. He isn't great, but he realy isn't bad either. If you see him get him.

I also picked up Oil Slick, the face is goofy, but he's pretty nice.

Soundwave and LaserBeak ave been redubbed BeastBox and SquawkTalk. It seems to fit real well.

I picked up a second Snarl today. My daughter loves TFs and Triceratops is her favorite dinosaur. So it's all win.


Except that it'll be in it's component parts by Tuesday.

Honestly, I bet it'd last longer if I gave it to my dog.

Now that I want to see. Because, the best that I can tell, this figure has only two parts that are pop joints and that's the tail.

Hey I got this guy today, it's very soft plastic. The use of metal pins in the joints are great, but even with that, I know how damaging a kid can be to even the most solid built figure.

Hell, they even bite them

Thats why I get my nieces and nephews their own toys.

Yeah, No kidding. My kids LOVE my TFs. My three year old asks to watch ah-Dobots and Sesicons (TF Animated: Transform and Roll Out DVD) almost everyday. Yesterday I caught her chewing on Animated Prowl's head. We thought she swallowed it, until we found in the couch cushions a few hours latter.

See what happens when they over safty toys!!!

Build them stronger, and stop making them look like candy and maybe we won't have to sugar coat them even further cause a kid choked on StarScreams head.

If it sounds like I'm making fun, I'm not. All the loose bits on these can cause a problem that some metal pins and a couple screws could avoid while giving us more solid figures.

I don't believe in over protecting kids, however thats just good sense.

Quick question, the two halves that that the hip joints are attached to, are they supposed to lock into place when you join them together? On my Snarl if you try to pose the legs, the two halve come apart and do not lock into place.

Maybe once upon a time in their design they were supposed to, but not anymore. Basically the two tabs use friction to keep it together, which relies a lot on the mold being 100% perfect.

I added nail polish to all surfaces and it seems to have helped, although not by much. It's a known issue.

Why's Slag holding a Cheeto?

That, unfortunately, is his mace. They decided it would be far too expensive to paint it up like Grimlock's.

So it really sucks. It's not rock-based, so it doesn't fit with Swoop and Grimlock. But while it does look like a gout of fire, it can't fit in Snarl's mouth. So it is pretty much.. well... a cheeto.

That's where a good coat of paint comes in. I just got Snarl, and i like everything about him except his mace.

I think i asked earlier if anyone knew how to do the effect that is on Grimlock's sword, but didn't get a reply. I like the ash look more than solid rock. I figure to do it right I'll have to do a ton of tape-work though.

I'm wondering if it would look better to paint the raised portions of the Cheeto or paint the sunken in parts. It would either be large black parts with a little orange "river" running through it, or large orange parts with a black river. I think it would look best with the raised parts painted black, that would give it a kind of molten rock appearance, which I think is what its supposed to look like.

Athenor, you could probably get the desired effect by using paint that has been progressively thinned as you move from one end to the other. Use paint that hasn't been thinned at all near the handle and paint that has been thinned almost 50-50 near the end of the club.