Hi all, so as some of you may have guessed I am a fully fledged Fans Toys fanboy and I have no problems admitting this haha. I think they are top of the 3rd party tree by a country mile and in quite a few cases surpass even the official figures. Now I always collect the official products because as I have mentioned before if you are going to collect a toy line it should include the official releases. I just feel the quality of the materials has fallen where as Fans Toys seem to be getting better and better, anyway onto the Dinobots . . .

Anyway onto the Dinobots . . .

I was still quite new to the collecting game when I stumbled across a review or preview for Scoria which as we all know was there first stab at a Dinobot figure. I had not long bought MP-10 which was a huge purchase for me mainly to the cost. We all know how MP-10 turned out so I was very happy with that but at the same time a bit cautious to spend that amount of money on a product from a company I hadn’t heard off. If only I knew at that point it was the start of such a wonderful relationship haha. Anyway, I bit the bullet (so to speak) and bought him. I can’t remember if I pre-ordered the figure or it had already been released but either way when it arrived I was amazed! What a figure, for the time and for the money I was so happy there was a representation of a childhood favourite that was so striking. This was when I stumbled across Mr Bobby Skullface’s Youtube channel when searching for a video of how to transform it. Bobby has since then been guiding me on my collecting journey! So then my next step was to start looking into previous releases from this company and also when the other Dinobots would be coming as I was now hooked. Up Next was Soar . . .

Soar was next up and it was great! I didn’t have the G1 toy when I was a kid but always loved the character, I always loved the episode(s) when Spike and Carly had to go to Cybertron and ended up with Swoop. It’s a relatively simple figure due to the nature of the character but it’s done so well. I’m luckily enough to not have been affected by the legs clips that people have had issue’s with. The quality and look of this one is spot on and was a great step up from Scoria. Only a taste of what was to come from the remaining figures. On to Sever . . .

I can’ remember the timings of the figures but I seem to remember waiting a long time for the next instalment of the Fans Toys Dino story, but it was certainly worth the wait. Certainly another step up in their development of these figures. At the time Gigapower had their version out which has a lot of great things about it and is a lovely figure, just a bit to big I felt. Also once you’re already two figures in of the five I think you’re committed to completing the set, well I certainly was. Snarl was never really that much of an exciting character and to be honest I can’t really remember many story lines that stick out. He was if I remember rightly cut out of the ’86 film when Prime sends the Dinobots to ‘destroy Devastator’. The figure is great and the most striking part is the gold chrome that really makes it stick out. I can see people not liking the whole underneath as I think it was a bit of an oversight but I haven’t used the replacement parts to fill in the gap. Mainly because I will probably break something trying to do it and also because I haven’t had it in a position where I have really noticed it. The best one so far . . . that was about to change.

Now Stomp is literally a Masterpiece, I think MP-10 and Sovereign are the only other figures that have wowed me as much right out of the box. I have always loved the character and the G1 was always a favourite of mine so this was an obvious must have. I seem to remember this one was delayed quite a bit, not unlike most Fans Toys products. But it was worth the wait. The size, weight and general heft of the figure is so impressive and such a good example of the improvements made by the company making these characters, especially when you compare it back to Scoria. Scoria is still a great figure but you can see how they have improved and almost how they could do with re doing Scoria. Which I guess they are doing with the non die cast version that is coming out (I think that’s right). Picking this guy up isn’t even that easy due to the size, I know I’m at a slight to disadvantage to most 🙂 Anyway, looking forward there was only one guy left and it needed to be good!

The battle of MP-08 and Grinder! So as many of you I already owned MP-08 Grimlock which is a good enough figure but doesn’t fit in with the rest of the set. The boots supplied to make him a bit taller help but it still didn’t quite work. Grimlock I guess has to be one of the most popular characters from the G1 cartoons, certainly was one of mine. The episodes when they build the Dinobots is just great. So after all the waiting Grinder eventually arrived and straight away I was very impressed. In bot mode he looks incredible and a vast improvement on MP-08 in my opinion. Once transformed its even more striking, i love it in Dino mode. Now I do agree with most of the criticism of Dino mode where he is a bit big and because of that MP-08 does look arguably better. But on his own there’s no contest in Dino mode. In bot mode he looks perfect with the other members of the Fans Toys group. It’s taken a long time and a lot of money for all of us to complete this set but I ultimately think it’s been worth it. I’m sure some of my friends would beg to differ if they realised how much I’ve spent on a set to toy Dinosaurs 🙂

So there’s a little bit about my journey on collecting this set of figures. I have taken a lot of photos of the figures lately and I wanted something to group it all together so I hope it’s been interesting to read.

Thanks for reading, take care.

Sam

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Twitter: @66SamThompson