Dinobot (BW)


 * Dinobot is a Predacon and Maximal from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.



Dinobot is a Predacon ruled by honor. He lives to die gloriously in battle. When he aided Megatron in the theft of the Golden Disc under the order of Cryotek, Dinobot believed he was in the pursuit of endless glory. But when he and his Predacon peers crashed on a mysterious planet alongside a Maximal exploration vessel, his desire to be on the winning side turned him to the Maximal team. At first he feared his growing sense of right and wrong would clash with the demands of his Predacon heritage -- but perhaps they are not mutually exclusive after all.

Beast Wars
Voice Actor: Scott McNeil (US), Keiji Fujiwara (Japan)

Immediately after crash landing on Earth, Dinobot turned on Megatron, claiming the Predacon commander had led them to the wrong planet. Unfazed by Dinobot's tirade, Megatron had Scorponok blast him, and left him for dead. Dinobot left the Predacons and laid in wait for the Maximals to return to their base. Challenging Optimus to a duel, Dinobot was determined to lead one faction or another and gain the glory he desperately sought. During the duel, Dinobot displayed a rare amount of honor, fair play, and self sacrifice and won the respect of Optimus, who asked him to join the Maximals. This didn't sit well with the other Maximals, particularly Rattrap, but as the series went on the two became a strange sort of friends.



As a Maximal, Dinobot still displayed strong Predacon tendancies. He was usually more willing to go to the extreme in terms of tactics, use whatever weapons the Maximals had, and often advocated kicking the Predacons when they were down. He also proved to be fairly introspective, and did not miss the gravity of his own situation should the Maximals ever win the Beast Wars.

After the destruction of the Planet Buster, and it became obvious that they were on Earth, Dinobot had a few crises of character. His honor and growing sense of doing the right thing were coming into direct conflict with his desires to be on the winning side and gain eternal glory. He broke into the Predacon base and stole the golden disks from Megatron, hiding the one from Cybertron and taking the Alien disk back to the Axalon. Hiding the theft from his Maximal comrades, Dinobot agonized over the contents of the disk from Cybertron. He knew that the knowledge on the disk would make Megatron powerful enough to win the Beast Wars, and rewrite history. After this revelation, Dinobot's desire for victory and glory got the better of him and he rejoined the Predacons and gave Megatron the disk back. However, his friendship with Rattrap proved to be too strong, he couldn't eliminate the "vermin", and he once again turned on Megatron and rejoined the Maximals.



Dinobot was lost. Had he fumbled his chance at being a great warrior? After contemplating suicide and getting berated by a hurt Rattrap for his betrayal, Dinobot set out to find Megatron and set things right. However, Megatron had led the Predacons to the valley occupied by the proto-humans, intending to wipe them out and change history. Cheetor saw the imminent attack and radioed for help before he was forced to head back to base for repairs. Dinobot responed to the call and took on all of the Predacons by himself. Ignoring the damage he took, the warnings of his own internal computer, and the danger to himself, Dinobot defeated all of the Predacons save Megatron. Mocking the weakened Dinobot, Megatron tallied the score firmly in his own favor. He had unimaginable power(i.e. the Golden Disk ), the valley was in ruins, and he had hostages. Refusing to quit, Dinobot improvised (with a wood and rock axe), snatched the disk from Megatron, and with the last of his power, shattered it with his eye beams. The effort cost him, and a short time after the rest of the Maximals arrived, Dinobot's spark left his frame.



Dinobot was given a hero's funeral, with his body being recycled with full honours while the Maximal fliers flew past, as a sign of respect for his Predacon heritage.

A year later, Megatron, in all his insane genius, cloned him.

Beast Wars

 * Dinobot (Deluxe, 1996/1997)
 * Japanese ID number: C-4, VS-4


 * Part of the first wave of Beast Wars product, Dinobot transforms into something kinda resembling an organic Utahraptor. His tail detaches and separates to form a gear-powered spinning-blade weapon, while the central "tailbone" separates to be used as a sword.  The entire assembly can store in robot mode by flipping down the tail-mount and pegging the blade's base to the peg on his lower back.  Like all early Deluxe-and-up Beast Wars toys, he has a "mutant mask", halves of a dino-skull that flip up to cover his more robotic head.


 * The original Dinobots shipped on cards with "rocky"-shaped bubbles. Later (and more numerous) assortments moved to a smooth, rounded bubble, leading the first packaging type to become siught-after collectables on the secondary market.


 * In Japan, Dinobot was available both individually and in a "Vs" set with Tarantulas. This version was identical to the Hasbro version. In January 1997, Takara redecoed many of the Beast Wars toys and re-released them in slightly more show-like tones; Dinobot actually got less tan to his dino-skin (moving further from the show model), and his helmet was painted in metallic gold. It is unknown if this version was also sold in a Vs set.


 * This mold was used to make... lots of guys. Dinotron, Beast Wars Grimlock, Dinobots Grimlock, Beast Wars Neo Hardhead, and Thrustor.


 * Dinobot (Happy Meal Transmetal, 1998)


 * Part of the second McDonald's Beast Wars Happy Meal promotion, Transmetal Dinobot transforms into a metal velociraptor. his molding looks more liek a Transmetal 2 than a normal Transmetal's, though.


 * Dinobot (Tenth Anniversary, 2006)


 * This release is a redeco of the original Dinobot toy, though its "show-accuracy" is questionable at best. It came with the left arm to the "build-a-bot" figure Trans-Mutate, plus a DVD containing the obvious Dinobot episode, "Code of Hero".

Timelines

 * Darksyde Dinobot (Dawn of Futures Past multi-pack, 2006)


 * Part of the five-toy BotCon 2006 exclusive boxed set (along with Cheetor, Optimus Primal, Rattrap and Rhinox), "Darksyde Dinobot" is a redeco of the Cybertron Longrack mold, itself a retool of Armada Hoist. Dinobot uses almost all of Longrack's new-mold parts save for the head; Hoist's was a dead ringer for Dinobot in the first place.  He transforms into a Cybertronic excavator.  Inserting a Cyber Key or Golden Disk Key into his shoulder assembly unlocks a shovel-punch attack activated by pressing on the plunger mechanism above the key port.  Like Longrack, he does not come with a Mini-Con partner (dammit).


 * The original version of this mold was also used to make Universe Ransack.

Merchandise

 * Dinobot mini bust (2006)


 * In 2006, First 4 Figures released a seven-inch tall mini-bust of Dinobot, featuring his upper torso mounted upon a Maximal pedestal. He was sculpted by Ryan Bailey and is limited to 1,996 pieces.

Trivia



 * It's been rumored that Dinobot's first toy borrowed some molding from an unproduced Kenner Jurassic Park dino. There's no evidence at all to support this, however, and is incredibly unlikely to begin with.


 * The Timelines "Darksyde Dinobot" color scheme is actually based on his Tenth Anniversary toy.


 * Some fans humorously refer to Dinobot's spinning blade weapon as a "Rotate Blade". However, both the full-length version of the first Beast Wars toy commercial and a later commercial (starring Dinobot, Waspinator and Tarantulas) refer to the weapon as being his "spinning Veloci-Rotor blades".


 * Dinobot was second under Megatron before rebelling....probably because he was the only one who knew one end of a blaster from the other