Transformers Legacy Snarl, of the nature of Core class

 

Ye olde Snarl would have to be my favourite Dinobot.  There is no doubt about the fact that Stegosaurs are cool!  Even to the point of me having a few different versions of the grumpy arse loner fellow now.  Yes, I have the Leader version stashed away somewhere.  Anyway, despite not really liking the concept of combining Dinobots... I did pick up Core class Swoop a while ago and was suitably impressed with the little bugger.  Therefore, Snarl should be on the get list as well.

I have no intention of getting the rest of the team as some of them look stupid and I feel that just because they are thematically similar, it doesn't mean they have to combine into a big super robot.

So, here we are with my post about me chatting about Snarl.

The small one.

So far the core class Dinobots have been a bit... ugly.  I remember seeing images of Grimlock and Sludge and yeeesh, they do not look very good.  Luckily Swoop did and Snarl looks nice enough.  So that's cool.

Snarl comes in a little box in robot mode, so I'll start there.

Yep, he looks very Snarly doesn't he?  He has the usual tail split across his shoulders.  Being a little guy, I'm able to accept the placement of the stego tail being so high.  The leader one definitley has the best placement of them.  Looking back now, even the POTP version of Snarl's tail is a bit too high up.

Anyhoo, as you can see the colours are pretty close and he has the goldy bits located wher the goldy bits should be and the reddy bits located where the reddy bits should be.

What is NOT located where it should be is an Autobot insignia, which actually has a spot allocated on his chest, BUT there is nothing there.  What a shame.

The red part of the back of the robot is actually an extra part, obviously intended for his obvious Dinoking counterpart and it hides the combiner joint (a little bit anyway).  This is also the part that can be used to store his sword.  Storage of swords on backs is brilliant by the way!

The sculpting on the robot is really great!  He manages to have the gribbles one would want on Snarl and it's perfectly fine.

Articulation is surprisingly good for such a small figure.  He is missing thigh-based swivels, but his ball jointed hips can be worked around... mostly.  He has big feet meaning that his balance is pretty good and on top of that, you can use a few of the joints required for the combined robot mode to get some more should movement out of the guy!

Snarlnan the Barbarian.

It's very impressive.  So generally the robot is a lot of fun.  He also looks pretty shmick next to the other core robots.

And he comes with a handy-dandy carry handle.

Generally the robot mode is actually prety good.  He doesn't have the same amount of joints that Swoop does, but they are adequate enough.  Although I really would like some thigh swivels.  

Let's get this sucker into Dinosaur mode!!

Transformation is super easy, flip over the legs, rotate the head 360, wiggle-waggle the tail pieces together, and bend the elbows.  The trickiest part is coordinating the flipping out of the Dino head from the knee area as you flip them around, but I'm sure most people can deal with it pretty efficiently.

That is totally adorbs!  God damn!

I am not ashamed to admit, that when I first got him into this mode, I laughed and wondered,

"What the hell is this pathetic little mode?"

He's so smoll, it's beeyootiful!  I will freely admit that the first time I got him into this mode, I had a jolly old chuckle.  The front legs, which are moulded, provide the tiniest amount of clearance from the ground so his chin is pretty much a mm or two away from the ground.  The back legs are quite obviously folded up robot arms and where any articulation is likely to happen, but you need to tab in his forearms into the dino body, thereby negating any articulation there.  If you do though, because his rear feet are now entire forearms, you can make him rear up.

The tail is ridiculously smoll and cute as well.  Man, I kind of want a live one at this size as a pet, you know like one of those world's smallest chameleons or something.  It's just the cutest little 80s fat stegosaurus I've ever laid eyes on and I love it!

Colours are pretty much where you want them to be, and one thing this guy has over the leader size figure....

All the gold bits are the same shade of colour.

Yay! Consistency!!

The sword can be stored on the back in the same plug as you use in robot mode, but you can also plug it underneath.  Oh, I guess you could use that in robot mode as well, but he'd be carrying it like a baby chest mount.

In Dino mode, he is a bit smaller than a deluxe car, but you know, it's fine.  I have no complaints about the sizing to be honest.

Sure, this dinosaur mode is a total brick, but it's just so gawddamm cute, I can't help loving it.  With such a simple transformation, pretty much non-existent articulation, a face that is permanently stuck to the ground and a tail that would make him the laughing stock of his fellow stegosaurs, I should not really like this guy. BUT the tiny size and kinda pathetic dino mode adds so much charm to him, he is a chibi petite Snarl the likes of which I've never experienced before.

Of course, the robot being an actual, pretty good little robot mode with good articulation and a great likeness of the original (and the leader class one) also helps to overcome and shock from the dino mode.

So, my 

Final superfluous rating for Snarl is:

Much better than I expected, pathetically cute! -  Recommended!