TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

Blackjack's review: Legends Class Grindor

Name: Grindor
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Kidnapper; Warrior
Repaint of: Blackout

"Sheeeagggh!"

Right. Grindor. I've never been a fan of the name. It was first used in Armada, for one of the cutesy kid-friendly Street Action MiniCons, the blue one that turned into a skateboard. Grindor's name was used over and over again for his Energon reincarnation and a few redecoes in the Energon, Cybertron and Universe lines. Classics granted us a second character named Grindor, also a MiniCon. But Grindor number two is an evil monster truck. Then, in the Revenge of the Fallen, the Blackout-lookalike was designated the name Grindor by Hasbro. Why Grindor? I have no inkling why. It would have made more sense to call him Vortex (Hasbro has access to the name, evidenced by the Universe release), Tracer, Spinister, Obsidian, Flywheels or even Ro-tor. Or a gazillion other better names. But no. We get Grindor as the name. Boo.

Ah well. Grindor first appeared right after Mikaela, Sam and Leo escape from Alice, swooping in and using a grapple to kidnap them and take them to a warehouse, where Megatron, Starscream and Scalpel interrogate Sam. Afterwards, Grindor reappears a few short scenes later, when Optimus Prime clashed with Megatron and Starscream. Grindor, Megs and Screamer pretty much overwhelmed Optimus Prime. Being a generic Grindor gets to die. Prime used his twin kick ass swords to slice off his hand and a few other parts, before using two energy scimitar-things to hook the middle of his face and tear it into two pieces in slow motion. And that's the end of Grindor. Ah well, at least his death is better than Blackout's (shot in the crotch by a human).

Of course, since Grindor was never named nor spoke, many people would undoubtedly mix him up with Blackout from the first movie. Even screenwriter Roberto Orci wasn't sure whether they were supposed to be the same character or not. But Grindor is a separate character, really. Blackout died in the first movie and his corpse was shown in the 'dunk Decepticons into the ocean' scene. Besides, Grindor is differently coloured than Blackout. It's just a case of the animators being too busy to make a new character model and reusing Blackout's character model. Although this raises a new question— why not Barricade? His character model is still there from the first movie, and it would make more sense for Barricade to appear in the battle, and being killed by Prime isn't so bad... Ah well, enough debate.

Grindor's grunts and death scream, while uncredited, are provided by the voice god Frank Welker, who also voiced Soundwave, Devastator, Ravage and Reedman in the movie. Cool, Blackout didn't even get a voice actor. Frank Welker also voiced nearly half of the original G1 cast (including Megatron, Soundwave, all six Cassetticons), Scooby-Doo, Dr Claw, Abu, Darkseid, Fred, Garfield and like a hundred other characters in different cartoons.

While Blackout transforms into a Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low IV helicopter, Grindor's helicopter mode is actually a Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion, which is a slightly upsized. The change is probably due to USAF's retiring the Pave Lows in 2008. However, Grindor's robot mode CG model use Blackout's Pave Low kibble. Life is pain for a repaint character.

Of course, since his toys are repaints of Blackout, and Hasbro decides not to go through all the trouble of remolding the alternate mode, his toys all transform into Pave Lows.

ROBOT MODE

Grindor's robot mode is basically Blackout in a pale, almost gray, blue. His Voyager toy is coloured dirty white, so there's a bit of inconsistency here. His appearance in the movie is silverish white, though I can't remember his alternate mode's colour.

Also, Hasbro mis-transforms him in the packaging art, the hands not being transformed fully.

Anyway, his main colour is the pale blue, with dark green and black being secondary colours. Aquamarine blue adorns his chest and face, with beady red eyes and a silver Decepticon insignia on his chest. His posability is very limited, even for a Legends class figures. His shoulders are on ball joints and his elbows are hinged. He has ball joints on his knees, but they can only move sideways due to the plastic blocking the way. There are also ball joints for the hip section.

The rotor blades are at his back, similar to his movie look. His six rotor blades are divided into two pieces, which can rotate, or, in the case of his robot mode, folded down. His entire lower arm is kibble, and looks too... chunky to be any effective in a fight. His legs, while looking good, aren't really posable due to the transformation scheme. The posability is more of the problem that irks me.

Overall, he's an adequate representation of the Grindor on the big screen. Although, after seeing what Hasbro could do with their Legends class toys (the Fallen, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and the Classics molds to name a few), this isn't really impressive.

ALTERNATE MODE

Grindor transforms into Blackout's Sikorsky Pave Low MH53 helicopter alternate mode. The transformation is simplistic and straightforward, and you won't need the instructions for this. The dark green become less in this mode, and the pale blue had almost taken over his body in this mode. Some Cybertronian-esque details adorn his sides, painted in dark blue.

Grindor's rotors spin quite well, and the details are okay, and he's a quite convincing wee helicopter. There's not really much you can do with him, but I do like helicopters. A solid alternate mode, and the better one of the two.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation 2/10 Grindor is easy, your basic Legends class transformation. Shouldn't take too long to figure him out.
Durability 6/10 He's a solid little figure, but as with all other helicopter transformers, watch the rotors. They seem to be able to snap off easily.
Fun 6/10 Grindor's a nice toy to muck around for a while, but there's only so much you could do with a Legends class toy. Unless you have Legends Optimus Prime. Then there will be face-rippings.
Price 5/10 Not that he's a bad toy per se, but I feel rather cheated on this toy. Mostly because I've seen much better Legends toys.
Overall 5/10 It really boils down to whether you like his paint scheme. The mold is okay, but you won't miss anything by not getting him. I do understand that pale blue doesn't agree with everybody, and there are many more better toys out there. One thing's for sure... if you already have LoC Blackout, you don't need him.