Dinobots

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The Dinobots are a team of characters in the fictional Transformers Universe. The group is made up of five robots, who each transform into likenesses of Earth dinosaurs:

Generation One

The Dinobots are a group of five Transformers, part of the Autobot army. Their exact origins and abilities vary from one version of Transformers to the next, but they are always exceptionally powerful Autobots, able to sustain heavy abuse and inflict heavy firepower against their foes. In all media, they are depicted as being fiercely independent and liable to break away from the main group of Autobots when the mood takes them.

• Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex (Team Leader)
• Slag - Triceratops
• Sludge - Brontosaurus
• Snarl - Stegosaurus
• Swoop - Pteranodon

Due to their unique alternative modes, their memorable personalities and their fighting prowess, they are firm fan favourites in their cartoon, comic book and toy incarnations.

Generation 1 Cartoon

Their creation was sort of happenstance. One particular day at Autobot Headquarters, the Autobots detected unusual seismic activity from within the walls of the cave. Ironhide investigated the disturbance and found that, while inconsequential, he detected very large forms within a hidden cavern. They turned out to be the fossilized bones of dinosaurs. Wheeljack made the suggestion that, because of their brute force and power, dinosaurs working for the Autobots would shake up the Decepticons. Ratchet agreed, suggesting robotic forms and Optimus Prime authorized the project. Originally, only three Dinobots were built, Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge. Later, in a similar project authorized by Optimus Prime, two more Dinobots, Snarl and Swoop were built with Chip Chase as the project leader.

Shortly after, the Dinobots were created and unveiled, but during the presentation, the Dinobots went awry, due to their lack of intelligence. They began to ransack Autobot Headquarters, inflicting major damage to Teletraan I. Wheeljack managed to subdue the Dinobots with his shoulder-mounted magnetic inducer. The Dinobots were deactivated and stored in the cavern where they were constructed. Shortly after, when many of the Autobots were in peril, the Dinobots were given cerebral upgrades, increasing their intelligence to where they possessed broken language. The upgrade was sufficient to give them instructions and send them into combat.

The Dinobots performed admirably in combat, saving the Autobots, forcing the Decepticons into retreat, and earning a permanent place in the Autobot ranks. They proved very useful when Megatron brought Cybertron into Earth's orbit through the Decepticon Space Bridge. Dismayed by his losses to the Dinobots, Megatron discovered and briefly exploited weaknesses that turned the Dinobots against the Autobots. Grimlock reconsidered his decision after being saved by Optimus Prime from an exploding meteorite. The Dinobots were among the very few to have survived the Last Great War and see the Second Golden Age of Cybertron.

They are often brought in to face the largest threats. They have tangled with Devastator numerous times, defeated or stalemated Megatron and Shockwave, and even survived a head-on assault against Unicron.

Generation 1 Marvel Comics

In the comic version, the Dinobots are quite different from their cartoon equivalents. They were not created on Earth, but are in fact Cybertronian Autobots.

The Dinobots were aboard the Ark with the other Autobots when they originally crashed on Earth. However, soon after the crash, Shockwave landed on Earth in search of the Ark, and the ship’s computer (A.U.N.T.I.E.) reactivated the Dinobots to fight him. Shockwave landed in the Savage Land, Marvel Comics’ fictional dinosaur island. Consequently, the ship picked dinosaur shapes for the Dinobots, to blend in with the native life-forms of that region. The Dinobots are something like an Autobot elite special ops team, under Grimlock’s direct command. It is made quite clear that the Dinobots’ first loyalty is to each other over their fellow Autobots. This is demonstrated in several instances. When Grimlock leaves the Autobots in protest over Optimus Prime’s leadership style, the Dinobot team follows their leader and leave the Autobots behind. And reciprocally, Grimlock defies orders from Optimus Prime and goes on a quest to find a way to revive his fallen Dinobots.

Unlike their comic relief equivalents of the cartoon, the comics’ Dinobots are more intelligent and cunning. Grimlock is a high-ranking member of the Autobot army, sometimes depicted as Optimus Prime’s second-in-command, and he took leadership of the Autobots after both of Optimus Prime’s deaths.

During the G1 series, not much is said about the Dinobots’ time on Cybertron. Most of what is learned comes as hints or references in dialogues. We learn Swoop has a grudge against the Decepticon Divebomb, caused by a number of defeats the Dinobot suffered to the Decepticon. We also learn Grimlock and the Dinobots were as powerful and rebellious on Cybertron as they are on Earth, going so far as launching successful raids against the Decepticon forces without the knowledge of the Autobot leaders. In one such raid, the Dinobots stole a number of Decepticon spaceships, and hid them away so well they were still intact when the Autobots returned to Cybertron 5 million years later. Dreamwave’s The War Within series explores the Dinobots’ past on Cybertron in more details.

The War Within (Dreamwave Productions)

Shortly before the second story arc of the War Within, The Dark Ages, Grimlock created a specialized attack group called the Lightning Strike Coalition. Five members of this group would go on to become the Dinobots on Earth, and in The Age of Wrath, Grimlock even refers to them as the Dynobots.

The group does not yet have the absolute loyalty that the Dinobots will be known for. In this story arc, Swoop openly questions Grimlock’s orders. When faced with a dilemma, the other four members of the Coalition choose to go help the Autobots and leave their leader to fight elsewhere on his own, something the later Dinobots would never do.

Generation 2

The Generation 2 toy line had releases of Grimlock, Slag and Snarl in a variety or recolors, and missing their missile launchers. There were plans to release Swoop in Generation 2's toy line but this never came to pass.

Marvel Comics

Grimlock and the Dinobots came with Optimus Prime and the Autobots back to Earth in response to a special emergency beacon activated by G.I.Joe. They soon encountered the Generation 2 Decepticons and battled against them. At one stage, Optimus Prime went to peacefully negotiate with Megatron. Taking advantage of Optimus Prime's peaceful intentions, the Decepticon commander mercilessly assaulted Optimus Prime with everything he had. Although Optimus Prime had given Grimlock strict orders not to rescue him, he secretly thought to himself, "please don't let this be the first time he actually obeys orders!" - and sure enough, Grimlock defied Prime's order and came to his rescue. As the Swarm approached Earth, Grimlock and Soundwave led a combined Autobot-Decepticon force to make a final stand. During the Swarm's attack, many Transformers were consumed and destroyed including Slag (who died alongside the Aerialbot Slingshot). Grimlock was saved by Megatron who gave him canisters of Rheanimum gas to distribute amongst the surviving Transformers in order to shield themselves from the Swarm.

Grimlock was the only G1 Dinobot who was reformatted and rebuilt as a Maximal some 3 centuries after the end of the Great War. The Maximals and Predacons travelled 4 million years into Earth's pre-historic past where they assumed the forms of beasts, in the case of Grimlock, the form of a Velociraptor. The Beast Wars Grimlock toy is the same mould as the Maximal Dinobot, who appeared in the Beast Wars cartoon (although Grimlock did not).

Grimlock in his reimagined raptor form has appeared in IDW Publishing's mini-series Beast Wars: The Gathering.

Dinobot Triceradon from Beast Machines

On Cybertron, there were a group of Predacons (Destrons) who transformed into dinosaurs and were led by T-Wrecks. When Cybertron was conquered by the Vehicons, all Maximals and Predacons were hunted down. T-Wrecks and some of his fellow Predacon survivors were summoned and reformatted (giving them immunity to the techno-virus) by the Oracle.

The Beast Machines Dinobots are:

• Air Raptor - an Archaeopteryx.
• Dinotron - a Pachycephalosaurus - repaint of Beast Wars Neo Hardhead.
• Magmatron - a Giganotosaurus, Elasmosaur and a Quetzalcoatlus.
• Striker - a Stegosaurus.
• Terranotron - a Transmetal Pteranodon.
• Triceradon - a Triceratops.
• T-Wrecks - a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Dinobot series Swoop.

In 2003 a set of Walmart exclusive toys sold simply as Transformers: Dinobots featured repaints of Beast Wars molds as 6 Dinobots. One of the Dinobots sets included Grimlock (a repaint of Beast Wars Dinobot) and Swoop (a repaint of Beast Wars Terrorsaur). Some versions of Swoop were named Terranotron on the box because of trademark issues with the name Swoop.

How the Transformers: Dinobots toy line fits in with the other Transformers lines is still a bit of a mystery. The previous Robots in Disguise and Armada lines contained many non-show repaint toys, but the toys don't mention either line on the boxes. The Dinobots toys came out just before the Transformers: Universe series, which was almost entirely repaints of old toys - so some fans consider it a precursor to that series.

Energon Swoop

There were two Dinobot figures released as part of the Transformers Energon toyline: Grimlock and Swoop, who can merge to form the giant robot Mega-Dinobot. They did not appear in the cartoon.

 

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