Grimlock (Transformers Robots in Disguise 2015)

Who needs punchin'?

Name: Grimlock
Allegiance: Autobots
Function: Brawler
Sub-group: Bee Team
Timeline: Aligned Continuity

Toyline: Transformers Robots in Disguise (2015)

Profile:

The only thing that is bigger than Grimlock's prodigious strength is his heart. The Dinobot is the muscle of the Bee Team, whose entire reason for joining up with Bumblebee was that he wanted to fight. A good fistfight is Grimlock's idea of fun. Unfortunately, Grimlock doesn't know his own strength or how to pull a punch - and he's also clumsy and more than a little reckless - a bad combination which often leads to a lot of property damage when Grimlock is around. In fact, this is why Grimlock was imprisoned on the Alchemoor in the first place - he accidentally caused a significant degree of property damage after being duped into taking the Decepticon brand. Fortunately, Bumblebee was able to see past Grimlock's past - and clumsiness - to recognise Grimlock for the 'bot with the fuel-pump of gold that he is. And Grimlock is more than willing to reward Bumblebee's faith in him by loyally following Bumblebee's lead and lending his tremendous strength to the Autobot mission to recapture the rest of the Alchemoor's escaped prisoners.

Besides - could Grimlock really pass up such a golden opportunity for a monster beat down with some of the most fearsome villains this side of Cybertron?

Abilities:

Grimlock is incredibly strong. He can lift up to 50 tonnes with relative ease, and just one of his punches - or a swipe of his tail in dinosaur mode - is enough to knock down a building. Alongside his strength, Grimlock has the best endurance and stamina of all the members of the Bee Team - indeed, Grimlock's strength, endurance and stamina are all above average compared to other Dinobots, who are themselves some of the strongest and most durable types of Cybertronian.

Grimlock has no particular training in martial arts or advanced combat techniques. His fighting style is entirely self-taught (other than an afternoon spent learning basic techniques with Drift) and could charitably be labelled as "brawling". However Grimlock's lack of a specific combat discipline works in his favour, as it helps to make him an unpredictable opponent. In addition, Grimlock's fighting style is supplemented by his sheer tenacity. A Decepticon might knock Grimlock down, but he'll always get back up. Grimlock never, ever gives up. This simple, dogged determination is Grimlock's true strength - a strength of spirit that more than rivals his physical strength.

Weaknesses:

Grimlock is incredibly simple-minded, and struggles to grasp ideas or battle plans more complicated than "punch the bad guy". With this, he's also quite gullible and trusting - traits which have been exploited to his detriment. His reckless streak sometimes lands him in dangerous situations (although he's usually tough enough to fight his way out of trouble). Grimlock's alternate mode is poorly suited to the Autobots' mission of blending in and acting as humanity's secret defenders. His clumsy and simple-minded nature do not help matters, and Grimlock will often accidentally blow whatever minimal cover he has.

Additionally, Grimlock is mortally afraid of kittens.

Tyrannosaurus Rex mode:

Additional images of Grimlock:

More information on Grimlock at TFW2005

Author notes:

This is one fun incarnation of Grimlock. I like the fact that with Robots in Disguise, we've got a Grimlock who is actually a pleasant enough character and not constantly at odds with his commanding officer like the Generation 1 version of Grimlock. He's an absolute joy in the Robots in Disguise series too, with some good featured episodes to flesh out his personality as a big but sensitive guy. One of Grimlock's episodes, episode three of Combiner Force / Season 3, was so much fun I had to reference it in the bio (it's where Grimlock spent an afternoon training under Drift).

I've owned three versions of Grimlock as a toy. I had the Warrior Grimlock for a while but mine suffered from exploding elbow joints - the design of the elbows on the Warrior relied on little blocks of plastic for the ratchets which eventually pushed their way out through the arm. Coupled with the small size, I wasn't a fan of that toy. Fortunately, Takara-Tomy made a larger Voyager class version and Hasbro made it available as an online exclusive. Hooray! It's a glorious version of Grimlock that reuses the Fall of Cybertron Grimlock toy with remolded heads, shoulders and chest. I much prefer this version - not only is he the right size next to the rest of the cast, but the mold as a whole just feels right for the character. He comes with green versions of the sword and shield that came with the original version of the mold, but I normally set those aside since this version of Grimlock doesn't really use any sort of weapons. Overall, the Voyager Grimlock is worth checking out.

(The third Grimlock I own from Robots in Disguise comes from the UItra Bee combiner set, which I own mostly for Ultra Bee himself rather than the component toys. The component toys are not great, to put it kindly.)