As a helicopter, Grindor is ok. The right side panel on mine doesn’t peg in like it’s supposed to, which is a constant irritant. There’s also the Scorponok cage, but more on that in a minute. He doesn’t feature a lot of exciting colors or paint apps, but his grey and black motif are pretty good for a military vehicle. There’s a black button on the back of the tail boom that spins the rotors when pumped. Grindor carries a flip down cage under his tail boom that can hold the little Scorponok figure. Theoretically, you can press a button to deploy him, but the catch is weak and Scorponok usually just deploys whenever he damn well feels like it. There’s not much to say about Scorponok. He’s a little PVC figure with a spring loaded tail. If you’re looking for realism, then next to Tomahawk, Grindor is certainly the most realistic helicopter, but you could argue that also makes him a tad boring.

It says a lot about Grindor’s transformation that you can literally just take the entire top and back of the helicopter off and still have the robot figure intact. In fact, he’s a lot better without all the alt mode chopper kibble. Of course, I find removing a quarter of the alt mode an unacceptable prospect in good Transformer design. It also doesn’t help that some of his bits fall off when I transform him.

At his core, Grindor’s robot mode is pretty good and bears a decent resemblance to Blackout’s movie design, albeit a bit chunkier and simpler. I like the way the nose of the chopper splits apart to reveal the head and chest, while keeping his sensor globe and cannon in useable positions. His shoulders also get some missiles and the chevrons on his shoulder armor look nice. Ah, but unfortunately, he still has a quarter of a helicopter hanging off his back and while some Transformers can pull that off, Grindor’s backpack is just too bulky and obtrusive and the tail drags on the ground behind him.

Grindor’s articulation is pretty good. His head turns, his shoulders have universal movement plus swivels and his elbows and wrists are hinged. His legs have universal movement in the hips and hinged knees. Keep in mind, though, if you leave all the chopper kibble on his back, you won’t get much use out of his leg joints. Blah!

Despite all his flaws, I really don’t hate Grindor. He’s an ok looking figure and I’m probably giving him a bit of a pass because he is a helicopter, afterall. Still, if you’re one of those collectors that tend to be down on the movie figures, Grindor here isn’t going to win you over.

And that wraps it up for Transformers Helicopter Week. I thought I would get a third entry in tonight, looking at Revenge of the Fallen’sBlazemaster, but then I didn’t want to end the week on a down note by looking at such a shitty figure, so maybe I’ll save him for a future Shitty Transformers Week when I’m feeling in a particularly black mood. Anyway, I’ll be back tomorrow with business as usual, meaning I’ll try to slip something else in over the weekend before I get back to looking at more Transformers.