(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the original RID2015 warrior Grimlock toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original RID2015 warrior Grimlock here.)

    Obviously, "Gold Armor" Grimlock is based off of his G1 colors. On the face of it, this is definitely a downside, as Grimlock's traditional colors have been mostly gray, and I generally don't like gray-- especially the bland, light milky gray plastic that is one of the main colors on this toy. However, there's also a lot of milky orangish copper used on many of the "main body" parts. Although not metallic, it's quite a nice shade, and is at least SEMI-metallic, with a bit of glitter mixed in with that plastic. To complement this, there's also quite a bit of metallic copper paint used on Grimlock, particularly in beast mode where there's some on his claws, headcrest, and on the sides of most of his tail (except for the last two segments, which is a bit odd-- why leave those two unpainted?). Again, it's quite a nice shade and goes well against the gray. There's also a few colors used to lesser extents, like the black on the robot claws, robot head, upper legs, and a few other minor connector parts, helping to give the scheme a nice dark color for contrast. Red is used on the waist, dino eyes, and visor, again as a bit of a G1 homage, though it's not prevalent enough to really contribute much to the scheme. Finally, there's some silver on the sides of the robot chest and faceplate, which, like the red, looks okay but isn't used enough to make much of a difference. I do wish some of this paint (or some white) was used on the teeth to highlight them a bit against the gray, as the t-rex face looks a bit plain without paint there.
    There is actually a mold change made to Gold Armor Grimlock, and that's a new headsculpt that is sort of a mix between his RID and G1 headsculpts. He's still got the overly large chin and general head silhouette of his RID version, but his face has a red visor and silver faceplate, like the G1 toy. It looks pretty good, even if it doesn't match RID Grimlock's goofy character all that well. The ratchet issues with the elbows have been fixed on this version as well, so no worries there (at least as far as I know).
    If you enjoy the RID2015 Grimlock design but prefer the G1 colors-- well, here you go. It's a solid mold, so go for it. I do appreciate the increased usage of orange/bronze on the toy compared to what you would expect from a G1-y Grimlock redeco, but given the prevalence of that bland light milky gray plastic I'd recommend the original color scheme on this mold otherwise.
 

Review by Beastbot

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