Encyclopedia / Alt-modes / Beast
Dinosaurs
Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus and Pteranodon, alt modes chosen from a museum rather than a car park, and the most popular Autobots ever made.
The machine
What it actually is
The Dinobots break the line's own rule. Every other 1984 Autobot hides in traffic; these five hide nowhere. The in-fiction excuse is that the Autobots built them from a museum display before understanding what dinosaurs were, which is a neater piece of writing than the toy line deserved. Note the palaeontology has since moved on: 'Brontosaurus' was for decades folded into Apatosaurus before a 2015 study argued for its reinstatement, Pteranodon is a pterosaur and not a dinosaur at all, and the upright tail-dragging tyrannosaur posture the toys use was already being abandoned by scientists when the toys were designed.
The characters are the reason the toys sold. Grimlock is written as brutally direct, contemptuous of Optimus Prime's caution, and speaks in a broken register that made him instantly quotable. Slag, Sludge, Snarl and Swoop are drawn more thinly, but the group reads as a gang, which no other Autobot subset does.
The toys are heavy with die-cast and chrome, sold at a higher price point than the cars, and their robot modes are stiff and blocky by design so the beast modes can be convincing. Grimlock's robot mode with the tyrannosaur head on his chest and jaws over his shoulders is one of the strongest silhouettes in the line, and Takara has been reselling variations of it for forty years.
Real-world
Specification
| Make | Nature |
| Model | Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, Pteranodon |
| Years | Late Cretaceous (T. rex, Triceratops), Late Jurassic (Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus), Late Cretaceous (Pteranodon) |
| Notes | T. rex up to 12 m long and around 8 tonnes; Pteranodon had a wingspan near 7 m and is a pterosaur, not a dinosaur. |
Before Transformers
The Diaclone original
Diaclone 'Dinosaur Robo' series (Takara, 1983 to 1984): No. 1 Tyrannosaurus (Grimlock), No. 2 Triceratops (Slag) and No. 3 Brontosaurus (Sludge). Snarl (Stegosaurus) and Swoop (Pteranodon) were developed later and are generally regarded as Transformers-era additions rather than released Diaclone toys.
The part nobody covers properly
Licensing
Nothing to licence, which is why the Dinobots have been reissued and recoloured more freely than any comparable premium G1 mould. Encore, Transformers Collection, e-Hobby exclusives, the King Grimlock and Volcanicus repaints, Masterpiece MP-08 and MP-08X and Studio Series 86 all reproduce the designs without any agreement. The only constraint has ever been the cost of the tooling. It is worth stating plainly on the page: the Dinobots are the clearest demonstration that the licensing pressure across the franchise was never about how detailed or recognisable an alt mode was, only about whether a company owned it.
Who wears it
Transformers using this alt-mode
Detail
Trivia
- Grimlock originates as Diaclone Dinosaur Robo No. 1 Tyrannosaurus, 1983.
- Snarl and Swoop have no released Diaclone counterparts and joined the group under Hasbro.
- Slag's name has been retired by Hasbro in modern releases because of its offensive meaning in British English; he is now Slug.
- Pteranodon is a pterosaur rather than a dinosaur, so Swoop is technically the odd one out.
- The Dinobots were added to the cartoon partly because the toys were expected to sell on beast appeal alone, and they outsold expectations.
Handle with care
Contested
Fan lore about these vehicles is unusually unreliable. Where a popular claim does not survive checking, it is recorded here rather than repeated.
- Whether Snarl and Swoop had any Diaclone development. Some collectors report prototype work; no released Diaclone versions are documented.
- Brontosaurus versus Apatosaurus. The name was widely considered invalid from 1903 until a 2015 study argued for reinstating it; both usages are defensible.