Review: #195
Name: Snarl
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Age of Extinction Generations
Year of Release: 2014
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 3)
Variations: there is a G1 inspired chromed version as part of SDCC 2014 exclusive and the TakaraTomy version has more metallic green paint
DINOSAUR MODE:
Snarl is a robotic Stegosaurus. Probably the things that jump out at you is the green color scheme and the abundant amount of transparent plastic. Having him in hand, it is actually not too bad.
Most of the green is the natural plastic color but there are some metallic paint such as part of his tail, head and front torso. The metallic green paint used is really nice.
This is a well formed dinosaur, you can tell what it is meant to be and it hides all the robot parts well... except for his hands sticking out from his rear legs. There is no reason for this other than sheer laziness (or budget constraints). It would have been a simple matter to make it fold into the hind legs since that part is hollow already.
I like how the Dinobots are decently sized, they don't feel as much of a victim to the shrinking as vehicle Transformers.
The head is somewhat small, it features a opening mouth and a few joints allowing it to tilt up and down and turn around 360 degrees.
However, in terms of poseability, it's limited in this mode. You can't really do any running poses as the front legs are not articulate enough.
This is a fantastic dinosaur mode that doesn't have any real flaws apart from the exposed robot hands. The use of transparent plastic for the plates actually looks better than expected.
And now... a group shot of all the Dinobots.
TRANSFORMATION:
Simple and effective. Snarl is fun to transform through both modes and it's easy enough to make you want to do it again and again. As you transform the legs, you will find a surprise (which we will cover later although you will probably already know). One of the best thing is how his weapons form from his dinosaur parts, giving a sense of integration. Another thing is the plates kibble are elegantly placed.
ROBOT MODE:
Snarl's robot mode is fantastic and to get this straight, he has the best robot mode out of any of the Dinobots, in my opinion, even better than Scorn or Slug.
That said, he does have some kibble such as the tail forming wings behind his shoulders (accurate to the G1 figure though), the middle plates forming a silhouette and the front dinosaur legs awkwardly sitting on the side of his legs.
Still, he has good proportions and looks wicked. The kibble add a distinctive personality to this figure.
And the surprise? To have symmetrical legs, he features a second false dinosaur head in his right leg! It's weird and unusual but it feels like the designer gave Snarl some attention.
While Snarl does have the knight theme present in all the Dinobots, it's really only present in the shape of his feet. His face features a snarl and looks more at place for a Decepticon rather than a heroic Autobot.
The head feature metallic green paint, black plastic and a splash of purple. It's very angular and dynamic which is something that's apparent when looking at the head from an angle.
Size-wise, while he may be shorter than the Deluxes of the glory days, he's actually not bad and feels nice in your hands. The spraying kibble also gives the impression of a larger and wider figure.
Now, for his weapons. One is a club formed by the tail of the Stegosaurus (which has a nice sense of symmetry that the weapon for dinosaur mode also becomes a weapon for robot mode) and the other is a blade formed by two of his plates.
Both can be held in either hand, although I find that since the spiked club is the same green plastic as his hands, it kind of just blends in together.
The other option, which is way cooler and seems to the designer's intention as the default weapon (even though it is not mentioned in the instructions or stock photos), is that you can combine the two to form an axe.
Snarl looks amazing with the weapon in his hands and he gives me the impression of a tough and ruthless bounty hunter.
Unfortunately, Snarl fell victim to the designer who seems to love giving Transformers "gorilla arms". This means that he can only bend his elbows inwards which is extremely frustrating when posing and it just looks unnatural. Sure, he has wrist swivels but the swivels are angled in such a way that when you try to give him natural looking arms, his hands are pointed to the sky. The worse part is that this could have been easily avoided.
Other than that, the articulation and range of motion is excellent.
Some of his back kibble gets in the way of each other though, the way around this is not unfolding the plates on his back fully.
The sculpting of his torso and the metallic paint used to highlight details are really nice although there is still way too much of the solid bland green.
This is an amazing robot mode which looks fantastic and is very satisfying.
One last photo of a group shot with all the AOE Dinobots.
OVERALL:
Snarl is hands down the best Dinobot in the AOE line. He has an awesome dinosaur mode and a brilliant robot mode. He has some distinctive elements such as the plates kibble placement in robot mode, axe weapon and evil bounty hunter type look. It really sucks that he is in the last wave (and to think it is only the third wave, this really shows how the popularity of the Movie lines have dropped) which means that potentially, the distribution will be spotty and Snarl may be hard to find. Despite this, he is still very worthwhile and highly recommended.
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