From Newsgroup: alt.toys.transformers

Dave's Transformers Collaborative Rant: Monster Jam X Transformers

Grim (Grave Digger monster truck)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Collab/Grim

Grave Digger is one of the old guard of monster trucks, hitting it big alongside Bigfoot in the 1980s. The current Grave Digger is (checks
Wikipedia) the 45th of the name, as life is exciting and short for monster trucks. The Monster Jam itself is a monster truck event that's been running since the early 90s, but more recently it has become one of the "always has shelf space" toy lines licensed through Mattel (so technically, this is sort
of a Hot Wheels Collab as well, I guess). Grim is the name of the grim
reaper character painted on various versions of the truck, and there's an official action figure of him in addition to this toy. Looks like there's no Bigfoot toys, according to Wikipedia the Bigfoot team withdrew from Monster
Jam in 1998 over licensing disputes.
Note, there's a less expensive and very much cheaper level of Monster
Jam Transformers, but they remind me of the worst of the Titan Heroes hollow bricks, and I will not be getting them.


CAPSULE

$57.99 at Hasbro Pulse.

Grim: It's better than I expected it would be. Is it good enough to justify the sixty bucks being asked? Eh, not unless you have some strong
Grave Digger nostalgia. But on the scale of Collaborative toys that have to hew closely to the altmode details, it does pretty well. Recommended without considering price, mildly recommended otherwise.


RANT

Packaging: A big blister card, I suppose in keeping with how the regular Monster Jam toys are packaged, if scaled up a bit. (Hot Wheels Collaborative do this too.) Packaged in vehicle mode, with a lot of plastic wrapped around the truck in addition to the plastic ties and the blister shell, which
suggests that without all those measures it might not hold together in the package...a bit of an ill omen, that.
The cardback is folded over corrugated cardboard, but they didn't stick the instructions between those sheets like Cyberworld does. The card does
wrap around the bottom to provide structure and a place to put logos and
stuff rather than putting an insert between the blister layers. The blister
is a rounded rectangular solid with molded tire tracks on the sides and top. The card is just under 10" (25cm) tall and 8" (20cm) wide. The bottom 2.25" (6cm) has cardboard wrapping around, and that bit is 4.5" (11.5cm) deep. The blister is slightly less deep than that, and about 6" (15.5cm) tall. Grim is packaged in vehicle mode and fully visible in the blister, the hidden lower part has the instructions and a bag with the flame effect pieces (the instructions are between the outer blister and the cardboard, the accessories are in a bag taped between inner and outer blisters). The scythe shaft
pieces are attached to the sides of the vehicle rather than bagged
separately.
The front of the card has painted-style art of Grim in robot mode,
pretty faithful to the toy molding aside from extra articulation (mainly in
the fingers) and making the flames look more realistic. The art is on the right side, with the Monster Jam logo taking up the upper left corner, and
the rest of the background being a mix of blacktop color and, I dunno, denim? They're separated by an arc of tire tracks. The bottom border piece has the Monster Jam logo on the left side, the Transformers logo dominating the front with the nameplate below it (Grave Digger's logo on the left, "GRIM" on the right, and a Decepticon symbol between them. The left side has a cropped version of the character art focusing on the head and upper body, plus the Transformers logo again. The back uses the same blue and black backdrop,
with renders of both modes (robot mode gets the Grim nameplate, vehicle mode gets the Grave Digger logo), and the upper right has the Collaborative logo with the Monster Jam half of the X filled with the green (with yellow and red borders) flames from Grave Digger's paint job.
The renders disagree with the final toy, mostly by having more bright green plastic than the toy (the shoulder roots and the strut behind the head
in robot mode are light gray on the toy but bright green on the render). The colors on the render are generally lighter as well, but that sort of overall tweaking isn't unusual.


DECEPTICON: GRIM
Crossover: Monster Jam
Altmode: Grave Digger (monster truck)
Transformation Difficulty: 24 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: None

Packaging: Inside the inner blister, Grave Digger is secured by three plastic ties (one is just around the Decepticon flag in back, easy to miss), with the ties being placed over plastic sheeting wraps. Upon cutting the wraps, I think they were more to protect the extensive printing from wear
than to keep the vehicle mode together...the tampos feel slightly sticky and more textured than usual for Transformers.
The accessories bag is split up like a gachapon kit bag, with separate compartments for the scythe blade and its flames, two other flames (each in
its own), and the Monster Jam chest symbol.

Grave Digger Mode: Oh no, tiny grave markers with all sorts of names on them, gonna be magnifying glass time like Alternators Smokescreen. Well,
more on that later. This is a monster truck with a shell based on an old
panel truck, although thematically it's meant to feel like a giant hearse. While there have been many iterations of Grave Digger, this is the current
look and it's similar to the original, although the original didn't have the Monster Jam logo molded into the wheel hubs like this one does. It also has big tires with the shell jacked way up on a superstructure so that the
fenders don't need to come near the tires. There's flame-belching pipes on either side, and a black flag hanging off the back that sports a modified
skull and crossbones with a Decepticon symbol replacing the skull on one side (the other has a skull). Note, while some versions of the real truck are
more sedate, the neon green underbody is typical for the current version, the only serious change they made for the sake of the toy was the wheel hubs
(which are uncapped on the real truck, rather than capped with neon green Monster Jam logos). The tires have BKT logos molded onto the sides, checking online reveals that BKT is Balkrishna Industries Limited, a company in India that specializes in big off-road tires and is the official supplier for
Monster Jam.
The truck shell is 4.75" (12cm) long, with the entire truck being 5.25" (13.5cm) long since the rear wheels stick out the back. Different editions
of the truck have been different lengths, making this toy somewhere between 1:44 and 1:48 scale. The rear tires are 2" (5cm) in diameter and the front tires are 1.75" (4.5cm) diameter, they'd need to be a little bigger to be properly in scale with the body, but I guess that'd make the robot mode
suffer even more. Height is about 3.5" (9cm), which would agree with more of
a 1:40 scale. So, just saying, the proportions are a little skewed, but not
so badly that it looks *wrong* per se. The colors are mostly black and neon green, with some accents in white, red, light gray, and clear yellow. The tires, pirate flag, and most of the vehicle shell are black plastic, the underbody frame and wheel hubs are neon green plastic. The side pipes are light gray, the windshield is cloudy clear yellow, and the flame effects are slightly flexible clear yellow plastic. There's some Decepticon Purple
plastic visible under the shell, but it's mainly robot bits.
Okay, now all the printed decals. The left and right sides have
mirrored art but importantly not mirrored text. It's a graveyard at night in green, white, and black, with a grim spectre's giant head in white, black and purple forming out of the mist above it. Rearwards of the spectre is the
Grave Digger logo in white with red dripping blood outline. The frontwards side has a haunted house on a spur of rock in front of the full moon. Not
all of the text on the tombstones is readable even with a magnifying glass,
the printing resolution is so-so. From front to back: El Toro Loco (who has one of the crappy no-articulation Collabs I won't be getting), Max-D (with unreadable text under that, possibly Maximum Destruction based on the truck info), Zombie (truck), RIP Dennis Anderson (he used to drive Grave Digger before he retired) with some unreadable text and then Kill Devil Hills (where he's from), Dragon (maybe, very blurry, but there is a truck by that name), Monster Mutt (another truck), Pirate's Curse (a truck), Blue something (probably Thunder, as Blue Thunder is a Monster Jam truck), Adam Ryan Krysten Weston (these are all first names of various Grave Digger drivers, all
members of the Anderson family), Mohawk Warrior (possibly with "little" above it, this is another truck), Monster Mutt (but now with an unreadable word
below it, probably "Dalmatian" which is the successor of the original Monster Mutt), Alien Invasion (yes, another truck). Then over the rear wheel are graves on a hill in the foreground, which seem to be brands. The frontmost
is Hasbro with a Decepticon symbol over the logo, then the Monster Jam logo, MonsterJam.com, GraveDigger.com, a cursive logo that's too blurry to read,
and Hot Rod something on a red white and blue shield. Whew.
On the roof the printing is green flames with red and yellow borders,
the Grave Digger logo, the Grim skull and crossbones in purple and white with red eyes and green flames and "Bad to the Bone" in bone-font in white with
red outlines. The hood has a white spike-like shape with red outline and
three chevrons at the back, the green/yellow/red flames split by the spike,
and fake headlights that are big red circle with white and black borders then "eyelashes" of black flames with yellow borders. The flag has a white Decepticon symbol and crossbones printed on the left side and a traditional skull and crossbones (with an eyepatch on the right eye) on the right in
white. The only "paint" is a bit of black on the A-posts on the windshield piece. There's also a lot of silver on the back, but that's just the robot shins.
The wheels don't transform, because a key point in the license here is
to retain the Monster Jam play pattern of rolling around on big tires. Once everything is properly snapped together, it's pretty stable in that regard, although I wouldn't try testing that by dropping it on the ground. The
scythe shaft halves are snapped onto the sides in such a way that lets you rotate them so you can have the molded exhaust pipes point between straight
up and nearly horizontal. There's no other articulation, but that's to be expected for a monster truck (the doors often don't even open, the shell just lifts off entirely). There's a couple of 3mm pegs on the inner faces of the back ends of the shell, used for attaching the flag and the scythe blade.
The second of the four side pipes is longer than the others and 3mm in diameter, so it can hold one of the included flame pieces or any other Fire Blast with a 3mm socket. There's also 3mm studs on the undersides of the frame, which I think are intended for letting you put the flame effects directly on the forearms in robot mode. No other connectors, standard or otherwise.
The side flames are functionally identical pieces of slightly rubbery clear yellow plastic with a thin layer of clear orange paint to bring out the details. 31mm (about 1.25") long with flat bottoms and hollow inside, each
has a 3mm socket for attaching to the side pipes. The scythe blade attached
to the back has its own unique flame effect attached to it, I'll cover that
in robot mode. The last accessory visible in this mode is the pirate flag, which has a 3mm socket ring at one end. The flag part is molded to be
waving, and is about 2cm (less than an inch) long. There is an additional accessory piece stored on the underside, it becomes a cloak clasp in robot mode, but due to how the transformation works it cannot be left on the cloak
in vehicle mode.

Transformation: Yeah, the plastic wraps REALLY weren't to hold this together while shipping, it took a lot of force for me to get some of these parts separated the first time. Several T-shaped connectors that need to be slid sideways out rather than pulled straight apart, and I think a little
cold welding or something on some of the rotating panels (which were easy enough to move once I freed them up the first time). Before starting other steps, remove the exhaust pipes from their slots on the sides, and the flag
and scythe blade from their 3mm pegs on the back. The Monster Jam plate is wedged into slots on the forearms for vehicle mode storage, there's no other place for it in vehicle mode, sadly. When you're done or mostly done with robot mode, it goes into a slot on the rubbery cape collar, and it can be difficult to both get it in well enough it doesn't fall out, and to get it
out once you have it in well enough. There's no place it can just be left during transformation, it has to come off early in the process either direction. I suppose it's a nice touch that it literally pins the cloak into place in robot mode, though.
The fact that most monster trucks are taller than the chassis is wide
lets this get away with some stuff that wouldn't work in a more normally proportioned van, like having the knees bend only 90 degrees rather than
having to fold double or have the thighs collapse into the boots. The shins end up being the back panel of the truck. The shell is pretty much all
folded up on back in robot mode, but again that works with the source
material, as monster trucks like Grave Digger are really just practical latticework with a shell dropped over them for looks, literal shellmasters.
The arms are folded together on the underside of the vehicle mode, it's easy enough to get them pulled apart and to the sides for robot mode, if a little trickier to get everything into position when returning to vehicle mode.
Oh, and one big issue when going back to vehicle mode? You need to connect the boots via their T-tab before folding the toes around over the calves, you can't get the thing slid together afterwards.
You can assemble the scythe by just removing the three pieces (side
pipes with flames, blade with flames) and putting them together through one
of the hands, up to you which way the lower pipe section points. Officially the flag goes on the scythe, but I think it looks stupid there and put it elsewhere on the robot as the instructions show for its storage.

Robot Mode: A grim reaper bot with huge wheels on the shoulders and ankles, basically. The bulk of the "cloak" is just folded-up truck shell pieces. The strut inside it makes the truck hood look like it should be able to fold down more, but it does not, just forming a shell behind the head.
The head itself has a sort of "robot Skeletor" shape to it, with the hood having a Mirage-vent deal going on. The forehead has a crest that evokes a Decepticon symbol (or an Ascenticon one, pointed down) without actually being one. The cloak around the neck is rubbery plastic and is secured with the Monster Jam logo brooch, while the chest under it has a very mild skull motif (two red octagons as chest eyes, silver abdomen as teeth). The shins have criss-crossed bolted on metal plates that evoke shoelaces (well, boot laces), and the feet are shaped like skulls with teeth as toes. The fists are almost the size of the head, with piston details on the forearms that suggest a ram-powered punch. There's similar if narrower pistons on the thigh fronts
and running behind the shin plates, maybe he can superleap. There's a 5mm
peg on top of the kibble cape, which is where you're supposed to store the scythe blade and its flame when the weapon is stowed, giving him a sort of flaming mohawk.
Even without the flaming mohawk, the kibble rises well above the top of the head. The top of the head is about 5.75" (14.5cm) tall, while the toy overall is closer to 6.75" (17cm) tall without the mohawk, 7.25" (18.5cm)
tall with it. With the wheels sticking out to the sides of the shoulders,
the figure's width is about 6" (15cm). Mostly the same colors as vehicle
mode but with a lot of Decepticon Purple added to the mix. Decepticon Purple plastic is used for the heads, shoulderpads, forearm/fist pieces, torso,
tighs, and shins. Light gray plastic makes up the shoulder roots, hip
joints, shin "bones," feet, logo brooch, weapon pieces, and some internal struts. The collar and neck base are neon green plastic, also used on the upper arms, forearm armor plates, pelvis, outer boot struts, strut on top of the kibble cloak, and of course the wheel hubs. None of the actual-robot pieces are black, just the flag, tires and kibble cloak. The cloak collar is rubbery purple plastic, meant to match the other purple plastic but duller
and lighter. As before, all the fire effects are slightly rubbery clear
yellow plastic.
The main paint in this mode is silver, which is on most of the face, the pistons on the wrists and legs, the shin plates, kneecap details, pants
cuffs, and abdomen. The forehead crest, eyes, and chest octagons are a
darker red than the headlights. There is no paint on the Monster Jam logo brooch, although I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to add some yourself with
a steady hand. (The official logo is black, white, silver, and a bit of yellow, so not much color to add, just tone.)
The neck is a ball joint with the socket in the head, although all the stuff behind the head limits range of motion. The kibble cape is a little
bit in the way of the swivel waist, but it's easy enough to move it the millimeter or so needed to undo the blockage. The shoulders are hinge and swivel, but the hinge is well above the axis of the swivel, so lifting the
arm makes for a kibble clash. The shoulderpad with the wheel on it has its
own transformation swivel, so you can swing it back a bit if you want, but
that gets in the way more. Bicep swivels and hinge elbows, but no wrist joints. The hips are pinned hinge and swivel joints with a chunk of the
pelvis acting as part of the joint. Upper thigh swivels, hinge knees, instep hinges. The transformation joints for the toes aren't too useful for actual articulation.
The 3mm pegs from the back of the shell in vehicle mode end up at the
top of the kibble cape, so you can still store the flag and scythe blade
there. The slots for storing the side pipes are also still usable, as noted
in the instructions, although they don't note the use of the 3mm pegs now on the forearm armor to place the flame effects (which don't stay on very
well). The fists can hold 5mm pegs but the fingers aren't articulated, so
you have to push one section of scythe haft through and then connect the
other on the bottom. There is a 3mm socket on the back of the pelvis, but
it's blocked by the windshield part of the cloak kibble. No other connectors save for the ones on the scythe.
So, the scythe. Yes, the vehicle is called Grave Digger, but the *character* s Grim, as in Grim Reaper. So he gets a scythe made in part from exhaust pipes. The two pipe pieces are almost mirror images of each other, except where one has a 3mm stud at the non-flames end, the other has a 3mm socket, so they can connect into a single piece. Each has the uneven side pipes mentioned earlier so that the exhaust flame pieces can be attached, and
a 5mm peg at the other end so you can attach the blade to either end of the combined haft. There's also purely decorative holes on the sides level with the side pipes, they're a little more than 1/8" in diameter so you can't even plug Lego rods into them. The center hole on one side of each (the way in which they mirror) is a 3mm peg instead, meant for attaching the flag. The shorter one is 2.25" (5.5cm) long while the other is a few millimeters
longer, together they form a sort of staff 4.5" (11cm) long, and if you point the flames opposite directions you get a sort of twirling flaming baton
weapon. Just a single piece and its flame attachment makes a sort of flame kama, which I like better than the completed scythe.
The scythe blade is a separate piece with an oddly shaped blade edge and
a 5mm hexagonal hole through the place the handle goes, plus a 3mm hole
through the bit opposite the blade which is used for vehicle mode storage.
The piece is about 1.75" (4.5cm) on its own, a little longer with the flame piece attached. The flame piece has a 5mm peg at the back end that goes into the hexagonal socket on top, but does not have enough clearance to be put on almost any other 5mm socket. Total length with all the parts connected and
all the flames attached is 5" (12.5cm), and it looks kinda short for a scythe while also having those flames distracting from its appearance. The official arrangement has the exhaust pipe flame at the top pointed backwards and the bottom one pointed forwards, so it looks like a warped pickaxe or something. Maybe just put the flames on the forearm studs and simplify the scythe a
bit.

Overall: I admit to not expecting much from this, and almost not buying it, but it's not bad. I have a little bit of nostalgia here, I watched some
of the Bigfoot and Friends cartoon (or whatever it was called), and I'm
pretty sure Grave Digger was in that. It's a pity that molds made for Collaborative don't seem to ever get retooled except as other versions of the same thing, because this would make a great Cybertron Dirt Boss with a shell change and new head/weapon...it wouldn't even need to change most of the colors, just the shell's colors. Since that won't happen, though, if you
have nostalgia for Cybertron you can maybe pretend this is Dirt Boss going through a goth phase. (Someone will make a 3D printable Dirt Boss head for this, I expect.) As what amounts these days to a big Voyager or small Leader for almost a Leader price, it's not the best value for the money, but it's a decent enough figure otherwise.


Dave Van Domelen, hasn't seen any of these on the shelf, and he's been checking the Monster Jam section too.

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