Dinobot

A member of a (non-combining) Autobot team consisting of Grimlock, Sludge, Slag, Snarl and Swoop. These robots transformed respectively into a T-Rex, a brontosaurus/apatosaurus, a triceratops, a stegosaurus and a pterodactyl/pteranodon. They were adapted as toys from the Diaclone range, and had the cockpits to show it. All five were released in the US and Japan, but Swoop was not available in the UK. In the TV series, the Dinobots were portrayed as stupid, speaking in a dumbed-down dialect ("Me Grimlock, not like you"; "Me Slag want to hear story"; "Me Sludge not do what you say"). The story was that they were created on earth by Wheeljack, and were switched off after going berserk. They are exceptionally strong in the cartoon, able to easily dispose of regular Decepticons. They were regular features of stories such as "Desertion of the Dinobots", "Dinobot Island" and "Grimlock's New Brain". In the comic, they were activated early, hence their being modelled on dinosaurs. Again, they appeared regularly, with one storyline devoted to an attempt to round up the Dinobots after they went berserk.