Preamble
I’m not a Legends scale collector, and truth be told I have no intentions of becoming one. But that said, there are always those few figures that come along which grab your attention and somehow end up on your shelf.
The above was pretty much how I started the review for H-44EX Ymir, Newage’s version of Grimlock. I stand by those words but have to admit that Newage are making it very hard to do so. I always intended to pick up the rest of the Dinobots… and so here we now are with H-56EX Rhedosaurus, their take on Sludge.
Box & Accessories
Rhedosaurus comes in a lovely looking box, very reminiscent of the 80’s G1 US/UK toy packaging and is housed internally in a two part clam. Accessories consist of two pairs of hands, a sword and gun. There is also the instruction sheet which folds out and is printed to just one side.
Dinosaur Mode
Out the box and Rhedosaurus is in his Dinosaur mode, resembling a Brontosaurus. The overall finish and tampos are of high quality, chromed parts and some paint application all come together to emulate its G1 toy predecessor. Articulation in this mode is fair, the neck, the tail and the legs, nothing amazing but a few descent poses can be achieved, he is a dinosaur after all.
Transformation is vaguely reminiscent of G1 Sludge but it is changed up a bit and done so really well. Not difficult but it's wise to bear in mind what twists and turns where and when. All joints and connections are sturdy, everything tabs in where it should and holds well.
Robot mode is where it all happens, the figure comes to life in a spectacular way. Articulation is spot on, allowing some dynamic poses. The figure is well balanced with some die-cast content too. Scale wise, he clocks in at just a tad bigger that Ymir, which is about right. Weapons are held well and the swap out hands are exchanged easily. Also of note is how there is no unsightly kibble on view, Newage have done a bang on job of making these Dinobots really tidy visually.
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This is another solid release from New Age, an awesome version of Sludge in the smaller scale. I do have one issue however, and this carries over really from my thoughts on Ymir. The paint application is great but it’s a little disappointing that the silver parts are not chromed like the gold parts are. I believe that this would have been the icing on the cake with regards that G1 toy emulation. But I stress, it’s a very minor issue. I also like how they have adopted the name (Rhedosaurus) from the monster that features in the 1953 film ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. A classic black & white monster film, which if you’ve not seen it then it’s one I recommend.
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Right, I’m out of here. I’ve been Edd, he's been a rather pleasant Brontosaurus and you’ve been awesome for spending a little time reading my ramblings.
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