Well, good hell, kids, this is the most fun I’ve had collecting Transformers since Reagan was tearing down walls and whatnot.
In an ever-losing battle to beat Canonball to the punch, I secured for review Toy World’s new take on the the Throttlebot Rollbar — TWT-01 Grind Rod. He arrived here from CapturedPrey.com yesterday, so I put my shoulders to it and cranked out a quick look:
Now, the packaging on mine took a beating, but I’m thinking this can be attributed to the postal service chucking it out of the back of a moving truck, judging from the box condition. Grind Rod was just fine, though.
He has what I can only understate as a very satisfying Jeep mode. His coloring, while it has a few swirls here and there, is kinda striking in person. It’s almost a candy apple/olive with some nice metallic effects thrown in. G1 Rollbar was more of a brownish olive drab, but in keeping with a more modern looking Jeep, the colors look excellent.
Grind Rod scales surprisingly well with most Transformers stuff. Compared to Dr. Wu’s Spike here, he might be more CJ sized than a modern Jeep Wrangler, but it still looks believable.
He’s got a decent profile, sitting higher than the sports cars, and even makes a passable fit with MP Lambor — lest we forget, the Countach is a big damn car.
As good as his vehicle mode is, holy crap what a bot mode. Fantastic articulation, great quality, and even a few leagues ahead of other good third party figures. I love Hench, but there’s no denying it, Grind Rod just makes him feel… cheap… in comparison. And the height pretty much seals it. I’m content in the notion that Grind Rod is basically Masterpiece Rollbar. I didn’t even know I was in the market for such a thing, but here we are. Prime was off busting Deceptichops, so he was unavailable for pics, but Grind Rod scales in respectable mini-robot fashion with his leader, coming up to his thighs. And, yes, his vehicle mode easily fits in the trailer.
Very, very satisfied with this one. Toy World has delivered one of the highest quality 3rd party figures to date, and has taken me from not being able to name more than one Throttlebot to anxiously awaiting all six… not to mention their super secret combiner mode? We’ll see. Buy this damn toy.
