Release Date: June 2023
RRP: $54.99/£55.99
Transformers: The Movie offered some of the greatest mysteries to the Transformers fandom. Which of the damaged Decepticons specifically turned into Scourge and Cyclonus? Whatever happened to Cyclonus' Armada? And perhaps the greatest of all - just where the hell was Snarl during the events of the film? Despite being seen alongside his fellow Dinobots for a handful of scenes, he's bizarrely absent for almost the entirety of the runtime despite the Dinobots being main characters in the story. While that mystery may never truly be solved, at the very least Hasbro haven't forgotten about him - with Studio Series 86 Dint Snarl being the next Leader Class release in the popular range of new toys based on the film.
"SNARL and the AUTOBOTS must find a way to destroy UNICRON before Cybertron is devoured."
The second of the Studio Series 86 Dinobots to come in windowless packaging, the front of Snarl's box is adorned with some fantastic new artwork of him taking part in the Battle for Autobot City from the opening of Transformers: The Movie. The new artwork that's been produced for these releases is nothing short of fantastic, with another shot of Snarl also featured on both sides of the box. The figure is the 19th release in the Studio Series 86 collection - a number which is adorned on the front and sides of the packaging. On the back you'll find images of the figure in both modes alongside both a transformation step count and short character bio, which naturally has to draw on all of the Dinobots' experience in the film because there's no standout Snarl moments. Inside the figure and accessories are tied down to a cardboard tray, alongside the transformation instructions.
It's taken them four whole releases to do it but finally we have a Dinobot that doesn't come with the Quintesson Pit of Judgement background! Instead Snarl comes with a leader class-sized version of the Battle for Autobot City background, which has been seen across a number of different releases at a number of different sizes. It makes sense since the Battle for Autobot City is one of the handful of scenes that we do actually see Snarl in, even if he's technically in a shuttle arriving on Earth with the other Dinobots. Though we've seen it before it's one of the better backgrounds of the bunch, and getting it at leader class scale definitely gives it much more viability for good diorama photos.
Even though by the time of Transformers: The Movie and later season three of the series the Dinobots were spending nearly all of their time in dinosaur mode, Hasbro really haven't wasted any effort of making the robot modes of these guys look as good as possible. As a leader class figure Snarl naturally has plenty to offer when it comes to size and weight, but the top-heavy nature of his design really sells the idea of a ferocious (if dim-witted) robot caveman. The colour placement of the design also works beautifully, with your eyes drawn to his vibrant red torso but the greys and blacks of the limbs keeping that Dinobot uniformity. The gold paint on the spines look fantastic too, with the two halves of the tail sitting just behind his head really completing the look. Capping it all off is that nice big head sculpt, capturing all that blocky G1 charm.
As with the other Studio Series 86 Dinobots Snarl's robot mode really impresses when it comes to articulation, offering so much poseability for a toy of this size and weight. Altogether he features;
- Ball jointed head
- Swivel hinge shoulders, elbows and hips
- Hinged upper arms, knees, ankles and feet
- Wrist and waist swivels
The arms are particularly interesting as while there isn't necessarily more going on there than there is in an average figure, the way it's put together puts the articulation in more places. Moving down from the swivel hinge shoulders (the circular part) you have a hinged upper arm/bicep section, which moves down into a swivel just above the hinged elbow and then the wrist swivel to cap it all off. The shoulders and knees are also ratchet joints, so that loud clicking sound you get from moving them makes posing the figure extra satisfying. Finally once again I have to commend the ankle tilts they've been giving to these releases, which combined with the size of the feet really makes action poses a dream. Snarl's aren't obvious straight away, but once you unclip the section from the legs they really help to make poses look ten times better.
Snarl's sole accessory is his "Energo-sword", making him the first Dinobot to include a melee weapon as opposed to a firearm. Even though they perhaps seen with guns a little more often on the cartoon, swords just suit bruisers like the Dinobots so much better. The sword is nicely moulded with its diamond, caveman-like shaping and has been painted a cartoon-accurate silver as opposed to the red blade of the original toy. The great articulation on the figure also means the figure has plenty to offer when it comes to action posing - again the sword just adds so much more personality to the figure than a gun ever could. When not in use, the sword can peg onto the back of Snarl in robot mode and his underside in dinosaur mode.
Snarl transforms following a 31-step process that is perhaps the most intricate of the Dinobots yet, but still not the point where it could be considered particularly complex or difficult. As with both Slag and Sludge it involves a lot of folding and tucking of parts to turn a fairly tall leader class-sized robot into a squat and chunky alt mode. Once you've gone through all the steps you'll find yourself with a robotic Stegosaurus that's a great likeness of Snarl as he appeared in the cartoon (albeit with a bit more moulded detailing), although you might notice some differences in paint apps to the other SS86 Dinobots. Since Snarl has a lot more gold on his design, Hasbro couldn't afford to paint all the parts gold the same way they had with the others. The result is some parts (notably the head and legs) moulded in gold plastic as opposed to painted, although on the finished product it does come across as a bit more yellow than gold. It gives Snarl a slightly different look to the other Dinobots, but works quite well because the yellow kind of matches the yellow that was used on his animation model. The head sculpt has that "simple but effective" cartoon feel, with the blue eyes really standing out nicely against the yellow and grey.
In dinosaur mode Snarl admittedly has a lot less to offer when it comes to poseability, but then that's true of all of the Dinobots. The dinosaur head jaw is hinged so can open and close, while all four legs can rotate a full 360 degrees. The front legs are attached via balljoints so can be positioned outwards a little, and the feet are hinged. Meanwhile the back legs are what were previously Snarl's arms so have that same ratchet movement where they attach, and then moveable feet on top of that. It isn't much, but as with the other Dinobots the sheer bulk of the figure certainly makes up for it. It would have been nice if the tail could move or rotate to at least tempt to mirror the art on the box, but it isn't a dealbreaker by any means. In terms of features Snarl lacks an effect part port in his mouth like the other Dinobots, but does have two compatible ports on his tail.
Studio Series 86 Dinobot Snarl proves that once again these leader class Dinobot figures have been one of the biggest highlights from the Studio Series 86 range. Though he may have been inexplicably absent for most of Transformers: The Movie Hasbro certainly haven't forgotten about him in the same way, with the figure sporting two excellent modes that really make the most of the leader class size/price point. The Stegosaurus also happens to be my favourite dinosaur, but that's besides the point. If you've loved all of the Dinobots so far you'll definitely love this too, and at this point I have no doubt that Swoop is going to be a winner as well.
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