Dinobot

This article is about the Beast Wars character. For the Autobot team, see Dinobots.

Dinobot is a fictional character from the Beast Wars Transformers universe.

Beast Wars

Dinobot in Robot Mode

He originally debuts in the series' premiere as a subordinate of Megatron, leader of the villainous Predacons. However, Dinobot challenges Megatron's leadership, and is shortly expelled from his crew. He eventually joins the ranks of Optimus Primal and the Maximals. Although he greatly enjoyed combat, he was driven by his code of honor, inspired by the samurai bushido code, and would sometimes give speeches inspired by William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. He fights alongside with the Maximals before ultimately sacrificing himself to save a group of primates from a Predacon onslaught. In the following season, Megatron reanimates Dinobot with transmetal technology, and recruits him to rejoin the Predacons. Outside of the television series, Dinobot's likeness was used to create several toys.

Animated series

Season one

In season one, Dinobot originally arrives on prehistoric Earth with Megatron and the rest of the Predacons aboard the Darksyde. When the Predacons scan the planet for local beings, in order to create beast modes for themselves, Dinobot receives the form of a velociraptor. After their arrival, Dinobot believes that Megatron has led the Predacons to the wrong planet and attempts to usurp him in a duel. However, Scorponok, one of Megatron’s loyal crew members, blasts Dinobot away. Determined to find the abundant amounts of energon, he confronts the Maximals outside their base, and challenges Optimus Primal’s leadership in a duel. The engagement is interrupted by a surprise attack from the Predacons. Optimus saves Dinbot's life during the attack, prompting the two to come to terms. From then on, Dinobot serves alongside the Maximals during the Beast Wars, and proves to be a valuable ally in both strength and cunning, as well as in his knowledge of his former Predacon comrades, which helps him anticipate what each one of them would do. However, Dinobot frequently clashes with Optimus over the Maximals' morals, and has a rocky relationship with Rattrap, who normally refers to him as "Chopperface," to which Dinobot replies by calling him "Vermin."

Season two

Dinobot (center) and the Maximals prepare to engage the Predacons.

In season two, Dinobot is one of the few Transformers who does not become a Transmetal, but he still remains a strong asset to the Maximals. Following the destruction of an artificial moon that hovered around Earth, Dinobot begins to realize that Megatron had in fact landed on the correct planet. He infiltrates the Predacon base, and steals two golden discs which contain information pertaining to the planet’s vast supply of Energon, as well as the location of The Ark. The disks also trouble Dinobot, as he believes they can predict the future. Dinobot eventually contemplates rejoining the Predacons after realizing that Megatron was going to triumph over the Maximals. He returns one of the disks to his Megatron, but defies an order to destroy Rattrap.

Consumed with guilt, Dinobot returns to the Maximals. He eventually discovers that the future written on the discs can be altered after witnessing Megatron destroy a mountain, and watching the writings on the disc change. After Megatron also realizes this, he orders the Predacons to eradicate all the primitive ancestors of humankind, on the planet, believing the attack would deny the Autobots an important ally in their future battle against the Decepticons. Alarmed by this, Dinobot single-handedly defeats all of the Predacons. He then proceeds to subdue Megatron himself with a make-shift club and retrieves the golden disc that he had previously given back. However, Dinobot sustains mortal wounds during the conflict, and utilizes the last of his energy to destroy the disc. His fellow Maximals arrive shortly after and stand by his side as he passes away. Out of respect for their fallen comrade, the Maximals give Dinobot a proper funeral, in which his body is placed in a suspended animation pyre that disintegrates him. The primates that Dinobot saved eventually manage to replicate the make-shift weaponry he brandished to make his last stand, and use it to defend themselves against predatory snakes in their environment.

Season three

Transmetal II Dinobot.

In season three, Megatron manages to clone Dinobot using the Transmetal Driver and half of Rampage’s spark. In his new form, Dinobot is portrayed as Megatron’s mindless servant, albeit for a few instances where he shows traits of his former self. During Megatron's mission to revive the Decepticons' legendary battleship, the Nemesis, Rampage is destroyed in battle against Depth Charge, and his death seemingly causes Dinobot's former personality to return to him. At first he is confused as to who he is, but he slowly regains his memories. As Megatron attempts to destroy the Maximals with the Nemesis, Dinobot assists his former comrades by revealing the location of a shuttle within The Ark. Later, when Megatron orders Dinobot to fire on The Ark, Dinobot refuses and instead attacks Megatron. The Maximals use the shuttle to breach the Nemesis’ cockpit, capturing Megatron in the process. Optimus pleads Dinobot to escape with them, but he refuses. Dinobot then bids farewell to Optimus, and is shortly engulfed in an explosion as the Nemesis eventually crashing (unseen) several thousand miles away.

Dreamwave Productions

Dinobot's earliest fictional depiction in comics was in a two part short story told in Dreamwave's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye series. In this tale Dinobot and his leader enter an ancient Autobot library housing a node of the super computer Vector Sigma where they view the datatracks concerning the Autobots and Decepticons of The Great War. As Dinobot dispatches a Maximal security agent his leader obtains the Golden Disk artifact and announces he wishes to be addressed as Megatron from now on.

Fun Publications

Dinobot's early story would continue in the Timelines tale Dawn of Futures Past, where he was seen escaping with the disc alongside Megatron and Scorponok, outraged because he was not able to battle the Maximals honorably, having to be cowed into fleeing by Megatron. Dinobot was further outraged when Megatron planned to flee into Transwarp, but was delighted when Megatron opened fire on the Axalon while doing so. In this story, Dinobot was never named.

IDW Publishing

Dinobot appears along the rest of the Maximals in the series Beast Wars: The Gathering, which takes place during season 3 of the animated Beast Wars series.

Dinobot had a biography printed in the Beast Wars Sourcebook by IDW Publishing.

Toys

• Beast Wars Dinobot (1996)

The Dinobot toy came with a mutant mask that was not utilized in the animated series, although it was seen on early prototypes of the animation. Because the toy was made before the show, it was not an exact match for the colors.

This toy was later recolored as Beast Wars Grimlock and as Dinobots Grimlock.

Dinotron was a remold of the original Dinobot.

• Beast Wars Takara Dinobot (1997)

When the toy was sold in Japan it was repainted with lighter stripes and a gold head to match the television model. In Japan Dinobot was sold alone and packaged with Tarantulas. The Japanese version of this toy had the head painted with metallic colors to more closely match the animated appearance of Dinobot.

McDonalds Dinobot toy.

• Beast Wars McDonalds Dinobot (1998)

A premium toy included with Happy Meals, this Dinobot is a transmetal, although he didn't become a transmetal in the animated series.

• Beast Wars Transmetal Dinobot (Unreleased)

During the original Transmetal Line, A Transmetal version of Dinobot was made and made it to the prototype stage before being scraped and replaced with a Transmetal Terrorsaur

• Beast Wars Fox Kids Dinobot (1999)

A redeco of Dinobot done in browns with red stripes across the back.

• Beast Wars Transmetal II Dinobot (1999)

The Transmetal II toy of Dinobot came in three variants. The first was released as a post-Christmas edition in late 1998 (for the 1999 release year) in show-accurate colors (this version being the model for the series), identifiable due to all pre-1999 Transmetal 2s having a "Transmetal II" logo. The second version makes use of navy blue and metallic maroon detailing on an ivory-colored body, as opposed to brown and maroon. The "II" logos are replaced with a "Transmetal 2" logo. The third and final Transmetal II Dinobot was nearly as commonplace as the second, with the ivory tooling replace with a whiter colored plastic. The remaining parts were decorated in a brighter blue and vacuum-metallized red. (The white, red and blue Dinobot is said to have been exclusive to Wal-Mart, but K-Mart stores in 2002 were shown to also have them in stock.)

The transmetal II Dinobot was repainted into the Dinobot Rapticon.

• Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Dinobot (2006)

In 2006 the original Dinobot toy was one of the toys selected for the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary toyline. He was repainted in more show-accurate coloring. He came packaged with one of the six pieces used to make the Transmutate toy plus a DVD of his most famous episode "Code of Hero".

• Timelines Darksyde Dinobot (2006)

One of the BotCon 2006 exclusive figure is a remold of Armada Hoist which is a homage to Beast Wars Dinobot. This figure is supposed to represent Dinobot before he was reformatted into an animal form. He turns into a backhoe. In an earlier Botcon music video (done to the song Du Hast by Rammstein), it's revealed that Dinobot's pre-Beast Wars name was Dynamo, although his pre-Beast Wars rendering in the video did not look like the Botcon 2006 figure. This is a contradiction to the Dreamwave comics story where he was called while on Cybertron.

This toy was featured on page 19 of the book Transformers: The Fantasy, The Fun, The Future by Erin Brereton published by Triumph Books.

• Beast Wars Takara 10th Anniversary Dinobot (2007)

In 2007, Takara Tomy is releasing their version of the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars toys. Selected molds have included Dinobot who will be painted show accurate along with something Hasbro's version didn't have: teeth are painted to give him more of a look like the show. According to the DVD enclosed with the toy, he may be sold with Blackarachnia at a sale price. (Like how Optimus Primal is sold with Megatron as a special offer.)

• Universe Dinobot (2009)

As part of the 25th Anniversary commemoration, the Transformers Universe series released a new mold of Dinobot. Like the Beast Wars figure, the Universe figure features incorrect coloration. The transformation is also slightly different, with the arms tucking into the chest rather than the legs. Dinobot is currently being packaged with Smokescreen in shipments to retail outlets.

References

• Beast Wars Official Australian Website