 Grimlock (Toy Colors)
Now With Added Joints
Transformers Missing Link C-12
Item No.: No. G5243
Manufacturer: Takara-Tomy
Includes: Blaster, 3 rockets, non-firing rocket launcher, sword, Carly Diaclone-style pilot figure, stickers, card
Action Feature: Transforms from robot to robotic tyrannosaurus rex
Retail: $119.99
Availability: July 2026
Other: Also available in cartoonier colors
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Takara-Tomy's Missing Link line of Transformers are a very slow burn. They know they have something special, and it's expensive, and they don't want to burn people out. Toys like Grimlock (Toy Colors) are incredible reworkings of 1980s toys, and a great way to bring an old, rare toy back to market while correcting some old flaws. Foil stickers are included, but that deco is molded and painted directly on the toy now. The chrome is all clean and new. Extra joints are added. Oh, and the supposedly lost and/or damaged G1 mold no longer existing is mooted. For whatever reason, Takara never reissued the Dinobots since the Generation 2 versions in the 1990s.
There are some tradeoffs. This guy doesn't have a working spring mechanism to fire his rockets, and it's expensive. This guy was $119.99 when the pre-order went up. The original toy, in the 1985 Sears catalog, sold for $12.99. In 2026 dollars, that's $40.31. It's still quite expensive, and you're getting markups upon markups thanks to these items being made for the Japanese market during an economically interesting time with oil prices that are incredibly expensive. Is it three times as good as the original? Probably. But it's also not the American one - so you'll notice changes like a chrome silver (rather than red) sword on this release.
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Like the other toys, this comes in a G1-style box with a black sleeve for the US market. There's a block of styrofoam inside, which you can hand-wave as being environmentally friendly in that you can pretend it won't go into the garbage during your or maybe your grandkids' lifetimes. It's easy to slide the toy out, and there are a lot of wrappings before getting him out and enjoying a T-Rex mode that is very similar to the original Dinobot. The neck has extra swivels, the jaw still opens, and the little hands have more joints. The original legs had perfectly good movement, but this toy adds a bit more to it because Takara-Tomy wanted lateral movement on the robot arms too. I don't think I could ask for more and have them keep that old-school look.
The sculpting feels almost the same as the original, with added sticker detail. What you see in these pictures is the unstickered toy - my stickers stayed on the sheet. Takara-Tomy put in intricate paint applications so that the dinosaur chest may have more labor involved in getting it painted than the entire original toy. Little vents, cables, and greeblies have a marvelous metallic shine to them. They're not quite like the foil sticker shine, but it's very close and best of all? You don't have to put stickers on it. Every bit looks true to an old toy, even the chrome on the arms and tail. Also, it shows fingerprints like nobody's business. It's kind of infuriating, but it feels true to the old toy.
Transforming the toy is a breeze, especially if you handled the original as a child. There are a few extra bits, like an option to push Grimlock's robot head forward. The original was seated quite far back, so this is a nice option and a significant improvement. I don't mind this sort of change, mostly because anything they can fix that bugged me about the original is welcome. His dinosaur chest still becomes wings, the tail still splits and hangs off the robot legs, and the claws still guard the wrists.
There are far more changes to the robot mode. Not only does he have swivel wrists, he has opening fingers. You can get poses from the old brick toy, but you can also find a range of movement that's nearly as good or better than Studio Series 86. It's an incredible bit of engineering, and you'll see the deco decisions carry over here. Hasbro added rocker ankles, but some of the articulation like the hips is pretty much as it was in the old days. The metal red crotch still has some heft to it, and the toy has really decent weight. I love how the elbows bend, and the painted faux sticker detail doesn't seem to scrape when you move it. Everything about how this toy was made might be called a labor of love, but really, it's a labor of $120. As I find the Masterpiece Edition toys generally frustrating, these seem like a far better use of my collector money.
The accessories are quite nice, with the Carly Dianaut being the big draw for exciting newness. She will go great with your Spike. There's a little flip-open rumble seat on Grimlock for her which, as a kid, served no known purpose. Grimlock also adds a black double-barrel laser blaster, a rocket launcher with three non-firing chrome rockets, and a chrome silver sword. I would have preferred red, but that's packed in the "anime" version. That's how they get you. It's a pretty good complete package, replicating the original toy's offering with a bonus mini figure.
Good or bad, Missing Link provides a toy that looks just like the original at a price that feels close to what you'd expect to pay for an original, were the market not currently matured beyond avarice. Even packaged G2 Grimlock toys are hundreds of dollars... and since this guy sold out so fast, he, too, is already $200 and I just got my pre-order filled a month and change ago. It's crazy, but demand is high. If you see one for around $120, it's probably as cheap as it will ever get. It's a really impressive piece, but if you have other Grimlocks, and you're happy with those Grimlocks, you may not feel a sense of creeping shame that you spent $120 on a 5 1/2-inch tall robot toy.
I really like this figure. He's way better than the other Missing Link toys that I've handled, but I am not the kind of collector who only buys a few expensive toys per year. Maybe I should be - I could write less, and that would be a real time-saver. I don't expect I will be writing up too many other new toys from this line, but I do need to open my Ultra Magnus still and then I'll probably call it a line. The quality is unmatched, everything feels perfect, and I genuinely like what I'm getting. It's just when you look at a shelf of these things, it's gorgeous, but it's also a couple of car payments. If I re-entered collecting with Missing Link, I'd stick with this line and ignore everything else. Sadly I have a few hundred other robots in disguise and a lot of baggage, so I guess do as I say and not as I did. If you want to collect this line, collect only this line.
--Adam Pawlus
Additional Images
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