Dinobots

The Dinobots are a fictional group of robot characters featured in the Transformers multimedia franchise. They have appeared in nearly every iteration of the series beginning with the original 1984-1987 animated program, The Transformers as well as later cartoon projects, comic book titles as well as the fourth installment of the live-action series, Transformers: Age of Extinction. The Dinobots first appeared in the seventh episode of season one of the original series entitled, "S.O.S. Dinbots".

Overview
The Dinobots are a group of Transformers who are a sub-group of the Autobots. They are bipedal quasi-sentient robots who transform into forms resembling prehistoric Earth dinosaurs. The Autobot inventor, Wheeljack, discovered some dinosaur fossils that they had discovered in a cave and pitched the idea of building robot dinosaurs to serve as front-line combatants in their ongoing war against the Decepticons. Optimus Prime approved of the idea and Wheeljack created the Dinobots, patterning them after animals of the era.

The original three Dinobots were Grimlock - the leader, who took on the form of a Tyrannosaur, Slag - who took on the form of a Triceratops, and Sludge - who assumed the form of a Brontosaurus. Their intellect and speech patterns were based on those of an animal and as such, they were predatory creatures with an instinctive primal need to fight. They were also not particularly bright.

From the moment they were first brought online, the Dinbots proved difficult to deal with. Slag was the first to rebel, turning his energy blasts against Ratchet and Prime. Grimlock used his energy weapon to destroy Teletran-1 in a fit of rage. After calming them down however, Prime realized that the Dinobots were a tremendous asset to them.

Pleased with their overall effectiveness, he commissioned the creation of two more Dinobots to join the group: Snarl - who was patterned after a Stegosaurus and Swoop - whose alt form was that of a Pteranodon.

Devil's Due
The Dinobots appeared with yet another origin in the second G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers series from Devil's Due Publishing. In 2004, the Dinobots were among the Autobots under the leadership of Optimus Prime, who attempted to take the planet Cybertron back from the Decepticon tyrant Shockwave. An accident sent the Dinobots back in time, and they landed on the planet Earth, where they were reformatted in the forms of Earth dinosaurs. A group of humans (which included Gung-Ho, Dusty and a Cobra Viper) brought the new Dinobots back to Cybertron, where they helped overcome Shockwave.

Grimlock had a prominent role in the third series as one of the Autobots who were sent to Earth to deactivate Cybertronian technology, and wound up battling the human-created cyborg Serpentor. Snarl appeared briefly as part of the combined Autobot/G.I. Joe force who attempted to rescue Optimus Prime.

IDW
The Dinobots made their first chronological IDW Publishing appearance in issue #3 of Transformers: Megatron Origin, where all five were part of Megatron's gathering of gladiators and insurgents that eventually became the Decepticons. They appeared on Shockwave in Transformers: Spotlight having, as in other continuities, defected to the Autobots. In this stand-alone tale, the Dinobots sought revenge on Shockwave for having nearly destroyed them. Denied a chance for revenge by Optimus Prime, the Dynobots went rogue and tracked Shockwave to prehistoric Earth, where he had seeded Energon. Unable to survive in the planet's Energon levels, they adopted techno-organic dinosaur modes and teleported to Earth to engage Shockwave. These techno-organic alternate modes, which have a sheath of synthetic flesh over robotic forms, are unique to their IDW appearances. Shockwave took advantage of their impulsive nature, shut down his higher logic functions, and destroyed the group before a volcano buried all combatants in lava.

In Transformers: Escalation, the bodies of the Dynobots and Shockwave were dug up by the mysterious defense organization called Skywatch. After the events of Transformers: Devastation, Skywatch dug up Grimlock as a defense measure, but his reawakening was sabotaged by the Machination. The other Dynobots were reactivated by Skywatch, though manipulated by the Machination, who wanted them to kill Grimlock.

Age of Extinction
A live-action version of the Dinobots appeared in the 2014 film Transformers: Age of Extinction. In the film, the Dinobots were presented as ancient knights whose bodies were composed of an alien element dubbed Transformium. They were created more than sixty-five million years ago when Cybertronian space ships first landed on Earth, depositing a seed that blanketed the Earth in the element, resulting in an extinction-level event on most of the planet's indiginous life forms. This group of savage predators consisted of Grimlock - the Tyrannosaur, Scorn - a Spinosaurus (called Spike in the movie), Slug - a Triceratops, Strafe - a dragon-like Pteranodon and Slug, who was the Triceratops equivalent to Slag.

The Decepticon bounty hunter, Lockdown, captured the Dinobots and kept them contained in stasis aboard his ship. Lockdown and his human allies in the U.S. government began targeting rogue Autobots all across the world. Their battle eventually brought them to Hong Kong where the Autobots were nearly defeated. Realizing they needed reinforcements, Optimus Prime went aboard Lockdown's ship and freed the Dinobots from stasis. At first they proved beastly and unruly, but Prime tamed their leader, Grimlock, offering him his freedom in exchange for help. The non-verbal Tyrannosaur sided with Prime and the other Dinobots fought against Lockdown and the human-created HSI Transformers in the streets of Hong Kong. The Dinobots devoured many of the replicating Transformers, ultimately securing a victory. After the battle was over, Prime kept his word and allowed the Dinobots to remain free.

Notes & Trivia

 * The original Generation 1 Transformers toy-line by Hasbro released action figures of all five original Dinobots between 1985-1986. They were boxed individually and featured a uniform color scheme of red for their die-cast metal parts, black plastic for legs and forearms, smoky translucent for remnant cockpits, and golden metalized plastic highlights depicting machine details.


 * The Dinobots made their comic book debut in Transformers #8, published by Marvel Comics in September, 1985 in a story called "Repeat Performance". Sludge, Grimlock and Slag were featured on the cover of that issue, which boasted the tagline, "And now... the Dinobots!"


 * There are three other Dinobots from the Transformers: Age of Extinction continuity that were not featured in the movie, but were generated as part of a toy-line. This includes Snarl - the Stegosaurus, Slog - an Apatosaurus and Slash - a Velociraptor.


 * In robot mode, Grimlock wears a red headpiece which is called the Dinobot Crown of Leadership. This is the Dinobot equivalent to the Autobot Matrix of Leadership.


 * Although all of the Dinobots possessed low intellect, Grimlock was actually the most intelligent among them.


 * The Dinobots make a brief appearance in the opening episodes of Transformers: Headmasters as part of the overall Autobot forces.