Animated Snarl

Robot Mode: Snarl in robot mode is pretty much the image of a brutish, primitive barbarian. He is built very wide, has horns on his head, no neck to speak off, and on top of everything else he carries a big, fiery club. Which makes for an impressive visual representation of his motto "Snarl smash!". We get it, guys. He likes to smash stuff.

Snarl's posability is pretty good, limited only at the elbows. He can only bend them a little. Otherwise, though, he can bend as much as his build allows him to. No complaints. The detailing on his body is also very good and I especially like his face. Not sure why, but it looks pretty good to me. Another big plus: Snarl has individually sculpted fingers and an opposable thumb. Thumb and fingers can move independently of each other. No single finger movement, but damn fine for a Deluxe-class figure. I really love Animated's trend to not go with the standard fist-with-a-hole design for most figures.

What else can I say about Snarl? He's short for a Deluxe-class figure, mostly because a lot of his mass goes sideways. He fits together well with the other Dinobots, though, so no complaints on that front. All in all I'm very much satisfied with Animated's incarnations of the Dinobots and Snarl is not an exception there. A good-looking, well-made robot.

Alternate Mode: Snarl transforms into a robotic Triceratops and does a mighty fine job of it. The dinosaur is well-proportioned, quite posable, and just about the only bad thing I can say about him is that the top of Snarl's robot head is sticking out the back. You don't recognise it as a head, but still, a Triceratops does not, as far as we know, have a bump with horns on his back. Apart from that small thing, though, no complaints. The Triceratops looks good, fits in excellently with the other Dinobots, and I even like the colours. I'm just left wondering whether Triceratops' actually had noses this big...

Remarks: The biggest question regarding Snarl is, of course, why he's not called Slag. The Triceratops Dinobot has always been Slag, while Snarl was the Stegosaurus. But apparently the name Slag is not politically correct anymore. It has been used as an insult in many Transformers series, so Slag can no longer be called Slag. This development is even made fun of in the Animated episode "Human Error, Part 2", where Scrapper mentions that he originally wanted to call his Dinobot friend Slag, but he took it as an insult. Anyway, Slag is now Snarl. We'll just have to live with it.

Apart from the name thing, though, there is very little to complain about when it comes to Snarl. He has a good robot mode that personifies his motto and character to a T, he has an excellent beast mode, and for a cherry on top his transformation consists of more than simply going down on all fours. Very nicely done. Snarl doesn't need to take a back seat to any of his fellow Dinobots.

Rating: B+

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