Review – Transformers Rescue Bots, Heatwave the Rescue Dinobot

Heatwave the Rescue Dinobot* is a fantastic addition to the Transformers: Rescue Bots series. I’ve reviewed some of the toys in this line before, and as soon as I spotted Heatwave — and his companion, Blades the Rescue Dinobot* — the toy had to be mine. Small, quick to transform, and as adorable as every other release in the line, Heatwave was a great buy.

No Articulation

The very first thing I need to state is that Heatwave the Rescue Dinobot* has zero points of articulation: None. Zip. Nada. Now that doesn’t mean the toy doesn’t have any moving parts — it does — but those parts are not poseable or enable you to get the toy into any position other than what’s shown in these pics. I know that kills the toy for some, but as a design for little kids I think this works out quite well.

Dinosaur Mode

The pics above and below show Heatwave the Rescue Dinobot* in his dino mode. A brightly-colored robotic dinosaur, the head almost has a dog-like look to it that’s unexpected and not quite as cool as a more dino-like head would have been. But as a little dinosaur this works just fine.

Quick Transformation

Grasp the two sides of Heatwave the Rescue Dinobot’s* dino head and swing them out and away from the body. This forms the arms and automatically lowers the legs into position. All that’s left is to then swing the dino tail down and the robot’s ready to go. At 3-inches tall it’s a little bot, but the $4 I paid at Target felt quite alright for a toy of this size.

Changing back to dinosaur mode is as easy as swinging the arms back together to form the dino head (don’t forget to place the tail back into the proper position first), and overall this is one of the cleanest “auto-transform” designs I’ve seen. It’s certainly a much better and easier to use auto-transformation than the Flip and Change Grimlock* toy that I reviewed a couple of months ago (review here) and I suggest buying this for a kid long before you do that larger movie Grimlock toy.

Closing Thoughts

This tiny Heatwave the Rescue Dinobot* is a great toy for kids. Easy to transform, colorful, inexpensive, everything about the toy makes me wish that Hasbro would create some of the Generation One Mini-Cars using this type of auto-transformation design. Imagine a classic Bumblebee or Cosmos in this size and with an auto-transformation feature and yeah, that’s exactly what I’m wishing Hasbro would bring us.