Dino Brachio

Back in 1999 Bandai decided to try their hand with another transforming toy line to compete directly with Takara’s transformers. Seeing how Beast Wars was a huge success, they thought they would try a similar approach, and the result was DinoZone (ダイノゾーン) .

However this approach was going to be different for Bandai. In the past, Bandai Japan rolled out the product first, and then it followed in America. This time, not only was the product coming out in America first, but the toys were going to come out before the TV show.

The domestic toy line was DinoZaurs. They were transforming dinosaur fossils, marked with chrome details and translucent plastic. They were certainly interesting, but without a cartoon show, the public didn’t catch on. Eventually, the cartoon debuted, and it was a nightmare. The show was a mix of traditional and CGI animation – and neither one had much money put into it. The show was just silly, and looked awful.

The toys themselves were not that bad – they were solidly built and had very nice designs. Unfortunately, I think the market just wasn’t right for them at the time, and within 2 seasons, they faded from shelves. The last remnants showed up at discount toy stores like KayBee, for a fraction of the original cost. These toys appear to be identical to their Japanese counterparts.

This toy, the Dino Brachio, was one of the larger figures released in the line. He, of course, transforms from Brachiosaur to robot. He has a really nice look, with shiny gold and translucent blue materials. Transformation is easy, but the parts fit in Dinosaur mode is not great, with some gaps where the neck and tail meet the body.

Dino Brachio comes with a small ax and even has an action feature. In Dino mode, moving the switch on the neck causes the head to rotate.

This figures major flaw is its inability to stand up on its own. If you put the dino head down on the ground it can act as a sort of tripod, but it doesn’t look that great.

Otherwise, not a bad toy for the $9.99 on clearance.