Bot a Day: Daily Drawings

Swoop and Grimlock combine to form this multi-limbed monstrosity: Mega-Dinobot. That combination feature is really the only reflection that these two Dinobots are part of the Energon line.  

Joining yesterday's Grimlock as the sole Dinobot representatives in Energon is trusty Swoop, the classic pterosaur design upgraded for the 21st century with large booster rockets on his back. He can combine with Grimlock to form Mega-Dinobot.

 Another classic G1 character given new life in Energon is Grimlock , leader of the Dinobots. In the case of the Energon series, there really wasn't much of a Dinobot team to lead -- a scant two Dinobots could be counted in the Autobot ranks. Part of this is because these two Dinobots were not intended to be part of the Energon line, but rather releases in the concurrent Universe line. They became late additions to Energon despite not having many of the play features present in the line. They did, though, have the ability to combine which we'll get into over the coming days.

Another cl assic name reassigned to a new Energon character, Beachcomber is a redeco of yesterday's Cliffjumper , complete with electronic sounds and spring-loaded launchers. He has a blue, white and yellow finish. In some stories, he's an energized, upgraded version of Cliffjumper, and elsewhere, he's his own separate character. Thus, he warrants his own drawing whereas I'm skipping straight-up redecos of the same character for now. Beachcomber came out in 2004.

A name that dates back to the original launch of the Transformers, this incarnation of Cliffjumper is much larger than his mini-car original from 1984 or the Mini-Con version from 2003 . He turns into a baja buggy type vehicle of futuristic design, and features electronic sound and spring-loaded missiles. Cliffjumper can Powerlinx-combine with other figures of similar scale to make a two-bot combiner. He was available in 2004. 

Jetfire's Energon incarnation is smaller than in Armada edition, but this all-new design is still pretty hefty, and works best interacting and combining with similarly-scaled "Mega"-class bots. Jetfire turns into a spaceworthy aircraft, a shuttle equipped with permanent boosters to lift him free of gravity. His US edition packs electronic sounds to accompany his transformation. He was available in 2004.

A bit of a throwback to the Armada line due to being a straight-up redeco of Scavenger , Treadbolt is a large motorized bulldozer toy packed with a Mini-con jeep, Hound. Treadbolt was a late addition to bulk out the Energon line, and thus appeared in no fiction (no comics or animated appearances). It was only later lore that established that she was a female Autobot.