Dinobot

Dinobot is a fictional character from the Beast Wars Transformers universe.

Beast Wars
Dinobot originally debuts in the series' premiere as a subordinate of Megatron, leader of the villainous Predacons. However, Dinobot challenges Megatron's leadership, and is shortly expelled from his crew. He eventually joins the ranks of Optimus Primal and the Maximals. He fights alongside with the Maximals before ultimately sacrificing himself to save a group of primates from a Predacon onslaught. In the following season, Megatron creates a new Dinobot with transmetal technology, who is completely loyal to Megatron. Outside of the television series, Dinobot's likeness was used to create several toys.

Reception
Dinobot was named the 3rd best upgrade in Beast Wars history Topless Robot.

Season one
In season one, Dinobot originally arrives on prehistoric Earth with Megatron and the rest of the Predacons aboard the Darksyde. When the Predacons scan the planet for local beings, in order to create beast modes for themselves, Dinobot receives the form of a velociraptor. After their arrival, Dinobot believes that Megatron has led the Predacons to the wrong planet and attempts to usurp him in a duel. However, Scorponok, one of Megatron’s loyal crew members, blasts Dinobot away. Determined to find the abundant amounts of energon, he confronts the Maximals outside their base, and challenges Optimus Primal’s leadership in a duel. When Optimus loses his footing, Dinobot has the opportunity to defeat him, but choses not to saying that a victory like that would lack honor. The engagement is interrupted by a surprise attack from the Predacons. Optimus saves Dinobot's life during the attack, prompting the two to come to terms. From then on, Dinobot serves alongside the Maximals during the Beast Wars, and proves to be a valuable ally in both strength and cunning, as well as in his knowledge of his former Predacon comrades, which helps him anticipate what each one of them would do. However, Dinobot frequently clashes with Optimus over the Maximals' morals, and has a rocky relationship with Rattrap, who normally refers to him as "Chopperface," to which Dinobot replies by calling him "Vermin." Dinobot is driven by his own code of honor

Season two
In season two, Dinobot is one of the few Transformers who does not become a Transmetal, but he still remains a strong asset to the Maximals. Following the destruction of an artificial moon that hovered around Earth, Dinobot begins to realize that Megatron had in fact landed on the correct planet. He infiltrates the Predacon base, and steals two golden discs which contain information pertaining to the planet’s vast supply of Energon, as well as the location of The Ark. The disks also trouble Dinobot, as he believes they can predict the future. Dinobot eventually contemplates rejoining the Predacons after realizing that Megatron was going to triumph over the Maximals. He returns one of the disks to Megatron, but defies an order to destroy Rattrap.

Consumed with guilt, Dinobot returns to the Maximals. He eventually discovers that the future written on the discs can be altered after witnessing Megatron destroy a mountain, and watching the writings on the disc change. After Megatron also realizes this, he orders the Predacons to eradicate all the primitive ancestors of humankind, on the planet, believing the attack would deny the Autobots an important ally in their future battle against the Decepticons. Alarmed by this, Dinobot single-handedly defeats all of the Predacons. He then proceeds to subdue Megatron himself with a makeshift club and retrieves the golden disc that he had previously given back. However, Dinobot sustains mortal wounds during the conflict, and destroys the disc with the last of his energy. His fellow Maximals arrive shortly after and stand by his side as he passes away. His final words are, "Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the ill deeds along with the good and let me be judged accordingly. The rest is silence." As his Spark leaves his body, Optimus gives a proper eulogy; "He lived a warrior and died a hero. Let his Spark join the Matrix with the greatest of Cybertron." Out of respect for their fallen comrade, the Maximals give Dinobot a proper funeral, performing the missing man flyover, in which his body is placed in a suspended animation pyre that disintegrates him. The primates that Dinobot saved find the makeshift weaponry he brandished to make his last stand, and use it to break open coconuts for food and defend themselves against predatory snakes in their environment.

Season three
In season three, Megatron manages to create a Transmetal Dinobot using the Transmetal Driver and half of Rampage’s spark. In his new form, Dinobot is portrayed as Megatron’s mindless slave. During Megatron's mission to revive the Decepticons' legendary battleship, the Nemesis, Rampage is destroyed in battle against Depth Charge, and his death seemingly causes the personality of the original to surface. At first he is confused as to who he is, but he slowly regains his memories. As Megatron attempts to destroy the Maximals with the Nemesis, Dinobot assists his former comrades by revealing the location of a shuttle within The Ark. Later, when Megatron orders Dinobot to fire on The Ark, Dinobot refuses and when confronted by Megatron about why he would betray him, Dinobot states "My Honor" and attacks Megatron. The Maximals use the shuttle to breach the Nemesis’ cockpit, capturing Megatron in the process. Optimus pleads Dinobot to escape with them, but he refuses. Dinobot then bids farewell to Optimus, and is shortly engulfed in an explosion as the Nemesis returns to the ocean.

Dreamwave Productions
Dinobot's earliest fictional depiction in comics was in a two part short story told in Dreamwave's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye series. In this tale Dinobot and his leader enter an ancient Autobot library housing a node of the super computer Vector Sigma where they view the datatracks concerning the Autobots and Decepticons of The Great War. As Dinobot dispatches a Maximal security agent his leader obtains the Golden Disk artifact and announces he wishes to be addressed as Megatron from now on.

Fun Publications
Dinobot's early story would continue in the Timelines tale Dawn of Futures Past, where he was seen escaping with the disc alongside Megatron and Scorponok, outraged because he was not able to battle the Maximals honorably, having to be cowed into fleeing by Megatron. Dinobot was further outraged when Megatron planned to flee into Transwarp, but was delighted when Megatron opened fire on the  Axalon  while doing so. In this story, Dinobot was never named.

IDW Publishing
Dinobot appears along the rest of the Maximals in the series Beast Wars: The Gathering, which takes place during season 3 of the animated Beast Wars series.

Dinobot had a biography printed in the Beast Wars Sourcebook by IDW Publishing.

Other media
Dinobot appears in the TFcon 2012 live script reading prelude comic. In this story Cheetor, Dinobot Rattrap and Silverbolt discover three Constructicons and some Predacons on prehistoric Earth and are joined by the Wreckers.

Toys

 * Beast Wars Deluxe Dinobot (1996)
 * The Dinobot toy came with a mutant mask that was not utilized in the animated series, although it was seen on early prototypes of the animation. Because the toy was made before the show, it was not an exact match for the colors.
 * This toy was later recolored as Beast Wars Grimlock and as Dinobots Grimlock.
 * Dinotron was a remold of the original Dinobot.


 * Beast Wars Takara Deluxe Dinobot (1997)
 * When the toy was sold in Japan it was repainted with lighter stripes and a gold head to match the television model. In Japan Dinobot was sold alone and packaged with Tarantulas. The Japanese version of this toy had the head painted with metallic colors to more closely match the animated appearance of Dinobot.


 * Beast Wars McDonalds Dinobot (1998)
 * A premium toy included with Happy Meals, this Dinobot is a transmetal, although he didn't become a transmetal in the animated series.


 * Beast Wars Transmetal Dinobot (Unreleased)
 * During the original Transmetal Line, A Transmetal version of Dinobot was made and made it to the prototype stage before being scraped and replaced with a Transmetal Terrorsaur


 * Beast Wars Fox Kids Deluxe Dinobot (1999)
 * A redeco of Dinobot done in browns with red stripes across the back.


 * Beast Wars Transmetal II Deluxe Dinobot (1999)
 * The Transmetal II toy of Dinobot came in three variants. The first was released as a post-Christmas edition in late 1998 (for the 1999 release year) in show-accurate colors (this version being the model for the series), identifiable due to all pre-1999 Transmetal 2s having a "Transmetal II" logo. The second version makes use of navy blue and metallic maroon detailing on an ivory-colored body, as opposed to brown and maroon. The "II" logos are replaced with a "Transmetal 2" logo. The third and final Transmetal II Dinobot was nearly as commonplace as the second, with the ivory tooling replace with a whiter colored plastic. The remaining parts were decorated in a brighter blue and vacuum-metallized red. (The white, red and blue Dinobot is said to have been exclusive to Wal-Mart, but K-Mart stores in 2002 were shown to also have them in stock.)
 * The transmetal II Dinobot was repainted into the Dinobot Rapticon.


 * Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Dinobot (2006)
 * In 2006 the original Dinobot toy was one of the toys selected for the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary toyline. He was repainted in more show-accurate coloring. He came packaged with one of the six pieces used to make the Transmutate toy plus a DVD of his most famous episode "Code of Hero".


 * Timelines Deluxe Darksyde Dinobot (2006)
 * One of the BotCon 2006 exclusive figure is a remold of Armada Hoist which is a homage to Beast Wars Dinobot. This figure is supposed to represent Dinobot before he was reformatted into an animal form. He turns into a backhoe.
 * This toy was featured on page 19 of the book Transformers: The Fantasy, The Fun, The Future by Erin Brereton published by Triumph Books.


 * Beast Wars Takara 10th Anniversary Dinobot (2007)
 * In 2007, Takara Tomy is releasing their version of the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars toys. Selected molds have included Dinobot who will be painted show accurate along with something Hasbro's version didn't have: teeth are painted to give him more of a look like the show. According to the DVD enclosed with the toy, he may be sold with Blackarachnia at a sale price. (Like how Optimus Primal is sold with Megatron as a special offer.)


 * Universe Deluxe Dinobot (2009)
 * As part of the 25th Anniversary commemoration, the Transformers Universe series released a new mold of Dinobot. Like the Beast Wars figure, the Universe figure lacked show-accurate coloration. The transformation is also slightly different, with the arms tucking into the chest rather than the legs.

Honors
At BotCon 2010, Hasbro named Dinobot as one of the first five robot inductees in the Transformers Hall of Fame. He was also the first "fan's choice" inductee, as fans around the world submitted nominees for the spot. After the nominees were narrowed down to the top five, Dinobot beat Soundwave, Grimlock, Jazz and Shockwave with 31,000 votes.