I was almost tempted to watch an episode of the show attached to this line before writing but decided I didn’t care that much about the lore here. I barely watch Transformers cartoons and I have a ton of those. From my brief bit of research, Armorsaurs is a Disney+ show based on a Korean show called Armored Saurus, with a space. Its a sort of, Korean Sentai Henshin Hero show, Sentai Henshin Hero being shows like, Power Rangers and Kamen Rider. Normal people who power up with fancy devices into armored fighters who often also command giant robots of some kind. In this case, it seems to be giant armored dinosaurs.
I didn’t do a ton of research here. I don’t think the dinosaurs are robots, because another toyline related to this has dinosaurs you can put armor on. For this Evolvers line, they essentially are robots though. Instead of a car that turns into armor for a dinosaur, its a car, that turns into a dinosaur.
Anyway, I saw these a while back in some sort of promo and then kind of forgot about them until I stubled upn the yellow one, Blaze, in store. Which led me to checking the aisles for more. There are three different dinos in this first group, Blaze (Yellow Raptor), Ajax (Red Tyrannosaurus) and Cobalt (Blue Triceratops). They didn’t have Cobalt. I wasn’t super keen on Blaze’s 3 wheeled motorcycle as a first try of this line, so I went with Ajax here who changes from a Tyrannosaurus to a little space car.
So, since its the easy comparison, how are these next to a Transformer. They are definitively, much simpler. Its really not fair to try to directly compare them honestly. Mass wise, these are probably about the same size as a Deluxe Transformer, though they are all shorter since they are short, wide, dinos and not humanoid robots. The Transformation is also much simpler. For Ajax, you open his(?) chest, fold the tail up inside, fold the head inside, close the chest, flatten out the legs, then move the little cockpit pod thingy down.
The articulation is also essentially, non existent. This trade off though gives you a very stable car mode. The whole thing is very solid feeling as a vehicle and rolls so wonderfully smoothly. The rubber wheels help there a lot I am sure. That said, some of the assembly feels off, one leg on mine, for example, doesn’t quite seem together right. I could fix it with some glue, but its a little shoddy. Also the chest opening is weirdly tight, especially on the tail end, and the doors feel kind of flimsy.
Overall, I like it, but it feels like it could be better with just a smidge more QC. I will probably eventually get the other two of these, they are also pretty affordably priced for the size. Its not available, but when researching I noticed there is also a Pterodactyl character that would be cool for a wave 2. Also some of the enemies looks super awesome, so I wouldn’t mind some version of those either, though I have no idea if they would fit in an “evolving” line.
One last note, if you get one of these. They are easy to remove without really touching the box, especially with how simple the transformations are. Inside the bottom part of the box is an instruction sheet, but also, at least in mine, a code for an “exclusive Roblox item.” Which may be useful for anyone who plays Roblox or knows someone who does.
Just some further context and corrections
The Korean show is Armored Saurus.
Super Sentai is a specific franchise and not a genre unless you’re counting copycats of that series in particular, or Power Rangers being a direct adaptation of Sentai assets. You’re looking for “Henshin Hero”, although it doesn’t really apply to Armored Saurus (the American series added legally distinct Power Rangers suits (available as 3¾” figures) when the original had somewhat more realistic flight armour).
They canonically are actual dinosaur clones like Jurassic Park, and not robots. The show has the vehicles transforming into their armour (not really sure why that isn’t depicted in the American toys…).
Yes Ajax is male.
There are 2 Armorsaurs not represented by the Evolvers (and the Armor-Up Dinos as well), the Pteranodon named Velox like you noticed, and an orange Raptor (which didn’t exist in Armored Saurus, they instead had 3 yellow raptors to one pilot) called Pulse. Pulse toys were teased at a press event shortly before the show dropped on Disney+, plus some larger Ajax and Cobalt toys were on display but nothing has been announced yet (and given the subject of my next point was a shadowdrop, wave 2 might be shadowdrops too).
There is actually a Chromedrone (the evil animal robots they fight in the show) called King Chrome that’s out now in the USA, although I think it’s more scaled to the Armor-Up Dinos.
Every toy in the line seems to have a Roblox code.
Thanks for the info. It’s kind of interesting how they changed the dino line up with the 3 raptors to two different colored raptors. On the naming, I may have found a goofy translation in my search. I also mostly just remembered it was “more or less the same except the Korean one was two words and the Disney one was one word”.
As for Sentai vs Henshin Hero, I’ll keep that in mind, I did kind of think that “Sentai” was the generic term for “people who power up into armor and often drive robots or vehicles while fighting monsters” genre.