Dinobot (Animated)
| The name or term "Dinobot" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Dinobot (disambiguation). |
- The Dinobots are an Autobot subgroup in the Animated continuity family.

The Dinobots are a three-member subgroup consisting of Grimlock, Swoop, and Snarl. They are three wild and crazy guys. With funny speech patterns. Cooool.
They all breathe fire.
Fiction
Grimlock and the Dinobots were originally animatronic dinosaur models at the Dino Drive theme park, who were badly damaged by the clumsy Autobot Bulkhead. The remains were brought to Isaac Sumdac's lab for repair, where the disembodied Megatron took an interest in them and attempted to turn them into robotic attack drones as practice for re-creating his own body. Thusly rebuilt, the Dinobots went on a rampage at Dino Drive, but were restrained by the Autobots when Ratchet and Bumblebee captured them in an electromagnetic field. When her All Spark key reacted by tugging her toward her Autobots friends, Sari plugged it into Bumblebee's weapons systems to boost their powers, but this only resulted in the Dinobots being blasted with All Spark energy. The three robots were apparently left deactivated by the blast and were returned to Sumdac's lab once more. It was there, however, that the full extent of their exposure to the All Spark's energy was revealed, as the three Dinobots suddenly came to life!
The tyrannosaurus dubbed itself Grimlock and declared itself to be leader of the group, despite Megatron's attempts to give the trio orders. In contrast, the lab's other occupant, the Tutor Bot, happily responded to Megatron's cries for obedience and began a lesson on dinosaurs, their connection to fossil fuels, and the use of fossil fuels in cars. The simple-minded Grimlock took this to mean that cars "ate" dinosaurs, and Megatron convinced the trio to destroy these "fossil feeders", including the only thing worse than cars...cars and trucks that turn into robots. Equipped with deadly fire-breath thanks to Megatron's enhancements, the Dinobots set about their task immediately, inevitably drawing the attention of the Autobots. At Bulkhead's suggestion, the Autobots drew them to a deserted parking lot, where the Dinobots wound up defeating themselves by melting down the lot's maccadam surface into tar and getting stuck in it.
Sumdac intended to destroy the Dinobots, writing them off as mindless machines, and Optimus Prime agreed with his decision, but Prowl could sense the spark of life within them, and, with Bulkhead's help, relocated them to a deserted island where they could live peacefully and undisturbed. Grimlock took an almost immediate dislike to some birds that defecated on him, but his anger had an unforeseen effect when it triggered another of Megatron's enhancements and caused him to transform into robot mode! Snarl and Swoop were quite shocked, but Grimlock was rather pleased with the results. Blast from the Past
triva
- Each of the dinobots has a melee weapon that has fire;Swoop's mace, Grimlock's sword and Snarl's club.


