Wes says:

Ostensibly they serve as armor -- the head could also be used as a shield and/or stabbing weapon -- though I suspect that they're really just there because there was nowhere else on the figure to put them. Well, I suppose the parts could've been hanging off of his back, but robots with visible organic parts in robot mode that clearly denoted the animal into which they transformed was pretty much the style of the Beast Wars/Beast Machines era. Triceradon's mold is also of Japanese origin (see Guiledart), which generally means that the transformation is a lot more complex than figures created with the American market in mind.

What initially drew me to Triceradon was the robot mode, since I could see that he transformed into a triceratops but at the same time had these sharp teeth-looking things hanging off of his shoulder -- which makes no sense because triceratops were not carnivores. But then I found out about the dead dinosaur mode and that pretty much clinched my need to get my hands on the figure.

I could go on about this stuff forever.

Wes says:

Thanks! But no, I didn't get a lightbox -- I've just gotten a better system down regarding photographing the figures and then digitally adjusting the exposure. The plugin that I've been using is Xpose -- if you've got a graphics program that can handle Photoshop plugins, it's fantastic and incredibly simple to use.