Well, time for the next mini-Dinobot, along the road to building Volcanicus. Next up is Slug, or Slag as he was known until recently. In a team of Dinobots that tended to have homogeneous personalities, Slag was specifically “the violent one,” which makes his new we-can-sell-this-in-Europe packaging name (which could mean To Punch Someone, or Bullet Casings), make a lot of sense. Outside of that, I mostly remember him for a) a funny story in the Marvel UK comics that revealed he had berserker rages every four million year, with his current bout happening as the other Dinobots tried to hide this from Optimus during an inspection…
Insert Yakkety Sax here.
and b) becoming the leader of the Dinobots in John Barber’s IDW comics for a long period of time, after Grimlock went AWOL (and migrated over to More than Meets the Eye/Lost Light).
He actually got a lot of screentime and focus.
I also remember a faction of the internet getting stupidly mad over the name on his packaging getting changed to “Slug,” despite “having to slap a different name on the box to sell it, and fans know who they really are anyway” being a thing in Transformers decades now. Some people are just looking to get upset, I guess. Anyway, whatever he’s called, here’s the second member of the Dinobot Crew.
Robot Mode
The less interesting, but equally competent mode.
Decently animation-accurate for the scale, the only concession on Slag is that he has dino legs hanging off the side of his boots, like most toys of him need to. Aside from that, all of his familiar details are there, including the dino mouth on his chest, the dino head behind the robot head, and so forth. The instructions and stock photography say to leave the two-part shell on his back in one piece….
The lamer way.
but I prefer to split it and turn it into “wings,” because it unlocks his waist articulation, and makes him look and feel more accurate (I’m like 90 percent sure this was the intention).
The cooler way, with bonus weapon storage.
Uptop, Slug’s got a really nice headsculpt and expression, looking like they shrunk the Studio Series 86 CAD model.
So mad, he’s red in the face.
The big funny difference, though, is that his head is attached to his much larger dino head behind it, instead of being a separate piece, so it feels like he has a gigantic head with a tiny face if you look at it too long.
“Hey, that guy made fun of my giant head!”
There’s some other general sculpt oddness due to the needs of his two transformations, like what I can only describe as “nipple pegs” on his chest, and pegs on the insides of his arms that collide with his torso, but overall, he’s surprisingly clean.
It’s tough being the more competent of the current Dinobots.
Slag’s got the same colors as all the other Dinobots (Grey, red, gold, black). In terms of how it’s laid out, he could have used more red on his torso (and an Autobrand on his chest) to be more animation and toy accurate, but still manages to look good. At least he has the red face and blue eyes, and not the black toy face.
On his way to slug some people.
See?
Slug’s articulation is better than I was expecting, and he comes with balljointed knees and hips, and a swivel waist.
Perfect for that 90’s squat.
Uptop, his head is on a ball joint, and that “he actually has a giant head” thing is made funnier by the fact that his whole massive dino head moves on that balljoint, and not just his actual robot head. His arms lack elbows, and his shoulders are on swivels for forward-and-back motion, and ludicrously tight ratchets for outward motion, for transformation.
This is the fifth time this week the Dinobots have quit.
Still, he poses better than expected, and while he’s not as much of a Solid Brick (™) as Sludge (reviewed here), he still feels more solid and slab-y than most Core classes.
Trick shot!
Slag’s lone accessory is a thick, mostly gold gun made from his tail, with two little barrels upfront. It’s not based on any previous accessories of his, I think, but I’m just glad he’s armed. It’s also got a 5 Millimeter peg uptop, if you want to build something on top of it.
Like whatever this thing is.
Meanwhile, he’s also got a 5 Millimeter port on his back that you can stash his weapon on, if you’ve opened the wings.
Keeping his back guarded.
I’d say the only thing he’s missing, really, is the large amount of ports that Sludge managed to have.
He decided to steal a normal-looking gun.
Transformation
Like his wavemate, Slug’s transformation is nice and simple, and pretty close to the G1 original. You just close the wings, fold his legs up, close the dino mouth, reverse the arms, plug the tail in, you’re done.
Right before closing the mouth up.
I hope all the Dinobots are this straightforward and fun.
Dino Mode
Repost this fat Slug immediately.
Slag’s a real chunker of a Triceratops. He’s maybe a little bit hollow and gappy in places (behind his head, at the sides of his torso), and his tail feels way too stubby, but he’s otherwise a pretty good looking robo-dino. He has an oddly cute face sculpt, too.
He’ll thank you not to look at his stubby tail.
Slug’s colors are animation-accurate, and he comes with a gold face with gray horns, blue eyes, and an Autobrand on his forehead, along with a few bits of gold on his mostly-gray body.
Not every green construction robot is Devastator!
Again, there could be a few more accents here and there, his gray horns and frill do look a bit plain (they were a lighter shade than his body in the cartoon) but he mostly looks pretty well painted.
Sludge is too embarrassed to point out that he can’t walk with him.
While he maybe doesn’t feel quite like the solid brick of plastic that Sludge was, Slag’s got something more important: Poseability!
Having a rest.
His legs all move at the hips/shoulders, and his mouth can open too, between the ball joint on the top half and the swivel jaw on the bottom. Opening it too much exposes his robot head, but you can get plenty of talking action before then.
*breathes in*….
…”Meep.”
Other than that, Slug’s a bit bereft of features, only having a 5 Millimeter peg on his tail, not that he really needs anything else.
Oh, it was a flamethrower all along!
Combined with Sludge
Slag’s transformation into the upper half of a torso is way more involved than I was expecting, and involves some clever partsforming. The combiner head is actually contained in his gun, which I didn’t notice until I first transformed him into this mode.
Grimlock’s low intellect comes from Slug firing his brain energy at everyone.
You pop it out, and attach the outer shell of the gun to Sludge, to beef up the torso. Importantly, there’s a big mistake in the instructions, in that they neglect to tell you that you need to reverse Slug’s arms into “dino” mode for everything to plug in solidly. You can even see tabs for the arms to plug into the sides of his torso.
The way the instructions say, which is wrong.
The right way. Note the outward-facing 5 Millimeter pegs.
And plug in solidly he does, connecting to Sludge via three 5 Millimeter ports, and two more connecting their arms together.
Pre-combination.
When combined, the pair make for a big, beefy torso.
After the Big Connection.
It’s funny that Grimlock isn’t even here yet, but the Volcanicus head is his, but larger, with a gold fork as a crest.
“Me not Grimlock.”
So far, the combiner has a head swivel, a waist twist (making Sludge’s oddly high waist make sense), and hip articulation. As for what the rest of the combiner will be like, Volcanicus uses 5 Millimeter ports for his limbs, so I combined him with Generations Selects Transmutate to get a sense of the combined form.
Mockup Monstrosity.
He’s about Voyager-sized, though presumably his limbs will be more proportionate.
Me too, Hauler, me too.
Overall:
Slag is, in may ways, the opposite of Sludge, in that he stands on his own as a good individual figure. He’s articulated in both modes, looks good, poses well, actually has an accessory, and doesn’t feel compromised for the combination, despite containing the combiner head. Even if you’re not completing the set, this is one I can recommend solo. He’s just a good little transforming dino, and that’s all there is to it.
Optimus figured out how to get the Dinobots back: Belly rubs.
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