Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 7, 2017 18:40:54 GMT
Generations Power of the Primes Slug
Yeah, it's Slag. Hasbro may have finally learnt that some names have an offensive meaning outside of the USA, but in this case I'm rather attached to the older one. I think "waste matter separated from metals during the smelting or refining of ore" is rather appropriate for the Dinobot's flame thrower who's going to be getting things hot. So it's probably going to be Slag throughout the review.
At the point I started acquiring my first set of Dinobots in the early 1990s, Gold Box Classics was in full swing, which supplied most of them for me. However Slag was missing so my first Slag was the Green G2 version in 1994, quickly upgraded to second hand cast off. I've gone through couple more since then.
Straight out the box there's no argument this is Slag, a bit taller and thinner than what we're used to with perhaps the red slightly too cherry but apart from that..... dead on. Where Swoop only got a sword from his original weapons set, Slag has a big bulky black gun modelled on his original silver chrome, and easily breakable, weapon. Upsacled and thickened but it essentially is the same weapon. I miss his sword, but I'm sure Takara, a third party, or Shapeways will provide. There's no hole in the shoulder for a missile launcher, like the original one had, but he has extra 5mm holes on his forearms, dino legs on his ankle, back and chest. The last of these is for attaching his Primemaster armour via the same peg that it uses to become a combiner hand. The clear cover on the front of the armour removes, becoming an odd square hand gun for him to hold, revealing a space for a Primemaster to recess into to power Slag up. Despite sharing no use here the armour has the same tabs & slots as Swoops. I imagine the hands are the same across the Dinobots, I can't tell which is Swoop's and which is Slag's, but having a quick look I can see the same feature on both of the hands with Dreadwind & Jazz even though the majority of those are different moulds.
Articulation: Principally identical to Swoop with bending knees, thigh swivels, ball jointed hips, rotating waist, rotating head, ball jointed shoulders, bicep swivels & bending elbows. Here it's the head not the waist that's limited with the surrounding dino head limiting it's movement.
Transformation: remove the gun and Primemaster armour. Fold the hands into the underside of the arms. Good luck getting them out again by yourself, they're very stiff on mine and need the gun handle place in them to get them to move! Fold the chest cover up in front of the face. Then the legs.... there's some cleverness here and some worry too: Look at the backs of the legs and fold the dino legs down so they're out the way. Fold the tail halves up from within the legs so they're pointing out behind the knees. Swing each half 90° out to the sides. That joint scared me, there's going to be a few of those broken down the line. Fold the heel spurs up inside the legs. Yes they will move, and they will swing round so their underside is facing towards you. Getting them out again is difficult till you realise that they'll start to swing out if you rotate the rear legs back at the hips. Tab the robot legs together and fold back at the robot knees 180° so they meet the body and the tabs at the top of the body click into place in the feet. Swing the tail halves in together pegging into each other then fold up into place. Position the dino legs and stand.
Something is not quite right with the prescribed Triceratops mode, the frill looks too small and too close to the body. Fortunately that's easily fixable: the entire head and frill pulls up and moves back as part of his limb mode and fractionally doing that really improves the look. Jaw opens, front legs are ball jointed at the shoulder and bend at the knees, rear legs turn at the hip and kind of bend at the knees thanks to the transformation. 5mm mounting points on both forelegs, both hips the top of the dinosaur and under the chin while there's two separate Titanmaster footpegs on the Dinosaurs back for your Titanmasters to play at being Dinoriders.
The lack of weapons is an issue again, the frill could have been bigger and more distinct from the body without needing adjustment and some of those transformation joints are a bit worrying. But other than that no complaints!
Arm Mode: From Dinosaur mode split the tail, fold out to the sides and fold the the robot legs out, swinging the heel spurs down, and storing the tail halves in the legs. Swing the rear dino legs up out the way. Fold the hands in, rotate each arm 180° and put the 5mm holes on the forearms over the tabs on the body. Swing the dinosaur head up & back. Fold out the Combiner Wars connector. Transform his Prime armour into a hand by folding out the fingers and putting the thumbs into the correct position and peg into the hole in the feet. Turn the waist 90° to allow the leg articulation to act for the arm.
A decent enough arm but since I see Swoop as the other arm and Slag pairing with his remould Sludge, they're probably going to end up as legs.
Leg Mode: Remove the Prime armour hand. Return the lower part of the arm to dinosaur mode but keep the legs folded up and fold the tail down under the beast inserting the pegs on one of Grimlock's Prime Armours into the revealed 5mm hole. Fold the Combiner Wars connector out the front of the beast and slide into place.
Decent solid leg! Good, that's what I was aiming for!
Power of the Primes Dinobots going well for me so far: 2 out of 2!
Generations Power of the Primes Sludge
It's kind of fitting that Slag and Sludge share a mould seeing as it ws one or the other of them in the 1990s between Gold Box Classics and Generation 2! Sludge & Slag appear to share robot legs, arms, combiner connector, gun and even Slugs's chest which appears to form Sludge's back!
Yeah, it's Slag. Hasbro may have finally learnt that some names have an offensive meaning outside of the USA, but in this case I'm rather attached to the older one. I think "waste matter separated from metals during the smelting or refining of ore" is rather appropriate for the Dinobot's flame thrower who's going to be getting things hot. So it's probably going to be Slag throughout the review.
At the point I started acquiring my first set of Dinobots in the early 1990s, Gold Box Classics was in full swing, which supplied most of them for me. However Slag was missing so my first Slag was the Green G2 version in 1994, quickly upgraded to second hand cast off. I've gone through couple more since then.
Straight out the box there's no argument this is Slag, a bit taller and thinner than what we're used to with perhaps the red slightly too cherry but apart from that..... dead on. Where Swoop only got a sword from his original weapons set, Slag has a big bulky black gun modelled on his original silver chrome, and easily breakable, weapon. Upsacled and thickened but it essentially is the same weapon. I miss his sword, but I'm sure Takara, a third party, or Shapeways will provide. There's no hole in the shoulder for a missile launcher, like the original one had, but he has extra 5mm holes on his forearms, dino legs on his ankle, back and chest. The last of these is for attaching his Primemaster armour via the same peg that it uses to become a combiner hand. The clear cover on the front of the armour removes, becoming an odd square hand gun for him to hold, revealing a space for a Primemaster to recess into to power Slag up. Despite sharing no use here the armour has the same tabs & slots as Swoops. I imagine the hands are the same across the Dinobots, I can't tell which is Swoop's and which is Slag's, but having a quick look I can see the same feature on both of the hands with Dreadwind & Jazz even though the majority of those are different moulds.
Articulation: Principally identical to Swoop with bending knees, thigh swivels, ball jointed hips, rotating waist, rotating head, ball jointed shoulders, bicep swivels & bending elbows. Here it's the head not the waist that's limited with the surrounding dino head limiting it's movement.
Transformation: remove the gun and Primemaster armour. Fold the hands into the underside of the arms. Good luck getting them out again by yourself, they're very stiff on mine and need the gun handle place in them to get them to move! Fold the chest cover up in front of the face. Then the legs.... there's some cleverness here and some worry too: Look at the backs of the legs and fold the dino legs down so they're out the way. Fold the tail halves up from within the legs so they're pointing out behind the knees. Swing each half 90° out to the sides. That joint scared me, there's going to be a few of those broken down the line. Fold the heel spurs up inside the legs. Yes they will move, and they will swing round so their underside is facing towards you. Getting them out again is difficult till you realise that they'll start to swing out if you rotate the rear legs back at the hips. Tab the robot legs together and fold back at the robot knees 180° so they meet the body and the tabs at the top of the body click into place in the feet. Swing the tail halves in together pegging into each other then fold up into place. Position the dino legs and stand.
Something is not quite right with the prescribed Triceratops mode, the frill looks too small and too close to the body. Fortunately that's easily fixable: the entire head and frill pulls up and moves back as part of his limb mode and fractionally doing that really improves the look. Jaw opens, front legs are ball jointed at the shoulder and bend at the knees, rear legs turn at the hip and kind of bend at the knees thanks to the transformation. 5mm mounting points on both forelegs, both hips the top of the dinosaur and under the chin while there's two separate Titanmaster footpegs on the Dinosaurs back for your Titanmasters to play at being Dinoriders.
The lack of weapons is an issue again, the frill could have been bigger and more distinct from the body without needing adjustment and some of those transformation joints are a bit worrying. But other than that no complaints!
Arm Mode: From Dinosaur mode split the tail, fold out to the sides and fold the the robot legs out, swinging the heel spurs down, and storing the tail halves in the legs. Swing the rear dino legs up out the way. Fold the hands in, rotate each arm 180° and put the 5mm holes on the forearms over the tabs on the body. Swing the dinosaur head up & back. Fold out the Combiner Wars connector. Transform his Prime armour into a hand by folding out the fingers and putting the thumbs into the correct position and peg into the hole in the feet. Turn the waist 90° to allow the leg articulation to act for the arm.
A decent enough arm but since I see Swoop as the other arm and Slag pairing with his remould Sludge, they're probably going to end up as legs.
Leg Mode: Remove the Prime armour hand. Return the lower part of the arm to dinosaur mode but keep the legs folded up and fold the tail down under the beast inserting the pegs on one of Grimlock's Prime Armours into the revealed 5mm hole. Fold the Combiner Wars connector out the front of the beast and slide into place.
Decent solid leg! Good, that's what I was aiming for!
Power of the Primes Dinobots going well for me so far: 2 out of 2!
Generations Power of the Primes Sludge
It's kind of fitting that Slag and Sludge share a mould seeing as it ws one or the other of them in the 1990s between Gold Box Classics and Generation 2! Sludge & Slag appear to share robot legs, arms, combiner connector, gun and even Slugs's chest which appears to form Sludge's back!
