Rocksolid Light

Welcome to novaBBS (click a section below)

mail  files  register  newsreader  groups  login

Message-ID:  

Just because he's dead is no reason to lay off work.


interests / alt.toys.transformers / Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Dinobot Slug

SubjectAuthor
o Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Dinobot SlugDave Van Domelen

1
Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Dinobot Slug

<srb80a$ch$1@hope.eyrie.org>

 copy mid

https://www.novabbs.com/interests/article-flat.php?id=5303&group=alt.toys.transformers#5303

 copy link   Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Path: i2pn2.org!i2pn.org!aioe.org!nntp.terraraq.uk!news1.firedrake.org!news.xcski.com!news.eyrie.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: dvan...@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen)
Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Subject: Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Dinobot Slug
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2022 05:38:18 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: Coherent Comics UnInc
Message-ID: <srb80a$ch$1@hope.eyrie.org>
Injection-Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2022 05:38:18 -0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: hope.eyrie.org;
logging-data="401"; mail-complaints-to="news@eyrie.org"
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test77 (Sep 1, 2010)
Originator: dvandom@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen)
 by: Dave Van Domelen - Sat, 8 Jan 2022 05:38 UTC

Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Leader Wave 7

#86-07 Dinobot Slug & Daniel Witwicky (Robot Triceratops and exosuit)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/LSlug

Technically this wave came out in the summer of 2021, but it didn't make
it to stores locally until October, and then it kept slipping back in my
review queue until it had missed the year entirely, oops. Shipped with #73
Grindor (redeco of Blackout, with a Ravage instead of Scorponok, not getting
or reviewing).

CAPSULE

$50 price point.

Dinobot Slug: Not horrible, but suffers from a lot of loose joints and
loose connections, and a slightly weirdly-proportioned beast mode. Mildly
recommended.

Daniel Witwicky: A limited articulation non-transforming figure similar
in size and purpose to the Wheelie that came with Grimlock.

RANT

We will never get "Slag" back for this character, but just about anyone
who's going to be buying this toy knows he's Slag.

Packaging: Same as Grimlock's. The backdrop is an upscaled version of
the Quintesson pit background that was used for Gnaw.

AUTOBOT: DINOBOT SLUG
Assortment: 86-07
Altmode: Robot Triceratops
Transformation Difficulty: 32 steps
Previous Name Use: AoE
Previous Mold Use: None
Movie: TFrM
Scene: Mockery of Justice

DINOBOT SLUG excuses himself as he stomps over a crushed QUINTESSON
PROSECUTOR.

Packaging: Feels weird to be opening a relatively newly-acquired toy
with the older "not low waste" packaging, using a plastic vac-formed tray
rather than cardboard. 8 plastic ties on the robot, with a plastic chest
shield held on by two of them. The two ties on the wings don't need to be
cut, though, the wings just slide out. Two more ties hold the gun, and two
on Daniel.

Robot Mode: Right out of the box, it feels cheaper and floppier than
Grimlock, which isn't a good sign. A lot of play in the ratchet knees,
elbows pretty loose in general, and the backpack doesn't really lock together
(it relies on tabs that just don't hold well enough). So...suboptimal. It
looks okay, though, and about as show-accurate as you can get given how
little time Slag spent in robot mode in the cartoon. It fits the line art in
The Ark vol 1 pretty well, although the brow horns over the shoulders stick
almost straight up rather than being curved out to the sides, since that
would require outright replacing the horns during transformation. There's
also some bits of frill poking up behind the shoulders.
8.25" (21cm) tall at the head, although the dino head hanging over the
robot head raises the total height to 9" (23cm), making him a little taller
overall than Grimlock. In the usual Dinobot colors of various grays, gold,
and red. A lot of red in this case. Red plastic on the head, almost the
entire torso, and the pelvis. A slightly darker red is found on the hips,
the knee joints, and some hinges inside the back. The fists, frill pieces,
thighs, and beast head shell over the head are light gray plastic (as is the
tail in the backpack). Everything else, including the collar area, is made
of gunmetal gray plastic.
A slightly pearly light gray paint (darker than the light gray plastic)
is used for the center chest and all but the grip peg on the rifle. The
outer faces of the shoulders and lower abdomen are painted very dark gray,
while the fists are painted a gloss version of that dark gray shade. The
toes and outside of the beast head shell are painted gold. There's metallic
blue and kelly green sticker-like details on the bottom bits of the thigh
fronts, metallic blue eyes, and a red Autobot symbol printed on the center of
the chest.
It's worth noting that not all of the joints are loose, but that just
makes the loose ones stand out more. The neck is a restricted ball joint,
the waist is a stiff smooth swivel. The shoulders ratchet in the around
direction and have smooth hinges to lift to the sides. The bicep swivels are
smooth and reasonably stiff. The elbows are a bit weird due to
transformation concessions, with a top hinge that ratchets between two
positions, and a lower smooth hinge that's floppy. The wrists swivel (which
is necessary for transformation, you have to turn the fists upside down
before you can stow them). Like the shoulders, the hips ratchet in the
forwards/backwards direction and are smooth hinges out to the sides, but the
ratchets have a lot of play in them so the legs wiggle. Smooth swivels in
the upper thighs, the knees are double ratcheting hinges. The ankles only
have the instep hinges, and they're pretty loose.
The fists can hold 5mm pegs but only stuff that requires very little
clearance around the peg. There's also 5mm sockets on the outer faces of the
shoulders, outer faces of the boots, undersides of the feet, and one in the
center of the backpack. There's intentional 3mm sockets on top of each
shoulder (intended for Daniel, but he really only sits well on the left
shoulder), the back of the pelvis, and the center of the backpack at the top
of the tail part. That last one makes little sense, given that trying to
support the figure by it will result in the backpack falling apart. There's
also details on the outer faces of the forearms that will hold 3mm pegs,
although I'm not sure they're meant to be connecting points. Daniel can
perch on a raised arm using them, I guess.
The rifle is a single piece 3" (7.5cm) long with the peg very close to
the back. The tip is a very short 3mm stud, as if the designer was told to
make it 3mm in diameter but not why, so they didn't make it long enough to
hold well...if not for the paint on it, I wonder if it'd hold any Fire Blast
at all.

Transformation: This is one of those "until everything is in the right
position, nothing is in the right position" deals, where you really need to
keep a half dozen loose bits in the right places all at once until they just
come together and become solid. Pretty frustrating when one bit won't comply
and everything else keeps flopping apart or even falling off (the wings are
really bad in that regard).
As with a lot of homage toys, it can't quite "honestly" transform while
also looking show-accurate, so there's fake toes as part of the backpack
gunk, and the actual toes end up under the tail rather than on top of the
back.
I will say this in its favor, though, it's very clever how the rear legs
of the dino mode are folded up inside the boots.
Getting it back to robot mode is much easier, although nothing I tried
would make the backpack hold together securely. It's also hard to get the
fists back out without sticking the gun into them and using it as a lever.

Beast Mode: Well, once it's properly transformed, it's reasonably
solid. The head is too big and the frill too small, though, I think they put
a little too much priority on getting the robot head size right but then it
wouldn't fit inside a correctly-proportioned dino head. Proportions aside,
it is faithful to the animation design, including the earlier mentioned fake
toes on the back, and non-working missile launchers on the flanks. A clever
bit of design stores the rifle in the tail.
9.75" (25cm) long, in the usual Dinobot colors (gold, silver, grays, and
some red). Most of the red plastic is partially or entirely hidden, just a
few bits visible on the back, around the front hips, and inside the mouth.
The underside has plenty, of course. The head, frill, and tail are made of
light gray plastic. The brow horns are also light gray plastic, although
they're completely covered in paint (I had to scrape some off from the
connector peg to check). The rest is gunmetal gray plastic.
There's plenty of gold paint, mainly on the head and tail, but also on
the fake toes on the back. A light gray that's a bit darker and shinier than
the light gray plastic (same shade used on the rifle) is painted on the horns
and molded flank-mounted rocket launchers. There's also a bit of this on the
neck just above the front hips, covering up some red plastic. The launchers
are surrounded by a rectangle of charcoal gray, which is also found on the
front hups. The eyes are metallic blue, and there's a red Autobot symbol
printed on the forehead.
The jaw opens on a stiff hinge. The forelegs retain all the
articulation of the robot arms, other than the wrists (since the hands are
stowed). The hind legs have smooth swivel hips, somewhat meaningless smooth
hinge knees, and smooth hinge ankles.
On the one hand, they thought to put a 3mm stud inside the mouth so that
Slug can breathe fire with the appropriate Fire Blast. On the other hand,
they did not include an appropriate Fire Blast, and there's not a lot of
clearance next to the peg for the more fiery ones. Really, just having the
mouth clamp shut on the base of one of the bigger ones (like the Omega
Supreme style) works better. The rifle 3mm stud is now on the tail tip, for
the sort of tail blast IIRC sometimes got used in the cartoon? While the
horns aren't specifically given 3mm studs, you can cram some of the more
flexible Fire Blasts onto them (I do remember Slag firing energy beams from
his horns in the cartoon). Additionally, there's 5mm sockets on the center
of the back, the centers of the front hips, just above the rear hips, and the
fist and foot sockets are accessible on the underside. The 3mm socket on the
back of the pelvis is accessible on the underside as well, for flying
dinosaur fun. The brow horns are removable, but do not attach using any
standard peg.
There's pegs on either side of the neck behind the frill for Daniel to
attach to, in the same way Wheelie sits on Grimlock's beast mode. In fact,
they appear to be compatible, so the two can swap riders. The two
shoulder-sitting sockets are accessible as well, but Daniel won't fit on them
due to the frill. You can put other 3mm peg stuff in them, though, like old
3mm grip guns.


Click here to read the complete article
1
server_pubkey.txt

rocksolid light 0.9.7
clearnet tor