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interests / alt.toys.transformers / Dave's Transformers Cyberverse Rant: Deluxe Dinobot Slug

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o Dave's Transformers Cyberverse Rant: Deluxe Dinobot SlugDave Van Domelen

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Dave's Transformers Cyberverse Rant: Deluxe Dinobot Slug

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From: dvan...@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen)
Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Subject: Dave's Transformers Cyberverse Rant: Deluxe Dinobot Slug
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2022 05:00:46 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: Coherent Comics UnInc
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Originator: dvandom@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen)
 by: Dave Van Domelen - Mon, 10 Jan 2022 05:00 UTC

Dave's Transformers Cyberverse Rant: Deluxe "wave" 5

Dinobot Slug (robot Triceratops)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cyberverse/Deluxe5

Frankly, Deluxe waves are a mess, just incrementing the number to 5
since it's my fifth review of Cyberverse Deluxes. According to TFWiki, this
is officially wave 7, though. All the casemates are repackaged Deluxes in
the new low-waste packaging, and without Maccadam pieces in the case of the
ones that originally had 'em.
2021 was a good year for not-Slag, between this, Studio Series Leader
Slug, and...um, Slugtron might cancel out one of the others, it's so bad. (I
got Slugtron and Bumbleswoop purely so I could make MegaBee, and it really
wasn't worth it for the gag.)

CAPSULE

$23 at Target.

Dinobot Slug: While it has a few problems here and there, it's a very
good robot with a clever but not frustrating transformation and a solid beast
mode. Strongly recommended.

RANT

Packaging: Same as Cheetor's, no more plastic windows or trays, just
lots of cardboard. https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cyberverse/Deluxe4 for
details. I think the gap in assortment number between Cheetor and this is
accounted for by the repackaged figures in the wave.

AUTOBOT: DINOBOT SLUG
Assortment: F2762
Altmode: Robot Triceratops
Transformation Difficulty: 25 steps
Previous Name Use: AoE, Studio
Previous Mold Use: None
Epithet/Gimmick: Blaster Fire Fury
Function: Fiery DINOBOT Ally

Packaging: Okay, there's some plastic in the packaging, still using
plastic T-ended ties rather than rattan strings. Five ties on the robot,
although the cardboard was rather tight around some bits and I ended up
popping off the frill in the process of getting the figure out. One tie each
on the cannon, the axe, and the Fire Blast.
The render on the back of the box slightly mistransforms the robot mode,
with the dino head rocked back a bit rather than being snapped down into
place.

Robot Mode: Okay, leaving aside the issue with the frill in removing it
from the package, it's really solid. Nothing floppy, nothing feels like it's
about to fall off, and unlike Studio Series Slug the horns are articulated so
that they can be in different positions in the two modes. It does have a
number of hollow bits, but fewer than typical for Cyberverse, and the feeling
is more solid than I've grown accustomed to finding in a Cyberverse toy.
Anyway, while it's definitely its own design, it has echoes of G1 in it,
notably the beast head acting as a sort of hoodie. There's more gold (dull
gold) than on most Slag/Slug designs, but the color balance does fit
Cyberverse pretty well.
5" (12.5cm) tall at the head, 5.5" (14cm) tall at the top of the beast
snout. Most of the toy is silvery gray, dull gold, or bright red, with some
dark gray and a few accent colors. Dull gold plastic is used for the
"hoodie," the collar area, the sternum, the shoulder struts, upper arms, and
boots (but not feet). A very dark slightly metallic gray plastic is used on
the feet, fists, head, and cannon. A silvery gray plastic is used for the
frill, forearms, elbows, center torso, thighs, and the beast legs folded up
on the outer faces of the boots. Opaque red plastic is used for the outer
parts of the torso (it pulls up and rotates in transformation), pelvis, and
hip struts. The brow horns, Fire Blast, and axe are made of slightly
flexible clear red plastic.
The face is painted silver, and there's silver details on the outer
chest, the outer faces of the shoulders, and on top of the rear part of the
cannon. The visor is bright blue, and there's bright blue rectangles on the
upper corners of the chest. Dark slightly metallic gray (so-so match to the
plastic) is used on details on the fronts and backs of the shoulders,
kneecaps, shins, and pelvis front. The haft of the axe is painted gloss
black. The molded Autobot symbol on the sternum is unpainted, I might fix
that. There's some red bits on the backs of the boots, but they're really
for beast mode.
The head and waist both turn. The shoulders are ball joints on short
shrugging struts (and longer "oops, dislocated the arm" transformation
struts), hinge elbows, and swivels just below the elbows (needed for the
transformation). The wrists are hinged to bend outwards for transformation,
which is a clever bit, but maybe should've been pinned rather than a snap in
joint...it's all too easy to twist a fist out entirely while trying to remove
a weapon from the fist. Ball joint hips, upper thigh swivels, hinge knees.
The ankles have hinges but can only point the toes up rather than down, and
have side to side hinges that can flip over entirely (and have to for
transformation).
The hands can hold 5mm pegs, there's a pair of 5mm sockets on the back
for weapon storage, and 5mm sockets on the undersides of the feet. The back
of the pelvis has a 3mm socket, so I suppose you could store the axe by
sticking it there.
The axe is more of a hatchet, with a single bearded blade and a sort of
hammer-y back end that has a 5mm peg on it. It's about 1.5" (4cm) tall. In
addition to the 5mm peg on the back side of the head, the bottom of the half
ends in a 3mm stud. The 5mm peg isn't long enough to let Slug hold it as a
pistol, though.
The dual-barrelled cannon is 2.25" (6cm) long, and the silver painted
bit on the back top has spikes and dino hide scutes, probably for beast mode
aesthetics. The center of the silver part has a 5mm socket, so you could put
the axe onto it that way, but there's also a slot between the barrels that's
designed to take the axe blade, making the haft a third barrel. Sadly,
there's no way to combine the two to make it look like it has an axe
bayonet. The double barrels each end in a long 3mm stud, but at only 7mm
center to center it'd be hard to find regular Fire Blasts that would
simultaneously fit on both.
Rather, the included Fire Blast has two 3mm sockets with the correct
spacing to go onto the cannon. The twin blast effect is 3.5cm long.

Transformation: Wow. This is a lot more involved and clever than I
expected. I was able to figure it out without the instructions, but I
*almost* forced it into an incorrect completion (there's a bunch of torso
stuff I'd missed). Yeah, the frill is still a problem if you don't do things
in the right order, but it's easy enough to pop back on. And forewarned, I
was able to transform it back to robot mode without anything popping off.
Push back the head, which will take the sternum with it, and rotate the
frill to fit against the beast head. Pull up on the outer torso and rotate
it 180 degrees, and also rotate a joint connecting the sternum/head piece to
its strut. Before putting the head back down, pull out the beast lower jaw.
Then secure the head section again, fold the horns forwards, and pop the
shoulders out and relocate them to their beast positions. Stow the fists and
roate the below-elbow swivels to the correct positions. Now the front half
is done.
Rotate the waist 180 degrees, flip the feet over entirely on their
sideways joints and then point them. The next bit is tricky, as you have to
pull the tail pieces out of the boots as you bend the knees 180 degrees.
Push the halves together and press the toes down onto tabs on the torso, then
fold down the beast rear legs. Combine the weapons and put them on the
back.

Beast Mode: Dull gold dominates this mode, in part because the figure
doesn't have gray wings to fold over the torso sides, but mostly because the
robot is more gold and the gold robot bits are pretty much all visible in
this mode while a lot of the gray parts are hidden. It's a robot Triceratops
with spikes on the tops of the fore hips and rear hips, and three claws on
each paw (manus and pedus).
Just shy of 6" (15cm) long, the newly revealed tail and lower jaw are
also dull gold plastic. There's red-painted line/vent sort of details on the
lower rear legs and the flanks just ahead of the rear legs. The beast eyes
are bright blue, and a red Autobot symbol is printed on the head just aft of
the nose horn.
The jaw is hinged to open, and I suppose you could count the tail tip
hinge as meaningful articulation. The forelegs retain the same articulation
as the arms (other than the wrists). The read hips are swivels with tabs
that restrict the range from "straight down" to about 45 degrees swung back.
The knees are hinges that have 90 degrees of range, and snap into place at
fully bent so they don't flop out in robot mode.
There's a newly revealed 5mm socket from the feet that ends up on the
center of the rump on top (for mounting the cannon), and the two sockets on
the robot's back are still visible if not too useful thanks to the frill.
The other connection points are hidden in this mode.

Overall: Finally, a good slagging Cyberverse toy. It has a couple of
small problems, but not enough to detract from the Strongly Recommended
rating.


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