Hasbro cancelled the Transformers toy line in 1990 due to sluggish sales, but the toy line continued in Europe. In 1991, new Action Masters were produced that were never available stateside, including Slicer, a Decepticon character who was a Wheeljack redeco. By this point, Hasbro UK had sort of figured out that non-transformable Transformers was kind of a daft concept, so they introduced concepts like Action Master Elites (who could transform after a fashion) or Action Master Exo-Suits, who came with vehicles that turned into suits the robots could fit into.

We've gotten a handful of Slicer tributes here and there (there was a BotCon 2010 toy that was a redeco of Energon Downshift, who looked enough like Wheeljack that it made sense) but this is the first version that pays homage to the Exo-Suit accessory the European toy came with.

As an aside, this makes no sense as a Shattered Glass version of Slicer, since the original Slicer was a Decepticon and in these same colors. I could see this being a Shattered Glass Wheeljack, but an opposite-universe version of Slicer would be an Autobot and would have different colors. But, Shattered Glass is pretty stupid to begin with. I really don't care how they want to market them, as long as they keep producing cool toys like this.

Also, I just want to reiterate that I love the colors the Shattered Glass instructions are printed in. High-contrast fluorescent pink against midnight blue, very easy to discern and very pleasant to the eye.

So, Slicer himself is based on Earthrise Wheeljack only in the European colors of the Action Master figure. He was originally a cornflower blue with grey uper legs and arms and head, with a bright red windshield, a gold mask and data collectors and pelvis, and purple elbow joints and mid-section and thingies on the sides of his legs. This version loses the purple, but is true to Slicer's look otherwise. Both the Action Master Wheeljack figure and the Earthrise Wheeljack figure are based heavily on his cartoon look, so the two versions of Slicer are similar in design, and applying the 1991 color scheme to the Earthrise toy doesn't look out of place at all. He has a tampographed Decepticon badge on his right shoulder (the 1991 toy had it on the left, but the Earthrise toy has a blast effect peg in that spot).

The other guy in the box, a redeco of Fasttrack, is literally just called Exo-Suit. No Red Fasttrack, no Red Rortichi, no nothin'. He's arguably not even a guy per se. The entire toy is wrapped in tissue paper and stuffed into the bottom of the box like an oversized accessory. He doesn't even come assembled—you rip the tissue apart and like nine pieces come spilling out. This includes the guns for Slicer, who has a Wheeljack-style shoulder launcher and two translucent red guns (exclusive to this toy, unless I'm a liar). The instructions say how the guns can either be stuffed into Slicer's hands, folded in half and plugged into the backs of his legs, or kept folded and plugged into the back of the car so they poke out on either side. I worry about the durability of the hinges, given that they're translucent plastic.

The original European exo-suit was this off-road dune buggy with a roll cage, and you could stand it up on its rear end, which looked like robot feet, and you tucked Slicer under the roll cage like a harness. The instructions show you doing everything imaginable with Exo-Suit—how to get him into robot mode, vehicle mode, sword mode, and three different C.O.M.B.A.T.. loadouts—but what it doesn't tell you how to do is turn it into the vehicle that Slicer was sitting down on and riding in when Hasbro originally unveiled this guy on their livestream back in June.

As far as I can tell, based on images from the livestream, this is how to achieve that vehicle mode. Take the left Fasttrack leg and plug the top of the right shoulder into the pink upper leg. Repeat, plugging the left shoulder into the right leg. The toes are the front of the vehicle. Take the upper torso, turn it upside-down so the robot chest is facing back, and have the pink fists grab the pink shoulder connectors. Take the Fasttrack vehicle cockpit and split it open, so the black guns are touching each other. Open the pink Earthrise hinge connector and plug the cockpit piece into it, cockpit facing down. This is the back of the seat. The pegs on Fasttrack's legs plug into the holes on the back of Slicer's legs when he's sitting down. Take the sword tip and plug it between the two red chunks on the pelvis piece. I'm not sure, but it looks like Mark Maher just flipped out the round pelvis connectors to either side and wedged them into the gaps inside Slicer's legs. The piece doesn't seem to be attached to anything. Finally, the shoulder cannon plus into the back of the seat. In the Hasbro livestream, they removed Slicer's wings and plugged them into the bottom of his feet, probably for aesthetic reasons, and plugged the Fasttrack guns into the holes on his back.

Here's the link to a picture I took:

https://www.reddit.com/r/transformers/comments/yjo3de/tried_to_build_the_slicer_exosuit_as_seen_in_the/

This isn't an ideal vehicle, since the six wheels are all towards the front of the vehicle and nothing supports the rear of the vehicle at all. Mark Maher said he had experimented with numerous different builds, so I'm sure this could theoretically be improved upon, but I just wanted to try to build what they had showed us four months ago:

https://youtu.be/u-vNMsLdhXo?t=3703

It would be difficult to balance the need for a seat large enough for Slicer to fit into comfortably with the need for wheels near the back of the vehicle.

I may have to play around and see if I can build an exo-suit mode for Exo-Suit where he's not just in one of the C.O.M.B.A.T. configurations, but rather something that's all one piece that you can just plug Slicer into.

Anyway, I would have loved just the Slicer figure alone, but the fact that they tried to develop an Exo-Suit to go with him gets major props. Obviously they wanted to reuse existing assets, and it did drive the price of the toy up (it was like $48.99 for the two Deluxe toys). He was originally scheduled for a February 2023 release, so I love the fact that he showed up early.

Zob (in the TMNT cartoon, Shredder enjoyed a turn as a radio DJ and called himself the Slicer, so I always imagine Action Master Slicer being voiced by James Avery)

On Tuesday, November 1, 2022 at 3:57:24 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
>
> As an aside, this makes no sense as a Shattered Glass version of Slicer, since the original Slicer was a Decepticon and in these same colors. I could see this being a Shattered Glass Wheeljack, but an opposite-universe version of Slicer would be an Autobot and would have different colors. But, Shattered Glass is pretty stupid to begin with. I really don't care how they want to market them, as long as they keep producing cool toys like this.

I have an idea of how to make Shattered Glass make sense, but have never gotten around to flushing it out. Perhaps I will flush it out while doing my colonoscopy prep!

Ok, short version -- the SG characters are some thing (group, entity, whatever) attempting to replicate and interact with the Transformers but doing a terrible job of it because they don't understand the Transformers. The SG continuity is the backstory that the SG characters (beings? probes? no idea....) have been programmed with in an effort to fit in -- to the Shattered Glass story is literally just a reflection of the real continuity, with all the problems that this causes with the SG continuity not making sense and having to adapt in weird ways to the real continuity changing.

I hope my colonoscopy prep goes as well.

> So, Slicer himself is based on Earthrise Wheeljack only in the European colors of the Action Master figure. He was originally a cornflower blue with grey uper legs and arms and head, with a bright red windshield, a gold mask and data collectors and pelvis, and purple elbow joints and mid-section and thingies on the sides of his legs. This version loses the purple, but is true to Slicer's look otherwise. Both the Action Master Wheeljack figure and the Earthrise Wheeljack figure are based heavily on his cartoon look, so the two versions of Slicer are similar in design, and applying the 1991 color scheme to the Earthrise toy doesn't look out of place at all. He has a tampographed Decepticon badge on his right shoulder (the 1991 toy had it on the left, but the Earthrise toy has a blast effect peg in that spot).

Note that it is a purple Decepticon badge. The whole Shattered Glass concept seems to have fallen apart.

> The other guy in the box, a redeco of Fasttrack, is literally just called Exo-Suit. No Red Fasttrack, no Red Rortichi, no nothin'. He's arguably not even a guy per se. The entire toy is wrapped in tissue paper and stuffed into the bottom of the box like an oversized accessory. He doesn't even come assembled—you rip the tissue apart and like nine pieces come spilling out. This includes the guns for Slicer, who has a Wheeljack-style shoulder launcher and two translucent red guns (exclusive to this toy, unless I'm a liar). The instructions say how the guns can either be stuffed into Slicer's hands, folded in half and plugged into the backs of his legs, or kept folded and plugged into the back of the car so they poke out on either side. I worry about the durability of the hinges, given that they're translucent plastic.

The guns are a throwback to the Energon Downshift version of Slicer, who came with the Energon Weapons. I think it's a pretty nice thing to add.

They might not hold up forever, but honestly, I'm pleased they exist and will probably get bored of them quickly enough anyway.

> Here's the link to a picture I took:
>
> https://www.reddit.com/r/transformers/comments/yjo3de/tried_to_build_the_slicer_exosuit_as_seen_in_the/

Wow, you hang out on Reddit's transformers thing. They always seem like a bunch of negative nellies that I don't really want to invite into my headspace.
> This isn't an ideal vehicle, since the six wheels are all towards the front of the vehicle and nothing supports the rear of the vehicle at all.

It's like a rolling recliner!

> Anyway, I would have loved just the Slicer figure alone, but the fact that they tried to develop an Exo-Suit to go with him gets major props. Obviously they wanted to reuse existing assets, and it did drive the price of the toy up (it was like $48.99 for the two Deluxe toys). He was originally scheduled for a February 2023 release, so I love the fact that he showed up early.

I really like Exo-Suit, in all his garish glory. Transformers are too non-garish as a rule, and Exo-Suit bucks the trend.

> Zob (in the TMNT cartoon, Shredder enjoyed a turn as a radio DJ and called himself the Slicer, so I always imagine Action Master Slicer being voiced by James Avery)

On Sunday, December 11, 2022 at 3:52:27 PM UTC-8, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> I hope my colonoscopy prep goes as well.

I hope you survived that.

> > https://www.reddit.com/r/transformers/comments/yjo3de/tried_to_build_the_slicer_exosuit_as_seen_in_the/
> Wow, you hang out on Reddit's transformers thing. They always seem like a bunch of negative nellies that I don't really want to invite into my headspace.

I go there just for the negativity. And to see what younger people get from being TF fans.

Unfortunately an entertaining thread on unpopular opinions over there got deleted:

https://www.reddit.com/r/transformers/comments/zabc9p/whats_a_transformers_opinion_that_will_have_you/

On Sunday, December 11, 2022 at 4:52:27 PM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> I hope my colonoscopy prep goes as well.

How was it?

> Wow, you hang out on Reddit's transformers thing. They always seem like a bunch of negative nellies that I don't really want to invite into my headspace.

I don't post there much. I do try to keep my thumb on the pulse of what the fandom in general is saying, and there's a sizeable group of fans over there. But, much like the message boards, they're all pretty much babies.

Zob (got mah Galaxy Shuttle today, yessirree ah did)