I saw one Slug in Walmart after only seeing one since he launched. I was on the fence if I wanted to go deep into the Dinobots, but Slug was my favorite. He looks great, specifically dino mode. However, once again Hasbro's QC is horrendous. The side panels pop off the garbage hinges with the slightest touch. One arm ratchet doesn't work and one knee rachet also doesn't work. His right fist has no friction hold and drops out if I pick him up. The Daniel figure is also an insult. There's no reason why the legs need to be one part. Once again, I'm going to be taking apart a figure to do someone's job for them. If a figure isn't going to be built correctly, just sell Transformers like a model kit and drop the price. I'd be happy to put figures together myself.
Got mine today and he's, well, fine. He definitely suffers coming on the heels of Wreck-gar, which is my favorite Hasbro figure of the year and my favorite Studio Series figure of all time. The problem with Slug is that, on my copy at least, there are chips and scrapes to the paint all over the place. His transformation requires a lot of manhandling, and with so many pieces completely covered in paint, it's going to be really hard not to add to those chips and scratches over time. The way his fists transform into the forearms without leaving any gaps is ingenious, but popping them back out requires the use of a fingernail against black paint. It's very frustrating. The plastic quality is fine, but with Wreck-gar using such unusually good plastic, and three times as many different colors of plastic (9 to Slug's 3), it's hard not to be wistful for a version of Slug with a slightly higher budget; or one that ditched the Daniel accessory for an additional sprue of red to avoid having to paint the front half of the head, and a sprue of black for the fists. Like I said, he's...fine. But for $20 more than Wreck-gar, I was hoping for something a little bit better than fine.
Finally got Slug in from Amazon yesterday and he's delightful! I guess I got lucky with QC, because I've got no major issues. His lower left knee ratchet is a bit loose, but other than that, he's great. I think someone already posted a bot mode comparison, but here's some more, with SS Grimlock too:
So I got this guy today, and the right knee upper ratchet (embedded in his grey thigh piece) is pretty loose, loose enough that holding him up and gently shaking it will cause it to bend, which is annoying. BUT, I opened up the thigh, and the problem is that the little tooth piece, which is made out of nylon, doesn't fit into the groove in the thigh tightly enough. i.e. there's a bit of wiggle room/maybe a 20th of a millimeter, that is causing the tooth to not have enough tension with the ratchet joint's gear. It's a molding problem, but it may also be that the nylon tooth piece cooled or warped at the factory, so I'm just wondering has anyone else experienced this? Trying to figure out if I may get a different outcome if I sent it back to Amazon for a new one... Edit: in other words, I'm wondering about the upper ratchet, specifically on the right side, because I am aware from reading everyone's post that the lower ratchets also appear to have issues--my copy's lower ratchets seem fine, though.
Studio Series 86 Slug... Slag... Slaug? Anyway, Sloog has a hard time living up to fellow SS86 Dinobot pal Grimlock, and ultimately doesn't, because Grimlock is just a really high bar to set. Sloug however has his own charms and fun. But why even bother including Daniel with Sleg? Nobody wanted a worse version of Daniel in the exosuit. I think Slyg might have been better without Daniel at all, that's how bad this Daniel accessory figure is. It's impressive that Hasbro found a way to make Grimlock's Wheelie look better by comparison to anything, but Sluig's Daniel does that by being just so uselessly bad. Daniel's legs are more bent, making standing poses nearly impossible; his head is just a simple opaque dome; he has no head or waist articulation; he actually has more hollowness; and he stinks at sitting on Sleegh's bot shoulder. He's junk and I hope this is the last of the mini-figures dumped into this Dinobots subseries. Anyway, onto reviewing Solg. Bot Mode pluses: + big, beefy and broad-shouldered! + well articulated to WFC norms, plus swivel wrists, and double-hinged elbows and knees + inner parts to look good when moving shoulder and elbow articulation + well sculpted for the cartoon feel while retaining plenty of detail + sports them WFC 5mm peg holes in the back, shoulders, side of lower legs, and feet + painted blaster looks terrific and sports a 3mm tip for blast effects + virtually nothing gappy or hollow + lower leg can be displayed clean like animation or with the beast hip out like the G1 toy, likewise with the beast tail backpack folded down or up + peg holes for stupid Daniel or stupid Wheelie to ride on shoulders Bot Mode minuses: - backpack is held together with very simple friction systems across several pieces that don't really hold together that well, it de-transforms and becomes a floppy mess way too easily - Slag's simple head style in a bright red color doesn't lend itself too well to this scale, it feels a bit like a KO upscaled design, this is as much a flaw of the source material as anything but it stands out on an expensive, larger figure like this - the knee joints don't work well together, the upper ratchets are stupid tight while the lower are fairly loose with a lot of play which requires extra thought - back-heaviness plus clumsy knee joints can lead to stability issues if you're not careful (the figure can be very stable, but it's really easy to align the knees forward and end up with tipping backwards) - no stop on the panel holding the head, so it can go in too far or lift out too easily The pluses and minuses duke it out a lot more than expected. The pluses do take it, but it's hardly a decisive victory and that's a shame. Transformation thoughts: - death to whomever put that tab on the strut holding the tail! That tab gets in the way of transformation and ends up popping the tail off every single time - as previously mentioned, transforming the backpack is a mess of friction elements that don't want to hold, dropping everything apart in an avalanche of panels and struts + the way the hands rotate and fold into the beast feet is very clever and works way better than it has a right to + the bot chest folding in on itself is both simple and clever * there's a lot that seems free-flowing but turns out to be very order-specific * SS86 Grimlock set a very high bar for a pleasing transformation which Slag here can't meet, but there's still fun stuff here Beast Mode pluses: + big and chunky! + cute triceratops look - I mean "tough triceratops look", yeah, that's it + articulated hips, knees, and jaw + nifty sculpting and painting gives the eye some extra life + tail incorporates gun storage + sideways pegs for stupid Daniel or stupid Wheelie to ride on beast back, works better than it does on Grimlock even + very solid + 3mm blast effect peg in mouth + lots of sculpted detail, some new stuff on display not in bot mode + nice paint throughout Beast Mode minuses: - hollowness on the upper 2 horns - very hollow rear legs - body shape has a big fall-off at the rear haunches instead of a more gentle slope - undercarriage reveals facade chest and bot feet, they're not too egregious but they are noticeable if you're familiar with the character design - facade gold vent bot feet at rear haunches don't sit quite flush with the panel they're above - loose rear ankle articulation (doesn't affect stability in most poses, though) - no tail or neck articulation - tiny gap behind the head when looking straight at the side The pluses take it here a little stronger than in bot mode, though not without drawback. There are facade elements used but it's not horribly so. The body shape having some compromises towards the back is the thing that probably gets under my skin the most. Overall, I'd probably grade Slug a "B" with provisos that could sway it half a point higher or lower depending on what you were looking for with this figure. Slag has really good points on nice sculpting and paint, some great presence; but is held back by a backpack that falls apart, mismatched joint tolerances in the bot knees, and some scale issues with the bot head and beast body. Also, Daniel is an utter waste of time with how poorly he's designed, his options are "sit here" or "sit there" or "do a terrible running-man", and no matter what he's got lots of hollowness and is painfully simple. Slug's biggest issue probably is that he's not as great as that Grimlock figure.
I’m a sucker for collapsible chest engineering. We don’t get it often: MP09 HotRod/Rodimus could, now SS86 Slag , and who else??? It’s very rare. We’ve gotten a few swapped chests in recent years but not many that actually shrink in width.
Got my copy. Love how there’s not much hollow spaces in robot mode and how the rear Dino legs fill out the robot legs. Very clever. Backpack could secure better(I see what the designer was going for but maybe they ran out of time to refine it to work as intended). Transformation is intuitive, just tricky when going to Dino mode and aligning the tail hinge properly.
Man, this thing feels so cheap. Especially compared to the wave before it. I guess it’s wave 2 syndrome as I’ve bought three transformers in the last month that were the second wave of ss86 figs and all three have been floppy messes.a nn Like even the ratcheting knees flop. And the elbows won’t hold up the gun. I’m gonna have to load this figure with floor polish just to get it to a basic level of quality, but even that won’t fix the other issues like the hollow parts and the cheap feeling plastic. Or the wings that pop off if you look at them wrong. looks good otherwise, but it makes me regret buying. I’m really gonna be more selective with purchases in the future I guess, because I’m not sure I’m getting much enjoyment out of things like this.
All the “hollow” parts he has are in service of the transformation, so I’m fine with them. I like him a lot more than grimlock, but I don’t understand why both studio series dinobots have robot heads that don’t lock in place
It's strange really. Looking around the area reveals some traces of stuff which gives the impression that there might've been plans on both Grimlock and Slag for the neck mount and chest panel to tab together and lock down for robot mode, but nobody came back to finish that particular job. I love both SS86 Slag and Grimlock, but I personally prefer Grimlock as if feels more 'refined' in design to me. A lot of that comes from the whole back/wings/tail assembly on Slag, which was a train wreck on the G1 toy, and only somewhat improved here. It's why I still have an appreciation for the POTP Slag mold, which folds the tail into the legs and ignores the back wings entirely, which works better for me, though that doesn't hide the rear dino-legs, and some people get cranky if their Dinobots don't have wings made out of body sections.
