Like fellow Dinobot Scorn, Slash is a brand new character created for Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction. New additions to the Dinobot ranks is a welcome concept as far as I’m concerned, and Slash looks as though he fits right in with the rest of the pack. And that’s quite a relief. When promo pics of this guy were first circulating through the Internets, he was looking like the latest victim of an overzealous designer — there was kibble everywhere and everything about him just looked… messy. Fortunately, those initial pics were a bit misleading as Slash turned out to be a pretty cool figure. Does he measure up to his mostly excellent peers, though? Let’s find out!
It’s fitting that the deluxe-class Dinobots have been coming packed in dino mode since that tends to be the key attraction for many fans. The first thing you notice about this figure when you spot him on the pegs 20 feet away are those colors — the color palette used is so vibrant that he almost looks as though he’s glowing right there in the package. It’s definitely eye-catching, and I understand why Hasbro went with these colors for the Dinobots.
Slash’s ‘bot mode is not the cleanest and most streamlined I’ve ever seen, and there’s so much going on that, from certain angles, he does look like like a mess of… jagged stuff. Looking at him head-on he looks cool; he looks like a warrior who could slice his way through any Decepticon bombardment. When looking at him from the side or from the back, however, there’s just so much going on that it’s difficult to even pick out the robot.
At first I thought that was simply sloppy design manifesting itself, but now I’m wondering if that is actually by design — could it be a sort of camouflage or something to that effect? It’s just too much of a mess to actually be that much of a mess, f you know what I mean, so I’m giving the design the benefit of the doubt.
Of all the Dinobots so far, Slash’s head sculpt looks to be the meanest so far. The lower half of his head reminds me of a furnace, like there should be flames visible through the vertical slats. The red of his visor kind of reinforces that idea for me. In a way, he reminds me of The Fallen’s original appearance in the War Within series.
For accessories, Slash comes with two sickle-type weapons that can be stored in his smaller dino arms in his alt mode. If you can forgive the color, they actually look like two of the nastier weapons we’ve seen from the Dinobots. They’re made of a softer plastic that’s slightly bendable, but not so much so that they can hold poses themselves. The soft plastic makes them easy to snap into the dino arms, and I imagine it’s less likely to take little Billy’s eye out.
In terms of articulation, I’m sad to report that he is pretty limited. He has a lot of kibble that gets in the way, and his range of motion isn’t all that great to begin with. He barely has any elbow movement at all due to those giant, Popye-like forearms of his, and there is no swivel at his wrists, so you need to be creative when it comes to posing him with his sickles. His knees fare a little better, but then those two green and black “hair” things, or whatever they are, that hide his hips get in the way of everything. Posing him can definitely be a challenge.
Slash adds even more color to the growing Dinobot ranks. Slash’s colors are the “softest” yet, which is ironic because he looks as though he may be the most dangerous of the lot so far. There are two more Dinobots on the way, barring any repaints, and I can’t wait to see them all assembled together.
Now, as troublesome as Slash’s ‘bot mode can be, I think his dino mode really picks up the slack. I think it’s the best-realized dino mode of all the released Dinobots so far, and even though he’s still a mass of sharp angles and shards, it all comes together more effectively here. It may be a fair assumption that he was designed with the dino mode serving as his primary mode, whereas the other Dinobots look great in ‘bot mode, but falter a bit in dino mode. That’s not the case here — Hasbro nailed the dino mode.
He actually looks good from any angle, and he’s the first of the Dinobots I can say that about. The only problem, really, is the way his tail is painted. It’s yellow plastic with some blue sprayed on, but it ends up looking rather green. I’m guessing the intent was for the blue to match the rest of the figure, but it looks noticeably off here.
His smaller dino arms look as though there should be some elbow articulation, but they only move at the shoulder. Due to the way his sickles are stored in his arms, elbow articulation would logically be impossible, but, even knowing that, I still feel it’s an articulation point that’s noticeably missing.
His dino jaw is decently articulated, so you can create a biting action or a screaming face, and his head seems to have a good deal of detail both sculpted in and painted on. It’s easily one of the better dinosaur heads we’ve seen because there’s a fair bit of “crazy” in those eyes; the red paint stands out beautifully and complements the silver teeth and black detailing nicely.
If you’re into the movie Dinobots at all, then Slash is worthy of consideration. I don’t think he’s going to please everyone because he definitely has his shortcomings, but his excellent dino mode makes up for however “clunky” his ‘bot mode happens to be. He looks cool on the shelf and when added to the larger Dinobot group. If you give him a chance, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. I know that was the case for me, but my expectations were pretty low going in due to the crummy promo images I’d seen.
Slash is currently popping up, along with wave-mates Strafe and Drift, at most retail spots. He can also be had at many fine online retailers as well.
