POTP Slag Figure Review.

Slag was actually one of the Dinobots I owned as a younger me, to be specific, I had the G2 green one somehow, perhaps soon after I had discovered the wonders of Ebay and I bought a  not so good condition blue Grimlock (I suspect I got ripped off).  It was at the moment, I discovered that not ALL Dinobots were equal.  While I had played with a friend’s Grimlock, Swoop and my own Snarl while also knowing that Sludge was  very similar to Grimlcok, I had NO idea about Slag. 

Getting my hands on the G2 one showed me that it was not a very good toy.  While the dinosaur mode was (naturally) awesome, robot mode left a lot to be desired. 

This however is not a review of the G1/G2 toy.  I got the Power of the Primes version soon after buying Sludge as I was wondering how he would turn out, after all the bar was pretty low.  Luckily this guy is a pretty nice upgrade.




Oh by the way, his official name is Slug, but I'll be using Slag.  You know why? Because his job is to melt things, and slag is a form of liquid metal.  It just makes sense. 　More So than Slug for sure.  Yes, I know it’s an insulting word for women with loose morals in the UK, but it also means liquid metal (just to reiterate).

Starting in robot mode, since he is packaged that way he looks pretty good.  However from the back, half the dinosaur is just sitting there looking right at you.  Apparently Slag is a remould from Sludge.  However Sludge had a pretty simple and obvious transformation, it seems to just make sense to adapt it for Slag.

He is characterised by his big old head within a vegetarian dinosaur and it's cool.  I really like the head sculpt and on top of that I like the way they used a kind of dark brown plastic with a metallic look to it.  His big optics stare out from within.  It is just a really great sculpt!!  On top of that, get your fingernail in there for some left and right head turning movement baby!  That is one more step up from the G1 toy!

Although I always wondered, why is it that so many Transformers sacrifice peripheral vision in robot mode?

(Because it looks cool!)

The chest is big and chunky and his arms are pretty normal.  There are no mini-”wings” to this one as the back of the dino mode doesn’t split.  One thing on mine though, the hands fold into the forearms, but there is something restricting them to come all the way out.  As a result my one looks a tad limp wristed.



On the plus side, he has this delightful gun slinger, cocky way of holding his gun with these hands.  The gun is also nicely moulded and is the same one as Sludge’s.  I do like it as a weapon.  Shame he doesn't get something Slag specific however.

His thighs are pretty small and the same nice colour as the robot head.  Underneath those knees though, yeeeeesh!  There be some big clogs hanging on the bottom!  Of course these are the other half of the dinosaur mode.  Luckily they have enough detail and stuff to look like legs and remind me of the good old days and toys.  Yay.  The knee bend placement is actually a little bit low.  It looks like the knees are higher than they really are and from certain angles the legs can look a little bit odd.

Nicely they also have heels that flip out with movement from the folding up of the dino legs.  It's a nice touch, although relatively unneeded, as the tail fits in there and makes a pretty solid heel as well.  I read somewhere that he is apparently hard to make stand, but I have found him quite easy to get into a bunch of dynamic poses that are generally hard for other figures to do.  This means he seems to have quite a solid base.

Once again the Prime armour is there.  You can plonk it on his back, but his already impressive back-jut is then made comically large.  There is also the good old pregnancy armour mode, which.  Well, I am sure you might know that I don’t really like this option. Mounting some weapons on it makes it a bit better and you can give him some Galaxy Convoy style gun blasting options if you are so inclined.



Poseability is as before, really good and are generally hindrance free.

• Swivel Neck, biceps, waist
• Hinged Elbow and knees (Knees look a little bit low), dinosaur jaw
• Ball jointed shoulders, hips.

Robot mode looks pretty solid and he look cool with the other Dinobots.  You can see how Slag and Sludge share some similar design and  this ends up with Sludge looking small.  I had a reason for that last picture there, but I can’t remember what it was.

Transformation is super simple. 

With no points really worth mentioning.  It is simple, but at least it means you can play with him easily.  The only point of contention is when forming the dinosaur head.  The instructions neglected to inform us about moving it up.  Without doing this the frill stays connected to the torso and it looks pretty uncool.  Move it and it looks much, much better!

He has the base colours there, which are needed I think (I’m not talking about green here either),  I rather like the black stripe that runs along his rips up the golden bits that are his toes.  I like to think of them as a pipe that leads from the air intake (his golden bit on his back) to his mouth for making da flames!

The horns can be rotated of you need to.  On mine anyway, I’m not sure if this is all of them, or mine are just loosed.   Once again, Slag has some of the gold covered glass type action going on and again it looks great.  His head really shows off how nice it can be.  The other places where is is featured is in the tail and on the rear legs.

The tail look very similar to Sludge’, but you’ll notice is actually has different sculpting on the inside.  I do like the sticker looking paint applications from the shins that are now on the tail still.  Looks good.

You can open his jaw, but because it hides his robot face, it ends up being a freakishly monstrous bite.  Or flamethrower action, you choose.

Articulation is what you’d expect really, a solid body and movement at the limbs.  Remember to wiggle the dino head up, otherwise the poor guy will be neckless.

The armour can be used on the  back and I like to make it a gun placement.   A Titanmaster or Prime guy thing can be put in there, or you can use it to make some Dino-Rider action! He also has ports for making them stand if you don’t want to use the armour.

Once again, he matches rather well with the other Dinobots.

Overall Slag is a fun figure.  Considering how much I disliked the G1 toy, I am pleasantly surprised at what they did for the POTP toy and I have found myself enjoying it a lot.  Sculpting is great, especially  that face, while paint is lacking, it doesn’t seem obviously so and he seems to e adequately cartoony and toy er Y as well.  The Dino mode is about the same, while lacking in colours there is enough sculpted details on him to keep you interested.