Sludge of the Studio Series variety

 

Moar DINOBOTS!  Goddam life is good.  Sludge is one that I always wanted as a kid and never got.  I didn't get any of the Dinobots actually, until I got a gold box Snarl.  The Studio series took the wind out of Takaratomy's Generations Selects coloured versions made from the POTP figures, but with nicer paint, and personally I appreciate that as these Studio Series ones are looking good and a leader sized = Darn bigguns.

As I mentioned I had the POTP one before, and I suspect I'll refer to it once again before you finish reading this post.  Here is a link if you wanna have a look.  

This new Sludge is a big fellow, however not a particular hefty fellow.

As you can see he looks pretty neat in robot mode.  The dino bits are rather nicely hidden away.  The front legs tuck into his back, almost nice and snugly and the tails adheres to his legs pretty smoothly.  The dino head however, I am not too sure exactly what to do with, it juts awkwardly hangs there and I can't make it neatly fit no matter what I do. Nor do the little dino feet hide away. So the head and feet end up clashing a little bit.  So, I guess I'll just cover them with the wings yeah?

Looking down the big fella.

His head sculpt is pretty good and manages to get the feeling across that Sludge ain't the sharpest tool in the shed.  I always got the feeling that while he was a bit stupid, he was a gentle giant.  I love the blue eyes and the characteristic forehead crest thing. Very nice and cartoony.

Scrolling down his body, you'll see some nice enough detail.  I think I don't have much to say, he looks kinda bland in a way. Red chest, silver limbs, and black joints and hands.  It's perfectly serviceable.    

If we put him next to Snarl....

He looks a little on the small side.  I was always under the impression that Sludge was the heavy hitter of the Dinobots. Er, so the heavy hitter of the heavy hitters.  Next to Snarl, he looks a little thin.  I think it is due to the black thighs/groin and waist sculpt.  Oh well.

Sludge comes with a gun, which looks very reminiscent to his sculpted one from G1 days.  I like that it has rifling in the barrel.  You can attack effect parts as well.

To go with the gun he also has a pretty decent amount of articulated joints too!  What a champ!  HOWEVER they do feel slightly weak and a bit floppy at times.

He does come with ankle tilts, which is nice as his big feet allow so good stability, assuming your slightly weak joints hold up ok.  There is no forward/back swing on the feet.

As a leader he stands noticeably bigger than other leaders, for example Galvatron.  Is Galvatron just a small leader?  Is that what is going on?  Sludge though is actually a good size when stood next to Menasor though.

But with these guys, a lot of the love goes into the Dinomode, so let's do it.

Transformation is a lot more complex than you would think and there is some decent stuff happening in the legs, BUT it does make transforming the guy a bit of a hassle as bits clash with each other here and there.

When Brontosaurs explode!

Normally there is some step where I feel like I should have twisted the waist, or, uh, maybe not?  But Generally it's pretty simple, aside from the occasional clashing bit.

It would appear in these side images above, I have his front legs twisted around the wrong way.

Man, it looks amazing!  Well, amazing when you compare it to the G1 cartoon and original toy! It's so close to the 80s interpretation of a Brontosaur with a bit of junk in the trunk though, I will admit.

The greebles and sculpting on this mode is also deliciously 80s robot technology!

Articulation isn't too bad, he can:

• Open his mouth
• Look up/Down/left/right
• raise/lower neck (although fully lowered looks a bit whack)
• Decent bit of movement in the legs

There is a spot to store his gun in this mode, BUT it is really awful.  Underneath Sludge are his toes.  They are better supports than his dino-feet and he will have a massive dragging belly when you slap the gun on.  I really don't understand the reason why this is...

Underneath Sludge is a big gap.  And oddly it almost looks as if the toes could fit in there.  As far as I am aware, it doesn't really have any use aside from being a hole.  I feel like, perhaps, is the toes had a little hinge on them, they could have been made to fit in that gap, making him look more solid and removing the underbelly hang...

This is my main complaint with this mode, and really, it's fairly minor.

Let's move on to the other positive aspects.  The rifle can be mounted in other places if you so desire, but I would rather it just disappeared.

The mouth, which as I stated before can open and close, also houses a little laser tongue, which you can then attach effect parts to, this is awesome!

And there we go, really that is Sludge.  I don't feel as excited for this guy as I do for Snarl, but that doesn't mean he is a bad boy.  He just really does what he needs to do, so essentially the failings of this figure stem from the original.  It is still pretty good and I do love him.  However I think I slightly prefer him in dino mode than robot mode.  For some reason the bruiser feel that Sludge should have the Dinobots just isn't quite there in robot mode.  

He certainly looks great in dino mode though.  So I guess my 

Final Superfluous rating is:

A solid figure with great feels of your old toy