Another set of my favorite Transformers team is now complete. That just leaves FansProjects (soon), FansToys (where is Grinder X version), and GigaPower (painful to think how long this will take).
Hammer looks great as a triceratops. I like his overall proportions. The paint application and line work really enhance the robotic dinosaur appearance. His frill is three hinged pieces so can be arranged. His horns do not rotate. His mouth and head are on separate hinges. His dinosaur toes are on ball joints. Both his front and rear legs are double-jointed and connected to the body by balljoints. His tail is hinged at two places, but the top section is meant to peg in to the rear.
Transformation in and out of dinosaur mode is pretty easy. There is nothing new to be seen in the mechanic that's not already been experienced on previous Slag figures. The only tips I have are to reverse the head so his dinosaur mouth can close and to unpeg the tab at his crotch to extend his abdomen, making room to fold his legs. There are plenty of ports and pegs, resulting in a very solidly held together dinosaur. You may need a spludger to pry things apart.
Slag is unusually tiny compared to the rest of the team. He's a hair shorter than Growl, but his lack of bulk makes him seem a lot smaller. The head sculpt looks really good. I like how he also has a grumpy face like the rest of his team. I love the metallic blue and red paint on his shoulders and chest. It's a pity his whole chest is not painted in that same metallic red. As is typical with Dinobots, the figure has plenty of chrome pieces. Although not as bad as Thunderous, his feet are kibbly. His dinosaur legs are constantly popping out of their sockets.
His head is on a balljoint that has unrestricted movement because his dinosaur head sits well out of the way. His shoulders are on balljointed hinges that swing upward. They sort of butterfly because of the balljoints. He swivels at the biceps, wrists, waist, and thighs. His hands are fixed in place. He has double-jointed elbows that go past 90 degrees and single-jointed, ratcheted knees that don't. His hips are on universal joints. Although his feet have no articulation, his toes appear to be on balljoints.
His accessories include a pair of rifles, a pair of swords, a replacement rifle for Thunderous, a combiner sword, a combiner hand, and a bunch of combiner pieces. The rifles are an identical pair that feature some line work and silver paint. They can store in dinosaur mode. The swords feature red and silver metallic paint. Both weapons use the not quite 5mm pegs that fit well in his hands. The combiner sword is a large piece of transparent plastic, embossed with some line work and some Cybertronian writing. The replacement rifle for Thunderous is a mirrored piece so now you can plug a gun on either side of him in dinosaur mode without one being upside down. The peg is longer so the new gun sticks out a little bit more. The combiner sword comes with two handles, one for the regular bots to hold and one that forms with the combiner sword that comes with Blade. Amazingly, the big sword can store on his wings in robot mode. I have no interest in the combined mode so the connector pieces will stay in the box. There is an extremely tiny peg piece that can be easily lost.
I initially avoided Thunderous because of some less than favorable reviews, but eventually came around and am glad I did. Hammer is probably one of the better made figures in this set. While not seemingly as durable as the Toyworld Dinobots, I feel more at ease transforming Hammer than I did the other figures in this line. This is a really fun set to play around with. They all look great and are suitably menacing. I originally intended to use these guys on my CHUG shelf because of Thunderous' size, but now want to use them on an IDW inspired shelf next to Generation Toys and Transform Mission figures. I hope that these three companies are able to avoid overlapping their product lines too much so I can quickly fill out an IDW shelf.
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