Quote:
Originally Posted by Pascal
In one of the vids put out by Hasbro, they were almost calling the rubber bits a feature... as if.
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Well, sort of. The video here,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqStMMjTfcU, says that the soft plastic "enhances the play experience". I get that the soft plastic is there for safety reasons, and also so that Slug's "spikiness" does not have to be toned down in favor of safety, but really. Sure, there is a different tactile sensation, but to me, it does nothing for "play experience", so that claim is kind of a stretch to me. And also people are mentioning concerns over the longevity of the soft plastic, and yeah, I do feel wary that this plastic will harden and crumble into dust in a few years. Is there any sort of chemical treatment that can allow the plastic to retain its flexibility, if indeed it is at risk of hardening over time?
Personally, I anticipated that Slug would be my least favorite Wave 1 Dinobot, because compared to Grimlock and Scorn, he seemed to be lacking in terms of eye-catching features or gimmicks. Scorn was unique for having his arms form from his tail and head, which no other Dinobot shared. Voyager Grimlock was a larger toy, so he was physically imposing compared to the others. Plus, he had the chomping gimmick in dinosaur mode, which I played around with a lot, to be honest. Compared to those two, I saw Slug as rather "meh", since he also had the similar sort of dinosaur head shoulder pads Grimlock had, which came off as a bit lazy to me. And well, he was, to my initial perception, a standard symmetrical robot.
But after having him in hand for a while, Slug really grew on me. I guess my greater dislike of Slash helped to elevate Slug's standing in my eyes. I came to like his transformation and the displacement of ribcage mass by turning it into the robot mode forearms, which was creative. And while several other people found Slug's dinosaur mode weapon storage ridiculous, I really liked it, as I may have mentioned earlier in this thread, since it reminded me of scythed chariots, which according to the Designer Desk video, was exactly the kind of effect they were going for. Too bad storing Slug on a shelf in dinosaur mode with the swords sticking out from his sides takes up quite a bit of space on the shelf. Well, that was long, but just my two cents on Slug.
