Oh be quiet, sometimes the low hanging fruit is too tempting.
It is safe to say that a lot of children like dinosaurs. I know I did growing up, Marissa did, anyone who grew up on Jurrasic Park did, and many more. A lot of people also enjoy robots, again, myself included (that should not come as a shock to anyone at this point). So, it makes complete sense for a toy company in Japan to make robot dinosaurs that small people can ride and that can turn into robots. These would eventually be merged into the Transformers, leading to what people now know as the Dinobots. Every now and then they change up the Dinobots, from Grimstone in Powercore Combiners, to the Age of Extinction Dinos, and most recently, letting the G1 dinos combine and giving them a new member, Slash, an AoE dino made G1 fembot. What better way to kick off this new site than with the new girl on the block?
Starting in the Dino mode, and while its not flawless, its a solid little velociraptor mode. There's a large gap in the body showing what part of it's the robot mode body and what part of its the robot mode legs, posability's almost non existant due to weight distrobution and the only moving parts in dino mode being the head, the jaw and the dino legs, and due to that weight issue, Slash always looks kinda fat. See, the weight distrobution means that the legs always have to be at a squat to keep the center of gravity, she's too front heavy and the tail weighs nothing. In order to not make the robo legs give the dino mode a fat body, you can bring the legs up to a not as drastic squat, like if a real velociraptor was standing, but the weight issue will me she just face plants.
One issue that I've been hearing people have about Slash is her intergration with Volcanicus, the Dinobot combiner. Or rather, how she doesn't intergrate with it. The reason being is because a lot of the Legends Class toys in a previous, and directly connected to Power of the Primes, line called Combiner Wars, each of the combiners had a Legends Class member on the team. Powerglide for Superion, Blackjack for Menasor, Shockwave for Bruticus are just a few examples, with the one combiner not to have a partner is the late wave Sky Reign. In the line between Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes, Titans Return, the Legends class figures could carry a Titan Master on them in some form, and these new Legends class figures seem to be continuing on from that, due to the Prime Masters of this line being retooled Titan Masters (I will talk about Titan Masters and Prime Masters when I review them eventually. For Slash, a panel on her back in Dino mode can be opened up and either a Titan Master or a Prime Master can sit oh her and ride her (which is somewhat amusing when the titan master used is Clobber or Ptero, the titan master versions of Grimlock and Swoop. The way it works is fine, if a little awkward for the Titan/ Prime Masters, and the space is used well in Robot mode. In a general sense, I'm personally fine with the Legends class figures not being in the Combined modes (even though some have tried to incorporate Slash, some to questionable results), mostly because a lot of the time, they were kinda useless. Powerglide and Viper basically acted as a gun extension for Superion and Galvatronus respectively, Scrounge was just a useless shield for Computron, and the others were just chest pieces which came off as a "better you then me" mode for them. Honestly the only one I can think of that actually works is Ion Scythe who came with Liokaizer, as it was just a bat that turned into a gun on a figure that didn't have a combined mode gun.
Onto the robot mode, and its a G1 dinobot robot mode alright. Red and silver with touches of gold, the dino legs becoming arms (something I think the only dino transformer not to do is Beast Wars Megatron and his Transmetal design), and all the dino kibble on the back, hoping you don't notice. Its a solid looking Legends class figure though and a lot of the dino kibble does hide well, with what doesn't adding some personality to her, like the tail up the back, and the dino feet giving something like rear arm gauntlets to her back. The dino head hides well in the spot when a Titan/ Prime Master would sit. The only bit of kibble that feels like kibble is the dino arms which are just stuck on her butt, but do help her sit down on ledges and the like. Posability's a lot better in robot mode with a traditional head swivel, ball jointed sholders with a notch cut out for a T-pose, but due to the molding on the sholders they can bit a bit hampered at times, elbow bend to 90 degrees and swivel, ball jointed hips, thigh swivel and 90 degree bend in the knee, more then enough for a robot the rough size of my palm. The only big flaw I can see people having with her (excluding her right to exist) is that she's kind of a girl in name only, a lot of the molding detail is gender neutral whereas a lot of other female transformers are very clearly female visually. This can be a good or bad thing depending on your view of character designs, but for me I personally like it because if people really hate the dinobots having a female member, they can easily imagine her as a boy. No harm, no foul.
Slash is a solid Legends class toy overall and a great way to start off Power of the Primes. My only big issue with her is a problem not exclusive to her, and I'll cover it when I get to the other Dinobots. For now, I'll be off to work on the Captain Underpants review on the main site, and the next review to come here will be another Dinobot, Dinobot Swoop.
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