Dinobot Slash That Sounds Dirty Transformers Age of Extinction Generations Deluxe Class Item No.: Asst. A6508 No. A7815 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: Twin hatchets Action Feature: Transforms from Velociraptor to robot Retail: $14.99 Availability: June 2014 Other: M4 Series #007
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While this is the first toy with the name Dinobot Slash, I'm pretty sure that Dinobot slash has existed for years. One of the first things that I was assaulted with when coming online to see how the Transformers fans live was that there was a big subset of stories about Starscream and Megatron which have been referred to as "slash" for years.

Packaged in dinosaur mode, you have to massage a few bits in place to make it a solid dinosaur on your desk. The design is a little wonkier than the others, but it's no less charming - the original Slash design was sort of a conceptual army of sorts, a bunch of grey ones are seen in concept art following around Scorn on a bridge. He didn't make the movie, but the toy is pretty slick - the bright green and bluegreen skin make for a toy that looks like it was vomited up by the late 1990s. I bought this specifically because it reminded me of the The Lost World: Jurassic Park Chaos Effect toy line from Kenner in 1998. Oh that was a fine line - ugly, hybrid dinosaurs and wacky action features. I miss it so much. The dinosaur has little articulation - the head and jaw, the arms, and to some extent the legs. You can't muck around with the legs too much because it needs to balance, but it's pretty easy to get him standing upright. He feels sizable compared to the other dinosaurs in the line, and his spines are sort of featherlike and quite charming.

Transformation is one of the more annoying toys from this line - it's actually possible for parts to pop off. The little green spines are held on with loose clips in spots, so you can remove those. The arms pop off, but not easily. It's not quite the brick house that some of the other toys are, but it's still quite good. Peeling the hatchets out from under the dinosaur arms feels like something could tear some day, but for now they come out without too much effort. Fidgeting everything in place is, like most "beast" Transformers, a mix of the obvious and a few panels are placed in locations simply because that's what the instructions say. It's not obvious, and the design doesn't necessarily make sense in spots. Why does he have two giant three-clawed hands over his shoulders? Just because?

The 5-inch robot keeps the knight motif going only barely, there's a medieval helmet going on in the head but the rest of the toy just looks like a pile of dinosaur parts. The legs and articulation are awkward, but the dinosaur looks so cool I'll allow it. Parts of the transformation are quite fun, but once you get it in robot mode it's not like the arms and legs have a big range of movement. One of the more surprising things about this toy is that it appears my sample has no Autobot symbol on it - the other dinobots do, but not htis one. Go figure! The red eyes and black face work well with the greenish colors, but it's so dark it absorbs a lot of detail. With 14 points of articulation, the robot should move around quite nicely but there's only so much you can do when covered in feathers, spines, and dinosaur kibble.

One last little note - many Age of Extinction toys have hexagonal holes on the back. It turns out that Hasbro actually made some clear display stands that connect to these ports, but at press time they seem to only be showing up in Asian markets. I hope this will change!

I got this toy specifically because the dinosaur appealed to me - its Transformers-ness is secondary, the design is just so neat and bright and mean. Weird mutant neon dinosaurs are probably some of my most favorite things, so the robot.shtmlect of this toy is just a nice bonus. I'd suggest getting it if and only if you are hopelessly in love with the raptor mode, which I am, and/or if it's on sale. Target had it down to ten bones which was cheap enough for me to leap at it, and if you can find it for cheaper than that he might be worth snagging just to use the twin green hatchets with your other 5mm-compatible Transformers.

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