Name: Slog
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Combat Artist
Alternate Mode: Monster
MONSTER MODE
Height: 4cm Width: 6cm
A gold monster with black arms and yellow eyes, Slog is dominated by the brittle gold plastic that Hasbro seemed so fond of between 1989 and 1994, although mine has no cracks, thankfully (the same can't be said for my Bristleback). As with all the Pretender Monsters, Slog shares his plastic colours with Bristleback (gold) and Birdbrain (black). The gold dominates the front of the toy, although his back is black robot bits. This colour scheme is fairly uninspiring, and with such a reliance on the brittle gold plastic it's not really a good choice.
This is a terrible monster mode. While most of the Pretender Monsters are recognisable as being based on some animal, Slog looks like a fat bipedal... thing. His head is on the front of the toy rather than on top and it's difficult to work out what it's meant to be. He has tusks and a horn on top of his head and an upper jaw that looks like it belongs on a turtle. The arms end in blade-like claws and have big blocks on the sides (attachment points for Wildfly and Bristleback). When it comes down to it, Slog's doing an awful lot to make Monstructor work and suffers as a result.
The play value here is limited to swinging arms. Not surprising really, considering he's an ill-defined gold block. This is my least favourite Monster mode of the set, since it's such a weak excuse for an animal. The swirly brittle plastic just makes things worse.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Flip the legs out and flip up the head. Turn him around.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 6cm Width: 6cm
Again gold and black, but now the gold is limited to the sides of his torso and his boots - as well as the monster bits on his back. This colour scheme looks better than that of the monster mode, mainly because there's more black making it slightly more interesting. Slog has a yellow face, with moulded eyes and a receded mouthplate.
This is Slog's better mode but it's still not great. Those big blocks are still on his arms and he's still very wide, although now he's taller which offsets the width slightly. There's a gap in his chest where the head stows in monster mode, but since the torso is black you don't really see this.
If it weren't so wide I'd actually say this is one of the better robot modes of the set, but with the bulky torso, wide legs and the blocks on his arms, Slog looks like a fairly well proportion robot that's had too much KFC. As with the monster mode, the play value is limited to swinging arms. He has blocky fists now, with the claws sitting on the back of them, and can hold his lilac gun in either hand - although lilac on black and gold looks odd.
I'm underwhelmed, really. There's some promise, but this robot mode is essentially ruined by Slog being wide enough to form Monstructor's chest. It's not the worst robot mode of the set, but it's not a good one either.
The Pretender Shell
As with all the Pretender Monster shells, Slog's shell is a soft plastic case with a hard lilac plate on the back, and he fits inside underneath this plate. The shell is a cherry red colour, with a yellow pot belly, yellow eyes and some black warts on the forehead.
A very squat and ugly thing, this shell has feet but no legs and a rather unappealing organic sculpt - it looks like some sort of merman. And what's with those warts? He has an open mouth, painted yellow, and big long spines for arms which is kind of unusual, but interesting. The pot belly is amusing, but not really enough to save this from being a gruesome shell. The only other noteworthy aspect of this shell is that it carries Monstructor's gun on it's backpack, giving it a ranged weapon, albeit one that fire straight up.
Probably my least favourite shell of the set, thanks largely to the hideous looks. If it had legs and no warts I might be a bit keener, since there are some interesting features. But it's just so damn ugly.
VARIATIONS
None I'm aware of. Kakuryu of the Japanese Dinoforce is a repaint (with a different shell).
OVERALL
The worst toy in this set, Slog suffers from his position as the core of Monstructor. Having said that, the animal mode could have been better without compromising the gestalt. The shell is ugly and has no legs while the robot mode is really the only worthwhile aspect of this toy. Unless you're looking to complete Monstructor, Slog is a toy I'd recommend against - 2/10
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