Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Core wave 4 (Evolution 1)

Dinobot Sludge (Brontosaurus)
Soundblaster (Kingdom Soundwave redeco)
Dinobot Slug (Triceratops)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Core4

Despite being happy with my own kitbash of Soundblaster from a spare
Soundwave, I decided to get the official one on a whim.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/CoreK3 - Soundwave mold

CAPSULES

$12-13 price point. I got 'em all from Pulse, since I haven't seen the
wave in stores yet (oddly I saw wave 5 at GameStop weeks ago).

Dinobot Sludge: Pretty bad robot mode, weirdly bad dino mode, solid
combiner mode. Really only worth getting so you can complete Volcanicus, and
to add insult to injury mine was incorrectly assembled.

Soundblaster: Original mold strongly recommended. This has slightly
fewer paint apps for some reason, but is otherwise of the same quality.
Recommended if you already have Soundwave, strongly recommended if you
don't.

Dinobot Slug: Okay robot and dino modes, if clearly making compromises
for the combiner mode. Mildly recommended.

RANTS

Packaging: The same no-plastic Core packaging as previous Legacy waves,
but now with the Evolution trade dress. They continued with having the QR
codes on the instruction sheets. Note, the websites omit "Dinobot" from the
names of the Dinobots, because they don't need to follow the trademark rules
the way packaging does. The websites removed the Evo-Fusion entry from
figures before this wave even came out.
The Dinobots have a Combiner Wars style logo on back indicating which of
the six components of Volcanicus they are, with an outline of Slug's frill
behind it. This is instead of an Evo-Fusion logo.

Volcanicus Speculation: While it hasn't been officially confirmed as of
the time I wrote this review, it's pretty clear that there will be a
Dinoforce redeco/retool set either for mass market or as a Generations
Selects exclusive. Dinoforce used the Monstercon Pretender inner robots with
new dinosaur outer shells and redecoed Monstructor as Dinoking. Near as I
can tell, every one of the Legacy Dinobots shares the same combiner location
as their analogous Dinoforce member, meaning that Dinoking could just be a
simple redeco, although a few head retools might be in the offing.

AUTOBOT: DINOBOT SLUDGE
Assortment: F7174
Altmode: Brontosaurus
Transformation Difficulty: 8 steps
Previous Name Use: Gen:PotP, Studio (G1 was just Sludge, RiD was Dinobots
Sludge, and then the character was stuck being Slog for a while)
Previous Mold Use: None
Function: Demolitions
Special Unit: Dinobot (Volcanicus 1 of 6)
Origin Universe: G1
Signature Weapon: Massive Strength - Exerts stomping power that can shatter
concrete structures.

Sludge may not be the smartest Dinobot, but his strength and endurance
make him unstoppable in battle. Combines with other Dinobots to form
Volcanicus.

STR 9 INT 3 SPD 3 FRB 2

Yeah, there's no actual weapon, either sword or rifle, for this toy.
The extra budget went to making the figures combiners. And they gave him
slightly better techspec numbers than the G1 toy had (poor G1 Sludge had SPD
2 and FRP 1).

Packaging: Two twisted rattan strings (one of which is rather
elaborately looped around the upper body) hold the robot mode onto the inner
tray, while the dino head and neck is held separately by a single string.
The instructions do show to attach the head, which can't be attached
in-package without requiring a non-standard box.
The back of the instructions have combiner mode instructions plus how to
attach to Slug's upper torso mode.
The defect mine has (see below) would not be visible when the toy is in
the box.

Robot Mode: Okay, so granted that trying to make combiners at this scale
is going to require a lot of compromises, but this robot mode seems to have
outright surrendered. The thighs are not directly connected to the pelvis,
instead the dino rear legs connect to the sides of the waist and then the
boots connect to the bottoms of the dino leg chunks, with a sort of fake
thigh piece connected to the side of the dino leg chunk to visually fill in
the gap as long as the legs don't bend at all. It doesn't help that the
*pinned* pseudo-hip piece on one leg was installed upside down, so the legs
end up uneven and the robot leans slightly to the left. ("We'll need to
determine what needs to be done. Have you a list, Mr. Greenslade?" "Only a
slight one.") The big thunder lizard thighs keep the arms from resting at
the sides, although the shoulder struts stick out pretty far anyway and look
a bit odd due to the usual "wings" of the G1 Sludge design being attached to
the arms rather than the back. The head is right, at least.
3.5" (9cm) tall and a mix of light gray, black, pale gold, and red.
It's entirely made of light gray plastic. Gloss black paint is used on the
helmet, the centerline of the chest, the fists, the pelvis armor (entirely
coated), and the dino rear feet on the top of the thigh chunks. The face and
forehead tablet are painted silver, the toes are gold. The right and left
torso are painted gloss red. The optic visor line is painted metallic blue,
although it's hard to tell right next to the gloss black. No Autobot symbol
for this mode. A bit of less obvious paint is that the shoulder wing bits
are painted silver, but it kinda blends in with the light gray plastic.
The neck is a swivel and there's a swivel between the chest and
abdomen. The shoulders are ball joints out on the ends of struts, with no
other arm articulation. The legs are a mess, with ball joints sticking out
the sides of the belt, and knees that are restricted ball joints on
inward-facing struts.
Loads of 5mm sockets, many of which are for combiner mode. One on
either side of the head on top of the torso, one in the center of the chest
(with a sort of target reticule molded in the inside), the inner face of each
forearm, the outer face of each fist, and the underside of each thunder thigh
(these are where the legs connect in Volcanicus mode). The fists hold 3mm
pegs, and there's a 3mm peg (more or less) on the back of each shoulder.

Transformation: Turn the waist, fold the legs at the sorta-knees and peg
the boots together, but don't fold them all the way up yet. The arms swing
together over the chest and peg together, then snap the dino neck into the
front part and fold the robot feet over the fists.
The assembly error in the legs of mine does not seem to impact
transformation or the stability of the dino mode, but it does mean the
combiner will have one leg a little shorter than the other. Annoyingly, this
means I might have to buy a second Sludge if they ever hit shelves, because
this part is riveted and not really user-fixable. Time to see if Hasbro
Pulse customer service is worth a sou.

Altmode: Um, it's sort of a brontosaur, I guess? HUGE thighs in back
but the rest of each rear leg is pretty tiny. The tail is just a stub, like
a Manx cat of a sauropod. It also looks like it's squatting down to make
coprolites.
4" (10cm) long from noodle to stubby tail. All the plastic is still
light gray. The beast head and upper neck are painted gold with metallic
blue eyes, and a red Autobot symbol printed on the forehead. The gold toes
end up on the center of the back, and the front half of the back is painted
silver.
No articulation. There's 3mm pegs sticking out from the centers of the
front hips, and there's 5mm sockets on the upper rear of the rear hips. The
underside of the neck and head is hollow, but not in any useful way for
connecting things.

Combination Mode: Sludge forms the abdomen and thighs of Volcanicus,
just as Rairyu (Birdbrain) formed the lower torso of Dinoking and came with
the thigh combiner kibble. Rairyu's shell was a brontosaur.
The weirdness of the robot's legs are explained by the fact they sort of
swing outwards to become Volcanicus's thighs. There is one piece of Slug
needed to properly make Sludge's torso mode, the shell of the tail (without
the Volcanicus head) attaches to Sludge's chest BEFORE you attach Slug, to
further secure things. And Sludge's arms lock onto the sides of Slug's chest
mode. The whole thing is very solid, I keep finding new tabs and pegs to
shove into place to make it even more solid. In fact, it was difficult to
get the two apart once properly connected.

Overall: Yyyyyeah, only bother with this one if you want to assemble
Volcanicus. It does a good job as a lower torso and upper legs, and not at
either of its other modes.

DECEPTICON: SOUNDBLASTER
Assortment: F7176
Altmode: Cassette Player
Transformation Difficulty: 8 steps
Previous Name Use: (Japanese G1), Gen:FoC, TF:A, Gen:Siege
Previous Mold Use: Gen:Kingdom
Function: Mercenary
Special Unit: None
Origin Universe: G1
Signature Weapon: Shock Blaster - Fires beams of pure electricyt to stun
enemies