Of all the Age of Extinction Dinobots, Slug's visage in beast mode looks the spikiest and most demonic-- and that's REALLY saying something. Not satisfied with a mere three horns, Slug also has two horns underneath his jaw, and it looks like nearly all of this mode is made up of shards of metal spikes or bones; some nifty spine detailing is clearly visible down the back, and his tail isn't so much a regular tail as a ribcage with a larger center mass. (It should be noted that all of these gray horns and spikey bits are made of soft, rubbery plastic, but they aren't put under a lot of stress, so they don't have a tendency to warp.) He's got sharper teeth than any triceratops I've ever seen, and his eyes look absolutely insane, like slits within slits, just like most of the rest of the AoE Dinobots. Add to all this the red angular paint apps along his front head crests and the silver paint detailing on his face, and Slug is one wild-looking dinosaur of doom. His color scheme isn't movie-accurate, but in this case I don't mind, as it helps to differentiate him a bit more visually from his Dinobot brethren-- he's mostly dark brown-gray, light gray, and a rather nifty shade of bluish purple. The brownish gray looks pretty nice, but the light gray is unfortunately of that really blah shade I wish Hasbro would do away with already, though it does have just a titch of purple mixed in with it to help it go with the other colors a bit more. At least the light gray and the red and silver paint apps help to give some good contrast against the dark blue-purple, though. The metallic shade of black used for the dino claws is a good shade, too. This mode is largely solid-looking, and fairly proportional as far as fictional monster-dinosaurs go. There are a few minor robot extras visible, though, the most obvious being the robot toes sticking up from the top of the rear legs. The upper robot legs also don't peg into their slots on the underside of the brownish-gray rear spine piece, which makes this mode feel less solid than it should. For articulation, Slug can move at the jaw, shoulders, front knees, at one section at the base of the tail, and at the hips (barely) and toes (again, with limited movement). Because of his transformation and all the spikey bits, this makes him more limited in this respect than I'd like, but I honestly don't see how they could've done much better at this scale with this aesthetic. For weapons, Slug, has two lances, that oddly plug into holes on the sides of his stomach in this mode-- with the blades pointing waaay out. It looks very odd, and given that these lances are made of soft plastic, they tend to fall out of their holes rather easily. I tend to just leave them out-- which is saying something, considering how much I prefer my weapons storable in alt mode.
    Slug's transformation is only slightly more complex than a standard beast "stand me up and flip my head" transformation, with the head halves instead becoming shoulders while the robot arms are formed from the stomach and the dino front legs tab into the sides of his main body. Overall, there are certain aspects of this mode I find appealing, but by and large the body has some real problems going on. The main body is too skinny proportionally, and the dino legs pegged into the side don't bulk him out, they just look like... well, like really obvious dino legs hanging off his midsection. His tail section also just hangs below his butt in a rather unappealing manner. That said, his appendages look good-- his arms are nice and bulky, and I love how macabre the triceratops skull-halves on his shoulders look, with parts of the crests folded down to make the shoulders look a bit more substantial and three-dimensional. The legs also look nice proportionally, with the dino claws folding into the knees pretty well and the AoE Dinobot-standard "pointy knight boots" for feet. The headsculpt is also well-done and very un-movie-like, being a rather straightforward round knight helmet with a single visor that, unfortunately, doesn't feature any light piping. The mold detailing in general in this mode falls more to the "rocky, armory" kind-- impressive, given how much is shared between two modes, to give both modes such a different look. The paint apps sadly aren't nearly as numerous in this mode, with the head and stomach being the only parts that get paint apps exclusive to this mode-- the legs in particular could've used another paint app or two. For articulation, in this mode Slug can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points; three if you count the dino-half shoulder armor bits), elbows (at two points), slightly inward at the wrists, and rotation at the waist (restricted some because of the dino legs on the back), hips, knees (at three points), and slightly at the toes. This isn't quite as good as it seems, because of all the spikey bits and kibble on his main body, but he's still fairly poseable.
    The deluxe version of AoE Slug looks incredibly awesome in beast mode, with tons of incredible detailing that alternates between bones, spikes, and rocky armor bits. His beast head in particular looks amazing. In robot mode he's considerably weaker of a toy, with the dino kibble becoming a problem around the midsection, along with some minor proportional problems. All in all, he's about middle-of-the-pack as far as the "mainline" Dinobot toys go-- he's got some excellent redeeming features, but some annoying downsides, as well.

Review by Beastbot

*Toys "R" Us released an exclusive "Evolution of Slug" 2-pack, though the version of this toy released in that 2-pack is exactly the same as this (mass release) version; it is also packed in with an unaltered Dark of the Moon Triceradon (now Slug) figure, as well.

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