War for Cybertron: Kingdom Slammer

While I didn't buy Generations Metroplex - essentially the centrepiece of the Thrilling 30 portion, celebrating that anniversary of this toyline - I do own the original, and have always been sufficiently intrigued by his companions that I would sit up and take notice if they ever got independent toys of their own. When Sixgun was given the Weaponiser treatment in the Siege toyline, I somewhat expected Slammer to follow a little sooner than two years later... but, let's face it, much of this War for Cybertron line has been long-delayed supplementary Generations/30th Anniversary material...

As with his Siege comrade, Slammer has been updated into Weaponiser form, though this feature appears to be a less significant part of Kingdom's 'play pattern' due to the introduction of the 'Fossilisers'. Let's see how this affects him, both as an individual toy and as accessories to the others!

Vehicle Mode:

You'd think I'd be thoroughly bored of TransFormers tanks by now, and I've certainly voiced enough concern over the sheer number of them appearing over the decades and across the various continuities... Admittedly, I'm not overly excited about trying to find something edifying to write about this particular tank... But when it's a tank that pays homage to an accessory from a G1 cityformer, I'm more than happy to make an exception. The G1 toy was a very simple accessory to Metroplex, comprising just three pieces of plastic - the turret, the tank body, and an antenna that folds out from the underside of its underside for Slammer's alternate configuration as a comms tower for Metroplex's city mode - with very little sculpted detail, to the point where the tank's 'treads' had to be stickers.

This one is larger, obviously, but also vastly more detailed. It takes the very basic sculpted linework of the original (which I believe I ended up supplementing with spare stickers) and adds the sort of detail one would expect from a full-sized vehicle. Obviously, we're not talking Siege levels of detail - Hasbro clearly learned their lesson pretty quickly on that score, and are not keen to revisit the excess of panel lining and redundant surface features of War for Cybertron's inaugural chapter - but they've certainly packed in some interesting details. At its core, it's remarkably similar to the original, from its semi-hooded (and largely immobile) turret to the grooves running across the body below the gun barrel. Naturally, the treads are far more detailed in terms of sculpt, but they also have quite a nice bit of paint on the faux-wheels.

There are raised panels, sculpted hatches implying concealed weapons, sculpted headlights - both raised and recessed - and even a raised viewport right on the front of the vehicle. Details on the back of the vehicle resemble the traditional representation of built-in missile pods, though they could just as easily be enclosures for power cells. Just above these, the cylinders mounted in the slanted section of the tank's rear are of indeterminate purpose. The turret is similarly well-detailed, but highlights one of the oddities of this particular tank - its symmetry. In particular, it has a couple of raised circular details that could be thought of as hatches, where a traditional (terrestrial) tank would have only one, generally slightly offset from centre. The only difference between the left and right side of the turret is in the central detail right at the front of the white section, where the gun connects. On the righthand side, it merges with the main part of the turret as it slopes gently upward toward the middle. On the left side, it's raised higher, and so ends abruptly as a squared-off raised detail. Curiously, Slammer's hands are visible in this form, but they're sculpted subtly enough that they look like intentional detail except on close inspection.

The paintwork raises this figure above the original as well, with a dark grey rim separating the dark grey plastic treads from the pale grey plastic tank body. This same dark grey paint extends up the sides of the tank at the rear, and runs in two bands below the front of the turret. The only paintwork on the stark white turret itself is some silver on the circular, hatch-like details and on the tip of the gun barrel. There's also some pale grey paint on the sides of the tank at the front, where grey plastic has been used above the treads, and it's not a particularly great match - there's a subtly warmth to the pale grey plastic that is absent in the paint, which also appears to be a shade lighter. Other than this and the aforementioned paintwork on the wheels, Slammer is bare of paint - nothing on the back end despite the panels of dark grey paint on the sides, and none of the vehicle's lights have been picked out with paint. His single Autobot insignia is stamped into a small, recessed area on the front of the vehicle and, for some reason, his product number has been stamped conspicuously onto the left side of the tank.

Disappointingly minimal though the paintwork is, where this figure really starts to fall down is in functionality, because that turret can't turn. Due to the way it's mounted, all it can do is raise, but even that looks unnatural, because it's the entire turret hinging upward from the back. I'd have said that one of the fundamental necessities of tank toys is that the turret should be able to move appropriately. While the reduced movement on this particular figure is understandable due to the way it transforms, and it's certainly not unprecedented, it still has a negative effect on the toy's overall play value. Exacerbating this flaw, the grey tip of the turret, to which the gun barrel attaches, is incredibly loose, and it's the only thing holding the two halves of the turret level. Of all the places the plastic tolerance issues could have been lacking, this is one of the worst.

Of course, what's really odd about this figure is that it's come out at the very end of the Kingdom line, yet fits more closely with Siege Sixgun than any of the other Kingdom releases, simply because Hasbro became so desultory about the line, allowing it to devolve into half continuation-of-Earthrise and half perfunctory-celebration-of-Beast Wars.

Robot Mode:

There is something charming in how chunky Slammer is in robot mode, particularly in how his massive chest and lower legs contrast with this tiny thighs, pelvis, waist and arms. He's almost a TransFormers Animated design, but rendered in squared-off and precise, real-world detail rather than the sweeping curves of that TV show. There's also something very traditionally G1 about his appearance: the chest is the front of the vehicle, the legs are the back of the vehicle, the arms come out of the middle, and the treads... form a backpack. He almost looks like a Cosplayer, wearing a somewhat oversized robot suit at a convention.

Naturally, there's practically no additional colour variety in this mode - the only colour not visible in vehicle mode is the black used for his upper legs and the missile pods on his lower legs. What makes this all the more peculiar is that the grey is so dark, I'm surprised they bothered with a different colour at all. What's even stranger is that, since transformation reveals a few parts that were completely concealed in vehicle mode, there was an opportunity to increase colour variety beyond the basically monochrome shades he has, but it was not taken. It's not uncommon for a TransFormers toy's robot mode to develop large patches of colour that are either minimal or simply do not occur in their vehicle modes, so Slammer's a little disappointing on that score. That said, I guess the idea was still to match him as closely as possible with Generations Metroplex and the other existing companions, so red was about the only other available colour, and I don't think that would really work with Slammer as well as it does with Sixgun. Possibly the worst aspect of this dearth of colour is that Slammer has so few robot mode-specific paint applications. More dark grey linework is exposed on his shoulders, the missile pods on his lower legs each have silver caps... and that's it.

Tangential to this, the shortcomings of the Weaponiser format also become more apparent in robot mode, as the missile pods on the outsides of his legs would possibly have been useful to his vehicle mode, but they're trapped on the inside, facing the base of the turret. Flipping them to the insides of his legs would have placed them on the outer face of his vehicle mode, at the expense of some of the G1-homaging details. The only other option I can think of would have been to put them on a hinged panel that could be used to close up the hollow calves in robot mode, thus slimming the lower legs slightly. I guess he's at the limit of his parts count, but they are separate panels pegged into his legs... so attaching them via a hinge that would allow them to swing around surely wouldn't have been impossible.

Being, essentially, a living weapon, Slammer seems somewhat underarmed compared to Sixgun. His vehicle mode gun barrel can either peg into his backpack or - the preferred position according to the instructions and box art - to one of the pegs in front of his fists. For those times when he wants to get up close and personal, sections of his treads can be detached from his backpack and combined with the base of vehicle mode's gun barrel to form a very wide chainsaw. Thankfully, this holds together a little better than vehicle mode's turret, though the clip between the two haves of the treads is a little flimsy, and they tend to slide apart with very little pressure applied.

Slammer's head sculpt feels a little bit like an afterthought since it's basically just a box, seemingly designed to resemble the tip of the G1 version's aerial, but with a face. His visor is painted something very reminiscent of AllSpark Blue, while his battle mask is painted silver, and the cylindrical protrusions from either side of the jawline have led some to conclude that this design is a sort of homage to the Autorooper introduced in the Kiss Players line. I think it's quite a fitting head for a toy like this, based on a city-former's accessory that has not previously had a robot mode of its own, but that doesn't mean it's not a little bit boring.

Alternate 'Heavy Autorooper' Robot Mode:

Speaking of the Autorooper, an alternate transformation quickly emerged, raising the upper body and tilting the head back into it, to give him a stockier appearance, with the raised shoulders also contributing to the appearance of greater bulk. Of course, all of this is belied by the narrow waist and tiny thighs, but it's a neat additional fanmode. The only problem here is that the hinge in the extended waist is a touch loose.

As can be expected of Weaponisers, Slammer's transformation is essentially a matter of pulling one form apart, rearranging the components, and then plugging them back together. As such, it's largely quite simple, though fitting the legs around the arms for tank mode feels a bit more fussy than it needed to be. I don't object to this kind of partsforming - it works remarkably well in the context of the toyline and its gimmicks, and I felt that the Sixgun and Brunt were pretty much the best figures in the Siege line - but it does feel as though Slammer is a bit more wasteful than the others, since the upper body section is one huge chunk with a few smaller hinged parts, which has an impact on his appeal as a Weaponiser. Both his robot mode and vehicle mode look good, and vehicle mode, despite not having a rotating turret, is more easily recognisable as a tank than the more sci-fi design of Brunt. There's also the simple fact that it resembles any kind of vehicle to consider, versus the bonkers appearance of Sixgun's alleged flying machine. The only real problem I've found with Slammer is that the dark grey piece which forms the bridge between the gun barrel and the turret in vehicle mode is an incredibly loose fit pretty much wherever it ends up, in either mode. Its best fit is as the grip of his tread/chainsaw weapon, or on to the back of the rear/base section of the tank using its single socket rather than the intended pair of pegs.

Given the partsforming, it's good to see that no concessions have been made in his articulation. The standard limb joints are all there, apart from wrist rotation, with the bicep, waist and upper thigh rotation joints being 5mm peg/sockets to facilitate his Weaponiser gimmick. Additional to this, the shoulders rotate 360° around their Weaponiser pegs, swing a touch over 90° out to the sides and the elbows manage a fraction over 90°. His hips offer enviable range, forward, back and out to the sides - in the region of 100° in each direction, assuming the treads have been detached from his backpack and turned into his chainsaw weapon. The feet only offer ankle tilt but, because that joint is also used in transformation, he gets a full 90° on each foot. However, Slammer is fairly top/back heavy, and the absence of any heel spur means he's inclined to topple over backwards unless carefully balanced. Since the waist is another Weaponiser peg/socket, it has free 360° rotation, and the transformation joint above this allows his chest to tilt back, kind of like reverse ab-crunch. Sadly, this joint is somewhat loose and doesn't tab or clip in to its ideal robot mode position, so I find his upper body tends to flop backwards at the least provocation (even worse in the 'Heavy Autorooper' configuration). The head is on the standard ball joint and, given that it's basically a box, it has a surprising amount of tilt to complement its 360° rotation, while its transformation joint also allows him to look upward, albeit while his head sinks back into his body.

Weaponiser Mode:

Unlike all the Siege Weaponisers, Slammer has just one 'loadout', and none of its components have been given names or any other kind of designation. Worse still, it's all remarkably wasteful. Since the front of the tank/robot's upper torso is a single unit above the waist, it forms a huge backpack to which the legs are attached - the thigh joints plugging into a 5mm socket on the calves to create two banks of eight missile pods. This backpack then requires the use of a 5mm socket to mount it on the host robot's back... and sadly the only WfC Autobots I own that aren't Weaponisers themselves are Optimus Prime, Cliffjumper and Huffer, and only the first is of a suitable size/shape for the pairing to work. Slammer's arms become platform shoes, the treads and the base of his cannon join to form the very same chainsaw Slammer himself can wield, and the remaining parts - the central portion of the tank's base and the gun barrel - form a somewhat dubious cannon for mounting on another robot's arm or for wielding as a handgun.

I think this is one Weaponiser where the fanmodes are going to be far more interesting than the rubbish Hasbro was able to conjure up... Not least doing something a bit more useful with his arms. I'll never understand how or why they thought turning parts of one robot into shoes for another was a good idea.

Metroplex Antenna Mode:

Since I don't have Generations Metroplex, this gets filed under 'fun but mostly irrelevant'... A minimal reconfiguration of tank mode (whether the turret/arms are left in place or attached somewhere else being entirely up to the user) with the pelvis extended out the front and the gun barrel attached to one hip as the 'antenna'. Surprisingly this 'feature' is not even documented in the instructions, presumably because Hasbro would prefer to treat it as an 'Easter egg'... Which, from my point of view, is just another way of saying they don't officially want to connect a Kingdom toy with a figure released a little over eight years before it.

While Slammer doesn't reach the dizzying heights of awesome that Brunt achieved, or even impress as much as Sixgun, he's a decent enough figure. I almost wish Hasbro hadn't bothered fitting him into the Weaponiser subset, since doing so has compromised his own robot mode without providing a particularly cool weapon loadout for other figures... and the fact that he has only one official loadout configuration is pretty pathetic.

He's far from being the best Weaponiser available, and probably would have been pretty disappointing if he'd been released as part of Siege, certainly as the closest Autobot counterpart to the excellent Brunt. However, as part of the unbalanced and unsatisfying final chapter of the War for Cybertron Trilogy, he makes a great accessory for Generations Metroplex, and I'd certainly recommend him for anyone who has that figure. Even then, I'd have one reservation, in that his colourscheme just won't match - Generations Metroplex was largely stark white, where the G1 original was a very pale grey with a few white components. Kingdom Slammer's pale grey is darker, and so wouldn't match that well with the G1 toy, let alone the larger remake.