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Here’s another older figure that pays homage to an original toy, though this one’s not quite as obvious. While Cybertron Blurr and Smokescreen are pretty much direct updates of G1 characters, and others like Cybertron Breakdown GTS and Energon Downshift are close enough to count, Slugslinger is almost a tribute in name alone. Well, that and his Alternate form.

In Generation 1, there was a character named Slugslinger. He was a member of the Targetmasters bunch and was, like his recent counterpart, a dual cockpit jet. The two are actually very similar in jet form. They have the same obvious feature of the twin cockpits, the same sort of diamond shaped body, and the same tailfin sort of set up going on. The similarities end there.

While the original Slugslinger’s bio lists him as a rather gutless blowhard, Energon Slugslinger is billed as a weapons loaded powerhouse robot with an impossibly fast vehicle mode. Also there’s pretty much zero resemblance between robot modes. The wings are positioned completely differently, the heads look nothing alike, heck, the transformations generally share nothing in common at all. Still, Slugslinger is likely never to get a “true Classics” release so this is probably your best bet if you want o beef up your Classics Decepticon forces.

But enough about the G1 toy, let’s move on to the Energon toy.

This is a really awesome toy, trapped in a really weak design. The robot mode is one of the most styleish looking in recent years and he certainly looks tough from the cybernetic eye to the large shoulder mounted launcher. The vehicle mode is very unique and pretty streamlined when transformed. It’s difficult to pick out the robot bits from the jet. The colors are pretty varied but they really work pretty well together. He certainly looks like a tough soldier.

The issue with this toy is his floppiness in pretty much all areas in both forms. His transformation is extremely complicated for a deluxe sized toy. The shoulders have several points that have to fold around and flip up on top of themselves, the crotch area doesn’t quite peg securely in place enough o hold it’s halves together all the time, and he suffers a bit from having a “head on a platform” transformation that never quite works. The ankle kibble doesn’t peg in place at all. Getting back and forth between his two forms is involved (mostly due to the shoulders) and everything needs to fit just properly in order to make things work right.

The shoulders, which I know I’ve mentioned at least twice now, are the real killer. They don’t peg securely at all. The upper arm sections are way to short for the robot mode as well. This isn’t helped by the huge spikes on his elbows that constantly run into the wings. Really what it comes down to is better pegs. This toy NEEDS more, larger, better pegs to hold it together. The result they were going for looks really nice, if you can get him to hold together.

This toy is soon to be released for the Transformers Collectors Club as an exclusive recolor/remold. They are giving it a new head and calling it Airazor. While I’m not a member of the club and won’t be getting Airazor, it is a nice idea for anyone who has the previous Botcon exclusive set. Some people complaint hat Tigatron and Airazor don’t have Axalon alt forms, but it’s not inconceivable that they had Cybertron forms, or even that maybe they reverted into their Protoform states during the evacuation of the Axalon. The skinny robot of this toy makes it a decent enough choice to make a female Transformer and the chest area does sort of resemble Airazor’s hawk chest in shape. Really other than the wings this is a pretty decent match in robot form for Airazor. The real issue is that Airrazor is a pretty small character to be remade as a Deluxe sized toy.

Anyway, back to Slugslinger. This is a really nice looking toy in both modes that suffers from severe peg issues. Hopefully they fix this in the upcoming Airazor release.