The last wave of Kingdom was rather surprising in terms of how things were revealed. With how leakers got a hold of these figures unofficially before Hasbro made poor attempts to reveal them, many did not expect for us to have one more Weaponizer in a line full of Fossilizers! Metroplex is rumored to be in the Legacy line, but instead of being a new take on the Titan Class fella we got in 2013, he will instead be the Cybertron version, so it is interesting that Slammer is finally made in nearly a decade after his massive partner was released with only Scamper by his side! Honestly, it was fun to revisit Six-Gun once more and see how they can make this new guy turn out! But why not we see how he'll stack up as the last new Deluxe figure of the general Deluxe line?
Here is Slammer in his vehicle mode, which is a rather boxy tank than the norm. In some ways, it reminds me almost of Titanium Megatron, and while it's nowhere near as bad as that toy, it still doesn't feel like a refined alternate mode. The multi-colored layout of the vehicle doesn't have that same sort of synergy between parts, and I understand that he has to have some color breakup for the robot mode and/or prioritize the robot mode all around, but the turret looks pretty out of place with it being white compared to the predominantly light gray used throughout the toy. The bottom portion of the tank thankfully doesn't have any weird color discrepancies, but I can't ignore the design oddities like how the flow of the front of the tank works because of its torso hinge. And furthermore, is it me, or does the front of the tank look more like the front of some non-tank vehicle? Also, why is the serial number on the side of the tank mode instead of somewhere more hidden? Doesn't even look like it could work as a tank decal because of how slapped on it looks overall.
In general, Slammer's alternate mode feels like an incoherent mess, and even though I didn't expect him to have good tank modes like with Megatron or Warpath because he functions differently as a toy, that doesn't mean I don't like the stuff that he does all around. Much like how Siege Mirage's arms ruin the flow of the alternate mode, and much like how Earthrise Hoist's show-accurate design makes the front of the body feel too hollow for its own good, this vehicle mode kind of fails to work well as far as its alternate mode qualities are concerned. Sure, it looks more like a proper vehicle compared to Cog and Six-Gun, but that still doesn't stop him from having the weakest tank mode in the line. Also, that barrel doesn't stay on those 5mm pegs too well.
For a vehicle mode comparison, here he is with Six-Gun, and no, I do not have Scamper because I don't have Thrilling 30 Metroplex (yet). It's weird that these two get to come together since we never had any idea that Slammer would actually be made, but hey, they're together, waiting to reunite with their massive partner! As for vehicle mode synergy, I'll say that Slammer does look a little more passable than Six-Gun, who looks like a weird-ass Jetfire on steroids (kinda like a weird take on Energon Skyblast), but it's still not the best.
Transformation is very much the norm for Weaponizers in the WFC line, as it takes some partsforming to rearrange these parts from vehicle to robot. In short, it's the usual flip-out thighs that attach to the hips, arms reattacking onto the torso, and integration of the backpack. If anything, it's kind of a good thing this guy doesn't have any borrowed parts from anyone else, which is a treat for any newly tooled Weaponizer (aside from Six-Gun's weapons). The robot mode is rather strange, not so much because of the fact that he has one for once, but because of what it reminds me of. The head feels like a version of Tailgate's with the white helmet and big blue visor. The torso, meanwhile, feels like a mix between Ironfist's chest with the tank influence of G2 Megatron, and the arm cannon sticking out on the front is reminiscent of the Classics G2 Megatron figure with its weird arm cannon, though without a crummy spinning gimmick. As far as being an original figure is concerned, Six-Gun does a good job in making a new design for himself that his G1 toy never had. The color layout could be a little more spiced up for the robot mode like the crotch is while but the thighs and hips are not when I could imagine the latter being white to match the look better. Of note, his arms do have a similar thing to Combiner Wars Rook's forearms, where the weapons attach onto the front of the fists, though in addition to having hands this time, Slammer has posts instead of slots.
Head sculpt is generally a version of Tailgate's, which is amusing because this figure does have a somewhat rookie/youthful character feel to him. The bright blue visor doesn't help hide the Tailgate similarities, either. Anyways, his articulation consists of a ball-jointed head, shoulders that move front and back on 5mm pegs, in and out on shoulder hinges, bicep swivels at 5mm ports, elbow bends, a rather loose waist swivel on a 5mm peg, thigh swivels that feel rather tight by comparison, deep knee bends, and ankle pivots. Apart from the arm-mounted cannon, you can slide the tank treads off and have them use them as batons. One side of them is hollowed out, though.
For the Weaponizer functionality, you can pretty much remove the backpiece, treads, the barrel base, the hips, forearms, shoulders, lower legs, and barrel from the torso in order to prepare to make all of these crazy weapon combos.
And here are his parts attached to his wave mate, Pipes, who I must say is a rather nice retool of Huffer! I have used most of the upper body and the legs as a back-mounted dual-missile pod, while the tank treads are used a wicked sawblade, and the back piece is combined with the barrel to become a new arm cannon. The arms are now used as boots for him to walk on, with the pipes now serving as thrusters. I'm happy with how this turned out, and thankfully, the missile pods can be moved around so they don't have to be at an angle because of the back piece being swiveled around for Pipes. Now for a size comparison, you can see how he stacks up next to his teammate, Six-Gun. I'm sure both of them tower over Scamper and are immediately dwarfed by Metroplex, but let's be honest, these two figures are flawed in their own right. Six-Gun's robot mode is pretty cool, even though parts of him do feel a little undercooked, while Slammer feels kind of like a mix between Tailgate, G2 Megatron, and suddenly Legacy Bulkhead the more I think about it. Thankfully, there's a decent amount of synergy between the two, as they feel like they belong in the same line all around. So overall, Slammer's a decent figure with a few compromises here and there, mainly with the tolerances of the 5mm ports and the design traits he has that clash with each other. With some refinement here and there, he'd be better than he currently is. I do recommend you get him, especially since he completes the mini-Metroplex trio, though not at the full price he's going for right now.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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