OBLIGATORY: I have a Kickstarter running right now to print a first It's Walky! book collection!
Usually new toys show up in, like, Southeast Asia first. That's closer to where the factories are, and you gotta add in Pacific Ocean Ship Time before things eventually show up in North America. Not this time! Suddenly, and weeks ahead of schedule, the first wave of the next Transformers subline, Power of the Primes, appeared in an Arizona Target. They were also found in Dallas and Michigan that night, once we figured out the DPCI number and could track the toys' appearances in Targets across the country. Today I showed up at a Target where no fewer than two other Transformers nerds were also there to ask the same question as I, and after a set of toys had already been put on hold by an unseen fourth (at least) nerd. There were no toys for any of us there then, but I found a lone Slug at another Target on the way home.
(It was mildly hilarious to me that this rush to Targets, crowding myself out, was very likely my own fault: I'm the one who published how to easily locate these toys at Targets online, and this knowledge was very quickly spread to the major websites. Oops! Too helpful!)
Slug is the new name for the Dinobot triceratops Slag, who can't be called that anymore because, as Dr. Kelso once reminded us on Scrubs, "Slag" is a gendered insult in some parts. You can still call him Slag though if you wanna. No one will stop you.
The gimmicks in Power of the Prime are... storied and legion. Okay, so each Deluxe comes with a little bit of armor, right? You plug that into their chest, easy as you please, and also there's this removeable center bit on the chest armor that you can replace with a Prime Master, which is sold separately! Prime Masters are exactly like last line's Titan Masters, except instead of transforming into a face, they transform into a symbol. There are 12 symbols, one for each of the original thirteen Primes (minus one?). The idea is you plug this Prime Master into your larger Transformer toy and you imagine he is being bestowed with godly powers.
There are trading cards included to this effect. There are 12 possible cards with every toy, each explaining what power up they get from a certain Prime Master. I don't recommend completism.
ALSO, not mentioned on the exteriors of the toy packaging itself is the fact that the Deluxe Class-sized toys such as Slug are combiner guys again. Slug's "chest armor" is actually a very thinly-disguised combiner mode fist. Hidden within his chest is a Combiner Wars-style combiner plug. That this is possible is detailed on the instructions and no where else. Surprise combiners, guys! (if you haven't seen the internet) The decision to obscure this is very strange.
Slug is essentially the original G1 Slag, but with modern articulation. He's got translucent parts that are painted gold on the inside to give him that original flavor, and he's... not really trying to be a modern understanding of a triceratops. He looks like a 1980s triceratops (again) but with a slightly less dragging tail. I recommend mistransforming him so he has a neck, keeping him from looking TOO doofy. The biggest difference his in robot mode is that he doesn't have the wings on his back made of triceratops hide anymore.
He comes with a gun (and his chest armor/combiner fist) but not a sword. The clear plug on the outside face of the chest armor can be removed and held like a gun.
And once you have the other four Dinobots from this toyline, you'll be able to make a Dinobot combiner.
