War-weary veteran of ten thousand battles on a hundred worlds. Dedicated his life to recording the sounds of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict: the nervous laughter, the cries of pain, the blistering explosions, the chilling quiets. Hopes his work will one day serve as a grim reminder of the awful price of war. Can audio-record up to 20 years of sound. Armament is purely defensive: smoke discharger combines with dual repulsors. With his partner Raindance, combines to form Slamdance.
First/Last Comic Appearance (US) - Issue 47, December 1988 / Issue 48, January 1989
Figure Details
AKA 'Slam Tank' by Keith's Fantasy Club
Additions/Mods:
- Added an Autobot symbol to the side of the tank
Review
I had no idea that Grand Slam existed until recently, as he was quite late to the party in terms of
Blaster's other mini-cassettes. But, reading his rather OTT bio, I feel I have done this war-weary veteran an injustice. Anyway, he was rather unique in that he could combine with his pal
Raindance, to form a combiner called
Slamdance, which sounds more like an American sport than an Autobot. Anyhow, in one of the less-expected 3rd party homages this year, a company called Keith's Fantasy Club (or
KFC, see what they did there?) elected to visit these characters. Nothing that KFC has done thus far has really interested me, but I thought these characters might be worth it at the price. Was I wrong?
Appearance (Robot Mode) 7/10
This figure is similar to
Laserbeak et al in that he does not have a humanoid mode, with the main mode in this case being a tiny but unfeasibly well-armed tank. It's nice enough I suppose, but could do with being more rigid. It has a digger-style barricade at the front, and a multitude of chromed guns forming the turret. This figure is very successful in homaging the original, as all of the weapons are slight variations on the originals. The colour scheme is suitably garish in the way that only late G1 figures are. There is very little in the way of paint , which I think is a tad lazy and lets the overall figure down somewhat.
Appearance (Alternate Mode) 6/10
This is a cassette which is compatible with the original G1 cassettes as well as the
BTS offerings. It is quite nice and does evoke the original pretty damn well, but is just inescapably bland. Save for some black paint and some gold detailing (which is relevant to the combiner) this is one boring piece.
Transformation 7/10
There's not a major amount to do here, most of the more complex transformation is not relevant unless you are combining the figure. Basically the tank tracks are split at the front scoop and are rotated so that they tab in and from the main body of the cassette. The turret is stripped of most of the weapons, and is rotated horizontally and then vertically into place. That's pretty much it.
Poseability 6/10
This figure has a turret which can rotate on its axis, as well as pitch up and down. That's about as much as you can hope for with a tank, I guess.
Quality 6/10
I'm really not overly impressed by the plastics used on this figure, nor the lack of detail as I perceive it regarding paint apps. My main comparison for a figure this small is
Perfect Effect or BTS, and unfortunately Keith's Fantasy Club have a way to go before they can compete with either of these 2 companies. Both offer better plastic, tighter joints and more frequent paint apps than this effort.
Overall - 32/50
I have scored this figure low but it is important to remember that most people will just be using this to form the combiner, the review of which can be found elsewhere on this site. As an individual component this figure is lacklustre, with a tank mode which lacks coherence and a cassette mode which lacks, well, anything of note. The chromed weapons are probably the nicest thing about this figure, and while it adheres rigorously to the G1 character of old, it falls some way short in terms of its quality.
