Found Voyager Slog at Target last night. I hesitated picking this one up, since I really did not like the pictures. In person, it looks a little bit better, and it was smart to sell it in robot mode, which is clearly the highlight of this toy.
Because it was 19.99 (unmarked sale, I guess) I picked it up.
One of the best things about it is that the robot mode really does look as good as the promo pictures. Some of their previous promo/photoshops compared to the real products have been egregious, but this one looks good. Even a little bit better, because the candy apple red is shinier in real life, at least on certain parts. (The shoulder cannons are awful looking, the lances better in real life than they look in pictures, and the red on the dinosaur is actually quite nice)
Robot mode is a a heavily armored knight, and it looks great. Paint or lack of paint isn't really an issue since there is such a smart use of color and texture that it works.
The weapons can all be taken off, which is a blessing because they still look a bit on the ridiculous side. That said, you can put the lances on his back and the red weapons on his shoulders. Neither looks bad, but it is a bit overkill. Also, the connectors for the lances are great in one way since they rotate and you can, in theory, put them in in different ways. However, the connectors stick out, especially in dinosaur mode, and they really don't go where you might want them in robot mode. I was hoping they'd work kind of like Unicron's wing connectors, and they don't. It would have been great to be able to swivel the lances up and then back and out of the way, but you can't really do that. Disappointing.
The robot is poseable, though a bit awkward here and there. Still, apart from the tail/belt in the middle, I think it's good. The tail/belt doesn't really work. You can position them so they are on Slog's back, and they stick out, so that's not a great solution, but it does look better overall. I wish they had put some swivels on the tail pieces so they could fold up flat along the back or the legs.
There are some kibble issues, and I wish the upper body and leg pieces locked more solidly in place, but I think it succeeds overall. It is not a poseable as some other Transformers since both dino parts and the lock issues interfere. That said, there are lots of joints, swivels, and ways to pose the limbs, so it's not a brick.
There are some really clever uses of plastic and paint, and the head and shoes, while continuing the knight/elf motif, are not quite as out of place or ridiculous as on previous dinobots. In any case, I really like the robot mode.
The dinosaur, though...
Here's where the design starts to fall apart...literally...because I can't see where or how it is supposed to stay together. The sides of the dinosaur have tabs in the middle that don't really go together well. They are massive cheats in the way they are attached to the stumpy back legs, making this a great big dino statue. Except it doesn't hold together.
If there is anything holding the neck/upper back plate in, I can't find it. This means just handling or moving the dinosaur can cause it to fall apart or come completely out of alignment. It doesn't help that most of the dino body is soft plastic, absolutely none of which tabs in. All the clever stuff to get it to stay in robot mode either isn't there or doesn't work in dino mode.
On mine, the entire front half of the dinosaur is unstable. It doesn't lock in or peg in, and picking it up leads to a giant flop. Handling it can cause the back plates and tail to also come out of alignment, since none of it is secure or stable.
It's bad. Really bad. Embarassing.
If you get it all together, it looks decent from some angles and horrible from others. The weapons and lances don't add a lot, and they are awkward to try and pose.
This feels like a design that exceeds what can be done with a Voyager. It works for the robot, but the dinosaur is a mess. Had this been Leader size, maybe they could have made all the ideas work and had a bit more plastic/joints/area to play with.
In any case, I have mixed feelings. Great robot. Almost worth getting just for that. Disappointing as a dinosaur.
ing much! But only because I'm jelly... 
