Sling (BW)

The name or term "Sling" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Sling (disambiguation).

Sling is a Predacon from the Beast Wars Neo portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

For crying out loud! I'm not a dinosaur! I'm not even an actual reptile! I'm a mammal ancestor. Damn it, why does no one read the literature!?

It’s tough to make one feel bad for a Predacon, but Sling (スリング Suringu) manages. This poor dimetrodon is the brunt of everyone’s jokes, including his own teammates’. Saberback revels in tricking him into believing falsehoods, DNAVI takes glee in abandoning him on alien planets and forcing him to do what she asks, and the others just talk about him behind his back. Sure, he’s naive, and a little dim, but what he’s done to deserve that level of cruelty is anyone’s guess.

Sling is enthusiastic, eager to please, and when given room to shine, can be a somewhat competent soldier. He’s armed with a multi use Tail Bunker that serves as a whip, blade, and cannon, and can protect himself with his Sling Shield. If things are getting too ugly, he even has a third mode that allows him to disguise as a flower, capturing any unwitting Maximals who aren’t paying too close attention to their surroundings. Hopefully someday he can be recognized for his potential, because as it is now, all it may take is one bad day for this pitiable Predacon to snap.

“	I feel like you guys order me around all the time, and I don't like it!	”
—Sling, "Mirage of the Sand"

Fiction

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Beast Wars Neo cartoon

See? I look like a chimpanzee.

Voice actor: Monster Maezuka (Japanese)

Sling was among the Predacons stationed on Gaia, along with his commander Magmatron. When they noticed five new Maximal recruits landing on the planet’s surface, he was ordered, along with the others, to deal with them. While the others fired on the inbound Maximals, Sling hid in a patch of nearby brush in flower mode, eventually capturing Stampy unawares, and holding him hostage. When the Maximals tried to rescue their teammate, Sling, along with his teammates, confronted them, but were suddenly frozen in place by Heinrad’s freezing of time. Held still for long enough for Heinrad to take back Stampy, once things returned to normal, he was left stunned by the events that had just unfolded. Once Magmatron and Big Convoy began to duke it out, Guiledart took precautionary measures and demanded that DNAVI teleport them back to HQ before things got messy, taking all Predacons away from combat, bar Sling, who was almost forgotten about by his own team. Bummer. After begging, DNAVI begrudgingly teleported him, too, though. Sling, along with the other Predacons, was lectured by DNAVI for their failure in combat. Big Convoy, Move Out

Sling was with the other Predacons when they listened to Saberback, via transmission, detail his magical powers. Sling was in awe, shocked that he had never known that Saberback had power over wizardry, but Guiledart called Saberback out on not possessing any real special abilities, other than being able to transform into a flower. Sling later came to Saberback’s aid when he was being pursued by Longrack and Colada. When Guiledart and Saberback began to bicker, Sling called attention to the fact that the more important situation was retrieving the Angolmois, before firing on the two Maximals. Later on, when Maximal reinforcements arrived, chaos broke out, and at one point, the Angolmois capsule was thrown in Sling’s direction. Guiledart screamed at Sling to catch it, but the Predacon wasn’t all too coordinated, and it instead fell into the hands of Heinrad. After the Maximals had taken off with the Angolmois, Guiledart blamed the loss on Sling, but Saberback came to his defense. When DNAVI was ordered by Magmatron to transport the Predacons back to the ship, Sling was forgotten about once more, having to beg her to teleport him back, too. Chase the Mysterious Capsule

Sling was on the Dinosaur, and was on board with Guiledart’s plan to retrieve the Angolmois capsule located on the frozen planet Solid. His first move upon arrival was to bury the main Maximal group underneath snow with Saberback. The two Predacons then rendezvoused with Dead End while the Predacon fretted about potentially damaging the Angolmois capsule by losing it underwater. When Sling called him unreliable, and asked if he needed any help, Dead End dove under the water and told them he’d do it himself. When the ice Sling and Saberback were standing on began to melt, they requested DNAVI teleport them off-world, but the AI demanded they call her “Anastasia” before she assisted them. They reluctantly agreed, and were transported back to the Dinosaur. Burning Heart Below Freezing

Sling participated in Guiledart's plan to attack the Maximals on Maderan so that they could have more time to locate the Angolmois there at their own pace. Sling was teamed with Guiledart himself, and they focused their efforts on disabling Stampy, Longrack, and Break. They succeeded in capturing the latter two with an electric trap, but Stampy himself was able to escape, much to Sling's chagrin. Guiledart wasn't too concerned, though, telling Sling that he'd be destroyed one way or another. They both found themselves shocked when Stampy showed back up to free the prisoners... temporarily. Magmatron swiftly arrived and recaptured them, watching in glee as his Predacon troops tortured the Maximals. Sling in particular reveled in poking them with his "Tail Bunker". Big Convoy then arrived and prepared to fire on the group with his "Big Cannon" in order to free his soldiers, to which Magmatron responded by teleporting the Predacons away from the battlefield and back to the Dinosaur. Hang in There, Stampy

When the Predacons entered the orbit of the planet Donovan, none of the troops wanted to beam down due to the fact that it was essentially all sand and desert. After all of the others had refused, it eventually came down to Sling, with Guiledart forcing him to go. Although he began to protest, Guiledart buttered him up, calling him the Predacons' "trump card", which was enough to convince Sling. Once he had landed, he stumbled upon illusions of Guiledart, Dead End, and Saberback, which called him useless. After the apparitions disappeared, he found Colada and Break, and he immediately fought the former to let out his rage at having been insulted earlier. In the midst of their brawl, the real Predacons showed up, and Dead End tried to involve himself in the battle. Sling prevented him from attacking Colada, exclaiming that he knew what they really thought of him, and stating that he'd try to take credit for his work. The canyon on which they were dueling then began to collapse, leaving Sling in the sand lunging at different mirages of Angolmois capsules while Colada escaped. When the real capsule was sent flying his way, he missed catching it, and it flew over him. Later, when he and the other Predacons were able to take down Break and Colada, and prepared to finish them off, they were all blown away by Big Convoy's "Big Cannon". Mirage of the Sand

TransTech

Sling was killed with a pipe in a skirmish with Bulletbike after the latter woke up in an Offworld zone. I, Lowtech

Beast Wars: Uprising

Sling was a member of the Resistance assigned to work with Magmatron and the crew of the Dinosaur after they returned from space and declared for the Resistance. He and the new second-in-command Archadis still remained outsiders among Magmatron's close knit unit, however. When Magmatron and the others chose to abandon the Resistance and join the Ex-Bots in Proximax, Sling and Archadis returned to the Resistance. Cultural Appropriation

Toys

Beast Wars

Venusaur! I choose you!

• Sling (Basic, 1999)

• ID number: D-31
• Release date: January ??, 1999
• Known designers: Takashi Kunihiro (TakaraTomy), Masakatsu Saito (concept art)

Part of the first wave of Beast Wars Neo products in Takara's Beast Wars toyline, Sling is a Basic-sized figure that transforms into an organic Dimetrodon, with an opening/closing mouth. In robot mode, his back-sail (now located on his left forearm) can open to form his "Sling Shield", while his tail ends up on his right forearm to form his "Tail Bunker"; a non-firing "gun" that also doubles as a whip (in-universe, of course). His Predacon spark crystal is located on his robot mode abdomen, underneath his beast mode head.

Sling also features a third "Trap Mode", which is basically his beast mode with the back-sail opened up, making him look like a strange alien flower. The sail/flower has a spring-loaded pressure-fire trigger/flower stem in the middle that snaps the whole assembly shut like a bear-trap when pushed. The instructions also suggest rotating all of his beast mode legs upside down and splaying them wide open to reveal "grass" detailing on each foot's underside, while also spreading his robot mode feet out to become two smaller "flowers"...riiight... (his cartoon character model sheet suggests these are meant to be flowers, so let's just go with it).

This mold was later used to make the Walmart-exclusive Dinobots Sludge.

• More information on Sling at TFU.info

 

Left: Takara packaging
Right: Sonokong packaging

• Prairie Showdown: Stampy VS Sling (VS set, 1999)

• Takara ID number: VS-31
• Sonokong ID number: DX-03
• Takara release date: January ??, 1999

Sling was also available in the "Prairie Showdown" (草原の対決 sōgen no taiketsu) two-pack with the Maximal Stampy, also released in the first wave of Neo toys. Both toys are identical to their individual releases.

Sonokong also released this vs-pack in Korean Beast-War Neo markets. "Dimetron" is identical to the Takara releases of Sling, other than the packaging and Tech Spec cards.

Notes

• The animators of Beast Wars Neo seem to have misinterpreted Sling's beast mode as some kind of cartoonish dinosaur, depicting him as being able to walk on two legs. It should be reiterated, however, that Dimetrodon isn't a dinosaur, and in all likelihood was strictly quadrupedal, similar to an alligator or Komodo dragon.

Foreign names

• Korean: Dimetron (디메트론 Dimeteuron)