Slo

Slo is a Beastformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

He was hilarious in Zootopia.

Slo (スロー Surō) takes things at his own pace. A slow, slow pace. A mild-mannered beast of incredible intelligence and diplomatic skill, he served as White Leo's Chief of Operations during the Great War against Alligatron's Decepticon-backed insurgents. In this position... well, he mostly slept, but would always wake up whenever Leo came to him for help, and invariably gave him the answers he needed. Nobody ever saw him in battle, to the point where many believed he simply couldn't fight at all, but others whispered that one day, Slo would reveal incredible power...

...and as it turned out, they were right, but not in the way they thought. Following the war, Slo turned to ruling the country of Hamanan as its King, and together with his subordinate Emperor Earthhog, the two have turned an already popular country into the biggest tourist attraction on planet Beast. While Earthhog travels the globe on promotional journeys, Slo stays at home on the Müller Peninsula, the heart of Hamanan's entertainment empire. There he indulges in his many hobbies, from music to sports, and even stars in movies!

It's impressive that a beast so slow can find the time to do so much... but as it turns out, finding more time is his special power. His MVP Weapon, the Slo-Bar spear (スローバー Surō Bā), can actually slow down time around Slo for up to sixty seconds, giving him the ability to move at super-speed relative to everyone else.

Fiction

Beastformers comic

One of the combatants in the great war between the Beastformers' and the Laser Beasts, Slo was present during the battle between the Hunters and Battlecruisers. Beastformers VS Laser Beasts

Legends comic

Slo took part in the final battle between the Beastformers and the Laser Beasts on Beast in 2023. He watched as a portal opened to reveal 2021-based Transformers and their allies fleeing the end of the Legends World. The Road to Legends' Revival Chapter 1

Toys

Transformers: Beastformers

• Burst Sun Special Set (Multi-pack, 1987)

• ID number: 66
• Accessories: Spear

Released in the third series of Takara's Beastformers toys, Slo is an anthropomorphic three-toed sloth in green robotic armor. His left "hand" is posed in a more flat-palmed pose, meaning he can only hold his weapon in his right hand. The Battle Emblem on his chest reveals one of three symbols when warmed up; Fire, Water or Wood.

During this line, Būpink was only available in the Burstsun Special Set (バーストサンスペシャルセット Bāsutosan Supesharu Setto) multipack. This blindpacked set contains 10 figures out of a potential 14. Thankfully, these were not randomly-packed, and came in two distinct lineups.

The first version has White Leo with an exclusive "Burstsun" Battle Emblem, Black Jaguar, Būpink, Dog Hunter, Dream Eater, Muskhorn, Pangol, Slo, White Cow, and Udan.

The second version has Ghost Alligatron, Black Jaguar, Būpink, Crowmax, Earthhog, Mingo Kid, Pangol, Slo, White Cow, and Udan.

Beastformers

• Slo (Beastformer, 1988)

• ID number: 66
• Accessories: "Slow-Bar" MVP Weapon (usually)

Re-released in the Transformers-less Beastformers sequel series, Slo was given a straight re-release with new packaging and a new, more filled-out bio card with corrected coloring. This new card also gave his weapon, now branded an "MVP Weapon", the name "Slow-Bar". Speaking of the weapon, there is also a chance he could come with the weapon from one of the other Beastformers in his shipping case; matching the Beasts with their same-numbered weapons was part of the "role-playing game" attached to the line, encouraging kids to buy more of the toys

He was sold in the second assortment of individually-packed Beastformers, with a peg-hole in the top flap, and a sticker on the bottom with his name and role on it. This series did not have any kind of "rare card" random pack-in promotion.

Late in the run, the "mood ring" styled rubsigns were replaced with new rubsigns that revealed full-color Fire/Wood/Water images on black backdrops. (These rubsign variants also happened at the same time in the Hasbro Battle Beast version of the line.)

Notes

• Slo's original Japanese name is a transliteration of both "slow" (スロー) and a portion of "sloth" (スロース). Thus, his name can be Romanized as "Slo" or "Slow", but obviously we like the former.
• His 1987-release art (seen at the top of the page) shows him with an incorrectly-colored gold spear and a black face. The 1988 version of the art corrects the spear color, and also angles it spearhead-down to allow him to fill out the space in the card better. However, the solid-black face-fur remains.
• The Burstsun Special Set art gives him tan-colored fur with white streaks on his face.
• His 1988 bio card gives him the nickname "Nama-chan" (ナマちゃん), based on namakemono (ナマケモノ), the Japanese word for "sloth", with the "-chan" honorific for someone the speaker finds endearing. Folks love sloths.

Foreign names

• English: Slowpoke Sloth