Pokemon Fan Art Shows What Sandslash Looks Like Without Its Spines

gamerant.com:

Pokemon fan redesigns can take many shapes and produce some amazing new looks. Some artists like to combine two Pokemon through fusions while others create their own Pokemon from scratch. In a divergence from either of those styles, one Pokemon fan shared what they think Sandslash would look like without its quills.

Sandslash is a Ground-type Pokemon that was introduced in the franchise’s first generation. Its design is reminiscent of a Pangolin, featuring brown quills all over its back. It evolves from Sandshrew starting at level 22 and features a regional form which calls Alola home.

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This new look for Sandslash comes from Reddit user BlackCatJax, and it is quite jarring to see when compared to the original. Their design features zero of the quills that this Pokemon is most known for, making this new creature look almost completely unrelated. Their Sandslash still has its white belly, yellow skin coloring, and claws on its feet and hands, but now appears more closely related to Charmeleon. Both of those Pokemon share a similar body shape and size and would be almost identical if they were the same color. What is most clear from this recreation is how much of Sandslash’s 65 pounds are dedicated to this creature’s back quills. While not a large Pokemon in its original form, this version helps show just how thin Sandslash is in thePokemon universe.

This new Sandslash would likely lose quite a bit of the Pokemon’s defense without those back quills but may be much lighter and faster. It is unclear if that tradeoff would be worthwhile in the games. Unfortunately, it would also likely lose its ability to curl up into a spiny ball without those quills and be