No, just using the slizer head as a head does not qualify as 01 pandering.
To me 01 pandering would be designing something to look like or imitate the look and feel of early Bionicle/Throwbots/Roboriders as an attempt to garnish votes through peoples nostalgia. This can include build such as (with varying degrees of pandering):
Disclaimer: these are just subjective examples I found around the web and are not meant to accuse any of the respective creators for 01 pandering