use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my @shape;

for (0..9) {
   unless ($_ % 2) {
      $shape[$_]->{shape} = 'rect'
   }
   else {
      $shape[$_]->{shape} = 'circle'
   }
   $shape[$_]->{coords} = [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9];
}

# what does it look like now?
print Dumper \@shape;

# and to get that slice:
for (0..$#shape) {
   print "shape $_ is a ", $shape[$_]->{shape},
      " (", join(',',@{$shape[$_]->{coords}}[0..3]), ")\n";
}