Geckobot is a basic Beast Machines Transformers toy. One of the mid-year releases, Geckobot is one weird toy but a welcome addition to your Maximal toy ranks.
Beast Mode:
In beast mode, Geckobot is a flying lizard. No, he's not a Fuzor - such animals do exist, but they glide rather than actually fly. His color scheme is very bright and a practice in contrast. Whereas most of his main body, arms and legs are dark green, details on his beast mode head, back and tail are gold and red. This gold and red pattern is also used on his wings, which are translucent purple. This makes Geckobot very striking in appearance.
On top of color, Geckobot is full of detail. He manages to look techno-organic, not leaning one way or the other. For instance, although his forearms are very rounded and organic in shape, they do have mechanical details on them. His face is very expressive. His jagged looking teeth show that this is one serious beast to contend with. Lift up the top portion of his head to reveal his Spark crystal, which doubles for his translucent beast mode eyes!
For those who like to have fun with your toys (imagine that!), you can stand Geckobot on his hind legs and put his two front hands together or out in front. Combined with his toothy grin, he looks like he's deliciously happy about something.
As a flying lizard, Geckobot has fifteen points of articulation. This includes his action feature built into the wings. Move the forward most wings and the back ones move as well, resulting in something of a "slicing action". His head can also move from side to side - a nice touch. Geckobot's beast mode is nicely made and molded. Very cool.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
Begin by straightening out the rear beast mode legs. Now turn the lower leg around, and then turn the foot around. Repeat with the other leg. You will note that the back of the beast mode can split in half. Split it up and then swing the hinge connected to the main body up. Fold back the beast mode head and fold the beast mode tail up. Straighten out the arms and turn the robot head around. Geckobot is in robot mode!
Robot Mode:
In robot mode, Geckobot is best described as weird. He is still mostly green, but unfortunately with the beast mode head tucked back and the tail in the back, some of the color flare from the beast mode is lost. Some fine details such as silver accents may have helped bring out the details on this toy more. His robot mode face is dark green with yellow spray ops and translucent purple eyes.
Geckobot's weirdness comes in his body proportions. Properly transformed, his arms can reach to the floor. Once can of course pose him with his arms up, but it makes the toy grossly out of proportion. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your personal sense of aesthetics. There's no denying that Geckobot looks fierce, especially since his teeth gritting robot facial expression matches the toothy grin of his beast mode.
In robot mode, Geckobot has seventeen points of articulation. If anything, he's posable despite his odd appearance.
Overall, Geckobot is a neat toy - but one that is hit or miss. Some may like his weird appearance, but others will be turned off by it. B-
Updated thoughts (December 23, 2021):
As the years have gone by I have actually found myself growing fonder of this toy. Its design is just so out of the blue and decades later I dare say Hasbro and Takara Tomy have rarely done anything as "different" than your typical Transformers figure as this.
