General Information:
Release Date: October 2009
Price Point: $11.99 (varies depending on retailer)
Retailer: General (Toys R Us, Target, Wal-Mart etc.)
Accessories: None
*Images and text from Hasbrotoyshop.com:
If there’s a negative angle to be found in any situation, AUTOBOT GEARS will find it. It’s not that he’s a miserable guy, or even that he’s unhappy on Earth. He just really likes complaining. Nothing makes him happier than having something to gripe about. The other AUTOBOTS® actually find his complaining funny, rather than annoying, which is part of the reason he keeps on doing it.
Recreate some of your favorite scenes or stage your own AUTOBOT action with this robot-to-vehicle figure. Convert the AUTOBOT GEARS figure from robot to SUV vehicle mode and back again! Activate his auto-punch attack at the press of a lever! It’s a battle to the finish, and only you can decide who will win.
The army of redecos continues to march into the "Revenge of the Fallen" toy line. This time out we have a redeco of the first movie's Stockade, who transformed into GM Yukon inspired vehicle. Instead of being an evil Decepticon, this redeco is an Autobot inspired by one of the first Autobots to be introduced in 1984: Gears. Instead of being a pint-sized fella, this figure is a powerful looking robot with a nicely sized SUV form to boot. This review will focus on the changes made to the figure for this release.
Vehicle Mode:
Aside from black, I think silver is probably one of the most popular colors for SUV's, so it's no surprise that silver was chosen as the primary color for Gears' vehicle mode. Silver replaces the black, and a pink tinged translucent plastic is used for the headlights and windows, replacing Stockade's blue plastic. The rails runnin galong the top of the vehicle are cast in dark grey, replacing the silver plastic on Stockade. The wheels are of course still cast in black. I really like the use of silver as the base plastic color as it is a common place color for SUV's and it has a nice, metallic shine to it. The translucent pink looks nice against the silver, blending in nicely.
Paint applications are done up in black, blue-grey, red, orange, gold and silver. The black is used on the front of the vehicle, mostly for the grille. The blue-grey color used for the windows on the sides towards the rear and some really fun details on the hood and sides of the vehicle. The hood has a large gear with an Autobot symbol in the middle and on each door are two gears with a lightning like pattern streaking out of them. It's a really neat way of referring to the character's name in a visual way that you don't see very often on Transformers and I think it's both cool and amusing at the same time. The gold color is used on the sides of the wheels and the red and orange are used for the rear lights. While most of the vehicle is cast in silver, there are several translucent parts that overlap with the solid silver portions, so silver paint is used to fill in those details. An example would be the sideview mirrors and the panels on the back windows that lift up. Even on some of the silver parts, the silver paint is used to keep things looking even. An example of this are the panels on the sides that make up part of the doors. I really appreciate the effort to make the vehicle look as uniform as possible as sometimes having different panels showing different color shades can be a bit jarring visually.
The rear panels still lift up almost like an entrance to a rear compartment and the wheels on the vehicle roll well. In this form I see no mold degradation at all.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
- Swing the rear trunk cover up.
- Swing each car door out and back against the rear wheels.
- Swing the front of the vehicle down to reveal the robot legs.
- Split the front of the vehicle in the middle.
- Swing each half of the vehicle's front section back.
- Swing down the robot feet and extend the black heel pieces out.
- Split the cabin section in the middle and swing each half out to the sides.
- Swing each robot arm section back at the elbow so it can bend forward.
- Swing the panel from the rear of the vehicle back and the robot head will Automorph up.
- Swing the windshield pieces on his forearms back.
Robot Mode:
You may have thought that the vehicle mode was decidedly very "un-Gears" like in appearance, and I'd say you were right. The original Gears was mostly red and blue in both robot and vehicle modes. However, for Gears' "Revenge of the Fallen" incarnation his vehicle mode is rather modest, with his robot mode being the one that pays the most homage to his G1 roots.
The color swaps are pretty straightforward. The black plastic from Stockade has been replaced with silver. The dark grey parts have been replaced with blue and the silver parts have been replaced with dark red plastic. A couple pieces remain the same color as Stockade's, sepcifically his waist piece and the piece on his torso that the arms attach to. These parts are all black. The primary paint color used in this form is a striking shade of gold. It has a really strong tinge to it, almost looking orange under certain light. This is used on his mouthplate, his chest and parts of the forearms. My favorite parts are the sections where it contrasts against the blue such as his forearms. A bit of black is used as well, specifically for the Autobot symbol on the left side of his chest.
All of Gears' joints are tight and his arm extension/"punching" mechanism works well.
Final Thoughts:
I was a big fan of this sculpt when it first came out, and now in these new colors you really get to appreciate the complexity of the sculpting and design on a different level. I also think the character fits the sculpt very well. If you're not adverse to redecos, then this one needs to be a part of your Autobot army. Highly recommended!
