(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Revenge of the Fallen Voyager class Bludgeon. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Revenge of the Fallen Voyager class Bludgeon here.)
Gigatron is a definite
homage to G1 Overlord, but he's named "Gigatron" for two reasons-- one,
copyright issues; and two, because unlike G1 Overlord (who became a tank
and a jet), this version only becomes a tank, and the name for his tank
mode was Giga. Kinda clever, actually, given that the name was already
in circulation. Anyways, in vehicle mode Gigatron represents Overlord's
tank mode to a tee, and looks good doing it; the moderately dark blue and
off-white play off each other very well as the main colors. There are numerous
secondary colors-- light orange on the vents, purple on the weapons, silver
on parts of the robot mode, aquamarine on the fronts of the tank mode and
lower legs, red on the tips of his missle launchers-- but pretty much every
one of them contrasts with the other colors well and really makes Gigatron's
color scheme eye-catching. The only one that I would say doesn't so much
are the gray on the treads, which would've looked a bit better as a solid
black to stand against the off-white and aquamarine. In robot mode, however,
his comparison to his G1 self falls completely flat-- simply put, although
it was a great body for Bludgeon, beyond the two large silver chest bits,
there's nothing that makes this robot mode look like his G1 version.
Well, except for the
head sculpt, which is the only mold change made to Gigatron. It's based
off of how Overlord looks in the IDW comics as drawn by Nick Roche (which
was largely responsible for his recent popularity surge), but unfortunately
translating that look into 3D plastic made it lose how good it looked.
First off, the head's a bit large proportionally; also, the lips are a
bit TOO puffy, and his circular eyes have a rather blank stare on them
that is just off-putting (and definitely not in the way intended).
I'm rather conflicted
when it comes to Botcon Gigatron. On one hand, it's a great mold with a
fantastic, eye-catching color scheme and loads of paint apps. The vehicle
mode is also a pretty good match to Overlord's "giga tank" mode. However,
the robot mode simply evokes nothing regarding Overlord, and the headsculpt
is pretty iffy. This toy in particular smells of getting a character into
a boxset because he's popular, and NOT because an existing mold adequately
evokes him.
Review by Beastbot