Autobot
Gears (G1 Reissue; Wal-Mart Exclusive)
(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 G1 Swerve. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of G1 Swerve here.)
Even though in the original
Generation One series, Gears was first with Swerve being a redeco, for
the Wal-Mart exclusive subline Gears here is the redeco. And as for redecoes,
it's pretty straightforward. Replace Swerve's dark red with a moderately
light blue for Gears, and then replace Swerve's white with red. That's
pretty much it, color-wise; all of the black parts on Swerve are black
on Gears (the windows, wheels), as are the chrome silver parts (wheel hubs,
upper robot legs). Some of the stickers are even the same-- the allegiance
rub symbol is on top of the top window, sideways, as is the normal Autobot
symbol on the robot waist. Added to Gears' sticker repertoire, though,
are a small Autobot sticker on the front black rear portion of the front
grill, and a slim sticker with meter-like details on his chest. The color
scheme is pretty basic overall, but it works-- it's a pretty good shade
of blue that's used, and though the red is pretty much your average shade,
it still contrasts against the blue quite well, and the silver and black
work well with both of these main colors.
Gears has a new head
& chest sculpt, both of which are more geometrically simple than Swerve's.
The head isn't at all G1 cartoon-accurate, instead being a long blue visor
over a large dome-like head sliced into three by two red lines, with a
Prime-like faceplate in the center. Definitely not the more "normal" head
from the show. The main body has a small triangular shape down the center,
with some pipe-like details on the sides of both the abs and the waist.
Other than this part of the toy, no other mold changes have been made.
G1 Gears has a slightly
superior color scheme compared to Swerve's-- I think Gears' blue-and-red
works better than Swerve's red-and-white. That said, I do wish they had
remolded the head to be more cartoon-accurate, like they did with Swerve.
As far as the Minibot molds go, definitely one of the better ones, though
it certainly shows its age these days.
Review by Beastbot