Dave's RotF Rant: Deluxe Thrust and Autobot Gears
Dave Van Domelen
Thrust (Breakaway remold)
Autobot Gears (2007 Stockade redeco)
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Deluxe6
A sort of padding wave, with two redecos and older toys to pad out the
boxes (in other words, the case is not generally just these two). Given how
many 2007 molds have been reused in RotF, it's about time they started mining
the generally superior "not seen as a robot in the movie" molds. (Okay,
Fearswoop is also a redeco from that cohort, but not one of the good molds
from that cohort.)
http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Deluxe1 - Breakaway
http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Deluxe4 - Stockade
CAPSULES
Thrust: Original mold was Recommended. This one is better. Recommended
even if you have both Breakaways already (he got a running change to darker
tan). $10 at Walmart.
Autobot Gears: Original mold was Recommended. The colors on this are a
bit odd, but otherwise it's no better nor worse than Stockade. On the other
hand, being the first Gears since G1 is a minor plus. Recommended. $10 at
Walmart.
RANTS
Packaging: Same as previous waves, each has the other as their cosell on
the underside, and they come with the same catalog I got with wave 5.
DECEPTICON: THRUST
Altmode: Fighter jet
Licensor: None
Previous Name Use: G1, BMac, Armada, Cybertron, Universe2
Previous Mold Use: RotF (head remold)
Gimmick: Spinning gatling cannon
Function: Warrior
Motto: "Haw! You look just like ants down there! And you squish like 'em
too!"
THRUST loves to fight, as long as he's guaranteed to win. As soon as
the odds turn against the DECEPTICONS, he's the first to run and hide. He
relishes the chance to push around those smaller and weaker than him, so
Earth is the ultimate playground. He avoids the AUTOBOTS completely,
choosing instead to pick fights with small, lightly armed groups of humans.
Even then, as soon as the humans roll out any artillery, or even rocket
launchers, he heads for space, to lay low until he can stop shaking from
fear.
STR 6 INT 3 SPD 9 END 8 RNK 6 COUR 1 FRB 7 SKL 7 Avg 5.875
With that bio note, he's not so much a retool as a plain ol' tool.
Packaging: Two twist-ties hold the jet into the blister, and a rubber
band around the fuselage (inside the wings) hold it secure.
Color Swaps: Tan becomes maroon, light blue becomes black, green becomes
dark gunmetal, clear colorless becomes clear light purple, and the rubbery
plastic is black.
Paint Apps: Most of the paint here is gloss black. The framework of the
cockpit, the tops of the wingtips, the tops of the horizontal part of the
tail, and roundels on the wings with negative space Decepticon symbols. The
roundels are meant to evoke the wing nacelles of the original. There's also
a black Decepticon symbol printed on the right side intake. The tops of the
intakes are silver, and there's a funky G-like symbol on the tail fins that
doesn't look like a Cybertronian glyph or like something G1.
In robot mode, the parts of the upper arms that are painted tan on
Breakaway are maroon here. Bright red is used on the circular depressions on
the shoulders, several details on the pelvis and some stripes along the
bottoms of the outer thighs. The "belt buckle" is silver, and the silver
parts of the intakes form a sort of lapel arrangement. He's a legitimate
businessman, I tells ya.
Mold Changes: Just a head swap, they didn't add the ducted fans on the
wings that characterized G1 Thrust. There's a slight resemblance to the G1
head in this mold, crossed with a sort of techno-ninja look. The back is
light purple clear plastic, but the geometry of the torso prevents it from
being good lightpiping. The front part is maroon plastic, with dark gunmetal
paint on the faceplate and forehead.
Other Notes: While the head sunken into the cockpit is a consequence of
using the Breakaway mold, it can also be seen as a sort of subtle homage to
Beast Machines Thrust.
I fiddled around with the wings and panels to see if I could find an
arrangement that increased the difference from Breakaway, but I wasn't
particularly happy with any of them.
On mine, the gatling barrel isn't fully seated on its metal pin, but
it's too firmly in place to shove on the rest of the way.
Overall: Okay, I'm something of a sucker for red and black, as my
wardrobe will attest to. It's a good mold to start with, the new face looks
better, and I like the colors a lot more. I definitely prefer this to
Breakaway.
AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT GEARS
Altmode: SUV
Licensor: None
Previous Name Use: G1
Previous Mold Use: Movie1
Gimmick: Auto-Punch
Function: Reconnaisance, Transport
Motto: "Nobody wins a war - somebody loses."
If there's a negative angle to be found in any situation, 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.
STR 8 INT 5 SPD 5 END 8 RNK 3 COUR 8 FRB 6 SKL 3 Avg 5.75
"The only stat that's better than his Minibot version is Fireblast. He's
dumber, slower, lower-ranked, less brave and far less skilled now. If they
couldn't do me right, they should have just left me alone, eh? Where did
they find the monkeys to write these techspecs anyway, or did they just grab
random pages from the phonebook?"
Packaging: "2 twist-ties hold the vehicle mode into the blister, and
they chafe like you wouldn't believe. Would it have killed them to put in
some spacers, or use a softer wire or something? Nah, no respect for Gears,
everyone just stuffs ol' Gears in a box and forgets about him. Not even a
single rubber band, so anything that comes loose just rattles around."
Color Swaps: "Yeah, Stockade was real imaginative: none more black. I
have no idea what the black body shell plastic got turned into, I think it
got painted over entirely. The clear plastic is some sort of smoky rose, am
I Barbie's Dream SUV now? At least my tires are still black, and not some
weird color. My hands, shoulder struts, part of my upper arms and a few
connector bits are a dull metallic gray that almost, but not QUITE matches my
silver...nice clash, guys. There's a darker gray used on the triggers for my
punching gimmick, I can't find more of that stuff. Forearms, torso core,
head and upper thighs are medium blue, but at least my pelvis is black so I
don't look like I'm wearing blue bicycle shorts. I mean, whoever invented
those needs to be run over repeatedly for their crimes against aesthetics. I
don't even belong to your species and I find the things unflattering. Also
black are my heel spurs and the bits where my shoulder struts attach. A dark
red like Swerve's original colors makes most of my legs and feet, the insides
of my upper arms and some weird molded details on my back. What, they ran
out of bright red after making Swerve the wrong color, so they had to make me
the wrong color too? Oh, and more of that probably not really silver plastic
on my chest armor."
Paint Apps: "What, did I fall asleep in front of a high school and
someone tried to 'pimp' me out? Yeah, yeah...I get it. Autobot Gears, so
cover him in gears, including a big blue one in the middle of my hood with an
Autobot symbol in it. An Autobot gear. My sides are splitting. Or maybe
that's just a transformation seam. At least all my silver paint matches up,
I figure that they just dunked the opaque pieces in silver paint like they
must've for Sideswipe...wow, whose bright idea was a non-red Sideswipe?
Anyway, it looks like paint, so at least I don't have to worry about Gold
Plastic Syndrome. Or Silver Plastic Syndrome, whatever. The rearmost side
windows got painted light blue...great job, geniuses. That really matches
the smoky rose plastic of the other windows. I don't even know what to call
what they did to my hubcaps...metallic puce? At least my taillights are a
reasonable red and orange. The top two-thirds of them, anyway. The bottom
third is just silver. My front grille is gloss black, which I suppose I
can't complain about (drat), but there's not just blue gears on my doors,
there's weird zigzaggy things along the bottoms. Not that my paint in robot
mode makes a lot more sense. Dark gold. My faceplate, parts of my forearms
and thighs and what looks like a t-shirt collar or something. Since when was
my faceplate gold, much less dark gold? I blame Michael Bay. Oh, and I got
a little black Autobot symbol on my left chest, since the GIGANTIC Autobot
gear is split between my calves."
Mold Changes: "You know that guy Swerve, who ripped off my look? HE got
half a dozen toys since then, even got a brand new mold that everyone's
drooling over. They finally pay attention to me, and they couldn't even be
bothered to remold the head! Even the umpteenth Swerve that got released
this year got a new head! Sheesh."
Other Notes: "Eh, I guess I got the moves now, so that's an improvement.
I can see what Stockade likes about this body plan. But I got stuck with the
same gimpy ankles he did! Makes me feel like an old geezer, and that's
reserved for Classics Kup."
Overall: Ignore Gears, he likes to kvetch. The color balance is decent,
if a bit over-colored, and the ricer paint detailing isn't too garish. The
dark red plastic isn't exactly the same as on Thrust, it's a little warmer.
None of the problems Stockade had were fixed, but they don't seem to have
introduced any new ones. A new head would have been nice, but I guess they
figured that Stockade had been off the shelves long enough they didn't need
to do anything to entice re-buying...the core audience has already turned
over.
Dave Van Domelen, started regretting writing Gears's review "in
character" about halfway through.