iGear_Cogz

Prelude: Legal stuff first as always. This figure here is from iGear, a third party company that is in no way affiliated with Hasbro or Takara-Tomy, thus it is not an official Transformers product. It’s clearly a homage to the G1 Transformer Gears, but can’t be called by that name for legal reasons.

Robot Mode: Let’s start by saying that Cogz is a very close match to G1 Gears, both the toy and the cartoon character, just a lot bigger. He’s about the size of a small Deluxe-class figure, but basically retains the same overall design as the original toy. And in order to pay homage to both toy and cartoon, Cogz comes with interchangeable faces, one a spitting image of his toy face (a visor and a mouth plate), the other the grumpy face with near-human features he wore in the cartoon.

Apart from the bigger size Cogz is also vastly better articulated than G1 Gears, having pretty much the full range of motion one aspects from a current Transformers (or third party not-Transformers) figure. By way of his face-switching gimmick he can even turn his head somewhat, the only thing missing is a twisting hip. In terms of balance there are no problems, either, though Cogz is not capable of standing on one leg due to the angled feet he sports. But unless you want to display your figures doing Kung-Fu kicks, that’s not really a problem, either.

Cogz comes with several weapons. For one he has a tri-barrelled gun he can hold in hand, either like a normal pistol or with the handle on top like a Gatling gun. Take your pick. He also has dual missile launchers on either side of his stomach. And finally, having been one of the few Autobots who could (consistently) fly (or at least jump very, very high) in the cartoon and comics, he also sports jump jets on his back. So all in all a very nice update of the classic Gears figure in robot mode and no complaints at all.

Alternate Mode: Cogz transforms into the same red and blue pickup truck like vehicles Gears did, naturally, just bigger. Except for some additional detailing (such as the red handlebar on top of the roof) there really is very little difference between the original and the third party figure. Cogz’ weapon can be mounted on top of the vehicle and... yeah, that’s pretty much it. Oh, little side note: in the pictures above Cogz’ kneepads are sticking out the back. I forgot to fold them in, but they do. Just in case anyone was wondering. So to sum it up: a fully okay vehicle mode, no complaints.

Remarks: Gears was a member of the original crew of the Ark in Generation 1 (both cartoon and comics) and was the grouch of the team, always in a bad mood. The reason for that was explained in the second season episode “Changing Gears”, where it was revealed that without his power chip rectifier (incidentally a vital component in Megatron’s doomsday machine of the week, the Solar Needle) he was actually a very upbeat and helpful dude. Like most of the original cast he faded into the background during season 2 and disappeared more or less completely come season 3, though he wasn’t among the casualties of the 1986 movie. Oh, and he got to team up with Spider-Man in the third issue of the Marvel Comics series.

Gears is also the only member of the original Ark crew who has yet to see an updated figure in the Classics, Universe, Botcon Exclusive, or Generations line, which is basically my reason for getting this figure here. I wanted to get the whole crew together. So bottom line: this iGear figure here is nothing more and nothing less than a bigger, more articulate, more detailed version of G1 Gears. If that’s what you are looking for, then look no further.

Rating: B