Name: Override
Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Cybertronian Racing Car
Thanks to Goktimus Prime for lending me Override for this review.
CAR MODE
Height: 4.5cm Length: 16cm Width: 8cm
A white and red dragster sort of thing with black and silver highlights, notably on the engineblock at the back, Override has a transparent red cockpit and transparent red tyres. She bears no resemblance to the G1 Autobot of the same name, a blue motorbike. There are some metallic blue paint applications and a small Autobot logo on the rear left fender. This is a decent colour scheme, and while the strawberries-n-cream colours seem like the reason why Hasbro decided to make this toy female (the Nitro Convoy character was originally male in Japan), in this mode that works.
Override has large rounded front fenders that are reminiscent of Arcee's car mode - indeed if this car was pink rather than red it could work as Arcee. There are small black winglets on the back, composed of soft plastic, that can swing up with some effort, working as tailfins. Behind the cockpit Override's robot head sticks out, and this is a lot more obvious than I'd like - especially since the head is white and the surrounds black. There's a rather awkward gap underneath the canopy itself, which is fairly noticeable on such a light toy. There are two seats moulded inside the cockpit, along with a steering wheel on the left side.
The wheels roll okay (well, on Goktimus', one front wheel sticks, but that's obviously an issue specific to this sample), and there is of course a key gimmick. Plugging her red Planet Key (code: dy7p) into the back causes red and white cannons to deploy from underneath the winglets. They're small and fairly unimpressive as a result, but the gimmick works well enough. The Planet Key has gold highlights rather than the standard silver, and co-ordinates with the toy itself, being red.
While there are some flaws here, this car works fairly well. The colours used exacerbate some of the problems, but the overall styling is nice and the colour set is nice. The key gimmick is underwhelming, but at least it does what it's meant to do (and is available in both modes).
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Detach the engineblock and set aside. Unclip the front fenders and rotate them out to the sides, then simply touch the centre of the car and a series of internal gears and springs will cause the canopy to snap back and into place as her chest, while the head will reveal and the backplate will slide into position. The arms also swing out, swapping out for the rear wheels, which stow underneath. Swing the groin halves into position, rotate the legs, fold out the feet and heelspurs. Give Override the engineblock as a handgun.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 16.5cm Width: 10cm
Again mainly red and white, with the black and silver on her feet, backpack and arms. The front fenders are her shins while the canopy is the central chest. There are some blue paint applications still visible on her chest, while her face is orange with gunmetal blue eyes. This robot mode is not terribly female, it's obvious now that this toy wasn't designed as a female. A more rounded head would have helped, even considering the wide shoulders she has. The colours are quite nice, the red and white combine well. I don't really like the orange face - silver would have been a lot better - but that's my only gripe with the colours here.
There's a G1 feel about this robot mode, with visible car parts, squarish upper body and window on the chest. While the modern jointing makes it obvious this isn't a G1 robot, the character wouldn't look out of place in the latter stages of the G1 cartoon. The Autobot logo is now on the left side of her chest, although it's small and easy to miss on a red background.
The feet are long and curved and the heelspurs short, the backpack can cause stability issues in some poses, but Override is still fairly poseable. The head turns, although there's not much point with the backpack behind it. The shoulders rotate and lift out to the sides while the elbows are hinged with rotates just below her shoulders, giving Override good arm poseability. The hips are ball jointed while the knees are hinged with rotators just below the hips. The feet and heelspurs don't have much in the way of meaningful articulation, but allow for action posing.
The key gimmick is available here, although it's not as useful, since without the cannons the engineblock isn't much of a weapon. Still, you can deploy them as part of the transformation, or stow the engineblock on her back and deploy the cannons as you reveal the weapon. The gun works with the winglets up or down, however if they're up you get better clearances.
This is a good robot mode, with enough limb articulation to give Override some cool action poses. The key gimmick is functional if a little redundant, while the colours are good. The heelspurs are a tad shorter than I'd have liked, but my main issue with this robot mode is that it's really _not_ feminine, what with those broad shoulders. If you treat this toy as male (call it Nitro Convoy, I guess), then this is a good robot mode.
VARIATIONS
As mentioned, the Japanese force version is a male toy called Nitro Convoy, with a much nicer gold face and no Autobot symbol. She was repainted with the unimaginative name Override GTS. There's also a limited release (TV Magazine mailaway exclusive) Japanese repaint, Dark Nitro Convoy, who represents a different character.
OVERALL
The car mode looks okay but has some annoying shortcomings - the gap under the canopy and protruding head hold her back. The robot mode is good without really being very feminine. The Key Gimmick is okay - but the same concept was done better on Clocker. As a male toy this is pretty good - if Hasbro wanted to make this female they should have redone the head, painted it pink and called it Arcee. With any luck, Takara will do that later - 6.5/10
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