Name: Override GTS
Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Cybertronian Racing Car
Thanks to Tiby for lending me Override GTS for this review.
CAR MODE
Height: 4.5cm Length: 16cm Width: 8cm
A grey and red dragster sort of thing with black highlights, notably along the front fenders and behind the windshield. She's a repaint of Override, representing the same character. She has a black cockpit and solid black tyres. The colour scheme is very similar to the original, albeit with less red and more black. The grey replaces white, for an overall darker look. There is a small Autobot logo on the silver engine block at the back. The colours are less feminine than those of the original - Hasbro decided to make this character female, and this repaint is not very feminine at all. Still, it's a decent colour scheme if very close to those of the last version.
Override GTS 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 red winglets on the back, composed of soft plastic, that can swing up to work as tailfins. Behind the cockpit Override GTS's robot head sticks out, albeit it's well concealed being black surrounded like black - and this is a vast improvement over the original. There's a rather awkward gap underneath the canopy itself, which is fairly noticeable.
The wheels roll okay, and there is of course a key gimmick. Plugging her red Planet Key (code: dj9n) into the back causes black and red cannons to deploy from underneath the winglets. They're small and fairly unimpressive as a result, but the gimmick works well enough.
While there are some flaws here, this car works fairly well. The colours minimise rather than highlight her shortcomings - which means this repaint can offer something despite being very similar to the original. The colour scheme is nice if very understated. 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 grey, with the black again prominent in various places. The front fenders are her shins while the canopy is the central chest. There no visible Autobot logo now. Her face is silver with green eyes and no lightpipe. 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. The dark angular head isn't at all feminine, but aside from this the colour scheme works well 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 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 GTS 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 and dark head. Ignoring this, it's nice robot mode. Again, the repaint isn't that different from the original - if anything it's less feminine.
VARIATIONS
A repaint of the original Override, as mentioned. There's also a limited release (TV Magazine mailaway exclusive) Japanese repaint, Dark Nitro Convoy, who represents a different character.
OVERALL
A fairly minor repaint of a decent but not spectacular toy. The colours really aren't that different, and while they work aesthetically, they make this toy less feminine (and the character was chosen to be female after the toy was created). The play value and gimmick are decent, but this repaint is just not compelling - 5.5/10
|
