Dave's Transformers Rant: Real Gear Robots Wave 1 In order of the assortment number. :) Spy Shot 6 - Camera (81064) Zoom Out 25X - Videocamera (81086) Booster X10 - MP3 Player (81088) Power Up VT6 - Portable game console (81090) Longview - Binoculars (81091) Speed Dial 800 - Cellphone (81126) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/RGR1 No real rhyme or reason to the assortment numbers, especially given how Speed Dial 800 seems to have been the first one completed, and Zoom Out 25X the last. Anyway, these don't exactly appear in the movie, better to say they're inspired by some scenes. But they're cool bits of "roleplay" toy that take the idea of Armada Laserbeak and do it about five better. I should note that Wonkimus Prime managed to fool his wife at least twice with RGRs into thinking they were the real things (camera and phone). :) Cute binding gimmick: everything with a time display, whether it be time of day or the run time of a video, shows 7:47. In other words, 7-4-7 after the U.S. release date of the Transformers movie. Japanese releases of these toys have 8:47 instead, since they're getting the movie a month later. Less cute binding theme: A lot of these toys have some joints that are just pegs, so they pop apart easily during play or even transformation. CAPSULES Spy Shot 6: Good-looking and plausible camera, decent transformation, very good robot mode. Strongly recommended. $6.99 at Target. Zoom Out 25X: Okay but too-small videocamera, okay transformation, somewhat limited robot mode. Doesn't sing to me. Mildly recommended. $6.99 at Target. Booster X10: Somewhat flawed altmode, and the beastmode hips need some work, but it's a cool homage. Recommended. $6.99 at Target. Power Up VT6: Decent in both modes, if unspectacular. Has a deliberately simple Automorphing transformation. Recommended. $6.99 at Target. Longview: Too-small altmode, decent transformation and robot mode. Mildly recommended. $6.99 at Target. Speed Dial 800: Feels like an early try in both modes, but has some charm to it. Recommended. $6.99 at Target. RANTS: Packaging: Regular movie trade dress on a card 7.5" (19cm) wide and 8.25" (21cm) tall with various notches cut out and corners truncated. However, instead of the blister being a sort of upper left quadrant of a circle, it's closer to being the upper half or so. The cardback has the appropriate faction symbol in red dominating the upper right, and the "eye" pattern seen on Deluxes is replaced by a blue oval of techno circuit board patterning with a half-strength white burst in the middle. Card inserts between the blister parts have "REAL GEAR ROBOTS" across the top, the name and motto along the bottom right, and a photo of the upper body and head of the robot mode in the lower left. The back has a partial faction symbol in the upper left, with a photo of robot mode dominating the left side otherwise. Co-sells are in the lower right. The original four (camera, phone, binoculars, game system) each have the other three as their co-sells. The two later adds (videocam, MP3) have the other new figure and a different two of the original lot. The middle right side of the card back is the name and motto again, with the line story and the individual bio and techspecs, in the same "beads" techspec style as other main movie toys, and the same eye chart font. Here's the common story piece on all of them: "Congratulations on purchasing this fine REAL GEAR ROBOTS product! With this purchase, you've uncovered one of the most closely held secrets on Earth, known to only a very few humans. The power of the AllSpark has been unleashed, and machines all over the world have come alive. Unlock their secrets, and join the battle!" This doesn't really fit the movie as far as I can tell, but I suppose it's possible that the final cut will differ from all the adaptations in more ways than I already have heard of. :) And I like this idea better anyway. Mind you, it also seems to contradict the character bio notes too! Spy Shot 6 is supposed to have ben spying on Decepticons for years, for instance. The Conversion Difficulty tabs are different for the original four, listing 0 through 4 with nothing circled, but "Quick Conversion" listed below the number line. Instead, the 2 is yellow while the other numbers are white, which is REALLY easy to miss. Booster and Zoom-Out just have 1 through 4 and have the 2 circled. All figures are packaged in altmode, with plastic straps taped down at the back instead of twist-ties, to avoid concealing the toy itself. Instructions are the usual grayscale plus red or purple tones. No catalogs. These guys all have product-style names (although Longview is stretching it), no old name reuse. But several of them have something of a G1 homage, callback, or at least similarity to them, which I will note in the infoblock after altmode. They all have mottos, mostly a string of three words separated by bullet points (which I will represent with asterisks). AUTOBOT: SPY SHOT 6 Altmode: Digital Camera G1 Homage: Reflector (minor) Motto: Shoot * Save * Protect SPY SHOT 6 doesn't talk a lot, preferring to remain in camera mode as an observer in the background. It's probably from years of spying on the DECEPTICONS. He's got a perfect memory, able to produce a description of anything he's ever seen or heard. he prefers not to fight, but when it comes down to it, he can fire focused beams of laser-intensity light through his lens. STR 6 INT 9 SPD 4 END 7 RNK 6 COUR 10 FRB 7 SKL 8 Avg 7.125 Packaging notes: Two straps held by a lotta tape on the back. Camera Mode: A nice, compact digital camera, 3" (7.5cm) wide and 2" (5cm) tall. The majority of this rectangular solid is 1.4cm thick, but adding in the lens section and controls on back gets to a total thickness of 2.0cm. I've seen cameras this small in the stores, it's a good fit for the line theme. Mainly made of a "french gray", slightly brownish light gray with a bit of a sheen to it. The lens front, viewfinder and flash front are clear colorless plastic. The lens housing and the various controls on the back may be black plastic, or may just be painted black. The button for taking a picture is definitely black plastic, as is a bit on the lower right corner (as you're pointing the camera away). There's some blue-gray plastic bits from the robot mode visible around the edges. Most of the painted details are silver, and possibly black. It has the standard W/T zoom control, D-pad and dial controls on back, and forward/back arrows below the screen. None of these actually move. The "take a picture" button does click in. In fact, it uses a standard spring switch, and you can feel an on/off difference. On the front, a small Autobot symbol and "SPYSHOT 6" are printed near the bottom. You can sort of see through the viewfinder, if blurrily. The screen on the back is a sticker. It has Cybertron Ransack in a close-up, although he apparently still has some zoom left to use if necessary. The time is 7:47, the battery is very low, he's on an F8/2 setting and "fine" image quality. No flash, probably a good idea when taking spy photos. Transformation: The lens section becomes the chest, with everything else rotating around and (if necessary) extending to become the limbs and head. Each bit snaps into the intended place. There's one deceptive bit...the pelvis halves look like they're supposed to snap together, but they actually rest about 20 degrees apart. Getting the right claw back into the camera on reverse transformation can be a little tricky. The thigh swivels are pegs, but shouldn't pop apart unless you're doing something REALLY wrong during transformation. Robot Mode: 4.25" (10.5cm) tall at the head, a little taller at the shoulderpads (the camera flash forms a potent shoulder chunk). The left toe and right elbow are black, the rest of the robot-only pieces are a slate blue plastic. The eyes are lightpiped with clear colorless plastic and a little bit of red translucent paint so they glow brightly red. There's black paint on the forehead and around the eyes, silver on the face and shins, and red paint details on the forehead, shins and left toe. The viewfinder ends up on the right upper arm, the flash on the left shoulder, the "shutter" button on the right forearm, and the wheel controls from the back of the camera on the outsides of the boots. The viewscreen is on the back. The head is on a ball joint, the waist does not turn. The shoulders are ball joints, with the balls on transformation hinge struts (so Spy Shot can shrug). The elbows are ball joints, and the hands are tweezer-like claws that are hinged to open. Ball joint hips, swivels on the lower thighs, hinge knees. Overall: Looks great and plausible as a camera, good transformation, very poseable and well-proportioned robot mode. And he's got a cute face. Best of the lot, in my opinion. DECPTICON: ZOOM OUT 25X Altmode: Videocamera G1 Homage: None Motto: Watch * Wait * Annihilate ZOOM OUT 25X is inhumanly patient. He'll wait for days or weeks in his camera mode without moving or making a sound, just to get the perfect shot of you doing something you shouldn't. Then, using his editing features, he'll alter the video to be as embarrassing as possible. He doesn't do this because it's his mission or anything - he just likes to cause trouble. STR 3 INT 9 SPD 5 END 7 RNK 4 COUR 5 FRB 3 SKL 9 Avg 5.625 This was actually a surprise when I saw it in the store (in advance of official release, on May 28...wasn't allowed to buy it), since I'd only seen pictures of the other five to date, and thought that the first wave would only be four total (with Booster X10 being an early look at wave 2). Packaging Notes: One strap, and a rubber band holds the viewscreen together. Camera Mode: 3.25" (8cm) long, 2.25" (5.5cm) tall and 1" (2.5cm) thick, with a flip-out viewscreen. The screen itself has an image area 2.7cm wide and 2.3cm tall. While I suppose the scren itself is reasonable, the overall size is a bit too small for the conceit of a "real gear" item. Mainly made of medium gray plastic, with some darker gray parts on the "barrel" of the optics section, and clear colorless plastic on the eyepiece and objective. The grayish blue robot head is visible on one side. You can look through the eyepiece, but it's a bit blurry. There's a few splashes of red paint here and there, silver on the controls under the screen, and dark gray paint in places to match the plastic. A purple and silver Decepticon symbol is printed just atop the eyepiece, and "ZOOM OUT 25X" printed in black along the side of the body. The sticker on the viewscreen shows Cybertron Override (or maybe Nitro Convoy) with the record light on. The pose is static, so dunno why he's been shooting for 7:47, but hey. Battery strength is three out of four bars. Transformation: Head swivels up out of the body, then fold some panels around to become the chest. Feet flip down, revealing the little arms hanging down from the optical barrel. Parts of the viewfinder screen flip open like beetle wing covers (elytra). Robot Mode: 4.25" (10.5cm) tall at the head. The head and forearms are a slightly grayish medium blue, the upper arms and thighs are dark gray plastic. The claw hands are painted dark gray, the face is a lavender color, and the eyes are red. The right eye is an oversized camera style of eye, for that "bargain basement cyborg" look. The head is on a ball joint, plus the transformation joint lets him tip his head way back, or bury his face in his chest. The shoulders use the optical barrel rings to swivel up and around, plus side to side hinges where the arms attach, for sorta-universal jointing. The elbows are ball joints, and overall the arms are kinda small and ineffectual-looking. The hips are universal joints, the mid-thigh swivels are pegs that can be popped out without excessive force, and the knees are hinges. Overall: The altmode feels too small to me, the transformation is okay, and the robot mode suffers in the arm department. Decent, but shed no tears if you miss out on this one. DECEPTICON: BOOSTER X10 Altmode: MP3 Player/Recorder G1 Homage: Laserbeak (strong) Motto: Download * Distribute * Destroy BOOSTER X10 is a mean-spirited trickster with a talent for toying with people. Sophisticated hypersonics allow him to distort any audio signal, even simple speech. His favorite trick is to wait in his victim's pocket and alter incoming sounds to cause accidents and arguments. He loves seeing how much trouble he can cause just by changing the sound of a word here, or making a racing ambulance sound like a barking dog. STR 5 INT 9 SPD 3 END 5 RNK 6 COUR 8 FRB 3 SKL 7 Avg 5.75 You'd think a flyer would have more speed. Then again, the fact that ANY of these have STR above 1 kinda makes the stats hard to trust. :) Also, while his note doesn't indicate it, his motto makes it clear he's a filesharing pirate. Arrr. This was another later addition to the assortment, as evidenced by the slightly different packaging. But it had gone up on Transformers.com before I saw it in the store. Packaging notes: The player and the earpiece are separate, each held by one strap. Mind you, they can't connect in player mode anyway, so they have to be packaged separately. MP3 Mode: The main body is 3" (7.5cm) long, 1.75" (4cm) wide and a bit over half an inch (1.5cm) thick. It's squared at one end and round at the other, with iPod-ish controls but a totally different look and feel. The earpiece is 1.5" (4cm) in diameter with a mouthpiece extension that makes it 2.5" (6.5cm) long in the longest direction. It has a flexible ear-hanger piece, and can be work fairly securely. The whole thing is a reasonable size for "real gear". The main body is red plastic with black plastic controls and a clear orange window where the screen would be on a regular player (actually, much of the front is clear orange plastic with extensive use of red paint). The wing bits and beast head visible through the window look nifty. There's no clip for wearing it, though. There's some black paint along the edges, and silver trim around the controls. The earpiece is red plastic on top and black on the bottom, with extensive black and silver paint on the top. The ear-hook is black rubbery plastic, and hinged. A silver Decepticon symbol is printed on the top center, and "BOOSTER X10" printed a little unevenly at the back. Why would an MP3 player have a microphone extension on the earpiece? Well, it's probably also capable of taking dictation directly to MP3. If not for the faction clash, it could also synergize with Speed Dial as a phone earpiece. Maybe we'll get cross-faction recolors to facilitate this. Transformation: Grab the sides of the player and pull apart. Ouch as the beak pokes you in the stomach, and remind yourself to hold it with round end towards yourself next time. Flip out the tail, fold down the feet. Then pull out a peg on the earpiece (I generally need a tool to do this) and peg the earpiece onto the bird's back as a gun. Beast Mode: The only one not to have a humanoid robot mode. While clearly a Laserbeak homage, it doesn't really look like a condor, especially with the shape of the tail. More like a swift, really. The wingspan is 7.5" (19cm), and the beak to tail length is 4.25" (10.5cm). The wings and tail are mostly clear orange plastic, with a bit of red on the leading edges, and a lot of red paint. The neck and head are red plastic, the legs are black plastic. The head and top of neck are mainly painted black, with a yellow beak, silver details on the back of the neck, and a purple and silver Decepticon symbol on the top of the head. The hips are ball joints, but kinda loose and in need of nailpolish or glue tightening, as the figure slumps forwards otherwise. The knees and ankles are hinges. There's a stiff hinge at the base of each wing, and the wings can "fold" on transformation joints. The base of the neck has a swivel along its long axis. The tail can move up or down on its transformation hinge. Overall: The MP3 player mode is a little iffy in some ways, but it's hard to argue with such a cool looking Laserbeak homage. Worth picking up. DECEPTICON: POWER UP VT6 Altmode: Portable Game System G1 Homage: None (although there's a Microman PGS) Motto: Gaming the System As dangerous as he is slick looking, POWER UP VT6 is a master of manipulation. Able to connect to any data source within range, he specializes in deleting important information. Few DECEPTICONS are as frustrating to have around. Be careful when interacting with him: special receptors in his screen can scramble your brain right through your eyeballs. STR 9 INT 6 SPD 8 END 7 RNK 6 COUR 6 FRB 5 SKL 8 Avg 6.875 Video games WILL rot your brain! This was the only Decepticon in the initial foursome, so I suppose the higher stats were meant to let him hold his own while awaiting reinforcements. :) Packaging notes: Two straps, plus a rubber band around it the long way. Shortest instructions of the lot. Game System Mode: 4.25" (11cm) wide, 2" (5cm) tall, 0.75" (2cm) thick, it's on the small side for a PSP sort of system, but feasible. Most of it is light gray plastic, with black plastic for the movable front buttons and purple for the shoulder buttons. The D-pad is unpainted, while the four buttons on the right side are painted bright red, blue, green and yellow. The button area on each side is painted black, as are the start and mode buttons. The topmost parts are actually black plastic painted with a very good color match to the gray. The pressable buttons really all just move together on single chunks, which is more noticeable with the D-pad on the left, as the colored buttons almost feel like they move independently. The screen is a 4.0cm wide by 2.6cm tall sticker, showing a first person shooter with Cybertron Jetfire as the current target. The player is in Plane mode as a Decepticon, has a 096/100 in the upper left, a Decepticon symbol in the lower right for some other game info, and is being shot at while waiting for Jetfire to come into the aiming circle. Transformation: Uncredited as such, but he has Automorph technology. Once you unhook the legs a bit, if you're careful, pulling the legs down makes the arms pop out and the head pop up. Push the legs apart and back up, and the arms and head retract. Robot Mode: At 4.75" (12cm) tall, he's one of the beefier RGRs. Head, shoulders, forearms and lower thighs are black plastic. Neck base, shoulder connector, upper arm, hands, pelvis and upper thighs are purple plastic. The rest is light gray plastic. Neon green paint accents are on his face, forehead and toes. The back of the head is clear colorless plastic, with translucent neon green paint on the fronts of the eyes, for neon green lightpiping. The neck is a peg, so the head can turn or be popped off (putting it back on will tend to strip the gears and shove it back in a bit). No waist joint. The shoulders are universal joints, with skinny upper arms leading down to ball joint elbows. The claw-like hands are on a single swivel each...they don't open up, but can hold onto thin cardstock, such as a RoboVision decoder. Hips are ball joints, thigh swivels are firmly attached, and knees are hinges. The feet are bit awkwardly shaped, and I think the overall look is better if you reverse the direction of the feet. Overall: Good altmode, deliberately simple automorphing transformation, decent robot mode. Feels like an early idea that just barely made the cut, though. AUTOBOT: LONGVIEW Altmode: Binoculars G1 Homage: None (although the color scheme makes people think Bumblebee) Motto: Observe * Anticipate * Defend LONGVIEW is impossible to surprise. It's not only because his vision is so incredible either; thanks to highly sophisticated quantum processors he can predict every possible outcome of any action within seconds. If he can see you, he knows what you're goin gto do even before you do. It's his job to keep an eye on the DECEPTICONS and let OPTIMUS PRIME and the others know what they're planning. STR 4 INT 9 SPD 2 END 5 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRB 5 SKL 10 Avg 6.25 Quantum determinism, heh. I wonder if he knows what the Green Day song he shares a name with is really about? ;) Notable for being the only one of the first wave without a number in his name. In fact, his name hardly sounds like a product at all. Maybe the Autobots don't ever let him into human hands, so he doesn't need such a name. Packaging notes: One strap, no rubber bands. Binoculars Mode: 3.25" (8cm) wide, 2.5" (6.5cm) long and 1" (2.5cm) thick. The centers of the eyepieces are less than 1.75" (4cm) apart, so you'd have to be an infant to look through both at once. The most obvious scale failure of the wave. Made of bright yellow plastic in the middle, black around the outside, with clear colorless plastic lenses and eyepieces. There's a red and white Autobot symbol printed ahead of the controls, which are painted black. Metallic blue circuitry stuff is painted and molded behind the lenses. "LONGVIEW" is printed on the top on one side. There's an undocumented feature in this mode, although you'll discover it the first time you transform it. The panel with the Autobot symbol flips up to reveal a display screen 2.5cm wide and 1.0cm tall. The sticker of mine seems to have been applied upside down...that, or Crumplezone is in the process of flipping over. Transformation: Takes some practice (or, um, reading the instructions) to get the order of operations right...out-of-order transformation will tend to pop parts off. The head is one of the most completely hidden of the RGRs, though, rotating out of the chest on a strut that also flips one of the exterior panels all the way around from back to front. Amusingly, his transformation also involves a buttflap. The front lens covers fold up to form big ol' shoulderpads pointing straight up. Robot Mode: 4.25" (10.5cm) tall at the head, 5" (13cm) tall at the shoulderpads. The chestplate, buttplate and boots are yellow plastic. The toe parts of the boots are painted almost entirely black, but are yellow plastic underneath. The face and hands are very light cool gray plastic. The heels, shoulderpads and most of the head are clear colorless plastic. Everything else is black plastic. Most of the helmet is painted yellow, including the back side, so there's no lightpiping effect on the clear visor. Slightly bluish silver paint adorns the torso top and thigh fronts. The Autobot symbol ends up in the center of his chest. Built like a linebacker but slightly more poseable than one. :) Ball joint neck, but very restricted, especially by a piece right behind the head. Ball shoulders, hinge elbows, and the wrists swing inward on transformation joints. Waist does not turn. Universal joint hips with thigh swivels right below them. Hinge knees, and the toes are on double hinges for transformation. Overall: Another one that suffers from the altmode being too small to actually pretend to be 'real gear', and while Zoom Out's tinyness can be explained by technological advances, Longview is simply unusable at such a small size. Decent transformation and robot mode, at least. AUTOBOT: SPEED DIAL 800 Altmode: Cellphone G1 Homage: None Motto: Connect * Record * Inform Your new robotic companion SPEED DIAL 800 is a hyperactiv fast-talker, the sort of guy who just can't help but be friendly to everyone. Superior hypersonics allow him to piggyback a signal on local wireless connections in order to transmit sensitive info to his allies. Be sure you've got a lot of time if you go online at night though; he's sure to text you with a lot to say. STR 4 INT 7 SPD 6 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 5 FRB 5 SKL 8 Avg 5.75 This was the first one I can recall seeing pictures of in prototype form. And the different "voice" of his bio note also suggests that this might have been the first one designed in all respects. Oddly, his P/N is the highest of the lot. Packaging notes: One strap, no bands. Phone Mode: A camera phone. When closed, it's 3.5" (8.5cm) tall including the lanyard loop (no lanyard is included), 1.75" (4cm) wide and a somewhat chunky 2cm thick. Fully open, it's 6" (15cm) long. Made of a dark cool gray, with a clear colorless plastic lens for the camera part. Metallic blue paint dominates the center of the cover, with a silver circle around the small LCD screen sticker (which shows a blue Autobot symbol and the time 7:47). The volume and mute controls on the sides are also painted silver. Opening it up reveals a silver border around the main screen, with an Autobot symbol screen background sticker. He's getting four bars, has the ringer on, and a full battery. The keypad is non-moving, but molded and printed with bright blue characters. The control pad above the numbers is painted bluish silver with blue, green and red paint labels. Transformation: The screen half of the phone flips around to become a cape. They don't even try the elytra trick from Zoom Out here. Little panels below the camera lens flip open to reveal a face. The right and left thirds of the keypad fold down as legs, and the arms flip up and out from the sides at the top. Note the positions of the claws the first time you transform this, so you can get them back in position for phone mode. Robot Mode: 4.75" (12cm) tall. The solely robot bits (upper arms, claws, thighs) are made of a warmer and slightly darker gray plastic than the phone body. There's faintly bluish silver paint on the face (the camera lens forms one big cyclopean eye for him) and metallic sapphire blue on the forearms. The top and center bottom parts of the keypad make up his torso front, no new robot detailing. For a less phone-y robot mode, however, you can twist all the joints around to let the back become the front...in fact, some of the non-phone-styling details on the back make me wonder if the intial plan was for this to be the official robot chest, with some paint details on it. The head can sort of turn, but you have to lift up the "cape" to allow this. The shoulders and elbows are ball joints, and the wrists are hinge flaps. The claws are 5mm across on the inside, and Speed Dial can hold some 5mm peg items (it's not a really tight grip, so we're talking small hand weapons, not major cannons). Hips are universal joints, knees are hinges, but he has Road Rocket Syndrome, with REALLY short thighs and really long shins, so he almost might as well not have knees. In fact, here: http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/speeddialmod.JPG A reprolabel symbol and some bits of gold foil sticker from the Exo-Force Golden Guardian's sheet (which I kept specificially for this sort of thing). The gold doesn't look shiny, but chrome is hard to photograph. Overall: This was the first one I can remember seeing online, and it does feel like a first stab at the concept. Iffy proportions, a huge chunk of the toy not actually transforming, a bit chunky for phone mode. But it's not without its charm, and now that I've modded mine a little I like it a lot more. Dave Van Domelen, did have a Reprolabel Autobot symbol on his first cellphone, so it's only fitting.