Dave's RotF Rant: Gravity Bots Wave 1

     Sideswipe (Corvette StingRay Concept)
     Optimus Prime (truck, not reviewed)
     Starscream (F-22, not reviewed)
     Bumblebee (2010 Camaro, not reviewed)
     Mudflap (Chevy Trax Concept, not reviewed)

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Grav1
     
     This actually seems to be two assortments released about the same time.
Both have Prime and BB, but one has Starscream while the other has Sideswipe
and Mudflap.  I have yet to see both Starscream and either Sideswipe or
Mudflap at the same store.
     I wasn't going to buy any of these, but when K-Mart put them on sale for
$9.99 during the week of the movie release and I also had a $5 off $20 in
toys coupon, I decided it'd be worth buying one to check out the gimmick that
others had assured me was nifty.  And at least this way I own a Sideswipe
that is stable in robot mode.  ;)
     Note that normally K-Mart wants $14.99, Walmart wants $12.88 and Target
$12.99, with sales or price reductions on regular Deluxes not generally
applying (in fact, the same week Walmart had Deluxes on sale for $8 but
Gravity Bots were full price).


CAPSULE

     Sideswipe: The transformation is interesting, but the vehicle mode is
all rattle-y and the robot mode is a deformed brick.  Avoid unless you can
get it really cheap, and even then only get one of the set.  $9.99 on sale at
K-Mart.
     

RANT

     Gravity Bots are "chibi" vehicles beyond the level seen in Fast Action
Battlers, more like the chunky Cyber Slammers and approaching the territory
of Japanese Choro-Q toys.  They all turn into stumpy robots with short fused-
together legs and oversized heads (but not even close to bobblehead
territory). 

     Packaging: This has the standard "kiddie line" trade dress with yellow
faction symbol and a generally brighter scheme.  See the Fast Action Battlers
review for more details.
     An oddball shape apparently intended to fill the space of regular action
figures or something, the card is 5.5" (14cm) wide but 12" (30cm) tall!  The
toys are in robot mode with rubber bands to keep them from accidentally
transforming, which strikes me as a bad move...they should have made
packaging that would let you try out the transformation in-package.
Although...given the lack of "strobe effect" transformation pictures on the
package, they may have intended to have a transform-in-package gimmick but
had to abandon it late in the game because the toy tended to break.  The
front of the package proclaims that it "Automatically converts!" and is
"Gravity Activated!" without saying how that works.  The cardback is no more
enlightening on that account.
     There are instructions, which are really just troubleshooting for when
the gears get out of whack.  Turns out actual instructions might have been
helpful, see below.  :)
     As usual for the RotF toys, there's no official motto or function, but
Sideswipe is a "Warrior" in the catalog that came with the wave 2 Deluxes.
So I'll make my own motto.


AUTOBOT: SIDESWIPE
Altmode: Corvette Stingray Concept
Licensor: GM
Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Alternators, Armada, Universe2
Previous Mold Use: None
Function: Warrior
Motto: "I'll fight until the cows come home, then I'll fight the cows!
     Wait, what's a cow?"

     SIDESWIPE races into action with his blades poised to pierce some
DECEPTICONS!  He's an eager warrior who's always looking for a fight.  The
bigger the bad guy, the better, he thinks, because there's nothing like a
challenge! 

STR 8  INT 7  SPD 8  END 6  RNK 5  COUR 7  FRB 3  SKL 9  Avg 6.625

     Twist-ties: 2, and they go through loops molded in the toy specifically
for the purpose of holding twist-ties.   A single rubber band wraps around
the toy in an X pattern.

     Vehicle Mode: A somewhat floppy silver sportscar with the same sort of
big wheeled proportions as those "shake and go" cars.  4.5" (11cm) long, 2.5"
(6cm) wide.  The front wheels are 28mm in diameter, the rear ones are 32mm in
diameter.  The robot's wheelfeet are molded onto the top rear, but otherwise
minimal kibble issues.
     The wheels are black plastic, everything else in this mode is a silvery
30% or 40% gray.  The headlights are painted light metallic blue, the windows
are dark metallic blue.  The grille and the fake wheelfeet are painted matte
black, the hubcaps and some wheelfoot molded details are painted silver.  The
taillights and license plate are molded, but not painted.
     It rolls along fine, but the panels tend to flap about a bit due to the
looseness made necessary by the transformation.  If you look on the
underside, there's two more small wheels along the centerline, which are used
to keep it rolling while the robot arms swing down to form the front end.
One of these midline wheels is a trigger, so it's not really a support wheel
so much as it's made to roll rather than drag.  In any case, despite the
looseness it doesn't fall apart or anything, it just rattles.

     Transformation: There's a button on the rear of the vehicle, in this
case it's Sideswipe's quad exhaust pipes.  As long as it's not pushed in, the
figure will rattle and flap around a bit, but won't transform.  Press it in
(by, say, setting the toy on a surface end-down) and it'll fall into robot
mode.  To get back to vehicle mode, there's a second button with a wheel on
it about the midpoint of the underside, pressing this down (by setting the
toy down on its wheels) and it's set up to fall into vehicle mode.  In fact,
the momentum of the sliding bits will also make it roll forward a bit after
transforming.  The front wheel pieces drop down a few millimeters in the
process, so the front wheels aren't in contact with the surface until
transformation is done.  Hence the underside wheels mentioned above.  During
transformation, the head spins around, the roof rotates 180 degrees and the
rear of the roof folds down to make the chest.
     Why does this need instructions?  Because if you try to transform it
without setting it down on a surface, you end up messing up the gears if you
don't know about the two buttons.
     [Later note: There's a hexagonal hole on the back of the legs chunk,
right under one of the molded twist-tie loops.  If you push a rod into this,
the toy will not transform even if you hold down both trigger buttons.
Wonkimus Major reports that the Japanese versions of the Gravity Bots come
with pegs that go in these holes and lock down transformation, but they're at
"choking hazard" size.  The hazard is probably why the U.S. release didn't
include the pegs, since our child safety laws are tougher.]
     [Even later note: At least one reader got the peg with his Bumblebee.
So maybe mine was just defective, or they phased the pegs out for the second
group.] 

     Robot Mode: A stumpy guy with vestigal arms and legs molded onto a solid
chunk, it's actually less interesting than a Cyber Slammer.  4.25" (10.5cm)
tall but with a head scaled more for a Voyager, he has a fake car rear molded
onto his chestflap, complete with taillights.  His wheelfoot legs are molded
in bas relief on the front of his legchunk, and you can just make out little
claw hands and blades on the insides of his door pieces.
     The transformation struts and the arms inside the doors are black
plastic, everything else is a piece visible in vehicle mode.  There's silver
paint on the face, chest and parts of the molded legs.  The fake taillights
and the Autobot symbol in the middle of the chest are red, the eyes are the
same light metallic blue as the headlights (which end up on the
shoulderpads).
     There is no articulation.  Okay, you can turn his head to the right,
which will make his shoulders shrug, but it also makes his chest spin which
makes it less than effective as a posing option.

     Overall: This is a gimmick that just happens to have a vehicle and a
robot mode wrapped around it.  It is indeed nifty a few times, but the
novelty wears off fast, leaving you with a rattletrap vehicle that feels like
it's about to fall apart (even though it won't) and a robot mode that Burger
King toys take pity on.  Even the small kids who this is supposed to appeal
to would probably end up breaking the gimmick after a few minutes of play and
abandon the thing.
     [Later note: Someone with actual kids at the hyper-destructive age range
(aka Terrible Twos) says the kids love 'em and have failed to destroy them
after several weeks.  So I may not be giving them enough credit in that
role.  OTOH, I stand by my opinion about them as far as holding the interest
of anyone over the single digits.  :) ]

     Dave Van Domelen, was gonna do the second wave Legends next, but figured
he could bang this one out in half an hour...and was right.