Bio:

Gears is anti-social, a self-proclaimed misfit. Finds fault in everything and everyone. Acts this way to help cheer others up as they try to cheer him up. Tremendous strength and endurance. Totes heavy loads long distances. Launches to height of 20 miles, floats down on compressed air. Becomes an easy target due to limited maneuverability. Can detect infrared.

Introduction:

After picking up the latest release from the 3rd party company iGear, “Cogz,” I needed to go back to the figure’s routes and inspiration: the Transformer known as Gears. I have always loved the original G1 Episode “Changing Gears” as it fits perfectly to his tech spec bio. Gears is grumpy, probably pretty rude most of the time, but still respected by his fellow Autobots. We can all relate to how Gears feels from time to time.

Where I bought Gears:

This is something new I’d like to share with interested readers since The G1 Journey is all about me collecting G1 toys, I also feel this should include where I find my figures. Gears is easy to come across. It doesn’t take much more than an Ebay search to find an abundance of available Gears. I bought my Gears off of Ebay in a Mini-Bot lot, so for around $50 USD I was able to score 6 Mini-Bots in total, including Gears.

*** As a reminder, please click on the images to view their full size ***

Alt Mode:

Gear’s alt mode is a blue and red pick-up styled vehicle. According to TFwiki he is somewhat of a “‘penny racer’-proportioned pickup truck of indeterminable model.” I’m not all too familiar with “penny racers,” but Takara did make them and you can see the connections between the two vehicles. Like most Mini-Bots, Gears is very small but does not shy away from great details. The colors of red and blue look phenomenal on Gears. He also sports a chrome grill to make the front end really pop. The joints on my Gears are atrocious, though. The pieces holding the front wheels portion of the vehicle mode are so loose it’s hard to have them sit flush, which is a disappointment.

Robot Mode:

Like most Mini-Bots, Gears transformation to robot mode is a breeze. The robot form has a lot more red to contrast the blue and also has chromed thighs to bring everything together. It’s easy to tell Gears was originally a Takara product, specifically from the Microchange line, because of his face. It’s lacking any facial features and reminds me of a comic book vibe. The only articulation you’re getting from Gears is in his arms, which I find weird overall because his fists look like he’s flexing his forearms. What a badass I guess!

The Evolution:

As I had mentioned, I purchased the iGear Cogz for my Classics display and that’s what motivated me to finally fiddle with my G1 Gears. I’ve written about iGear and G1 figures before with Brawn, and I have the same feelings for the most part about Cogz. Cogz is very similar to G1 Gears. Their alt modes carry most of the similarities, the only obvious difference being Cogz incredibly watered down red and blue colors.

Although Cogz has his flaws, I dig him as a Classics representation. He’s a little bigger than where Mini-Bots should probably be, but he does sit well with a figure like Classics Cliffjumper and Bumblebee.

Overall: 6/10

My experience with Gears was slightly tarnished thanks to his incredibly loose joints, but he’s got the charm of the Mini-Bots and his colors work very much in his favor. Not to mention he’s super cheap on the aftermarket so that makes finding him a breeze, which is always welcome when trying to obtain G1 figures.