G2 Go-Bots (WIP)

[Cliffjumper]

Hopefully finish High Beam and do Motormouth later this evening. Bit torn on the redecos, though - the review's longer than I expected it to be as it is, but then at the same time there wouldn't be much new to say for a "Second Wave" review in terms of discussing the moulds. Any thoughts?

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The Go-Bots

No, not those ones. When Hasbro bought out Tonka in the early 1990s, they snapped up the trademarks of Transformers’ short-lived 1980s rivals and began slapping them arbitrarily on Transformers figures. In 1995, the final G2 series’ pocket-money range was branded Go-Bots. These were small cars, just over 2” in length, with axles that allow them to be whizzed along on Hot Wheels tracks and simple transformations. Six moulds were made initially, and these were used for three waves – all six came out in the first as new characters, the second saw all six recoloured and given ‘Classic’ names, and the third saw just two more recoloured, as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Four new moulds were slated for release in 1996, but these didn’t come out until 2001, as part of RiD (the Japanese forerunner, Car Robots, had revived the original six as the Spychangers in 2000).

There, wasn’t that bloody interesting and factually vague? Because there’s not much to write about each individual Go-Bot, they all get to share one review. Oh, none of the figures had any Autobot markings, I slapped the stickers on myself.

Wave 1

Name: Blowout
Function: Pursuit and Capture
Sub-Group: Go-Bot
"Want to race?"
The "Blowout", also called a "Temp" or "The Brooklyn Fade" is a hairstyle that gained popularity in the early 2000's. The hair is faded from skin to 1/2 inch in length from the edge of the hairline up 1 inch. The rest of the hair is left the same length, usually 1-2 inches depending on the preference of the client, and is generally spiked up in chunks using large amounts of heavy product such as gel or wax.

ROCK FACT: Blow-Out (with a hyphen) was the original name for Cliffjumper, which is why his TFU profile contains the bizarre line “Cliffjumper is often prone to literal blow-outs”. Do you see how funny that would be?

Alternate Mode: Blow-Out turns into a Porsche 959 sports car. For something of this size, it’s recognisable, and there’s a respectable level of detail. The robot mode feet are painfully obvious at the back, especially as every version of him has these as a contrasting colour to the car bodywork. Tut tut. Biggest problem, though, is that some bright spark had the idea of his primary colour being, well, nothing. The car is moulded in clear plastic, which looks cool for about five seconds held up to a light, but is ludicrously impractical. It also makes the painted silver windows look stupid –a transparent car with opaque windows… It means the blue ‘robot’ parts show through, and not in a good way.

Robot Mode: After the complex transformation, we have Blowout’s robot mode. It’s not actually bad, a middle-ranker from the range. The small size and simplicity leads to a set of proportions that run across the range – a DD chest, a single solid lower leg section and flat, door-clad arms. Blowout can’t reach past his volumptuous bosom, but aside from that he’s pretty amiable. The colours work nicely in this mode, and the head sculpt is pretty cool. It’s nice to see Hasbro haven’t skimped too much on the detail work as well, and in robot form Blowout is a respectable, if unspectacular, grunt. To be honest, both the Frenzy recolour and the RiD Hot Shot figure are more visually interesting.

Transformation: 1 – if you can’t do this, you are clinically retarded and should probably seek professional help.
Durability: 9 – The transparent plastic probably stresses fairly easily, and the gun could probably be lost with little effort.
Fun: 9 – Very simple and undemanding.
Price: 8 – Pretty easy and cheap to find.
Overall: 7 – a fun toy let down mainly by the downright silly vehicle colour scheme.

Name: Double Clutch
Function: Defence Specialist
Sub-Group: Go-Bot
"Catch Me If You Can!”
A double clutch (also called a double declutch) is a driving procedure primarily used for vehicles with an unsynchronized manual transmission.
Before the introduction of transmission synchronizers (in the 1920s) and helical cut gears, double clutching was a technique required to prevent damage to an automobile's gear system. Due to the difficulty involved in learning the technique, and because of the advent of synchronized gearing systems, it has largely fallen into disuse. However, drivers of large trucks still use the double clutching technique, as those vehicles are usually equipped with older, more efficient and more durable, unsynchronized gearboxes.
ROCK FACT: Despite his name, Double Clutch’s hands cannot clutch on to anything aside from his gun =(
Alternate Mode: Double Clutch turns into an Indycar. Well, no-one’s perfect. Of course, in plastic toy form, the things are palatable, and this one is surprisingly dainty. The mode’s lower than all the other Go-Bots. The moulding isn’t bad – he’s not a replica of a racing car by any means, but for the size he’s quite well done. His colour scheme is a generic one, but actually looks alright – the nose segment is actually dayglo, while the blue is rather fetching. It’s a shame the blending of the three isn’t handled with much panache, though – Hasbro were probably trying to save on the paint apps. Double Clutch also suffers from the cockpit problem – any open-top Transformer, especially racing cars, just look a little bit silly driving around with this void in them. A dummy pilot wouldn’t help, though – it’s probably one of those damned-either-way things, but it jars with the whole ‘Robots in Disguise’ vibe.
Robot Mode: Double Clutch’s slighter frame results in one of the smoother robot modes. The small front of the vehicle leads to a relatively small chest – his head’s still a little far back, but he can actually reach in front of his body. However, further down he lacks any conventional feet, and the decision leads to him resting on the exhaust pipes and rear wing of the car mode – meaning even with such a small, light chest and thin arms, he can have a balance problem. There’s also too much white on the mode – it’s a shame the blue from the rear/legs ouldn’t be carried around, and that paint’s been used on the face, rather than the helmet. Aside from the feet, it’s a decent little mould, but once again later recolours (notably both the G2 and RiD versions of Mirage) are more interesting.
Transformation: 1 – simpler than the offspring of brother and sister.
Durability: 8 – While still pretty sound, the exhaust pipes and rear wing can be snapped. You’d probably have to be trying, though.
Fun: 9 – Zoom! Zoom! Transform! Transform! Zoom! Zoom!
Price: 9 – One of the easiest Go-Bots to find, usually for well under a fiver MOSC.
Overall: 8 – ever so slightly bland, but pretty competent and diverting.

Name: Firecracker
Function: Rapid Assault
Sub-Group: Go-Bot
"Decepticons Belong in Junkyards!”
A firecracker (also known as a cracker, noisemaker, or banger) is a small explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang; any visual effect is incidental to this goal. They have fuses, and are wrapped in heavy paper casing, as to contain any explosion. Firecrackers, along with fireworks are now thought to have originated in China.
ROCK FACT: Firecracker wasn’t released as Banger in the UK.
Alternate Mode: Firecracker’s car mode is a Lamborghini Diablo. Rendered in transparent red. Hmmm. Actually, though, it’s not as bad as Blowout – red’s darker, and the use of yellow as the second colour blends a lot better. That said, he still doesn’t look remotely solid, and once again has a silly air to him once the novelty’s worn off. Which is a shame, as the car mode is once again competently rendered. The Diablo’s a nice car, it’s just a shame as the toy would look so much better in solid red (something vindicated by the later reuse of the mould as Optimus Prime).
Robot Mode: Compared to Blowout, Fircracker is a bit better proportioned – the chest isn’t too large, and having the car windscreen come up behind his head makes it look like it sticks out less. With three colours of plastic utilised, Firecracker also looks pretty decent, losing that half-finished look that haunts Double Clutch. The head cast is great, and even the transparent plastic works well in this mode. He does have to use the exhaut system as feet once again, but as the back end of the Diablo is used as the rest of the feet, he doesn’t have a balance problem. He does look a bit weird, though. Aside from this, it’s a well-proportioned robot.
Transformation: 1 – easier than a nursing student.
Durability: 9 – only the slightly weaker transparent plastic causes much of a problem.
Fun: 9 – The usual Go-Bot formula of addictive simplicity.
Price: 8 – Like most of the range, he can be found fairly cheaply.
Overall: 9 – Stylish and pretty, if not perfect.

Name: Gearhead
Function: Warrior
Sub-Group: Go-Bot
"Uhhhh”
Gearhead is one of many villains appearing on the Kids WB TV show, The Batman voiced by Will Friedle. He first appeared in "RPM", the fifth episode of the third season.
ROCK FACT: Gearhead owns three copies of “Frampton Comes Alive!”
Alternate Mode: Gearhead turns into some bloody horrid NASCAR thing. I read somewhere that it’s a Ford Thunderbird, but it could be anything. It’s a horrid, boxy, nasty American car, rendered in the most “meh” yellow imaginable. Even some enthusiastic paint apps can’t distract from the sheer generic nastiness of this flatulent whore of a car. All it needs is a little plastic hick in dungarees to go with it, and it’d be the most tacky, backwards car imaginable.
Robot Mode: Gearhead isn’t one of Primus’ children. Gearhead is what Primus would make at 4am after a night on the piss. Everything just goes wrong. The arms are stupidly long relative to his body, with half-formed wheelarches making them look comical. The chest is massive. The legs and shoulders are transparent – it works less well this way round. He has a perfectly clear head, allowing us to ascertain that he’s as stupid as he looks. He’s stumpy. I’d feel sorry for Gearhead if it wasn’t for the fact he’s so sickeningly ugly.
Transformation: 10 – theoretically very simple. But he’s hard to pick up beforehand.
Durability: 2 – only took two smacks with a hammer.
Fun: 1 – Great if you’re some idiot yokel. Not so hot in the civilised world.
Price: 1 – If someone offers you £10 to take the figure, and you have a hammer, consider it.
Overall: 1 – Everything that could go wrong with a Go-Bot crystallised as one misshapen turd of a figure.

Name: High Beam
Function: Tracker
Sub-Group: Go-Bot
"Let’s Get Biz-ay!”

High beams are when the nipples of a woman can be obviously seen through her clothing. The larger the protrusion the brighter the beam.
“I was over at the frozen food section and I noticed alot of High Beams”

ROCK FACT: High Beam’s nipple-related nomenclature prevented him from getting a toy in 1984 when Hasbro execs stopped pervert Bob Budiansky from using it on a figure at the time. Presumably they’d stopped caring by 1995.

Alternate Mode: High Beam turns into a Pontiac sportscar – Firebird, I think. Never mind, it’s the best car mode of the line, that rare beast – a pretty American car. The shape is lovely, and the exposed engine is a nice touch. The metallic green colour works really well, something a bit different and a nice dash of style, working well with the black secondary colour and the silver engine. However, the paint appears to have been applied in a gossamer-thin coat, and scuffs pretty easily.
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[Clay]

I think I may copy the intro part (minus the bit where you say they'll all share one review) for each one and give them seperate pages. It'll be much easier to tell which one is which that way. Plus, you do have enough per figure for stand-alone reviews anyway.

As for the second wave figures, I'd recommend sticking in blurbs about them with their first wave counterparts. I did it that way with the Brakedowns since there was not enough for two different reviews.