iGear TFCon Roswell and Van Guardian.

The FansProject Glacialords were my first foray into third-party 'transformers', and these guys are my second. Rather than just infringing on the intellectual property of one toyline, these rip off Transformers, GoBots, Machine Robo, Robo Machine, Robo Machines and Machine Men, and are (or have been) owned by Hasbro, Bandai, Tonka, Popy and probably other companies I've forgotten. Whether that makes the copyright infringement worse, or so diluted that it doesn't matter anymore, I don't know. What I do know is that for last year's TFCon in Canada, iGear produced five hundred of these two toys - Van Guardian (based on Transformers Brawn and GoBots Van Guard) and Roswell (Transformers Cosmos/GoBots Pathfinder.)

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Van Guardian is a great toy - the transformation of the legs is ingenious and not quite like any transforming toy I've seen before. Obviously he has similarities to G1 Brawn and Outback, and it's a great mould, though perhaps a bit wide in 'van' mode. Roswell came with a Figma-like stand and poseable arm thing that snapped almost immediately. I suspect that iGear sourced the stand from somewhere generic and this isn't necessarily a reflection on their toys, but it's a bit sad and it's never happened to any of my 'big business' toy stands. It looked good while it lasted, and I love Roswell's 'alien' space helmet. Since GoBots (or GoBits in this case) are partially organic, I like the fact that she might need a helmet to breathe in space.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8559/vfri.png

Overall, it makes me happy that people are homaging dead toylines, and I look forward to X-Transbots' Sonic and Hoss. And now these two take a place in my collection...

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An excellent review & a wicked collection SS - I'd like to see more 3rd Party Gobots figures myself, preferably ones that are designed outright to homage the original Machine Robo figures but maybe with a little more flare in the transformation & articulation departments. ;):cool:

Amazing photos and a great review. Who is the Cosmos-like guys to the left of Roswell? Are they go bots perhaps?

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Originally Posted by reillyd

Amazing photos and a great review. Who is the Cosmos-like guys to the left of Roswell? Are they go bots perhaps?

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Thanks! They're both forms of Path Finder (who Roswell is based on) - the original GoBot from 1983 and the Transformers version from 2004, who's the G1 Cosmos mould in original catalogue colours.

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Originally Posted by Hursticon

I'd like to see more 3rd Party Gobots figures myself, preferably ones that are designed outright to homage the original Machine Robo figures but maybe with a little more flare in the transformation & articulation departments. ;):cool:

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Hursti, at the moment, the closest thing is probably the Art Storm Blue Jet version of Fitor:

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/3061/eork.jpg

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Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

Hursti, at the moment, the closest thing is probably the Art Storm Blue Jet version of Fitor:

*snip*

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Sadly at this point, I think you may be right dude. :o
(Looks pretty cool though! :eek:)

I have both those moulds in the Brawn and Cosmos colours and they are impressive. I love Comos' gun. It's very reminiscent of the gun off the cover of the first Foo-Fighters album and has that old sci-fi look to it which is great.

Like you said the leg transformation of Brawn is very clever, you just have to make sure you don't end up with the legs backwards :)

It's a shame about the stand. Mine is going strong showing no signs of problems.

Those toys are cool, I have the Cosmos and Outback version, but would have liked to have picked up the Gobots to, had they been widely available. I too look forward to seeing more third party Gobots.

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Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

Roswell came with a Figma-like stand and poseable arm thing that snapped almost immediately. I suspect that iGear sourced the stand from somewhere generic and this isn't necessarily a reflection on their toys, but it's a bit sad and it's never happened to any of my 'big business' toy stands.

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Ditto, I glued the top of the arm back together again, I lost a hinge but it still works. Looks like the hinge is to tight for whatever cheap plastic they used. Fortunately never had any problems like that with the toys themselves.