Cybertron Override GTS

(Femme-Bot Friday #4)

Aside from the Revenge of the Fallen 'wheelsnakes', this is probably the most contentious inclusion in the femme-bot feature, because it's only the US version of the character, Override, who was a femme-bot - in Galaxy Force, Nitro Convoy was a dude.

I wasn't really enamoured of this mold, and only bought another version because it was a black repaint, and black repaints are cool. Honestly, I don't remember why I picked up this model when I already had that, other than the slight improvement over the clownish colourscheme of the original.

Vehicle Mode:
Perhaps this is the reason I bought Override GTS... Cybertron did a few GTS repaints, though I still have no idea what 'GTS' stood for, or what the altered paintjob was supposed to signify. Override's new paintjob seemed, at the time, to be a massive improvement on the garish original apart from one small point: the design on the front of the vehicle - which is probably supposed to be a flame pattern - looks rather like blood splatter due to a high-velocity impact with a human. The shade of red used is very stark against the pale grey, and even against the black, and I wonder if, perhaps, a different colour might have been preferable, considering red was used on the original.

One thing that's quite strange is that, with a flame pattern on the front, Override GTS would come close to referencing G1 Hot Rod if only the colour scheme ran red/orange/yellow rather than black/red/grey. Of course the Cybertron line already had it's Hot Rod/Shot (aka GF Exillion) so the G1-inspired repaint of that model already had to get a new name (Excellion, just to make things more straightforward)... Thus, this repaint was stuck as Override.

As noted in the Dark Nitro Convoy write up, there's something of a Batmobile to this vehicle, even in this colourscheme... but I can't bring myself to even imagine the costume of the Batman who'd drive this car.

There are two very weird aspects to this version of the model: firstly, the cockpit has a painted frame which breaks the windscreen into two panels. Since there's no molded detail to support this, it looks rather strange and, frankly, it's a waste of silver paint. Secondly, the headlights were molded into the black sections of the frontmost parts of the vehicle and, in the black repaint, covered over by clear plastic. In this version, they are covered over with opaque red plastic, so it looks as though Override doesn't have headlights. Being a racing car - or that kind of thing - perhaps headlights aren't needed... but when one nonexistant detail has been painted in, it seems daft to cover over another detail that is molded. That said, the original Nitro Convoy and Override featured gold-painted plastic over the molded headlights - rather more opaque than the translucent look to the character in the TV show.

Naturally the weapon is the same as the original version and the black repaint, and functions exactly the same via the Cyber Key. It's neither the most elegant nor the most effective weapon... but I guess it suits the vehicle.


Robot Mode:
Now, I know the CGI in the TV series altered the look of the model by shrinking the width of the torso right down but, even then, it really didn't look like a femme-bot. The only aspect of the design that might make one think of this as 'female' is the fact that Override appears to have high-heeled boots... but her feet are massive and there's absolutely nothing feminine about the look of the toy.

In many ways, looking at this figure now, I don't understand how I though the colourscheme and paint patterns on this were an improvement on the original Nitro Convoy or Override... though the former had a gold face and the latter's was orange, so it may just have been that I like the idea of a face with metallic paint, but didn't want to pay import prices for a figure this bad... More extensive details on its shortcomings can be found in the Dark Nitro Convoy write-up, linked above.


Looking back at this figure today, I wish I'd either passed on this mold entirely (with the possible exception of the limited edition Dark Nitro Convoy) or picked up the original version. The colourscheme on this one is a bit too dark and high-contrast, even though there's not a great deal more black in this than the original. The 'blood splatter' paintwork is actually rather off-putting now, and the spring-loaded partial auto-transform gimmick, terrible weapon, heinous stability issues and general lack of poseability all add up to a figure that was rather a waste of money.

I've noted in the other write-up that the dark colourscheme turns a terrible toy into something slightly less terrible so, unfortunately, that leaves this toy still being terrible. It doesn't seem very well thought-out, and it's easily the most disappointing femme-bot in my collection.

And, yes, I include the Revenge of the Fallen wheelsnakes in that statement.