With the Decepticons en route to recover their leader Megatron, and the discovery of the long-lost AllSpark Cube, the military forms an improvised plan to race to Mission City to hide the Cube from the hostile alien robots by shielding it with the technology of the city, and then evacuate the Cube via helicopter to another location while they are distracted. Once there, they are ambushed by several Decepticons including the revitalized Megatron. During the battle- no longer isolated from the outside world by Hoover Dam- the Cube accidentally comes into contact with the ground, and spreads its mysterious life-giving energy across the city, turning everyday electronic items into more Cybertronians… Real Gear Robots! After the Mission City battle, many of the smaller newly-created robots manage to escape out of the city limits, but some are picked-up by hidden Autobots and Decepticons, and then used as spies and scouts to find each other- using their disguised forms to trick humans into carrying them wherever they need to go.

"Gaming the System"

Power Up VT6’s disguise mode (back) is that of a generic portable hand-held gaming device. It is molded mostly in light gray ABS, with two separate purple ‘buttons’ along the top edge. The non-descript “Start” and “Select” buttons, also, are painted black. The circular direction pad on the left side is molded in black ABS. The four buttons on the right side are actually molded on a single black piece under the grip, and then painted their respective colors- blue, green, yellow, and red. The big display screen is actually a decal applied in the factory. Details on the screen are: a green and silver plane firing orange blasts, a cityscape background, a targeting icon, a purple Decepticon symbol in the lower right corner, a power indicator along the right side, and target-identifier & player command icons in the lower left toolbar. (For those of you keeping count, that is Voyager-class Autobot Jetfire from the 2006 “Transformers: Cybertron” line in the picture.)

I suppose that the left and right button controls are the special feature of Power Up VT6. Both sides are held up by single springs underneath. The four color-coded buttons are actually one piece; pressing on one moves the other three.

…

Transforming him is a piece of cake- very simple to understand, very simple to execute. Unlike the majority of the Real Gear Robots line, Power Up VT6 has what can be described as an Automorph feature, which is found in each of the main figures from the movie line of characters- the standard Deluxe-class, advanced Voyager-class, and especially-complex Leader-class. As the legs are deployed and shifted downwards at the waist, the shoulder and head automatically extend out from the center of the body from behind the display screen. It’s a little unexpected considering that Automorph is absent from the rest of the Real Gear Robots line, and it’s tricky to figure out where to place your fingers the first few times you change him.

After securing his hips together to finish off the Automorph, the rest is manually changed- flipping out the claws, lowering the arms, and repositioning the legs.

…

Power Up VT6’s robot mode (back) is a bit on the thin side. Looking at him from a side profile, from his knees to his head is all really thin; however, looking at him from the front, his legs are thin front waist to feet, as are the arms even more. His head is even flatter, though it does feature eyes that glow green when light shines through them. His hands are more like claws, but it’s hard to tell since they’re really thin, and can’t grip anything. His lower legs are jointed on the back side of them, and look rather awkward. His display screen is prominently shown across the front of his entire upper torso.

Poseability is good. There are regular twist joints in his neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, and knees; while ball-and-socket joints are in his elbows and hips. The biggest issue in posing him is how far forward his lower legs are position from his upper legs. With little support in back, he is prone to falling over backwards easily despite the small ridges at his heels. His hands/claws can pitch up and down due to how he transforms, but since they don’t really look like either claws or hands, it’s hard to pose him in a satisfying way.

Unlike most of the toys in the Real Gear Robots line, none of the screws on Power Up VT6 are covered. This may owe to the fact that screws are usually seen on real hand-held game devices. Also, most of the Real Gear Robots are representations of smaller electronic devices, and so the screws are usually hidden or not seen at all on things like cell phones (Autobot Speed Dial 800) or multimedia players (Decepticon Booster X10). Because of how small he is compared to a real game device, the screws on Power Up VT6 are more prominent and thus their presence is exaggerated & more noticeable.

Simple and fun. That is the mission of the Real Gear Robots line, and this toy does that fairly. I was looking forward to getting him, but when I finally did, I was disappointed. The lower legs were a big part of that, and I thought that maybe they could have been redesigned a bit; maybe eliminated those large gaps on the front of them too. Also the hands, again, bugged me a bit, but I’m not quite sure why. The Automorph feature, too, was a surprise, though I’m not quite sure if it was a good idea to add it. That I know of, none of the other Real Gear Robots have Automorph, so why should just this one? Colors didn’t bother me, nor did the articulation. In disguise mode, he’s just fine, and I had no problem with it other than perhaps his small size, but that is the sacrifice of the line to make them cheap. Something just didn’t work right here, or he rubs me the wrong way, so I mildly recommend getting Power Up VT6.

--Released by Popular Demand!--

[DISCLAIMER: This last section is not supported, advertised, or endorsed by either Hasbro or Paramount Pictures. It is a fan-supported effort completely independent from all companies affiliates with the 2007 film "Transformers".]

Just before “Transformers” was released into theaters in July, 2007, Warner Brothers’ music label released a single CD containing songs performed by various popular bands that were appearing in the film. (Four of these songs did not make it into the film but were included on the CD anyways, including a remake of the classic G1 Transformers theme by Mute Math!) It was unknown at the time how well the film would do, and so none of the original score composed by Steve Jablonsky was included. Even though the film did quite well internationally in theaters despite criticism from even hardcore Transformers fans, the original score also received praise. After seeing the film, many went to stores to buy “Transformers: The Album”, hoping to be able to listen to some of the original soundtrack (OST). Unfortunately, Warner Brothers had not anticipated this in the pre-release months, and a letter was sent out shortly thereafter that they would not be releasing any of the OST.

(For you anime fans out there, Jablonsky composed the complete score for Katsuhiro Otomo’s 2004 film “Steamboy”. He had also previously collaborated with “Transformers” director Michael Bay to score 2005’s less-successful “The Island”.)

This was criticized by many. The webmaster of The Knight Shift created an online petition mere days after “Transformers” was released in theaters; asking Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, and Warner Brothers to release an OST containing only music composed by Mr. Jablonsky. While sales for “…The Album” dropped rapidly inside of a two week period (from #29 to #76 on the Billboard music charts, and no more than 91,000 units sold), by the end of July, 2,000 signatures had been recorded by the petition, and by mid-August five weeks later, that number had quickly doubled to 4,000.

(Yours truly can be found as entry #1112!)

On August 26th, Warner Brothers announced that- by popular demand- they would be releasing a single CD containing most of the OST from the film! By then, the petition had surpassed 5,000 signatures. The release date would be October 9th, 2007. The movie “Transformers” itself would be released on DVD a few days later on October 16th. Depending how well “Transformers: The Score” does, Warner Brothers mentioned the possibility that a 2-disc OST containing the complete 90 minutes of the score would be released later on. (Please, oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please…)

(Whether intentional or not, October 9th is written out as 09-09, or 9-9. The release date for “Transformers” in the United States was July 4th, 2007- written out as 07-04-07, or 7-4-7 on promotional materials; an obvious & eye-catching though unrelated reference to the famed Boeing 747 wide-body commercial jumbo jet. Playing with numbers, are we…?)

On September 2nd, Steve Jablonsky e-mailed The Knight Shift, thanking them, and everyone who had signed the petition, for supporting him and the music. He also mentioned that an OST had always been in the works, but would have been released later on.

Yay-! I wanted to hear the OST as well, and was quite mad when there wasn’t going to be one released. They neglected to release an OST of Randy Newman’s score when the Star Trek-parody “Galaxy Quest” (1999) came out, and it made me mad! Same with David Arnold’s score for the remake of “Godzilla” (1998).

(I absolutely loved the scene where the Autobots descent from space, and then gather in the alleyway. That inspirational piece of music, alone, convinced me that I wanted this OST!)

If you read these notices at the end of these reviews on CDX, and you too signed the petition, I thank you as well! And if you read it, but did nothing… Heh-, well... I hope a protoform Autobot hard-lands right on your a--!