Badcube Grump and Slick - Gears and Swerve

Badcube Grump and Slick - Gears and Swerve

Gears was never one of my favorite characters from the show. He reminded me too much of a Gobot. I don't remember Swerve at all. Badcube Grump and Slick certainly look like their respective characters and are fun little figures in robot mode to round out the G1 cast.

Truck mode would probably look better if I could keep the tabs in place. The red portions in back keep coming apart. His front portion also comes apart very readily. He doesn't roll very well for me. I can't find any spot to store his accessories.

Transformation out of vehicle mode is fairly easy. Everything wants to untab anyways. Reassembling the legs can get a little confusing. Transformation to vehicle mode is typical of Badcube. The front section has four pairs of tabs that need to be lined up against multiple pivoting and swiveling pieces. His chest panel popped off a couple of times during the process. Once you bring the legs into position, there are at least five more pairs of tabs to contend with. I won't be transforming Swerve. I don't find it worth the aggravation.

They are both mostly colored plastic with some fairly clean paint applications for highlights. There is some chipping on Swerve's face though. I think both have Die-cast in their feet. Grump has a face swap gimmick that is not too difficult to use. It's much better than how Slick's head swap requires popping the heads off and on the ball joint. Besides the nostalgic factor, I find Grump's overall sculpt to be a bit more successful than Swerve. Swerve's shoulder pauldron's could have been handled better, but I suppose you can always resort to tucking them into the backpack. They might have looked less awkward if they had been directly attached to his arms.

Grump's head is on a swivel. There is no vertical articulation. Swerve's head appears to be on a ball joint, but it is so recessed into the surrounding helmet that it is difficult to manipulate. Both share the same articulation throughout the rest of their bodies. Their shoulders are on hinged ball joints. They can raise out and upward to 90 degrees. Swerve has shoulder pauldrons that articulate on double hinges. They swivel at the biceps, waist, and thighs. They have no wrist swivels and their fists are fixed in position. Their elbows are single-jointed and their knees are double-jointed. They can curl their arms to a little past 90 degrees and their knees to just under. The flank panels on both figures have a tendency to pop open when I manipulate their arms.Their hips are on universal joints. They can achieve full front and side splits. Their feet are on ball joints with separate feet tilt for extreme ankle rockers and tilts.

Grump's accessories include his rifle, his blow torch, and a circuit board. The rifle is done in the same style as Masterpiece Bumblebee. Metallic blue paint and line work gives it a little more high-end feel. It even sports the same type of handle. Unfortunately, the fit is a bit too tight for his hands. The blow torch is just grey plastic and fits onto either wrist when his fist is rotated in. The circuit board is also simple grey plastic. It fits well in his chest.

Slick comes with a rifle and an alternate face. The rifle is gray plastic. It looks very very similar to Grump's rifle, but it's missing wings, for lack of a better term, and line work. This rifle fits perfectly in both figures' fists, probably because of the lack of paint. The alternate face has a screaming expression.

Both Grump and Slick will be displayed on my Masterpiece shelf next to all the other minibots. They look great in robot mode and bring me a couple steps closer to a complete cast. Slick's shoulder pauldrons could have been handled better. The transformation could have been less finicky. I can't wait for Badcube to re-release Huff. He and Jetfire are the only two remaining Season 1 Autobots that I am missing. Then I can start nitpicking that I want a better Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Cliffjumper.