Maketoys Manga Mech Series Trash-Talk & Cogwheel - Pictorial Review

Here's another review made possible by our sponsor,  X2OToys , Maketoys [Manga Mech Series] Trash-Talk (Not Swerve) and Cogwheel (Not-Gears).

http://x2otoys.com/

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Swerve is one of those characters that was made popular again after quite sometime. Made his debut in Transformers G1 cartoon series and had almost limited screen times with few notable appearance in G1's Five Faces of Darkness and Forever Is A Long Time Coming. Aside from those, Swerve hardly ever appear again. However, in IDW G1 continuity, Swerve is one of the frequent casts, appearing in a lot of the episodes. 

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Gears on the other had, was a familiar face in Generation 1 cartoon series. Although he's one of the original crew of the Ark, Gears was involved in seldom involved in the battle due to his non-combatant nature (or maybe he just doesn't really care much about earth in general).

Gears was also featured in other continuities such as Dreamwave Generations 1, G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers and most recently, IDW Generation 1 where he joined Rodimus as the crew of the Lost Light, on a mission to find the Knights of Cybertron.



In Package

Maketoys Trash-Talk and Cogwheel comes in a brown outer box, just like what you can see with MT Hyper Novae. One thing that caught my attention was that there's a label at the top left stating 'Manga Mech Series'. I've heard rumors previously that MT coming up with Not-Metroplex as a continuation of their Armageddon add on for Year of the Snake Omega Supreme, a part of their city-bot series. Maybe 'Manga Mech Series' is their Not-Minibot series?

Maketoys releases might not have the best quality of boxes, but the designs are awesome.

Back View

On the back a lot of pictures showing Trash-Talk and Cogwheel's gimmick and design. Also featured are the extra accessories.

Side View

Side View

The set comes with, aside from the figures, a gun and an alternate head for each of them, an instruction manual and also a drink tray.

The manual is a simple single row-six columns two-sided paper, showing how simple the transformation for both of the figures.

The set also comes with a drink tray with 1 jug and 2 glasses. For those who aren't familiar, this is a homage to a part of the IDW Generation 1 continuity, that started with Swerve mistakenly thought Blur wants to open a bar with him (Swerve was Blur's fanboy). It all soon came into being when shortly after the event with Sparkeater, Swerve remembered his earlier plan to run a bar. And he did. (That's how the story goes, if I'm not mistaken, haha)

"Sign my bra!"
Pic Credit : TFWiki

The set also comes with an extra head for each of them (Left for Trash-Talk and Right for Cogwheel)

Alt Mode

Trash-Talk (also Cogwheel since they share the same basic mold) transform into a semi-cybertronian alt mode as opposed to earth mode like Generations Scout Class Swerve.

Side View

The transformation from both modes are equally simple, with slight similarities as Generations Swerve. The plastic is quite sturdy, roughly the same as previous MT releases (and somewhat resembles FP's Not-Stuncticons Team)

Back View

From the back of the alt mode, you can clearly see that Trash-Talk (and Cogwheel) comes with ratchet-jointed knees.

Compared to Generations Swerve, Trash-Talk is slightly bigger and comes in mostly-white color scheme as opposed to Generations Swerve almost fully red.

I like to see that Trash-Talk not as a replacement/alternatives of Swerve, rather a cybertronian-form for Swerve's earth mode.

The drink tray (and also jugs and glasses) can be attached on top of Trash-Talk. This however does not improve anything aside from the fact that it can be used for both alt mode and robot mode

Cogwheel has a same mold as Trash-Talk aside from the front hood and also the gun that he comes with, with different paint scheme

Back View

Side by side view

Both front hoods can be opened, showing something inside which I guess to be spotlight of some sort, really don't have any idea.

Robot Mode

As IDW Swerve as he can be. Honestly, Maketoys did a fine job getting his design right. Like he came right out the comic books itself.

Despite being a rather small figure, Trash-Talk comes with fine detailing, not any less than most Deluxe and Voyager figures out there. As mentioned before, the transformation is pretty much straight forward and fairly intuitive.

A clean design
Back View

Right on the dot! The head sculpt is perfectly done, capturing Swerve outgoing, enthusiastic, joyfully irreverent and upbeat personalities.

Trash-Talk is a tad bit taller than Swerve, with bulkier look and better proportion.

Moving on to Cogwheel. Despite using the same mold, Cogwheel comes with different head and also retooled chest part. These, paired the paint scheme, gives him a substantial difference compared to Trash-Talk

Back View

Cogwheel headsculpt homaging his appearance in Generation 1 cartoon series

Aside from the difference in Trash-Talk and Cogwheel head/chest design and paint scheme, both also comes with an individualized gun.

Articulation wise, these two are fun to play with. Despite being small, MT properly design Trash-Talk and Cogwheel to have decent articulations for better playability.

Before we continue, just a tips. Both figures comes with a rather solid and tight ball jointed head which although have wide range of movement, hard to turn etc. And design in which the heads are confined makes it a lot harder to turn them. So, to ease out, the inside of the front hood can be taken out to make it easier.

Aside from that both also comes with a double-jointed shoulders, swivel above the elbows, hinge on the elbows and wrist swivels. There's also waist swivel and hinge, ball jointed thighs, swivel above the knees and also ball jointed feet.

Due to their size and build, it's not a surprised how stable these two are.

Gimmicks

Bottoms up!

To change to the alternate heads, their chest assembly can be pull out as such, taking out their chest, head and hands in one piece.

Before we continue, both parts can be switch with one another giving a different mixture of paint scheme

Trash-Talk comes with an almost-destroyed alternate head with half of the jaw falling out of the socket. Despite being really small, admired how detailed it is. Why the face?

Pic Credit : TFWiki

The alternate head is actually a reference to IDW's The Transformers : More than Meets the Eye #12, 'Before and After', where Swerve accidentally shot himself when trying to lift a huge weapon

Baam~!

Next, Cogwheel's alternate head is a reference to G1 Gears toy version as opposed to G1 cartoon version for his normal head.

This set also sold together with MFB add on referring to Swerve's My First Blaster, built by Brainstorm to suit Swerve small body. However, I didn't get a chance to review this yet, here's some photos of the set.

Assembling Instruction

With the release of Generations Swerve, does this set have a place in fan's collection? Well, personally, this is a must for fans of Maketoys, that's for sure. 

Also for those who love to have a proper size neo-minibot team, this is the way to go. Comparing this set to the previous effort of other companies, Trash-Talk and Cogwheel are properly design figures rather than glorified, enlarged legend class figures. Quality wise, Maketoys almost never fail.