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Is it a Constructicon? It must at least be a Decepticon? Neither really. This is the green and purple Gears from Brazil's Optimus vs Malignus line manufactured by Estrela. Now I usually wouldn't rehash all the related details of the aformentioned toyline but because it's been a long time since I wrote anything about South American minibots, a recap wouldn't hurt. In Brazil, Estrela manufactured and released many recolours of the series 1 G1 Transformers minibots. These were split into 2 series, the "Robocar" series and the "Optimus vs Malignus" line. The first line had TF card art and contained Gears (Pick-Up), Brawn (Jipe), Cliffjumper (Carrera), Bumblebee (Volks), Bumblejumper (Sedan) and Windcharger (Camaro) in regular or repainted colours. The second line, Optimus vs Malignus was a much closer thing to The Transformers as there were clear good and evil factions. Optimus being the equivalent of the Autobots and Malignus the Decepticons. Depending on what faction a particular minibot was part of, they had a distinct faction symbol. Below is a composite scan of the two symbols; Optimus on the left and Malignus on the right:
 The toys from this line tended to have pretty wild colour schemes and unique new card art. Purple and green as a colour scheme for Gears (or Pick-Up) is something I'd class as wild. Wild but not bad, it actually works really well for him. This green/purple Gears belongs to the evil Malignus faction, as if you hadn't already guessed!
  It's not at all unlikely that Estrela chose this colour scheme for the evil Pick-Up character since the Constructicons were widely available throughout the world at the time this toy would have been released, plus the green and purple Constructicon schemes are very recogniseable and symbolic of the evil Decepticons. Regardless of the reason, this is an eye-catching, striking and unforgettable little minibot and one that warms to the heart quickly.
  As with all Brazilian minibots, the quality is not as high as The Transformers and the figures can get loose and worn very quickly. Chrome wear is something these minis tend to suffer from a great deal. Finding nice ones can be a bit of a trick. The green/purple Gears is probably not one of the tougher minis to find among the South American minibots. It's rarer than the Argentinian minis, it's rarer than most of the Brazilian Robocar minis, but as far as Optimus vs Malignus goes it's probably one of the more common ones. That doesn't mean that you could find one tomorrow or even next month though. Carded ones? Good luck.
  You can just about make out the copyright stampings on this toy above the front wheels/below the front wheel arches. On the left side it reads "ESTRELA S.A." and on the right side it reads "IND. BRASILERA" then "MADE IN BRAZIL". The different stamping makes it easy to distinguish between same-coloured US and Brazilain minibots, but in the case of this particular mini, the bright green probably gives it away.
  Looking at the above two pictures, the top one shows a view from above. If you look at the hood, the "M" from this toy's Takara Microman/Micro Change past is still very much apparent. This thing really wouldn't have been too out of place in E-Hobby's recent minibot recolour reissue exclusive set of "Gobots". Now while the Micro Change "M" remains, some moulding changes have been made. If you look at the next picture which compares the green/purple Pick-Up with a regular Transformers Gears, you will notice that the normal Gears has the grill lines arranged vertically. All Brazilian versions of Gears however have them arranged horizontally. Basically the grill was just attached at a 90 degree angle to the original design. It's not really a remoulded grill, it's just been attached differently.
 The other main moulding difference can be seen when the Pick-Up is displayed in robot mode...
   The little ear-type things on either side of the face are now part of the same piece instead of being one piece under another as with the US TF Gears. Also the ears are not painted the same colour as the face, instead they match the torso colour. This particular Pick-Up is missing the Malignus faction symbol that should be on his waist. I think the value of these minibots is usually higher when the faction symbols are intact and present as they are something of a novelty and rarity themselves and very much a part of these minibots' personalities.
 The green/purple Pick-Up looks equally as striking and eye-catching as he did in vehicle mode. In this mode however, he has a lot more prominent purple on him than a Constructicon does but would still fit in easily. Poseabilty isn't really a weapon in a G1-derived minibot's armoury as only the arms show any effective articulation. Here are a couple of shots of this Pick-Up with the Robocar orange Pick-Up and the Robocar regular-coloured Pick-Up:
  As you can see, they make a cute little set! The only one missing is the Malignus wine/red Pick-Up (Gears). Notice all three have the horizontal grill and one-piece head. Gears is a cool minibot, one of the smallest. Almost all the recolours of Gears released in any line, be it Brazilian, Peruvian, Argentinian or Mexican, look good. This one is no exception and is probably a little more special than the rest and more memorable due to its Constructicon-like colour scheme. For those who know nothing about the world of rainbow minibots, seeing one of these for the first time can be quite an exciting shock. Well...seeing this one might be exciting, seeing the pink Windcharger might incite a different reaction! To finish up, here are a couple of pics of (from L to R) the Brazilian green/purple Pick-Up, Brazilian orange Pick-Up, Brazilian blue/red Pick-Up, the Peruvian blue/yellow Gears and the Mexican "Swerve" (which is really just a recoloured Gears and not a Swerve mould at all) to give you some idea of the variety of colours minibots are available in...and that's barely the tip of the iceberg.
  All the best Maz |