It’s Thursday and that means it’s time once again to delve into the wonderful world of Glyos. I’ve been trying to think of a clever name for this feature – Glyosday? ThursGlyos? Glyrsday? Hmm… maybe it doesn’t need one? I’m just gonna save that for later. Let’s get to the Phaseon!

When I placed my first Glyos order with Onell Design, I wasn’t terribly well versed in the company’s history or its product (heck, I still feel like I’m playing catch up to this day). I ordered an Exellis and some Junkmen, but when the box came there was also a strange grey/teal robot inside. I didn’t know what it was right off, but I enjoyed the cool design and he ended up not only in the front of my display, but also featured in the early promo pics for IAT.

I quickly discovered that this strange figure was called a Beanbot. He was a separate, but glyos-compatible product from BeantownToys.com. I say compatible, because the joints are the same and the pieces are immensely useful for building, but his look – those big cartoon eyes in particular – tended to make him stand out from the Glyos crowd. The small gap between Beanbots and the rest of the Glyosdom was bridged earlier this year with the introduction of the Phaseon, a new Glyos Gendrone that can stand next to your Gobons and Argens without looking like a scene cut from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The Phaseon was initially available in silver, white, & black. Summer was… financially uncomfortable here at IAT, so I had unfortunately missed those drops, but I was able to snag a gold Phaseon Revolutionary in August and a sweet metallic green edition just last month (along with clear and GITD versions – all still available). I’ll be looking at those green and gold versions today. One quick note on the metallic green version, in this post on the Onell blog, Onell founder Matt Doughty mentioned that the color scheme was based on something called “Adventure 2000”. Embarrassingly, I didn’t know what that was, so I had to look it up and now I want those… being a toy collector is hard work…

As you can tell from the pics of the two robots together, most of the Beanbot pieces are utilized in the Phaseon build; the difference being that the alternate chest piece has been swapped out for a large cylindrical torso extension and the cartoon head replace by a cool visored/dome piece. That clocks the Phaseon in at 14 pieces and a sweet deal at $6.

In addition to the regular build, the Phaseon has also been sold in a “Caliber” edition. That build used some phase arm pieces to bulk up the shoulders and feet. I picked up my gold Phaseon in Caliber form and I’ve come to fancy that build a bit more than the standard one, but, as they tend to do, the folks over at Onell showed an even cooler build that combines the Phaseon with the Argen, the Rigkiller. He’s an awesome hunk o’ plastic, I had to tear him down for this review and build him back up again before I could write it. Between him & the new Glyans, I think October was my favorite drop yet (it should be, I’ve placed three orders from it… 😛 ).

As is always the case with Glyos, the figures are made of a sturdy plastic that makes tight connections around the Glyos joints and keeps me from worrying (too much anyway, I’m a worrier) when I pop the joints apart to build.

The green & gold Phaseons only have a couple paint apps: the wash to darken the grooves and the panels on the domed head and “belt buckle”, but both these guys feature a cool tampo on their torsos. I’m not entirely certain what that designates (I told you… I’m always playing catch up with Glyos), but it’s a great look and I’m excited to see the tampos on more and more Glyos figures.

The articulation paragraph is always a fun one with Glyos. The Phaseons, in their basic build, feature 8 points of articulation that help the figure to move, but, in reality, every connection/joint is an articulation point and that gives the Phaseon thirteen total. We live in age where articulation has become increasingly important and, on occasion, I do lament that some of these guys can’t get more cool poses in their basic configurations, but that’s what axis joints are for, right?

Overall, when it comes to my personal love for Glyos, I’m always attracted to figures that venture more robotic. I enjoy an Exellis and Pheyden as much as anyone (and I do love Sarvos…), but the Argens, Gobons, and, now, Phaseons are where the line really speaks to me. The smooth, technical, symmetrical pieces are a blast to build with and the Phaseons are really adding to that by bringing the traditional Beanbot pieces into the same color ranges as other Glyos product and by adding that sweet chromedome head to the mix.

Well, that wraps up our second Glyrsdays entry. For more pics of the Phaseons and their alternate builds continue to the gallery…