Gear

Gears, or gear items, are avatar shop items that usually appear as a tool. They can be worn on the profile of a player's avatar or be allowed in games that have allowed the gear's specific attributes and genre, for example, a gravity coil in Speed Run 4. There are many types of gear items, a few examples being swords, lasers, and musical instruments. As of January 12, 2019, there are 2,269 gear items in total (including Unavailable Items).

Many early games allowed gear, and gear was bought for functional as well as cosmetic purposes. In modern Roblox, gear items have become almost solely cosmetic. Very few active games nowadays allow the use of gear and even fewer allow the use of gameplay-affecting gear such as swords and powerups. If the game uses gear, it is likely an in-game copy, such as a gravity coil premium Pass that can only be used in that one game. The decline of gear could be a result of developers having a greater desire for control of the tools used in their games, the decline of Lego-like "BrickBattle" games, new and complicated avatar body types, such as R15 and Rthro, which break many gears that weren't designed with the new systems in mind (with most made before the new systems were even thought of), and the option to take full profit by selling advantageous gear as a Pass.

Expiration
Certain gear items are set to expire after a certain amount of time from being purchased by a user. These gear items are typically much cheaper than similar gear items that do not expire. The gear expiration feature is no longer being used.

While an expiring item is in a user's inventory, it will have how much time is remaining until the item expires displayed underneath the item's name and thumbnail. Once a gear item expires, it can no longer be brought into places or worn on the user's character. The items do however remain in their inventory and can be renewed by repurchasing the item.

Special gear items sold around holidays and events, such as fireworks for the Fourth of July and Vuvuzelas for the 2010 World Cup, often expire in this way.

Allowed Gear Types
Most users choose to disallow certain genres of gear from being taken into their places. This means that even though users own the gear and it's in their user's inventory, it will not show up in-game. Other users, however, choose to only allow a genre of gear that matches that of their game. Most games do not allow any gear, resulting in the death of gear from most games.

Other



 * Limited - A gear that was once on sale (or distributed in some way) for a set price, put off sale, and reintroduced as a resellable is a Limited item. Any type of Limited gear will not have a serial number.
 * LimitedU - A gear that as soon as it is released, has a number in stock and is sold for a set price. Each time it is bought, the buyer will receive the item along with a serial number that corresponds to what number buyer he/she was. Once it is sold out, it can be bought and sold much like a normal limited.
 * BC Only Items - These items can only be bought by users that have bought Builder's Club, Turbo Builders Club, or Outrageous Builders Club.
 * TBC Only Items - These items can only be bought by users that have bought Turbo or Outrageous Builder's Club.
 * OBC Only Items - These items can only be bought by users that have bought Outrageous Builder's Club.
 * NOTE: If users have a Builder's Club membership of a higher rank than the Builder's Club tag required to buy it, then they can buy it. I.E: A player who is TBC can buy a BC-only item, but the vice-versa cannot happen.
 * Rental - These items expire after a certain time.
 * Timed - Items that have a limited amount of time to be bought.

Glitches
Many gear items have been reported to have glitches (when a gear item doesn't function as usual), some weren't even fixed. Here are several known glitches of gear items:


 * Whenever a player enters a game with a gear item they are wearing, the gear item will be removed from their backpack. This is because the gear item sometimes doesn't weld properly and results in the gear falling to the void, which deletes the gear in the player's backpack. This can also occur if a player dies and then equips any gear part of a game's StarterPack just before they respawn; in this case, the gear will not appear on the player despite being equipped.
 * Whenever a player drags a gear with an icon in their backpack, any other gear moved to that position will not have their text, but other icons are still shown.
 * In Roblox Studio, if a player drags a gear item to themselves while testing a place, they would turn sideways and float above the ground.
 * There is a bug when a player rides a skateboard, then uses a gear item which enlarges the player, such as the Nickelodeon Blimp or the Gigantoform, the user would permanently appear gigantic, and the skateboard would disappear, and any gear items the user holds would appear smaller than usual but still function properly. This can be fixed by either resetting or leaving and rejoining the game.
 * The Sapphire Blaster has a glitch where the radius glitches, resulting in nearby players permanently flying backward until they die or leave the game.
 * The Instant Treehouse gear has a bug when it breaks when spawned.
 * The Moonwalk Dance Potion has an occasional bug where it can increase the speed of the server, which was heavily criticized.
 * The Azurewrath's Return sword has a glitch where it does more damage than usual, which sometimes instakills (killing a player with one hit).
 * The Subspace Debonair Disguise gear has a glitch when the gear removes by itself and the user drops the gear after they transform, they would permanently look like what they transformed into, which can be fixed by either resetting their character or leaving and reentering the game.
 * There is a bug when a player throws the hand of the Staff of Gloomy Grip, they can use it again without having to reload.
 * When a player continuously presses the Q key while holding the Shadow Dancer sword, a harmless shadow dancer would wield on the user's left arm.
 * It is possible for the Knights of the Splintered Skies: Morning Star gear to dejoin limbs (same with Knights of Redcliff: Morning Star ).
 * If a user falls off a map while using the dragon from the Scaley, the Dragon egg, the dragon would still be present.
 * Similarly, the Ghost Dragon does the same thing.
 * If the user shoots with the Zombification Injection gear themselves, they would permanently be a zombie.
 * If a player uses the Grapple Hook on a vehicle, it would make the vehicle fly, which changes direction when the user shoots the hook at a different spot.
 * The Illumina sword has a glitch when a user double-clicks then switch to the Ghostwalker sword while the user lunges the Illumina, the result causes the user to fly up in the air.
 * If a player reequips the Alien Parasite gear very quickly, the user's health would regen quickly, if the user's health is between 0 and 100.
 * If a player goes under the cloud of the April Showers gear while it is raining, flowers would grow on them instead of the ground.
 * By the time the Dual Plungers went on sale, there was a bug where a player would flip upside down when they equips the gear item. This was later patched three days after the gear item was released.
 * The Four-In-A-Row gear can sometimes break, making it unusable.
 * When a player uses the Ultraviolet Blaster's scope, then unequips it, their head would turn sideways.
 * The Atomizer gear has a glitch when the user first uses the Magic Ninja gear, then uses the Atomizer gear, they would float in mid-air until the user gets killed or leaves and rejoins the game.
 * When the Ghost Invisibility Elixir gear is dropped from a small height and disappears, the user would be permanently invisible.
 * The Golden Fleece had an error in its script, which caused the player to fly without using the gear item. Currently, the user would harmlessly flop around on the ground.
 * If a user swaps to another user with the Body Swap Potion if they are killed, they would be removed from the game.
 * The gear can also change another player's color into the user's body colors if the other player's color is different from the user's.
 * The A More Elegant Blade gear has a bug when a player rapidly presses the E key after pressing X, the gear item would stay on their left arm.
 * If a player rides a flying vehicle after spawning and then unequips it, the player would fall and not be able to get up. This can be fixed by either avoiding wearing the gear on the player's avatar or joining a different game that doesn't allow this type of gear.
 * Occasionally, when a player attempts to get on a skateboard, it would tip over on its side, making it impossible to get on.

Criticism
Gears have often been criticized as being broken due to Roblox updates since most gears were made before R15 and lots of gears do not work with R15 characters. Gear that works for both R6 and R15 is often broken due to Roblox updates. Many users commonly use the example of skateboards, as of 2010–2016, Skateboards functioned properly until the introduction of R15 forced Filtering Enabled and the deprecation of Skateboard platforms.

Searching "school" in the gear catalog shows a couple of different school items. However, it also shows the Luger Pistol, due to the description containing "school". This has been heavily criticized due to the recent increase in school shootings.

Gear ID
Each Gear, like other objects, has a unique ID found in the URL of their Gear page. Like other objects in the avatar shop and library, Gear IDs do not need to be subtracted and are given directly. Gear IDs are used usually in games with Admin or making certain Scripts. They may also be used as the basis of a more customized tool in a game.