Shades Silicone

"Gary, man. You gotta learn to keep your cool in crisis situations, use your head and stuff. 'Cause freaking out ain't helping anyone."

- Shades Silicone speaking to Gary Gears.

Shades Silicone is Gina Gizmo's older brother and the best friend of Gary Gears. Amoung the most popular kids in Asimov High, Shades is well known for his calm demeanor, casual attitude, and easy-going personality.

Character Biography
Shades was built a good three months before his younger sister Gina. Their creator suffered from severe blindness since birth, and built Gina with great mechanical skills (and a keen fashion sense) to compensate. As such, whenever Shades broke down or got hurt, it was up to Gina to fix him.

Shades wasn't always the cool, collected and peaceful robot he is now. Initially, Shades had pretty bad social issues and couldn't make many friends. He eventually joined a bad crowd and would often get in trouble.

After meeting Donna Databanks and realizing his problems weren't as bad as he thought they were, Shades shaped up and became a better student. They've been friends ever since.

In "Fast Times At Asimov High, Part One" Shades was the first student to speak to Gary Gears, and gave Gary a warm welcome, even being generous enough to let Gary rides his hoverboard, which Gary broke shortly after. Gary would later discover Shades was his dorm mate, and also had a claim to the top bunk. Shades also reintroduced Gary to Donna, and convinced her to treat Gary nicer.

When Doctor Tesla first attacked Asimov High, Shades was among the first people to suspect Gary was in league with him. Tyke-Tron managed to convince them otherwise, and he went on to help Gary and the others stop him. Shades and Gary are the best of friends now.

Personality
Shades is very very laid back, relaxed and agreeable. He rarely ever gets angry, though he's not strictly against getting annoyed. In spite of his subdued outlook on life, Shades can very easily get frustrated if the situation calls for it, like if a villian starts causing trouble. Shades is fairly social and it's easy for him to make friends, almost everyone in school likes him - excluding a few members of Bitly's crew. He's very protective of his younger sister, Gina. Despite this, he tends to be embarrassed by her at certain times. He also won't allow her to work on him anymore, for reasons unknown. He gets along very well with Donna Databanks, and they've been friends longer than anyone else, to the point that Shades is practically the only one who can get Donna to change her mind about someone.

Friends and Relationships
Shades' friends include:


 * Gary Gears


 * Brain-Bot


 * Tyke-Tron


 * Gina Gizmo


 * Susan Sprocket


 * Frita Firewall


 * Donna Databanks

Trivia

 * Shades' appearance is slightly based on concept artist Ben Campbell, who does much of the artwork for the Gary Gears project.
 * Shades is almost never seen without his glasses. Whenever they come off, it's a sign things have gotten serious.
 * Despite the fact that they're supposed to be arch-enemies, Shades and Mickey Mech hang out together pretty often.
 * Gina and Shades have different surnames, despite being siblings. This is because robot names are based on what sounds cool, not on actual lineage.
 * His real name is Sheldon. A fact he has gone to great lengths to hide.