I try not to go to pieces as my Megabolt does. Robots in Disguise Megabolt and Megabolt Megatron!

In my Torca post I recounted how I dreaded pulling him out of the bin he currently resides in for fear of the results of the dreaded GPS. Though I lucked out and found nothing yet, GPS is a question of when, not if. There will come a time that he eventually cracks and finally crumbles. To alleviate that sad day, I am still determined to hunt down the non-GPS suffering version of the mold, Elephorca, released in Takara’s Beast Wars Neo line.

Fast forward to one of the two subjects of today’s post: Megabolt. Though I went into the Torca post aware of his affliction, I didn’t know it about Megabolt. Apparently he has what the TFWiki calls “a mild case of GPS”. This means he suffers cracks, but doesn’t simply shatter into powder like most.

I didn’t know this at the time I removed him from his bin so it came as quite a surprise when immediately the posts holding the sides of his alt mode head together both snapped off.

This is a ten year old figure, never before transformed, so — despite the gold plastic staring me in the face — I didn’t immediately jump to the conclusion of GPS.

Then the small loop where his arm locks in place on the back of his alt mode cracked into multiple pieces.

While trying to survey the damage, his left arm fell off altogether. That’s when I hit the internet for answers. The diagnosis was grim. With the somewhat hopeful use of the words “mild case” on the TFWiki, I was determined to repair as much damage as I could and extend his life as long as possible. I started by successfully gluing the arm back on. So far so good.

Next I glued the tab back together, or at least the one piece of it I still had.

However, to glue that one piece back on, I had to transform him to robot mode first.

I was terrified.

Luckily (what an odd thing to type at this point) the only thing that happened was the indention that holds the ball joint on his shoulder cracked into several pieces. There would be no way to ensure I didn’t glue the joint into one piece if it was still attached, so I had to remove it. I glued the pieces together, waited until it dried, then tried to snap it back onto the ball without stressing it so much that it shattered further.

It shattered further. Enough remains to actually hold the joint together while still allowing it to move so I was more or less successful. In the image above, you can also see where the tip of the tab on the other shoulder piece snapped off as well.

There he is, you wouldn’t know his sad state of affairs just by looking as him, so I guess mission successful. However, this is as posed as he’s going to get, I am not tempting his fragility any further. Never has a headsculpt so perfectly encapsulated my feelings about a particular toy experience.

As the most compacted mode and therefore most secure from random breaks, he will probably spend the rest of his life in alt mode. So let’s talk about this alt mode and this figure in particular now that the unpleasantness of GPS is done.

Megabolt makes very little sense as a toy release. He was an Armada style packaged, Robots in Disguise toyline KB Toys exclusive redeco of the previous year’s KB Toys exclusive Robots in Disguise release that was actually meant as a Beast Machines Megatron toy.

Bwah? I’ll give you a moment if you want to re-parse that sentence. It’s kinda tangled.

Of course, if you’re familiar with the Beast Machines series, you recognize Megabolt’s alt mode as an improperly coloured, scaled down version of Beast Machines Megatron’s “Grand Mal” mode most commonly known as the BFH, the Big Floating Head (or Big F#@%ing Head if you’re less polite).

Unlike with Torca, when Megabolt finally suffers an irrevocable break (*sob*), it won’t be as bad because I already have the original and — more importantly —  non-GPS inflicted version of the mold, Megatron Megabolt.

Megatron Megabolt was designed to be the toy incarnation of the massive, floating head construct that Beast Machines Megatron’s spark resided in for a time when he purged the organic material from himself. It was shown to transform in the cartoon, but from an enormous head into a spaceship.

Nicknamed “BFH” by the fandom, the official name of “Grand Mal” [french for "great evil/wrong/illness/pains" but best known as the erstwhile name of  a type of seizure] was revealed in episode scripts and in a short story in the Transformers Legends anthology. In toy form, his original Beast Machines bio states that he “has taken the form of a gigantic cybernetic head that hovers over Cybertron”.

Yep, made it as far as having a full card made up before being shunted over to the Robots in Disguise line for actual release.

While staying within continuity for the series, the bio fails to address the addition of spider legs in alt mode. It also says nothing of his robot mode.

It would also make as much sense that this was meant to be a scaled down version altogether. I would love to imagine a scene in Beast Machines where the Grand Mal opened its mouth and out poured hundreds of these spider legged horrors. Then for them to transform into copies of Megatron himself as they began their assault. How chilling would that have been?

The toy also has a spring-loaded, flip-down “battle mask” attached to a missile launcher. The mask is designed after the helmet of the control harness Megatron used in Beast Machines to control his army.

On the toy, the helmet portion actually adheres to his head by way of magnets.

The head on Megabolt is one of the parts reported to suffer from GPS, which is why a photo of him in his mask is missing from this post.

One more awesome little factiod about these two (and I have to confess, my recent acquisition of Fortress Maximus actually spurred this post).

When Megatron Megabolt was brought over to the Robots in Disguise toyline, he received a bio that made him the “Emissary Mode” of Robots in Disguise Megatron himself. Car Robots, the Takara cartoon and toyline that Robots in Disguise was dubbed from included a repaint of G1 Fortress Maximus named Brave Maximus. There is an odd design quirk about Megatron Megabolt and Megabolt that he fits perfectly into the Fortress Maximus mold’s head area once you remove the spider legs.

Though most likely accidental, Megatron Megabolt’s Robots in Disguise bio actually calls this “feature” out.

“Developed “Emissary Mode” to combine with his space cruiser and even the secret Autobot defense fortress in attempt to gain absolute power.”

“All your base are belong to me.”

Regardless, I still consider Megatron Megabolt to be a Beast Machines toy and he will be displayed with the other Beast era toys. Megabolt, however, will now be sealed up in as safe a container as I can find and stashed away in a bin until the day I can display everyone. Not that it matters, I guess, considering he very well may be a pile of shattered pieces by then.

A mighty post (or three) for a mighty metamorphin’ Dudicus. The Big, Bad, Battlin’ G2 Bruticus! (Oh, and Ruination too.)

First, I apologize.

Second, watch this:

Third, I apologize, especially if that was your first encounter with the infamous “Dudicus” G2 rap. That was brutal (NO! That was Bruticus!) but the more I watch these old G2 commercials, the more I realize how awesome they are. Sure, “awesome” in the “so bad it has looped itself back into greatness” sense of the word, but awesome nonetheless. What, ultimately, does this have to do with the rest of the post? Nothing.

Moving on.

Bruticus was one of those that I hunted down during G2. Of the G1 combiners I had only ever wanted to complete the Combaticons. However, despite my best efforts, I was only ever able to get my hands on my favourite Combaticon, Brawl. After acquiring the G2 ‘bots, I used it for years as an excuse never to go back and get the G1 versions. Providing an odd symmetry between then and now, I still only have G1 Brawl.

It was therefore somewhat ironic that when G2 originally hit Brawl was the only one I was unable to find. It would be years later that I would specifically hunt down a G2 Brawl to complete the set. I am missing Bruticus’ right fist so he has a stand-in for now.

Just when my “Oh, I already have the wonderfully day-glo versions, who needs G1?” excuse was about to wear out, along came Robots in Disguise to provide me not one, but two new choices of the molds. I went with the easier to obtain Hasbro release, named Ruination (one of the best Transformers names of all time) over the more cartoon accurate Takara release.

One great thing this mold did was include a hole on top of Mega-Octance’s alt mode cannon to store the ramp that comes with Mega-Octane. A couple years later, as I was again considering picking up the G1 version, Ruination was repainted and released as a Walmart exclusive.

The following year saw yet another repaint and release as a Walmart exclusive — swapping the unified black, white, and grey camo for a desert theme – but by this time my patience for the mold had run out. Heck, I still hadn’t mustered the wherewithal to finish my G1 set. Some day I will go back and get the other four, though I am still kicking myself for not biting the bullet and picking up the 2009 Encore release.

The individual toys are alright, by G1 standards. Along with the name of their comined form, Ruination, the Robots in Disguise release brought some of the most He-man sounding names to the Transformers universe. Case in point, Ro-Tor, the repaint of Vortex.

Case in point number 2, Movor, the Blast Off repaint. Both Vortex and Blast Off have the best arm articulation, but lack any leg articulation.

The normal-sounding Rollbar, previously an Autobot name, was used for the repaint of Swindle; a block with no real useful articulation.

With an also relatively normal-sounding name, Armorhide, was the repaint of my favourite, Brawl. Granted, he suffers from arms that don’t reach past his chest.

The one name that I go back and forth liking and disliking is the Onslaught repaint; now named Mega-Octane. He also has relatively good shoulder articulation, he shares his squad’s lack of any useful leg articulation.

Arguably, the best part about most of the Combaticons are their alt modes.

Being Scramble City style combiner, he can use the aforementioned ramp to create a “Base Mode”.

As far as military vehicles go — and especially military vehicles being used as alt modes for bad guys — the tank is a pretty obvious choice. One of the reasons Brawl is my favourite of the Combaticons was the particular choice of tank, the Leopard 1, has always been a favourite of mine even with the decidedly G2 Megatron-ish paint scheme he got as part of his own G2 release. Of course, once you add his extra weaponry, he really starts to live up to his bio, “Resistant to most conventional artillery, noisy, irritates everyone and is blusteringly belligerent. He’s a terrifyingly effective warrior with enormous strength.”

Swindle’s alt mode should be considered the short end of the stick.

However, mounting his weapon on this otherwise innocent looking jeep suddenly makes him far more effective in battle.

In truth, it is actualy Blast Off that you should feel sorry for.

“Aristocratic and aloof, disguises his long distance loneliness.”

Awww, poor lonely space shuttle dude. Almost makes you feel sorry for the guy, that is until you get to this sentence,

“Cruelly efficient at raining destruction on Earth.”

If I had to pick a second favourite after Brawl, it would definitely be Vortex.

Though it is certainly not for his plain SH-2G Super Seasprite alt mode, but for the weaponized version of it.

Like I said, I am definitely kicking myself for not grabbing the Encore release of the G1 version, but I’m sure I’ll get around to filling in that particular gap one way or another. In the meantime, enjoy this awkward family reunion.

So, what happens when you take these guys and give them a full on videogame-inspired update? Next up, Fall of Cybertron “G2” Combaticons!

Definitely no Hero. Robots in Disguise Bludgeon!

[Oops, now that I look at the pictures I took, I am pretty sure I have him equipped with his fellow Destructicon Scourge's missiles rather than his own. Same missiles, wrong colours.]

When G2 Megatron got a smaller, more articulated, but otherwise mostly the same follow up toy, I wasn’t much interested. Just in case the green and purple camouflage of the original wasn’t nonsensical enough, this new mold was done up in purple and black camouflage. Later on, I would regret my decision not to pick up the oddly named “Hero” Megatron as I grew to like his obnoxious paint scheme and even more obnoxious “MEGATRON RULES!” chest sticker.

In 2003, Hasbro decided to re-release the mold, completely repainted, as Robots in Disguise (despite Robots in Disguise having ended a year earlier) Bludgeon. By “completely repainted”, I mean “even more obnoxiously coloured”.

Now done in bright yellow and dark teal, R.i.D. Bludgeon is meant as an homage to the original Bludgeon, the G1 Pretender.

Unfortunately, along with being notoriously floppy, the mold is a toy that suffers greatly from the implementation of its gimmick. First, there are his missiles. Panels fold out from his arms to be able to clip his missiles on. You would think this would be a good thing.

Unfortunately, as part of the bellows system which uses air to launch them, his missiles are freaking huge. The end result is a fairly ridiculous look either when they are clipped, or when they are placed on his cannon to be launched.

And it’s not as simple as setting the missiles aside and forgetting they exist, the barrel of the cannon itself is oddly shaped to accommodate for the gimmick.

All things considered, this mold really doesn’t stand up to its larger, less articulated predecessor.

In some cases, literally. Too many swivels and joints with not enough clips and pegs makes for a seriously loose toy.

The fine line between protection and oppression.Cybertron Scourge!

Apparently by “random” in my last post, I meant “back-to-back Cybertron posts”. As I was packing Cybertron Dirt Boss away again I saw this guy and was reminded of something; I freaking love transforming dragons.

As the leader of the violent and dangerous Beast Planet, Animatron, Scourge proved a surprisingly deep character. Much like Dirt Boss, Scourge starts out a bad guy and makes the journey over to the role of good guy. Unlike Dirt Boss, Scourge does it in part due to the intervention of a little girl.

Lori, one of the three children of the show, forces the brute to recognize that no matter how far you are from the path of good or how pure your intentions were when you left it; it is never too late to turn your back on oppression and use your strength to fight for those that don’t have the power to fight for themselves.

Meanwhile, Scourge’s toy is one of the best molds of the entire series; though I might be biased because I am quite partial to dragons. The paintjob, with its red, gold, and black with purple highlights, is wonderful. The sculpt is highly detailed and his cyber-key gimmick causes two additional heads to pop up from his shoulders; making him even more menacing looking.

Thanks to his toy’s design, these additional heads can also be presented in robot mode.

His weapon, a massive axe formed from his alt mode’s tail, is pretty impressive as well.

Surprisingly Scourge received a repaint the year after his initial release loosely based on another Transformer dragon, Cryotek. Himself a slight remold of Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Megatron, Cryotek was done in icy shades of blue.

I did say “loosely based”.

To match his new blue hue, Cryo Scourge was given a bio which states that,

“Long exposure to the freezing waste of deep space has irreversibly mutated SCOURGE®. No longer a flame-spewing monster consumed by his passions, he is now a creature of ice and cold.”

Unfortunately, it goes on to add that he is now “calculating, cruel, and without mercy”, effectively wiping out all that wonderful character growth from the show. I personally think it would have been preferable to have just renamed him as the Cyberton incarnation of Cryotek.

Very loosely based…

He retains the original mold’s less impressive lights and sounds, as well as the cyber-key gimmick.

Scourge would get a legends class release but what was more interesting was the repaint of his legends class toy done as Classics Trypticon. The once massive “Grim Decepticon Destroyer” reduced to an adorable little baby dragon. Now, I realize that legends class toys are meant to represent normal sized Transformers in a smaller toy scale, but in this case I prefer to think of it as his actual scale next to the other deluxes and voyagers. The story of how Trypticon went from transforming city to practically minicon sized has to be a good one.

Whatever the story, you can never have too many transforming dragons.

Forget RiRFiB, we’ve got FiPRiNTBF (Frenzy is Purple, Rumble is Nowhere To Be Found) G2 Frenzy!

I originally missed the entire G2 Go-Bots line. Well, to be more precise, I didn’t miss them so much as purposefully avoid them when I saw them in stores. My reason for actively shunning them?

That’s Soundwave. Sound. Freaking. Wave. Not to mention that they did roughly the same thing with Optimus and Megatron. I was so affronted by the names of characters that I loved from G1 being so callously applied to transforming Matchbox cars, I turned up my nose and headed down the aisle. It wasn’t until 2001 and the Robots in Disguise line that I would learn how awesome these little toys actually are. Now called Spychangers, their depiction as a squad of tiny ninjas, each with a “special jutsu”, in the cartoon made me love them so much that I would buy the original ten Robots in Disguise releases, the eight re-released ones that came with Tiny Tins, the first round of clear plastic KBToys exclusives, and the second round of clear plastic KBToys exclusives. At that point I had pretty much put them on display and moved on, occasionally grabbing some of the Universe repaints that I missed. At Botcon this year I grabbed the Universe Spychanger Optimus Prime/Prowl and Spychanger Ultra Magnus/Ironhide double packs for super, super cheap which must have put me in a Spychanger mood. I was stopped in my tracks by a carded, brilliantly purple version of the Hot Shot mold (haha, yes I realize G2 came first, but it will always be the Hot Shot mold to me.) After getting over the gaudy, sparkly wonderfulness of it, I chuckled when I noticed the name on the bottom left.

“Need some help there?”

When I went to look up the G2 Go-Bots, I quickly realized though I spurned the G2 Go-Bots I had seen, I actually did miss a good portion of the line originally, those being the first versions of the molds. The Hot Shot mold, which was the Frenzy mold, after having been the Megatron mold, was actually the Blowout mold.

So, Frenzy was purple. What colour was Rumble? Unfortunately, Rumble never made it. Of course, Rumble would get his revenge on Frenzy for this years later as part of the Alternators line. G2 Rumble was to be in a wave of six all-new molds but they didn’t make it out by the time the line was cancelled. Four of them, including Rumble’s proposed mold would eventually see release as Spychangers. The Rumble mold would be released as Side Swipe.

“Do I know you?” “No, but you almost did.”

Not my favourite of the Spychanger/Go-Bot molds (that honor goes to Crosswise/High Beam), much like Hot Shot’s flame deco, it’s Frenzy’s paintjob that really sells him.

Especially in alt mode.

Wow.

Looks like I’ve got an old line with a new appreciation to keep an eye out for.

‘Til All Are Displayed! The Collection… well most of it.

I was just looking at the pictures on my “‘Til All Are What Now?” page and thought it was just about time for an updated shot of my Transformers display.

As I sit at my computer typing this out a turn to the left reveals three shelves, each roughly six and a half feet tall, as well as an assortment of smaller satellite shelves. To my immediate right is display shelf 1. Topped by three (soon to be three and a half) shelves of the star of Transformers — no, despite what they would have you believe recently, not Bumblebee: Optimus Primes and Convoys of all shapes and sizes.

Working our way counter-clockwise, shelf-by-shelf from there we have:

• Half a shelf of Hot Rod/Rodimus Primes.
• Ultra Magnus’ (Magni?) and Blaster and his tapes.
• Smaller Constructicons and a slew of Micromasters.
• Constructicons (old and new) and other combiners.
• Scorponok, SkyLynx, and Omega Supreme.
• In the middle is the Dark of the Moon shelf and Kre-O Optimus, which is a bit of a mess at the moment.
• My wife’s “girl Transformers that could kick your tailpipe” shelf.
•  The multiple incarnations of Mirage, Prowl, and Jazz.
• The Targetmasters.
• Finally, the Headmasters and Wheeljack.

On the wall opposite display shelf 1, there are shelves 2 and 3 and two more ancillary shelves.

For this one, I’ll do each shelving unit individually, starting on the top left:

• Various incarnations of Star Saber (except an actual Star Saber, sadly) and Dai Atlas (with an actual Dai Atlas, happily.)
• Two shelves of Minibots and their updates.
• An entire shelf of Grimlocks.
• The rest of the Dinobots, as well as Grimstone and his Dinobot drones.
• The G1 repaints from the newest movies; such as red Ironhide, white and blue Jazz, and Revenge of the FallenSkywarp (look! I finally found my G1 repaint Movie (2007) Starscream!)

Display shelf 3, starting at the tippy top:

• AssortedGods, Monsters, Primes, and one tiny Fortress Maximus.
• The Animated Shelf, including the full 2011 Botcon set and TFCC Exclusive Animated Cheetor.
• The G2 and G2 Classics with all the glorious colours of the rainbow.
• The first section of G1 and G1 Classics Autobots.
• Shattered Glass and the second section of G1 and G1 Classics Autobots.
• The Movie (2007), RotF, and DotM Leader and Human Alliance class toys.
• More Combiners! Predaking!

Display shelf 2, from top to bottom:

• Shockwaves, The Fallen, and movie Megatrons.
• G1, G2, Masterpiece, Classics… just a whole bunch of Megatrons as well as Classics Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge and their updates.
• TheshelfoftheSeekers.
• Soundwavesgalore and mini-cassettes (and updates) galore.
• G1 and G1 Classics Decepticons.
• Japanese Beast Wars, including my beloved Tako Tank.
• Another shelf full of combiners.

The last little shelf is a mishmash of stuff:

• Smokescreens G1, Classics, and Alternators (soon to be joined by RotF and Cybertron Smokescreens once I dig them out.)
• The Generations Junkions.
• Scan series Bumblebee, Sideswipe…
• …Ratchet and Ironhide.
• The Power Core Combiner Autobots.
• The Power Core Combiner Decepticons.

Oh yeah, also Supreme class Beast Machines Cheetor standing to the side.

With the exception of G1 Metroplex and Cybertron Metroplex that stand ever vigilant above my computer (which is itself named Metroplex) and an extra Micromaster Tailwind, that is the entirety of my current display.

However, though admittedly a lot of floorspace is taken up by the display (and yes, I am aware that I am very, very lucky to have a wife that is not only ok with, but actually encourages my collecting and displaying), it only amounts to a little under half of my total collection. The rest are in plastic bins in a closet.

One day I will have an entire room devoted to the collection, until then, I’ll keep enjoying them by occasionally pulling them out of their bins to take pictures of them for this blog. That way I get to share the joy this collection brings me (and yes, a little showing off too.)

The greatest of sharks? ~ That is what he claims to be. ~ Cybershark is sad. Sky-Byte!

Sky-Byte shouldn’t still be a thing. He was a repaint in a line of repaints; the Predacons of Robots in Disguise (with the one exception being the new mold for R.i.D. Megatron). Additionally, he is a repaint of a Beast Wars shark toy — Cybershark — that has no articulation to speak of in alt-mode and a frustratingly difficult transformation, resulting in a robot mode with decent articulation hampered by shark pieces hanging off his back.

But Sky-Byte is still a thing.

"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"

The reason for this is simple: his character. I have gone on and on about how much I love Robots in Disguise. How much I adore the wonderfully insane series as a whole is eclipsed by how much I want a sequel with Sky-Byte as the main character. Never has watching a bad-guy fail so miserably and consistently been more fun. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to watch Robots in Disguise, I strongly suggest at least watching Sky-Byte’s episodes. The antics of this haiku writing (did you notice the post title is a haiku in honour of our esteemed poet?), neurotically insecure, flying land-shark are well worth it.

In this way, his toy’s frozen swimming pose in alt-mode just helps it better embody the character in the cartoon.

Notice the rust on the screw in his nose? Sky-Byte was a victim of the same basement flooding that cost my G1 Dirge his wing stickers.

As a toy to play with, it would probably be more frustrating, but as a display piece, he’s grand. The detailing and paint applications makes the original Cybershark toy look positively bland in comparison. The cartoon also makes plenty of use out of the fact that his missle launchers can be deployed in alt-mode.

You have something in your teeth there.

As for that aforementioned robot mode with slightly hampered arm articulation? It is also a great display piece with a lot of effort put into the detailing.

Check out the shark fin mohawk. Too cool.

Of course, he can wield his missle launcher in robot mode as well.

Inheriting the snarky sneer on his face from Cybershark, it makes him appear just about as serious as he actually is in the cartoon. It was this wealth of character that made the Transformers Collectors Club’s decision to give us a new Sky-Byte toy as part of the Botcon 2010 set quite welcome. This time Sky-Byte would be not just a repaint but a remold of a previous toy. Taking the old Energon Sharkticon mold (one of my favourites from an otherwise dissappointing toyline), repainting it to match the colouring and assymetrical detailing of the original Sky-Byte toy, they also added a head that matched the original.

Sky-Byte is just happy to have two actual hands finally.

My only complaint would be that rather than the vaguely mad look on the original Sky-Byte toy, the Timelines toy has a very distinctly angry face instead. Crazy will always be more interesting than pissed off. Just like the original Energon toy, Sky-Byte is able to rotate his missle launcher forward in robot mode.

Now, instead of being in charge (only barely) of three incompetent Predacons, Sky-Byte has command of a legion of ravenous Sharkticons. The “Troop Builder” set sold at Botcon 2010 were three identical Sharkticons — straight repaints of Energon Sharkticon — to serve as a part his troops. His troops are painted to mimic the original Sharkticons from the Animated Movie (1986).

"Attaaaaaaaaack!" "Omnomnomnomnomnom. Tasty Autobots!!!"

In fact, his profile calls out that:

“Were he more competent and less given to overblown theatrics that leave him vulnerable, he’d be one of the Autobots’ greatest threats.”

Some things never change, including both his ego and his artistic endeavors,

“He sees himself as a sophisticated warrior poet, the self-proclaimed “greatest shark around,” composing haiku about the robots in disguise he’s about to deactivate”

Rather than a Cyber-enhanced Earth shark, this Predacon General has an alt-mode that is best described as a Cybertronic spaceship/submarine (though his boxart calls him a “boat”.) Whatever he is supposed to be, one thing is for certain, he is absolutely covered in weaponry.

In addition to all those turrets (which swivel and pivot up and down!) he can also open up his missle launchers in this mode.

Thanks to that unique and ridiculously fun personality, Sky-Byte has been ensconced as a permanent piece of the Transformers mythos. He was even referenced in the book Transformers Animated: The Allspark Alamanac. The Animated  almanac keeps his personality but unfortunately takes his look in a whole new, somewhat terrifying direction.

All those teeth are just in case you don't like his poetry.

A look more in line with his original incarnation did surface, from the sketches of the original Animated artisit, Derrick J. Wyatt.

I really love the head design, but I’m not really digging the lack of “sharkiness” about the proposed alt-mode. Either way, it would be great to see him show up in some kind of Animated fiction — my fingers are crossed for the comic book that features this year’s Animated themed Botcon set.

I just can’t get enough of this guy.

~ Sky-Byte is so cool. ~

~ Precisely because he’s not. ~

~ Greatest shark indeed. ~

Bullet Fusion Mode! Triple threat, RiD Rail Racer!

I have done a lot of research for this week’s posts.

By “research”, of course, I mean that I have played with Team Bullet Train’s toys and watched a bunch of Robots in Disguise episodes on Youtube. First thing I thought to myself: I had forgotten just how much this show was trying to emulate the Japanese Super Sentai series.

“Bullet Charge!”

“Spike Strike!”

“Pulse Laser!”

The heaviest use of the “Calling Your Attacks“ T.V. trope I have ever seen in Transformers, this show rivals Dragonball in overused attack names. Of course, as a show meant for the Japanese, this is completely understandable.

Which led to my second thought: why in the heck has this not been subtitled from the original Transformers: Car Robots series?!? Now, I intensely disliked trying to watch Cybertron, which is why I gave up two or three episodes in and instead watched a fan-subtitled download of the Japanese version, Galaxy Force, – which I liked a lot. There are three series I desparately want subtitled: Beast Wars the Second, Beast Wars Neo, and now, Car Robots. The first two because I have never seen them at all, and the last one because if I found the U.S. version so damned charming, I’m sure the original Japanese version would be even better. 

Combined Mode: You're Doing It Wrong.

In the cartoon, Team Bullet Train is a bit of an enigma. First, when combined, the result isn’t a mindless gestalt. Rail Racer is one of those rare breed of Combiner that actually retains all of his mental capacity when combined. Second, instead of merging into one, singular entity; Rail Racer occassionally refers to himself as “we”, alluding to the three members of Team Bullet Train, rather than an individual personality.

After having driven off the Decepticons from a power plant in episode 19, “The Fish Test”, Rail Racer comments to the late-arriving Autobot brothers, 

“We just sent them all on their way.”

"We are aware our toy looks damned good."

All of Generation 1 and 2, and subsequent comic book continuations are positively obsessed with Combiner teams forming one, coherent, cohesive personality. Rail Racer seems to forgo that concept and replaces it with team members that, though they have distinctily different personalities, are actually made stronger by combining those personalities into a single, more powerful body.

Rail Racer’s toy also manages to do something better than almost every other Combiner toy in the history of Transformers: there are no combiner pieces. None; hands, feet, connectors are all integrated into the bodies of the individual members of Team Bullet Train. Even the three different weapons are used: Railspike and Midnight Express’ guns combine to form a large cannon, and Rapid Run’s “grenade launching” shield can be held by Rail Racer.

Along with this, all of Team Bullet Train’s articulation is transferred to Rail Racer. He has an wonderful range of motion.

"We are quite prepared to deliver you a beatdown, Decepticons."

Of course, this level of articulation comes with drawbacks; ratcheting and telescoping knees on a ‘bot this big tend to collapse rather easily. Posing Rail Racer, much like his fellow exceptionally large castmate RiD Omega Prime, is all about a perfect level of balance mixed with slight twists of joints here and there to help distribute weight. Of course, it’s an easy sacrifice for a Combiner that is this amazingly fun.

An actually well-balanced grumpy old man Transfomer? RiD Railspike!

Railspike definitely has the best name of Team Bullet Train, Rapid Run coming second, and Midnight Express coming in last for basically being a name that says,

“How could we have run out of names for train-related Transformers already?”

Seriously, Hasbro is really bad at naming train-bots. For proof, just look at the Micromaster Railbots:

Railspike – Once again, great train-related name,

Rapid Run – still doing good,

Midnight Express – at least they put this vaguely train-related name on a dark-coloured train this time, giving it some semblance of legitimacy,

Overload – what? What does this mean? Well, I guess it doesn’t not sound like a name for a train,

Tankor – stock Hasbro name re-use anyone? Vaguely kinda, possibly train-ish name,

Swindle - stock Hasbro name re-use, part deux, with a little nonsense thrown in.

Railspike, though, has it all. He’s got a great name, leader of one of the most consistently effective combiner teams — possibly in Transformers history – and his toy is cartoon-accurate, well-articulated, and just plain awesome.

Meet my friends, "Smack" and "Down".

Missle-launching gimmicks fall in the mid-range of the “how much do gimmicks annoy me?” scale (especially when they make no sense, like Rapid Run’s “grenade launcher”.) However the least annoying (and by “least annoying”, I mean “not annoying at all and actually kinda awesome”) are the light-up features.

Let me tell you, this was not an easy shot to set up.

One of the great things about his figure is that those shoulder wings are just chock full of molded-in detail, the designer didn’t just leave us with hollowed-out interior plastic. 

In the cartoon, Railspike is the rather gruff spoken, veteran warrior, leader of Team Bullet Train. He has a nice mix of yelling at the “turbo-revving, young punk” Rapid Run, while — on occasion literally — steering the easily flustered Midnight Express straight.

Railspike is the sleekiest of the train types used in Team Bullet Train. He transforms (ha, I almost typed “trainsforms”) into a 500-series train capable of going 199 mph (320 km/h ).

The amount of "Is that a train, or are you just happy to see me?" jokes are staggering.

He’d shoot his grenade at the bad-guys, but he needs it later to tow some train cars. RiD Rapid Run!

Team Bullet Train plays it as by-the-books as possible. To balance out the authoritative old-man that is their leader, Railspike (now that is a great name), there is Rapid Run. The brash, young Rapid Run ”is always ready for a fight and loves a good brawl.” His techspec quote?

“Let’s Battle!!!!!!”

Rapid Run is the strongest of the trio and his techspec goes out of its way to point out that he is an exceptionally good shot… with his grenade launcher. Someone needs to tell the people that writes these things that the phrase “Almost only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades” exists for a reason. You don’t have to be spectacularly accurate with grenades, the huge resulting explosion usually compensates for any bad aim.

Transformers is chock full of logical inconsistencies and Rapid Run typifies one of them. On his toy his “grenade launcher” is his shield and his “grenade” is actually the missle piece that forms the rear hitch for his train mode. This means that if he fires his weapon at all, his alt-mode no longer has a rear hitch. Of course, how safe is having a grenade for a hitch anyway?

Speaking of his toy — which is very cartoon accurate — Rapid Run manages to do much better than Midnight Express, but still comes off as having much longer legs proportionate to his arms.

The one thing I kinda don’t like about him is his headsculpt. His mouth is distractingly beak-shaped. His cartoon appearances show that this is not an actual beak but a faceplate; it doesn’t move when he speaks. His toy shares his fellow Team Bullet Train’s great articulation. One of the things that I do like about his toy, and his character in general is the inclusion of his shield.

There’s only so many different types of offensive weaponry that can be invented. It’s always good to see characters like Rapid Run and G1 Trailbreaker whose specialty is defensive, a nigh-impenetrable force-field.

Not too surprisingly for a member of this team, his alt-mode is a bullet train. Rapid Run transforms into a 700 series bullet train.

Specific to his paint scheme, and reflected in the label on his alt-mode, he is a Hikari Rail Star.