TransFormers: Robots in Disguise


	Megatron Packaged in Robot form, once you start transforming this one, you can see why. None of the other forms are particularly convincing. Megatron has six different forms (officially), including: Robot, Claw, Aeroplane, Gargoyle, Dragon and some kind of wheeled vehicle (you can't really call it a car). The Claw form is interesting, in that a little trigger makes the 'fingers' flex. A very flashy toy, but I found it quite complicated, and I used to play with these things all the time, without the aid of the instruction leaflets...
	Galvatron See above. Yup, Galvatron is basically Megatron with a different paint job. He also has 10 forms, all those of Megatron, plus Elephant(!?), Gryphon, Hydrofoil and another dragon. I'm pretty sure that Megatron can do all of these as well. Aside from being simple 'repaints', both Megtron and Galvatron carry identical Gun/Sword/Staff weapons which can be attached in various ways to the arms or hands of each robot. The purple 'jewel' set in each robot's chest is common to many Japanese robots (think Gundam), but I'm not sure what the ones in the knees are there for.
	Scourge Known in Japan as Black Convoy, Scourge is actually a repaint of Gen 2 Laser Optimus Prime. I was incredibly fortunate to find this one being auctioned on eBay. Since it was never released in this country, I felt obliged to bid (and not because I decided I had to get it after watching the two Prime Time animations by Eyeson). This model is probably one of the most posable versions of Prime, but the original red, blue, black and grey version was incredibly plain, and just didn't look that good as Prime. Turned black with metallic turquouse highlights, silver trim and glowing red eyes (thanks to light piping), he looks much, much better. The trailer opens out (via a natty spring-loaded action) into a battle station with a pneumatic missile launcher, a twist-action disc launcher and a spring loaded multi-missile launcher. Lots of clever engineering, and it seems to be the direct forerunner to Armada Prime's motorised auto-transforming trailer. One important difference between this repaint and the original is that there are no electronics. Both the Japanese Black Convoy and this US Scourge had the lights and sounds removed (to keep costs down?), so Scourge's sword and gun don't light up, the button on his back does nothing, and the battery case is glued shut. Shame, really, but that's the way of things.
	Dreadwind There's something decidedly odd about the RID line... On the one hand, you have Megatron and Galvatron, and the 'car brothers' in the Autobots' ranks, all of whom are highly decorated, often with chromed parts. On the other hand, you have models like Dreadwind, who's incredibly plain - no paintwork and only four stickers. Granted, he's a repaint of a Generation 2 model which has been wheeled out several times over the years (it's actually surprising that he wasn't rereleased for Armada or Energon), but all his molded detail is almost completely lost due to the lack of paintwork. Despite being an excellent model, he's terminally dull because he's just great with two shades of green, and a few bits of translucent red with some light-piping for good measure. Technically, he's a triple-changer, in that he can become a stealth bomber or a very stealth bomber-like 'tank'. His shoulder cannon is excellent - it holds six missiles, and fires them off in sequence when the rear of the launcher is twisted. I've been after this model for quite a while, and could have picked up the Robot Masters version... but I much prefer this colour scheme over the RM's garish bright blue/yellow/grey combination. With just a bit more attention, it could have been an outstanding model
	Smokejumper Based on roughly the same design that has been used for jets as recently as the Energon line, Smokejumper is not only packaged with Dreadwind, but combines with him in jet mode. Just like Dreadwind, this model is seriously lacking in paint applications, and has four stickers - one for each side of the two tail fins - to liven things up. The head looks bizarrely like Optimus Prime, but that's pretty much the one character this model has never been... It's certainly very posable, apart from a couple of weak joints, but the overall construction of this iteration of the cyberjet mold lacks stability. The plane wings and nose cone don't actually fasten to anything, and the arms just kind of float at the shoulder... That said, a good lick of paint would have made him a far more satisfying model.
	Optimus Prime This one is much more like the Transformers of old, but rather than a truck and trailer, like the original Optimus Prime, this one is a fire truck. With missile launchers. And electronic lights and sounds (a siren, and the phrase "Optimus Prime, Transform!"). There are three forms of Prime. The first is made of the fire truck's cab only, and looks suspiciously like a shiny new refit of the original Optimus Prime. In this form, the 'trailer' parts can be combined to create a kind of radar station or defence platform. The next form takes parts of the rear end as add-ons, making a chunkier, heavy-duty Prime. The last, huge form takes everything and puts it together as the robot pictured. Light on weaponry, compared to Ultra Magnus, but I like the siren... Compared to Megatron/Galvatron, this one (and Ultra Magnus) are a doddle to transform. There's a huge amount of molded detail and the paintwork, while sparse compared to Megatron/Galvatron, is entirely appropriate to the model. This is the first Prime I picked up that has a Matrix annex - underneath the Autobot logo on his chest - and the first where he's not just a simple truck. Also, while the principle is the same, he's a hell of a lot more posable than Gen 1 Powermaster Prime.
	Ultra Magnus As with the original Ultra Magnus, this is a truck and a car-carrying trailer. The difference here is that the finished robot uses the trailer for its legs, rather than for most of the body. On the whole, I think I prefer this new version. The lights are not very well used, but there is a great range of sounds, which are affected by the weapon he's using thanks to a clever arrangement of buttons. Slightly more complicated than Prime to transform, but both are well designed. I never liked the original Ultra Magnus, because he was just a white Optimus Prime variant stuck in a solid shell to make him bigger. The arms looked daft, and the Ultra Magnus head was rather poor. This new one looks a little lanky, but is otherwise a huge improvement on the original... and as for his gun, Blue Bolts... ^_^ Molded detail abounds on this model and, again, paintwork is sparse but entirely appropriate - no wasteful colouring here.
	Omega Prime Using a combination of the sound and light buttons from both Prime and Magnus, Omega Prime has a whole new set of sounds for the three forms of Magnus' gun. While he's a bit tricky to put together (and sometimes doesn't like to stay together, Omega Prime is a very well designed robot. Very Japanese, too. This is probably one of the best ever Transformers, in my opinion. It harks back to the original generations, but brings it all bang up to date. There's even more molded detail on the model in this form, as Ultra Magnus' forearms are switched around to reveal Omega Prime's larger hands, and Autobot logos embossed on each forearm. In case you don't think Omega Prime looks hard enough as standard, it's possible to add most, if not all, of Optimus Prime's extra pieces (the main body of the combined robot is Prime's cab only!). In the picture, I've added the missile pods to his legs. I've seen pictures where the ladder assembly has been connected to the arms, and the last remaining parts are added to the shoulders, though neither were particularly stable on my model.
	Railspike The only one of the three RID train robots to come with an electronic feature - a superbright red LED in his weapong, Railspike is also the only one to look reasonably in proportion. Sure, he has huge shoulders, but his arms are more or less the right length, and his legs look just about right. Taking the limitations into account - he transforms into a long, thin bullet train and must also form an integral part of the gestalt Rail Racer - he's an amazing achievement. Posable, stable and pretty good looking. His transformation is probably the most complicated of the three, considering the number of Rail Racer parts involved (the larger robot's head becomes Railspike's chest!), and he's the only one of the three whose legs are reversed individually (Rapid Run's legs are reversed at the waist, Midnight Express has them rotated only by 90 degrees). His colour scheme is fairly basic and uniform - blue and white - and the paintwork is minimal, serving to highlight some detail and make the train look authentic. Definitely my favourite of the three. Forms the upper torso and arms of Rail Racer.
	Rapid Run An extremely lanky robot with a bizarre, almost bird-like face and short, thin arms, changes into another bullet train of a different style. The front of the train becomes his chest and the back becomes the legs, almost a nod to some of the original Gen 1 cars. Despite his disproportionate appearance, he's just as posable as the other two - perhaps more so thanks to the rotation at the waist. He comes armed with a strange shield/gun combination which doesn't quite fit his hand if attached as a gun, because the missile trigger is facing down onto the arm. It's Rapid Run who becomes the biggest disappointment of the three because he shows up one of the most significant differences between the RID trains and the Japanese Car Robots series' JRX - the lack of transparent windows. It's not a huge loss by any means, but it would have enhanced the look of his shield. As he is, with his grey/black/gold colourscheme, Rapid Run is probably the most drab of the three. Aside from this, I've had a small problem with his head popping off its ball joint during transformation... but he's not a bad toy by any means. Forms the mid-torso and jet pack of Rail Racer.
	Midnight Express Easily the strangest looking of the three, Midnight Express seems perfectly in proportion until you reach his knees, then his legs become huge! Obviously this is a limitation imposed by the gestalt mode, which needs a much more stable lower half due to its size. Certainly, Midnight Express is no pushover. Transformation is very clever, with the front of the train becoming one leg, and the back becoming the other. Like the other two, he's missing something due to the lack of transparent plastic on the US/UK release, but he's still a cute model. His huge shoulder pads are a little awkward, though... Forms the lower torso and legs of Rail Racer.
	Rail Racer It's in the combined mode that the individual strangeness of the three trainbots all starts to make sense. Rail Racer is almost perfectly in proportion, though his knees are slightly too high and his elbows are in the wrong place. This is entirely down to the needs of the individual bots, though, so it's easily overlooked. Mine has a couple of loose joints, the worst of which are the hands. Unless the arms are in a particular position, the lack of grip in the hands means that his guns (Rapid Run's gun/shield, and a combination of Railspike and Midnight Express's guns) flail about in his hands or simply drop out. For a gestalt, though, Rail Racer is incredibly posable and good looking. The head is perfectly sized and has a good range of motion in itself. The movement of the arms is limited only by the position of the elbow, and the legs are still just about stable enough for a variety of action-packed poses. Some might say Rapid Run is wasted (or 'waisted'? :P ) as the mid-torso and jet pack, but it all works quite nicely. It's also worth noting that the three trains can be joined, as the weapons form the link assemblies for each train. Shame they never released any supplimentary bots as train carriages or rolling stock... Rail Racer's armada, perhaps? Rail Racer is just one more example of the clever thinking that went into the Robots In Disguise/Car Robots line.
	X-Brawn One of the few Robots In Disguise to have a name connected with Gen 1, this is a very different Brawn from the awkward Mini-Autobot of old. Now more of a family car than the armoured jeep he was, X-Brawn has a curiously Binaltech-style transformation, in many ways similar to some of the pre-production sketches of Binaltech Rumble, with the front of the car becoming a very powerful-looking right arm. The left arm houses a spring-loaded missile launcher, but the 'missiles' are very strange, and could never realistically be used as missiles. RID was the line that brought articulation to TransFormers, though it also turned most of the alternate modes of the Autobot cars into 'shells' that very humanoid robots hid inside. Not so with this one, though he does have an awful lot of car parts hanging off him. One of the most impressive features of this model is the way that ALL of the robot's weapons can be stowed in car mode. The two 'missiles' attach to the bottom of the car, and the blade attaches to the front. Even more impressive is that - many years before Binaltech - the doors and car bonnet open... and beneath the bonnet is a chromed engine. Add to this an nice, simple paint job - much better than the rally-style repaint - and X-Brawn is a great addition to my collection.
	Prowl In fact, this is the second version of RiD Prowl to hit the shelves. I picked this one up at a London model shop, where it was described as 'rare'. As it turns out, the only rare thing about it is the printing error on the back of the card it was mounted on, which gives Brawn's details instead of Prowl's. Oh well. Of the two different versions of Prowl, I do think this one is better. The colours work really well with the molded detail, and they suit the character. One has to wonder, though... other than Italy, would any country really have a Lamborghini as a police car?
	Speedbreaker Believe me, I do find it curious that the three models which put me off the Robots In Disguise line have now been added to my collection. I don't know why, but sometime between their original release date and the last couple of years, my opinions have changed. Yes, they don't look like 'proper' TransFormers, and they cheat by having large amounts of car shell hanging off them (this one more than either of the above two), but they are actually far more complex transforming toys that I'd originally thought. I'm still not entirely convinced by Speedbreaker's massive thighs, or the whole top of the car being a 'shield' attached to one arm, but robot mode has a charm of its own, like X-Brawn and Sunstreaker/Sideswipe/Prowl/Mach Alert. This mold was used for a couple of fembot BotCon exclusives, which is more than a little perverse, as it doesn't look remotely feminine... And the remolded heads made them look like drag queens more than fembots. Nevertheless, in common with almost all of the RID line, Speedbreaker is very posable and stable, with quite an impressive paint job.
	Botcon 2003 Exclusive Sunstreaker Based on the much-reused RID Prowl mold, the Lamborghini got a special, limited edition, convention exclusive reworking as Sunstreaker (as well as Sideswipe). Originally I wasn't a fan of this model because it's basically a robot folded away inside a car, rather than the 'true' TransFormers of old. Add the words 'limited edition' and 'convention exclusive' and stick on a price tag of a mere £25 and suddenly it becomes a must-have. Strange. In person, in many ways, it's not bad... but the spindly, all too humanoid legs and feet do detract from a model which could otherwise have been considered a precursor to the Binaltech series. Unlike X-Brawn, the doors and bonnet don't open, so it's not quite that good. I skipped this one at Auto Assembley, but only just. Seeing it again at the London Film and Comics Con at Earls Court 2, I figured I shouldn't let it slip by again, just in case.