Phil's Car Robots/Robots in Disguise Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

This thread is for the reviews I'm going to write for the new toys introduced during Car Robots that subsequently appeared in Robots in Disguise.

I need some information. What noises do RID Prime and Magnus make and what do they say ?

Even as I type this Super Fire Convoy stands ready to e reviewed in the morning !

[legios]

Dec 15, 2008 22:49:04 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Even as I type this Super Fire Convoy stands ready to e reviewed in the morning !

My first ever Japanese Transformer, and the fifth Transformer purchased of my current collection. I look forward to him getting the full review treatment.

Karl

[The Doctor]

He's a goldfish, you know.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

He is too. This was going to come up.

[legios]

*nods knowingly.* Golf Ball.

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

Due to the Toddler's bad night I lost this morning's time. Been merily typing tonight and we're to the point where SFC is assembled in robot mode.

In related news I've found a great site covering Lucky Draw Exclusives: See here

[Philip Ayres]

Super Fire Convoy

Early in 2000 the Transformers toy lines in the US and Japan took divergent paths: The US had the beast Maximals fighting sci fi vehicles the Vehicons in Beast Machines. In Japan the realistic vehicles of the Cybertrons took on the evil beasts of the Destronger. While the majority of the Destronger toys (save Gigatron, their leader) are repaints most of the Cybertrons are all new toys combining realistic vehicle modes with improved toy making techniques seen during Beast Wars and it's Japanese offspring.

In the US the Autobot leader is usually Optimus Primal. In Japan he's Convoy usually with some prefix to describe his function. The Convoy for Car Robots is Super Fire Convoy which should tip you off to him being a fire engine. The fire engine is mainly red, with some silver panels and clear blue windows covering the rounded front of the toy. There's one large wheel at the front and two smaller wheels at the back on each side each with chromed hubcaps and rubber tires bearing the words "Fire Convoy" round the sides.

At the back of the vehicle he's got a turntable mounted ladder which turns, raises up and extends to twice it's length. Mounted on the far end of the ladder is a unit with a button on it - press this and a pair of cannons - presumably for water in this mode - flip out. When the ladder is retracted there's a button in the base of the ladder that when pressed deploys four missile launchers along the length of the ladder which in turn automatically fire. These end up in the top half of the ladder when extended and the button has to be hunted for within the structure of the ladder.

Above and behind the windows at the front are a pair of red light bars with a button in the middle. When you press the button, the lights flash and there's a number of sounds/voices:

A siren
"Super Fire Convoy !"
"Fire !" then gunfire
"Cyber forces, Transform !"

when confronted with this last sound several people have been heard to comment that it sounds more like "I'm a Goldfish, Transform !"

The only real problem this mode has it does bend a little a not hold together terribly well due to the design used to accomplish the other modes. In particular don't pick it up by the front/back and let it hang down and watch out to make sure the panels on the side are all locked together.

In the middle of the vehicle are two chrome dual (water ?) cannons mounted on what can only be described as a robot head. Although the cannons fit, the robot head detracts a little.

Transform to Fire Convoy: Pull the cab part off the front of the fire engine. Set the rest of the fire engine including the turntable and ladder aside for later. Fold the side sections with the wheels in forward so they're under the windows and bend the front of these round the cab. Pull the windows away from where the light bars are and fold so the top of the windows is pointing forward. You should be able to see the robot legs and waist now inside the fire engine. Bend the waist section and the piece it's attached to back so that the legs end up under the revealed robot chest. Fold the light bars back. Fold the sides of the top of the cab down to become the arms. Pull the bottom halves of the arms down - this will extend the fists behind the piece of plastic you're pulling on. Rotate each lower arm out to the side. Return to the legs, separate the lower legs and turn each of them in 90 degrees so the wheels end up on the knee caps. Remove the gun and place in the robot's hand. Open the white covers on the back of the legs, fold the feet down and replace the covers which should lock round the panels the feet are attached to. Finally push the robot body down onto the waist and in the process raise Fire Convoy's head.

The resulting robot is *definitely* Optimus Prime, but with some modifications. The most obvious one gives him red legs - albeit covered in clear blue windscreen and red & silver detailing together with wheels covering the kneecaps. Legs, forearms & hands are white - the forearms have a band of blue round the wrist and the hands a grey outer covering. The head is Prime - blue, with a crest & silver face plate. He has the same gold foil eyes as Big Convoy does. The head looks sleeker than many Prime heads mainly due to the diagonally swept back grey antennae on the sides. The chest is chromed in red with blue painted windows and silver chromed stomach muscles (where the grill would be on G1 Prime). The look is good but due to the way the toy folds up and that the chest piece ends up clipped next to other pieces I've found the chrome on mine has rubbed off rather a lot. His gun is a small hand weapon with a wheel at the back which looks a little like a reel out fire hose !

Articulation: Ball jointed head, shoulders bend forward & back, rotate forward & back and fold to the sides. He has a bicep swivel, a bending elbow and a ball jointed wrist. His waist turns and would be limited by the battery, lights and noise module in his back pack but this lifts up at the top to allow full waist movement. The legs move at the hips forwards, back & to the sides. The knees bend, the legs swivel bellow the knees and the feet are on ball joints. I mentioned the lights and sound - these still work in this mode and produce the same effects.

This is a very good Prime robot, poseable and looks G1 enough to satisfy most hard core fans.

To go further with the toy we need to dismantle the trailer: Pull the front segments off to the sides. Fold the top & bottom out, then the sides to reveal a dual cannon and what looks like a hand inside each one. The next two pieces pull off a solid L shaped looking lumps with some tubing bridging both branches. The turn table and middle of the truck then pulls off the base & rear wheel which in turn separate in two down the middle. Fold the grey panel out from under these pieces towards the front but only as far as it's pointing down. Fold the wheels so they're underneath the red block and then fold the grey panel out further.

On the inside of the rear wheel blocks there are moulded missile arrays. These blocks can be mounted on pegs on Fire Convoy's shoulders to add to his firepower. Check which of Fire Convoy's hands is holding the gun (his right or left *NOT* your right or left). Take the first letter of the other direction. Find the gun and hand piece that has that written on the bottom. Fold the panel with the cannon on it back to form an L shape with the hand panel but with the gun & the hand on the outside. Fold the other two panels back to lock with it. Place onto the free hand's forearm. Of course you can remove the gun and add the extra firepower to the other hand as well ! These all add nice power ups to Fire Convoy.

Another use for the trailer pieces is to form a base. Joint the wheel blocks back together, place the turntable on top of it and fold down the front of the turntable unit. Bend the ladder at it's base till upright. Fold the sides of the ladder out. Fold the top of the ladder forward and deploy the water cannon. Peg the dual cannon units into the top of the wheel blocks - the blue painted section should face up, to the front and not be the part connected to the wheel base. Take the remaining L shaped pieces, place the on their sides with the silver pipe facing up. With the grey cylinder on the end of them on the outside of the unit peg them under the blue sections of the dual cannon pieces.Turn the dual cannons forward. Fold the thumb on the hand to the side and fold the hand down. Fold up the panel behind the hand.

To be honest this base mode is a bit like "let's throw all the rest of the bits together. But they fit together reasonably well, the tower looks good - a fireman's training tower ? Look out post ? Communications antennae ?

But what you *really* want to do with the extra pieces is combine all of them with Fire Convoy. Return them to the state described above when you remove them from the fire truck. Take Fire Convoy, remove the gun and set aside. Pull the shoulders out to the side. Pull down on the legs just enough for the head to recess into the body but not enough for the second bending joint in the waist to emerge. Form the hand & cannon units as above: Fold the panel with the cannon on it back to form an L shape with the hand panel but with the gun & the hand on the outside. Fold the other two panels back to lock with it. Place units over the appropriate forearm. Take the back wheel blocks and open the grey flap on top. Fold the detailed panel of pipe work within up & forwards. With both missile arrays facing each other place Fire Convoy's feet into these blocks - there's a peg that matches a hole in Fire Convoy's feet. Fold the pipe work back and lock the peg on the back of it onto the front of Fire Convoy's leg. Take the L shaped pieces. With the silver pipe facing forward and the grey cylinder to the outside place over Fire Convoy's shoulders so that the pegs inside them lock into the holes on the shoulder panels. Take the turntable section and bend the ladder right the way back so it's pointing down & fold up the water cannon section at the end. Place the turntable's base over Fire Convoy's head hole so the pegs sticking up match the holes in the turntable's base. Fold the front down till clips on the back of it click into the chest. Straighten the bottom against Fire Convoy's waist. . Place Fire Convoy's hand gun in the peg hole on your right of Super Fire Convoy's head.

It was at this point I broke for sleep at the end of Day One of the Super Fire Convoy review !

The fully assembled robot is again very Prime like in it's appearance but different from both G1 Optimus Prime and Fire Convoy - of whom very little is now visible. He has near identical levels of articulation as his smaller version - loosing the ball jointed feet but gaining a thumb that can either be alongside or opposed to the other fingers in his hand. In this respect his hands are a more refined version of Optimal Optimus'. The head is in the Prime style but this time moulded in red with silver trim round the red face plate, above & bellow the eyes and on the faceplate. The antennae are the dual water cannons I mentioned earlier and these pivot independently.

The chest includes a molded bandolier slung over it (like Chewbacca or BW Neo Guiledart & his descendants) There's an Autobot symbol on it over where it crosses his right breast - lift the flap it's on up and revealed within is this toy's representation of the Matrix continuing a tradition started in Lio Convoy and continues in Big Convoy.

Although he has no hand gun in this mode - Fire Convoy's is shoulder mounted and the dual cannons of base mode have ended up on the forearms - he does have one huge shoulder mounted cannon. To deploy it: Swing the turntable round so it's on your right, then swing the back of the turntable's base out to the left. Fold the ladder up & forward over the shoulder. Raise up the module on the end, then deploy the water cannons. The missile launchers can then be fired by pressing the button at the back of the cannon.

Super Fire Convoy was released as Car Robots toy C-001. Personally I thought putting three figures on the numbering system was asking for trouble and so it proved with Car Robots having the shortest set of Japanese number. He comes in two box styles - the early one has him in vehicle mode and in a box with a window on the front. The later one is a not so deep solid rectangular box with pictures on either side one horizontal and one vertical similar to all the other Car Robots Gift sets (bar Gigatron). This box contains the Fire Convoy robot surrounded by the extra pieces for the rear of the trailer and Super Fire Convoy.

Super Fire Convoy is a truly stunning toy. Released at the time Beast Machines was struggling - and not just through a lack of new BM toys after the initial release I remember many a Transformers fan happily clutching the window boxed version at Transforce 2000. Decent vehicle, two good robots, decent sound and mechanical gimmicks and a definite resemblance, though updated, to it's G1 ancestor. Well worth getting.

Here's my original 2000 review of the toy:

"SUPER FIRE CONVOY

A nice big red fire engine - sound effects are cool and very Japanese.... Extendable ladder containing 4 missile launchers which are triggered together from a single button.

Cab separates and unfolds to form the Fire Convoy robot - another very poseable Prime Like robot. In fact the most prime looking robot since G2 Combat Hero Prime. A gun is hidden under the cab which he can hold.

Rear becomes - via a disconnect and reassemble operation a radar base. Not big enough for Prime - but on the right scale to send you scurrying for your Micromasters.

An "official" in between mode - lets call it Fire Convoy Battle mode - involves mounting the divided rear of the truck onto his shoulders - nice hidden detail of some missile banks - and attaching one of the more forward pieces as an arm guard - with Wrist Cannon :-) There are permutations on this...

Super Fire Convoy is formed by slotting the rear halves onto his feet, the mid sections onto his arms and the forward pieces of the rear onto the shoulders. The robot body is extended and the base of the ladder folds over his upper torso and back. Robot gun mounted on shoulder, ladder behind him.

Now as I was Demo'ing this on Wednesday unnamed fan goes "Ah man he ain't got any big guns in robot mode" at which point I turned the ladder over the shoulder to form one of the biggest cannons ever seen on a TF ! There's a red and silver Primeesque head, with rotating twin blasters on the side of the head. Leoconvoy style Matrix panel on the chest. 24cm high to the robot head, 28 to the top of the ladder when down or over the shoulder.

Well you can't really go wrong with a big red robot can you ? ;-) This is a great toy, and I expect to hear many more people singing it's praises before we're done this year ! "

Black Super Fire Convoy

Given away as a competition prize in Japan, Black Fire Convoy is a black repaint of Super Fire Convoy. The fire engine looks odd in black but the robot works. Little did they know what was about to be unleashed on us with the arrival of generally available Black Optimus Prime versions.

Clear Super Fire Convoy

TFU.info is at the moment missing pictures of this toy but there's some good ones here

Clear God Fire Convoy changes the solid red pieces to clear red and many of the grey pieces - including the ladder & Fire Convoy's waist - to white.

Attractive repaint. Comes with Clear God Magnus and a modified version of Fortress Maximus' master sword mounted on a staff but missing the hilt for Fort Max to hold it.

Clear Super Fire Convoy was a Japanese Toys R Us exclusive in 2000.

Robots In Disguise Optimus Prime

After Beast machines finished early in 2001 Hasbro took the decision to release Car Robots in the US as Robots In Disguise. Super Fire Convoy became Optimus Prime and was included in the initial release of toys.

Physically the toys are identical apart from the addition of an extra Autobot symbol on the sides of the vehicle which en up on top of the shoulder pads of the larger toy.

Electronically the voicebox has been changed - according to one resource I found on the Internet he now says ""Optimus Prime, MAXIMIZE!", " Autobots, TRANSFORM!" and "Fire!"

Universe Optimus Prime

Universe Optimus Prime takes the red and swaps it for an Airport style fire engine mustard yellow. I'm not so keen on the colour but some might like it. Unfortunately there is a big mistake on the toy. The chrome on Fire Convoy's chest has been left as red instead of being altered to silver. As such it clashes horribly with the rest of the toy and looks very out of place.

Optimus Prime was an exclusive to Costco in 2003 and sold with a recolour of RID Ultra Magnus.

Unrelease Botcon Defensor

Optimus Prime has two unreleased colour variants that were intended as Botcon exclusives

Fire Convoy & the ladder base become a Hotspot pale blue. All the cream becomes black. The rest of the vehicle becomes grey. He gets a new black head.

Very G1 Defensor like and a loss when the exclusive was cancelled in the wake of 3H winding up.

Chaos Armour Defensor

The second unreleased Botcon exclusive is very similar to the first Defensor above except almost all the exposed vehicle panels - with the exception of the sound box - is now moulded in black.

[Philip Ayres]

Wild Ride

Original review:

"WILDRIDE

Silver People Carrier style van. Robot Head in the drivers position ;-) Back of the van becomes the legs and feet. The right arm is inside the van, the left is the entire front section.

This is not a terribly symmetrical robot - left arm is very big compared to the right and contains his AUTOBOT symbol. Has a fist with posable thumb - used for holding the front bumper as a blade weapon. One door hangs off the elbow in this arm, the other off the shoulder. Right arm ends in a missile launcher that's built into a rather square non posable fist. The launcher will take either of the chrome pipes from the underside of the car, but is illustrated with the one shaped like a blade. Typically this is the one that fits better onto his shoulder on mine ! Lots of green on the robot - good contrast to the silver. "

Wildride is a silver SUV - the G1 toys he looks the most like are probably Skids or Ironhide except they're different colours. He has clear windows, opening doors and an opening bonnet which exposes a chromed engine. He's got a chromed front bumper and chromed side bars under the door. The words Transformers TM are moulded into the tires. There's a sun roof moulded in but it's painted over and can't be opened.

TF: Fold down the cover over the spare wheel on the back. Remove the sidebars from under the car. Open the doors. Pull on the back & front of the vehicle to extend the arm and the legs. Fold the legs down under the robot body & separate. Fold the front wheel near the Autobot symbol on the underside backwards bringing the robot's hand into the wheel arch, which will then need pulling out. Fold the other arm round from behind his back. Fold the head up. Turn the top of the car round so the windshield points down. Plug the removed sidebars into the back of the roof.

Wildride's robot mode is mainly tall & thin but with an oversized arm on his left. This has the front of the car hanging off it as a forearm, and both windows attached at shoulder and elbow. There's a hand at the end of it - ball jointed at the wrist and has a thumb that lifts up. This hand can hold the removable front bumper as a handle attached to a round bladed knife. This arm bends at the elbow, has a bicep swivel, pivots up and moves forward & backwards at the shoulder. The other arm has a moulded fist with a missile hole in the front of it. Into this the side bars missiles can be inserted and fired using a trigger on the forearm. The arm bends at a ball jointed elbow but to bend the arms so it points out you end up with the moulded fist being on it's side. There is also a ball joint at the shoulder, under the head - mainly green with a silver faceplate, no waist under the green chest embedded with lots of robotic detail, Ball joints at the hip, an exposed knee joint that bends and a very high ball jointed ankle near the top of the large feet. The green added in on this mode makes the robot look a little like Brawn but that's the closest you'll get to him resembling a G1 character.

Great vehicle mode, interesting TF, decent if lopsided robot. Well worth getting.

Wildride is Car Robots toy number C-002. No Japanese toy prior to Car Robots was released carded so Wildride is technically the first Japanese Transformer toy to be released carded (Mach Alert, Speedbreaker and the individual Spychangers were released the same day but have later numbers)

Super Wildride

Super Wildride is the repaint of Wildride. He's numbered as C-024 but this time he's a boxed toy.

In this form he's mainly white with some green and red racing stripes making it look like he's inherited Wheeljack's colours. The hubcaps and engine are this time chromed in gold.

Not a bad repaint, but his brothers each have superior ones.

Clear Wildride

The clear car brothers are an exclusive for Osaka ToysLand Show and limited to 1500 pieces. They're labelled C-024-S to C-026-S corresponding to their original numbers. Although the set is labelled as Clear Car Brothers they are in fact Clear Super Car Brothers.

As such Wildride is a version of Super Wildride but with the white parts rendered in clear plastic. Looks very nice.

X-Brawn

X-Brawn is the Robots in Disguise release of Wildride with an additional Autobot symbol on the bonnet.

Super X-Brawn

Super X-Brawn is the Robots in Disguise release of Wildride with an additional Autobot symbol on the roof.

Universe Ratchet

Universe Ratchet renders the car body parts of Wildride in red with a white panel on the roof and painted on lightbar, ladder and hose details.

The robot mode isn't a straight colour swap with the robot mainly being a mix of black (for grey on the limbs) and grey for green (except on the chest which is black)

Nice repaint.

[Andy Turnbull]

When will He Who Must Not Be Named In Ralph's Presence getting an airing? Advance warning please so I can pull up a chair and giggle when Ralph sees it.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

God Magnus will indeed be putting an appearance in. I'm aiming to do everyone else first though. he is the latest numbered Cybertron release after all.

In the meantime if anyone sees a cheap RID Megatron can they lmk !

[The Doctor]

There is no God Magnus.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Mach Alert

Mach Alert is a Lamborghini Countach police car. What is it with Japanese toylines and making fast cars into Police vehicles ? (G1 Prowl, G1 Red Alert, Diaclone Police Car Countach / E-Hobby Clamp Down) The car is mainly white with a black lower portion. There's three characters of Japanese writing on both doors, but the order of characters is reversed so the same character is at the front of the car back of the door and in between the two. Hubcaps are chromed with the words Transformers TM 2000 on it. At the time Car Robots came out it was referred to in some circles as Transformers 2000. The doors on the car open to the side. There's a pair of red light bars on top of car's roof and a white rear spoiler, The ends of the spoiler turn upwards revealing a stretched oval peg with exactly the same size and shape as the light bars. These can be used to mount Mach Alert's missile launchers on the car. The launchers have two fins sticking out at right angles. They fire orange flame shaped missiles. Posing the launchers forward make them look like traditional launchers but fixing them on with the missiles pointing backwards makes them look like rocket boosters for the car.

TF: remove the missiles. Turn the car over and fold the panel under the back down so it covers the middle of the car. Open the doors and fold the bonnet and windscreen upwards. Fold the grey seats forward - they're the feet and are connected by the legs to the front of the car. Fold the legs forward then twist at the knee & ankle so both lower leg & foot are facing down. Slide the waist up into the car's body. Fold the doors down beside the legs. Separate the back of the car by pulling on the inside of each back wheel - one side will bring the top of the back with it. Fold the sides of the back out to form the shoulders and straighten the arms up. Fold the back of the car onto the outside of the arm it's attached to (his left) Fold the exhaust pipes over the shoulders. Peg the missiles launchers onto his right wrist.

Mach Alert's robot mode is still mainly white but some grey and painted blue is also introduced. His chest is clear with a metallic red Autobot symbol painted onto it. The head is white, with black side and a silver face. The top of the head is sloped and looks a lot like a mini version of the car mode. His head turns, his shoulders are on ball joints and the arms bend bellow it. The arms bend to the sides at the elbow and have a ball joint bellow it to allow the for the forearm to bend up correctly. No waist, but ball joints at hip & knee and a double ball jointed ankle.

Overall: Decent car, decent robot. Another hit for Car Robots.

Mach Alert was issued carded as toy C-003.

Original 2000 Mach Alert review reads:

"MACH ALERT

White Lamborghini (I should know how to spell that - there was a dealership at the bottom of Egham Hill) Police Car. 2 Cyberjet style missile launchers that can be clipped on the spoiler - don't look too good there. Nice looking car though. The arms and shield are the back of the car - the sides of the back forming large shoulder pads, the windshield and bonnet become the back, and the legs fold out from underneath these - the lower sides of the feet are the cars chairs :-) The clear engine block beneath the back of the car recesses into the robots body to form a chest with a red AUTOBOT symbol on it, the doors hang by the hips.

Mainly white robot, with blue and transparent pieces. A shield on one arm, the aforementioned missiles mounted on the other. Nice"

Super Mach Alert

Super Mach Alert alters the colour scheme somewhat by introducing dark blue on the front and back of the car. If you've got the car looking at you then the light bar on your left is now clear blue as well. The word Police appears on the front and both doors, and the doors also have Mach Alert written on them. The hubcaps are now chromed in gold. The robot mode is similar to before but much of the visible car shell is now blue.

Nice repaint.

Super Mach Alert is sold boxed as Car Robots toy C-025.

Clear Mach Alert

The clear car brothers are an exclusive for Osaka ToysLand Show and limited to 1500 pieces. They're labelled C-024-S to C-026-S corresponding to their original numbers. Although the set is labelled as Clear Car Brothers they are in fact Clear Super Car Brothers.

Clear Mach Alert renders all the body works in clear plastic and looks superb.

Prowl

Prowl is identical to Mach Alert but for the addition of an Autobot symbol on the front of the car.

Super Prowl

Super Prowl is identical to Super Mach Alert but for the addition of an Autobot symbol on the front of the car.

OTCC Sideswipe

Inevitably Transformer fans wanted this mold as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker and in 2003 the Official Transformers Collectors Convention obliged by making them. Car mode is dead on with a red body shell and no light bars. The robot mode is more distant from Sideswipe - in particular no car bonnet on the chest - but has plenty of red & white visible.

OTCC Sunstreaker

The same toy is used to make Sunstreaker. Because Sunstreaker's G1 form had the air intakes mounted on the back of the car he looks less like his former self than Sideswipe does in vehicle mode. Robot mode again looks less like G1 Sunstreaker due to the lack of the car's roof on the chest. On reflection these two toys emphasise what a good job was done with the Universe Sideswipe & Sunstreaker in 2008.

Universe Inferno

Universe Inferno has a mainly white body, Super Prowl's differently coloured light bars and red edging round the bottom & on the front bonnet. A number of fire chief logos are added. To me it's obvious that they aught to have used the Red Alert name on this toy. Robot mode adds red to the lower legs, chest & head with black for the upper legs and forearms.

Not the worst repaint in the world.

Universe Prowl

This Prowl is a Universe exclusive for Wal-Mart. It's basically the standard Prowl with a large Autobot symbol on the bonnet, the number 105 on the windscreen, red square marks on the spoiler & doors and some red flame deco on the door.

Not really worth bothering about compared to the original Prowl

That makes Nine outings in total for this mold. A record ?

[The Doctor]

Good grief. I had no idea that mould was used so often.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Sideburn has a near identical set of reuses, he's just missing one a generally availible Universe repaint.

[Philip Ayres]

Speedbreaker

Speedbreaker is a blue Dodge Viper strongly resembling G1 Tracks G1 form and colour. He's even got fire details on the bonnet and sides of the car - albeit in blue. The engine - chromed silver - is exposed through the bonnet bringing G1 Hotrod slightly to mind. He's got slightly smoked glass windows, clear yellow front lights and clear red back lights. Wheels have chromed hubcaps and have the words T.F. Cybertron written on them. The doors open bringing the window above them with it.

TF - remove the exhaust pipe and the rear bumper. Open the doors and swing the front bumper down. Turn the car over and fold the sides of the back down, then fold out the robot legs and feet from behind them. Pull the sides of the front out to the sides a bit then pull the roof of the car back allowing you to fold it out to the side. Swivel that side of the car back 90 degrees at the robot's waist Pull the sides of the front of the car up. Fold the roof and the attached robot arm round so strut the arm is attached to is flush with the white body piece. Unpeg the arm from under the front of the car and fold down so that the wheel on the hinge side gets raised up next to the engine. Turn 180 degrees so the wheel is on the opposite side to the engine and fold it under the engine. Fold the engine block down to become the robot's chest locking both arms in place. Make sure the head is flipped up and facing forward. Insert the exhaust pipe into the rear bumper and hold as a weapon. There's a silver chromed blade/gun pegged to his bottom that can be used as another weapon.

Robot is blessed with lots of kibble - the car's roof hangs off one arm as a shield, the front bumper off the opposite shoulder and there's car halves hanging off his back. The look is compounded by an unsymmetrical face with clear plastic covering one eye. There's lots of blue in robot mode but his limbs are mainly white. He has ball jointed ankles & knees plus a bending joint above the knee, ball jointed hips, a waist, ball jointed neck & shoulders, bicep joints - at different levels on each arm and a bending elbow.

This is one of those toys when returning to vehicle mode can be a pain. As advice I'd says write down how you TF'd it from vehicle to robot as I've done above and then reverse the steps. I TF'd Speedbreaker back to vehicle tonight faster than I'd ever done it before having written that and it's been about 4 years since I last transformed him.

Superb vehicle, good robot, testing TF. Great toy.

Speedbreaker was released carded as Car Robots toy C-004.

My original review follows:

"Speedbreaker

Blue hotrod style sportscar. Back bumper pulls off to use as crossbow style missile launcher with the exhaust pipe ! Front bumper pulls out to become the shoulder pad of the right arm which is hidden under the engine block. Left arm is under the roof, which becomes a shield. Nice bit of jointing to get these in the right place for the robot, which is completed by unfolding the legs from the back, and folding the engine block down to form the chest revealing the head.

A knife/gun is stored on the back of the waist which can be held by either hand like the crossbow. Left arm again sports an embossed AUTOBOT symbol and the roof of the car forming a shield. The head is very reminiscent of a Cyberbeast - uneven with one eye shielded. Mainly blue with white thighs and forearms. "

Super Speedbreaker

Super Speedbreaker renders all the blue on Speedbreaker (including the flames) as red bringing him much closer the look of G1 Hotrod (though don't forget the red Diaclone Tracks released by e-Hobby as Road Rage !)

Super Speedbreaker was sold boxed as Car Robots toy C-026.

Clear Speedbreaker

The clear car brothers are an exclusive for Osaka ToysLand Show and limited to 1500 pieces. They're labelled C-024-S to C-026-S corresponding to their original numbers. Although the set is labelled as Clear Car Brothers they are in fact Clear Super Car Brothers.

Clear Speedbreaker renders all the car body parts in clear plastic enabling you to see all the robot body through them. Of the three clear car brothers this is possibly my least favourite due to all the solid red inside showing through..


Sideburn

Sideburn is Speedbreaker with an Autobot symbol on his roof. Minimal changes were made importing the car brothers into the US.

Super Sideburn

Super Sideburn is Super Speedbreaker with an Autobot symbol on his roof.


OTCC 2003 Roulette

Roulette was a OTCC exclusive in 2003. The body shell of the car is silver with a pair of blue racing stripes down the centre. The robot mode is a mixture of orange/beige & black with a new female head on it.

Decent looking car but the orange/beige on the robot doesn't work for me.


OTCC 2003 Shadow Striker

Shadow Striker was also a OTCC 2003 exclusive. This time the car body is black with pale blue racing stripes and a Decepticon symbol. The robot mode is the same mixture of orange/beige & black with the same new female head on it only in black this time.

Again I like the car but not the robot.

Universe Sideburn

Universe Sideburn was a 2004 Wal-Mart exclusive alongside but separate to a minor RID Prowl recolour. Sideburn is black, with grey bonnet top and red bumpers. The robot mode is identical to Super Sideburn except for the car parts as described above.

Lazy repaint. Making the rest of the red robot parts black would have made it stunning.

[Philip Ayres]

J-5

During the hiatus between G2 and Beast Wars Takara weren't twiddling their fingers, they sold an entire other line of transforming robot toys called Brave which featured lots of combining and lots of trains. So it was almost inevitable that both things would show up in Car Robots. Trains are a hard sell to transforming robot fans - the problem is they differ so much from country to country - UK trains don't look like US trains and neither look like Japanese trains - the same being true for modern and steam trains.

J-5 is a white bullet train with a blue stripe over the top & down the front and another along each side surrounding the windows. There are two fixed sets of four small wheels under the train, a hole at the front and a peg projecting from the back which allows the trains to connect end to front. J-5's trailing hook has a couple of problems. It's connected to the gun for the robot mode with the barrel under the train and the stock folded up the back. The barrel isn't held in that securely and the stock - although similarly shaped to the train - is 6mm+ back from the rear of the train which looks most odd.

TF: Pull down on the back of the train to extend it to form the legs. Split the legs and set the weapon aside. Turn each legs round 90 degrees bellow the knee. Flip down the foot and fold the back set of wheels down as heel spurs. Split the front of the train in two down the middle, fold to the sides, rotate the shoulder down, fold the arms down and swing them 180 degrees at the elbow. Fold JRX's head down onto the chest and turn J-5's head round so it faces forward. Fold the barrel on the weapon over the LED, fold the trailing hook under it and place in the robot's hand

J-5's robot form has huge shoulder pads - the result of the front of the train being folded out - and a very thin body otherwise - it's straight up from the feet to the shoulders. His head looks quite similar to that of the combined JRX form which is perhaps appropriate to the leader of the team (at least according to the US version's tech specs) His head turns, his arms move forward & back and swing to the sides at the shoulder. The elbows are a double ball joint which is always good - this means the lower arm can point up while the upper arm points down. He doesn't have a waist, the hips are ball jointed, there's an odd folding sideways joint above the knee used in combined mode, the knees bend backwards but are limited by the leg sticking up behind and finally the legs rotate beneath the knee.

His hand weapon lights up - there's a pair of watch batteries in the blocky stock which light a red LED that illuminates the barrel. Because the LED can be directly exposed it's good for using with red lightpipe eyes to illuminate them.

Overall: Solid train, decent robot.

J-5 is Car Robots Toy C-012 and also features in the JRX Giftset C-015

Railspike

Railspike is the Robots In Disguise release of Car Robot's J-5 and simply adds an Autobot symbol to the side of the train mode.

Railspike was sold as a Mega sized toy making it poor value for money as it's essentially a large deluxe toy. Of course by this point the UK had turned it's back on the Mega size class though some of the Bullet Train assortment were later available in the UK as "grey imports" through toy shops.

All three of the Bullet Train team and their combined forms had their names reused for the Universe release of Six Train.

[Philip Ayres]

J-7

During the hiatus between G2 and Beast Wars Takara weren't twiddling their fingers, they sold an entire other line of transforming robot toys called Brave which featured lots of combining and lots of trains. So it was almost inevitable that both things would show up in Car Robots. Trains are a hard sell to transforming robot fans - the problem is they differ so much from country to country - UK trains don't look like US trains and neither look like Japanese trains - the same being true for modern and steam trains.

J-7 - the other two train brothers are J-4 and J-5. what happened to J-6 ? We need to be told !

J-7 looks a little different to his brothers - his primary colour is grey with some black detailing round the windows. He possess the same two sets of four wheels underneath and hook & hole coupling arrangement that both the other trains do.

TF: turn the train over. Find the robot arms folded up in the middle. Fold the panels they're attached to forward so they're flush with the bodywork in front. Fold the front of the train down into the vacated gap & fold the head up (In TFing all three of the train brothers I've managed to pop all three of their heads off and JRX's head ! - for J-7 I'd pull up a little on the front of the head, then pass a pair of scissors or a screw driver down the back of the neck to lever it up the rest of the way) Remove the panel at the back behind the robot's waist. Turn the robot's waist round. Separate the legs and remove the coupling hook and it's connecting poll. Pull down on the legs to extend the upper legs. Fold the rear wheels down as heel spurs. Pull the feet & heel spurs out about 5mm. Fold the feet up. Straighten the arms. Fold out the sides of the removed panel and fold out the flaps at the end of them. Fold down the handle and insert the coupling hook as a missile. Hold extended in front of the robot as a missile launcher or face on as a shield.

The robot is another tall and thin robot. His head is odd - looks very like that of the Beast Wars character Airazor coloured in bright yellow. His wrists and elbows bend, he has ball jointed shoulders and neck (but the neck is a little limited) Waist turns, there's ball jointed hip and bending knees. Thanks to the heel spurs balance is excellent.

By itself it would be a pretty good toy. As it is the three Train Brothers feel very much like they're the same thing done a little differently.

J-7 is Car Robots Toy C-013 and also features in the JRX Giftset C-015

Rapid Run

Rapid Run is the Robots In Disguise release of Car Robot's J-7. This release adds an Autobot symbol to the top of the train mode and changes the yellow on the robot mode to a more bronzey colour.

Rapid Run was sold as a Mega sized toy making it poor value for money as it's essentially a large deluxe toy. Of course by this point the UK had turned it's back on the Mega size class though some of the Bullet Train assortment were later available in the UK as "grey imports" through toy shops.

All three of the Bullet Train team and their combined forms had their names reused for the Universe release of Six Train.

[Philip Ayres]

J-4

During the hiatus between G2 and Beast Wars Takara weren't twiddling their fingers, they sold an entire other line of transforming robot toys called Brave which featured lots of combining and lots of trains. So it was almost inevitable that both things would show up in Car Robots. Trains are a hard sell to transforming robot fans - the problem is they differ so much from country to country - UK trains don't look like US trains and neither look like Japanese trains - the same being true for modern and steam trains.

J-4 is what looks like a double decker train with white top half & blue bottom half and a yellow stripe separating the two. Doors and drivers window are mid way between the two but there are two levels of passenger windows. Such a thing is an oddity to UK residents used to single deck trains but they do exist - see Wikpedia. Like his brothers he has a hole under the front of the train and a trailing hook behind it.

TF: Remove the loading hook and the connected tube from the back of the train. Flip up the panels on the top of the train and remove the missile launcher from under the back panel. Rotate the entirety of the front and the back relative to the middle of the train so that all of it but especially the grey bits connecting them to the middle are the other way up. Fold the front & back of the train down under the middle to form the legs. Turn the train's nose round so it faces out of the blue side of the leg. Pull the nose out then fold it upwards to form a foot, then fold the wheels back to form a heel spur. Fold the wheels up on the other leg and pull down on them to extend the back of the train. Turn so the wheels are at the back. Fold the back of the train out to form the other foot. (to this point is effectively J-4's combined mode) From here pull the middle of the train up and fold down the remaining piece of blue side on the front. Fold the arms down & out of the train roof panels. Rotate the panel in the roof of the middle so the head is revealed then raise it up by folding back the ball joint on the base of the neck and folding forward the head. Slot the missile launcher and barrel together to form the hand weapon, flip the peg out and place in J-4's hand. .

J-4 has excessively large legs compared to the rest of the body - can you tell it's meant to be the legs for JRX ? - and the small proportions of the upper body are emphasised by the *HUGE* shoulder pads that he has. He bends & turns at the knees and his hips move forward & back and to the sides. The neck has a ball joint at the base and a joint that lets the head lean back at the top. He's got ball jointed shoulders and double hinged elbows on his long but thin arms.

Decent train. Disproportionately sized robot betraying it's combined toy function.

J-4 is Car Robots Toy C-014 and also features in the JRX Giftset C-015

Midnight Express

Midnight Express is the Robots In Disguise release of Car Robot's J-4. This release adds an Autobot symbol to the top of the train mode.

Midnight Express was sold as a Mega sized toy making it poor value for money as it's essentially a large deluxe toy. Of course by this point the UK had turned it's back on the Mega size class though some of the Bullet Train assortment were later available in the UK as "grey imports" through toy shops.

All three of the Bullet Train team and their combined forms had their names reused for the Universe release of Six Train.

[Philip Ayres]

JRX

JRX is the combined form of Car Robots toys C-012 J-5, C-013 J-7 and C-014 J-4. Being a Japanese combining toy he was also available as a giftset C-015, which is the first of the more common Car Robots box design - solid box, picture of the toys on both sides except one side is designed to be displayed horizontally and the other side is designed to be displayed vertically. As I relate bellow the packaging for the toys in this box is a little odd - they are in neither robot nor train mode but converted to their combined forms nearly ready to be plugged together.

My Original Review of the JRX Giftset reads: "Despite 33 quid in customs charges I'm rather pleased with the new kit I got today...

Starscream and BB is a rather nice recolour of the existing G2 ATB which I suspect most of you have - nice toy, the yellow live edge works well....

JRX giftset: Surprisingly these don't come packaged in robot or train mode, but in the configurations to build JRX. Robot was a little unstable at first but some fiddling helped. He's got the benefit of the wheels for the leg robot (which is which ?) as a balance. All the individual trains are nice and the robots are rather good with my only complaint being that the legs are slightly too long for all 3 robots. Nice heads - one of which looks like JRX's and one that resembles Airazor. "

If I recall correctly JRX stands for Japanese Robot eXpress.

In theory JRX has a vehicle mode as all three trains can be jointed to each other end to front by the peg and hole system they use.

Assuming you don't own the giftset and just plug em together out the box here's how to TF the trains into combined robot mode.

J-5: Open the front of the train out, raise up JRX's head and close the front of the train. Remove the rear hook, gun barrel and stock/battery box. Pull back on the train extending the individual robot legs. Split the legs and waist in half and fold to the sides so they're flat along the side of the train. Fold the outer part of train side back on the last hinge before the shoulder rotating joint for the combined robot.. Fold forward the panels either side of where the legs are bent out. Flip the robot feet up. Pull the combined robot hands out of the bottom of the individual robot legs - now obviously JRX's arms. Fold the thumbs up. Swing the arms down at the shoulders so they hang down beside where's the robot's body would be.

J-7: Fold the nose down from behind the two small blue windows but in front of the large one. Turn the rest of the nose round and pull down on it relative to the train's body. Remove the back panel and connecting hook. Extend the legs and fold to the sides. Fold out the back wheels and extend the feet. Fold the back wheels back in, and fold the feet out. Fold out the arm panels and fold down. Fold the waist into the gap. Straighten the arms and fold so they point up behind the back of the legs. Fold the legs down as a thruster pack.

Lock J-5 onto the top of J-7 - the groove under the back of J-5 slides over the black bar on the top of J-7 and the clips lock together.

J-4: Remove the loading hook and the connected tube from the back of the train. Flip up the panels on the top of the train and remove the missile launcher from under the back panel. Rotate the entirety of the front and the back relative to the middle of the train so that all of it but especially the grey bits connecting them to the middle are the other way up. Fold the front & back of the train down under the middle to form the legs. Turn the train's nose round so it faces out of the blue side of the leg. Pull the nose out then fold it upwards to form a foot, then fold the wheels back to form a heel spur. Fold the wheels up on the other leg and pull down on them to extend the back of the train. Turn so the wheels are at the back. Fold the back of the train out to form the other foot.

Clip J-7 into the top of J-4 and push the peg on the inside of J-7's nose into J-4's bottom.

Take the light up cannon J-5 uses, bend the stock/battery box up and have the hook hanging down underneath. Fold the peg out of the back of J-4's missile launcher and place into the barrel of J-5's weapon with the LED nestling in the slot in the back of J-4's weapon. Fold the hook on J-5's weapon down. Lock the gun barrel of J-4's weapon into place and fold the hook on it down so it locks with the hook on J-5's weapon. Place in JRX's hand and lock round the weapon. Insert the missile into the shield on J-7's weapon and hold in the other hand

The combined robot form works due to the similarity in colours and style between J-4 & J-5. J-7 is pretty anonymous from the front just being a small amount of lower body space, but providing the thruster pack at the rear. He feels more useful than the poor robots that end up on the bottom of the Micromaster Six combiners but not much ! The thruster "legs" can also be swung up over his shoulders and used as cannons or rotated the other way up as wings so there are some options there for you. The impression J-7 is a bit of a spare part remains though.

He's got all of J-4's leg articulation: he bends & turns at the knees and his hips move forward & back and to the sides. The head is mounted on a ball joint which is in turn mounted on an arm that bends. The shoulder pads move forward & back at the shoulders. There's a ball joint mounted on the shoulder pads that connects to the alarm that allows the arms to swing up. The arms bend at the elbow in the correct manner, fold to the side just bellow it and have a rotating joint just bellow that. The thumb can either be raised or opposed to the other fingers and the fingers can be partially open or bent in to complete a fist.

I mentioned in J-7's review that I'd popped all four heads off while reviewing these toys. JRX was by far the worst to fix as I just couldn't push the ball joint back into the socket ok. I ended up having to dismantle JRX's head to complete the repair.

Overall: Solid combiner with decent articulation. However one part is essentially reduced to backpack kibble in combined mode which makes you think that the finished result could have been achieved with one less Transformer and a more streamlined combined robot.

Rail Racer

Rail Racer is the Robots in Disguise release of JRX. There is no Rail Racer boxset - it's only formed by combining the three mega sized toys Railspike, Rapid Run & Midnight Express. Essentially Rail Racer is the same as JRX but for the addition of an Autobot symbol on one of the waist pieces, the side of the body and on the robot's back.

I intimated earlier that at £15 each the Bullet Team don't provide that good value for money. Well Rail Racer isn't £45 of robot. Perhaps an alternative giftset solution may have been more appropriate for these toys ?

[legios]

Dec 20, 2008 10:51:06 GMT Philip Ayres said:

J-7

J-7 - the other two train brothers are J-4 and J-5. what happened to J-6 ? We need to be told !

As far as I know the numbers are based on the type numbers used by the various trains on the Shinkansen. Respectively J-4, J-5 and J-7 are 400, 500 and 700 series motive units. (One of the Trainbots is a 0 series, and another is a 100, and both Sixliner/Sixtrain and the Brave toy Da Garn have components that are 300 series). The reason for the lack of a J-6 is likely because there is no 600 series in the numbering system.

I have a great fondness for the JRX team - I quite like the look of the trains that their vehicle modes are based on, and whilst they are all variations on a theme I think they all manage to be quite interesting riffs. The combined form I actually think is one of my favourite non-scramble city combiners (I used to call them "third generation" combiners but really that honour goes to half of Brave...). I actually paid a bit more than £15 a head for the three of them but I actually find them one of the better CR/RiD toys - they felt more like value for money to me than the Ruination components did for some reason.

Karl

[The Doctor]

When I had to get shot of most of my RID collection due to space, I did keep the three trains as they are rather nifty and good fun. I never saw them on a shelf over here - they were procured by Karl for me from Jenners Edinburgh in a moment of luck!

I still shake my head at calling a kids toy MIDNIGHT EXPRESS though: had anyone at Hasbro seen the film? It's a bit wince-inducing!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

I've got some ideas floating around for an article on combining toys and one of them id the difference between combining robot systems (Scramble City, MM Six combiners, Build King and Energon) where you can swap bits between different combiners and/or assemble in different ways and combining robots. JRX is a combining robot rather than a system - there's only one eay to put it together and you can't swap bits for other toys.

[Philip Ayres]

Build Boy

Having done cars, a fire engine and trains Takara turned it's attention to construction vehicles next Four construction vehicles were selected to serve as Cybertrons. Build Boy as the name suggests is the smallest of the four and also the leader of the team.

Build Boy is an orange tracked Bulldozer larger than a basic but smaller than a deluxe and had a price point to reflect this when he was released in Japan. His track were black and there's a large Autobot symbol on his roof

TF: Split the shovel in two and fold right the way back so that the shovel halves are out to the sides at the back of the vehicle. Remove the shovel support by unpegging both of the hydraulic pumps from the side. Unpeg the caterpillar tracks to serve as arms. Slide the rear halves back and rotate the front halves out to the sides ninety degrees. Fold down the panel under the cab, fold out the robot head and close the panels. Grasp the sides of the bulldozer body and pull to the sides separating the front of the bulldozer in two down the middle. Fold each half of the front grill out to the sides. Bend down at the front of the bulldozer revealing the robot's upper leg and allowing what you can now see is the lower leg to point out to the sides. Swing the lower legs back at the knee & bend down. Fold the peg out of the back and onto the back of the waist.Fold the feet out. Take the shovel support and fold the hydraulic pumps so they're flat with the support. Place in the hand as a dual blaster.

Build Boy's robot mode preserves the colours of the bulldozer mode with the black of the tracks being transferred to the arms. The peg in the back is important in the TF as it affects he balance - with it folded down his centre of gravity is lower and he balances better. His neck & waist turn, his knees bend and the legs rotate above them. Ball joints make up the remaining articulation at hip, elbow and knee.

An alternative robot mode is possible with the combined head folded out the chest instead of the smaller robot head.

Decent small toy.

Build Boy is Car Robots toy C-018 and also appears in the Build King giftset numbered C-022

Wedge

Wedge is the Robots in Disguise release of Build Boy. The same basic colours are used but with the addition of some grey to the top of the bulldozer.

Wedge was only available individually carded - there was no Landfill boxset. The initial release of the Build Team & Mega Octane in the UK was an exclusive to Woolworths, but further (imported ?) stock later materialised in Toys R Us.

Wal-Mart Wedge

The Wal-Mart Landfill set unites the build team for the first time in unified colours. Wedge swaps his orange for yellow, and gets some silver paint marks (dirt ? Camouflage ?) on his bonnet. His cab roof becomes black with an Autobot symbol on it.

Wedge is only available in the Landfill giftset.

Target Universe Constructicon Bonecrusher

The idea of recolouring the Build Team as Constructicons was mooted quite early on and in 2005 the Build Team recoloured were up for release when the Universe line was cancelled. In 2006 Target released a pair of Ultra sized twin packs with two build team members in each along with a vs pack Overbite (BWII Hellscream) vs Repugnus (BW Fuzor Buzzclaw recolour). Bonecrusher (Build Boy/Wedge repaint) sold with Scavenger (Build Hurricane/Grimlock repaint) and Hightower (aka Hook - a Build Cyclone/Hightower repaint) sold with Longhaul (Build Typhoon/Heavy Load repaint)

Bonecrusher is mostly green with some purple trim, a large Decepticon symbol on the cab and a grey shovel (I'd have gone for green or purple)

Decent repaint fitting the G1 name to the toy and importing the colour scheme adequately.

[Philip Ayres]

Build Hurricane

Having done cars, a fire engine and trains Takara turned it's attention to construction vehicles next Four construction vehicles were selected to serve as Cybertrons.

Like the other two standard size Build team members Build Hurricane has a name referring to a storm that rotates which is in a way prefiguring the usage of these three parts in the combined form.

Build Hurricane is a tracked excavator referred to in America for some unknown reason as a Back Hoe (?) The bulk of the body and the top of the base is dark green. The bottom of the base is grey. The tracks are black, but the sides are painted light green to match the excavating arm & scoop. The operator's compartment has smoked clear windows. The excavator arm bends at the base, two thirds of the way along and at the shovel. The excavator arm has a weapon mode with a cerated blade that can be pulled out - spring loaded - in claw like opposition to the shovel

TF (been dreading this one) Remove the shovel. Turn the excavator round so that the turntable platform is covering the base and there's a space between the tracks at the other end. Open the doors at the back of the turntable and fold the robot head out locking the turntable in place. Turn the toy over. Fold the connecting T bar for combined mode out behind the toy by the ball joint at the base of the T bar. Then bend the T bar at the first joint so it's flush against the underside of the toy. Unpeg the caterpillar tracks and fold out to the sides stretching the connect panels out as far as you can. Rotate the first connecting panel so the screws face back. Bring the sections with screws in them and the flat plates connected to them together. Fold the next set of panels back up so the caterpillar treads project out from the folded up connecting bar like legs from a waist. Pull down the far half of the caterpillar treads. Fold out the end of the caterpillar tread. Rotate the lower two thirds of the tread so the green painted side is the same side as the T bar. Turn over to the robot's front and fold down the green feet. Fold the cab and the remaining bit mounted on the turntable out to the sides. Fold the cab out as an arm and extend a claw. Fold the other side out to form and arm and fold another claw out from the back of it. Extend excavator arm's blade and hold as a hand weapon is possible or peg into his back.

Build Hurricane is tall & thin in robot mode. He's got the same colour balance as vehicle mode and has ball jointed knees, bending hips & shoulders, ball jointed elbows and another bending join bellow them,. The head turns. The elbow are annoying me. For them to bend straight up the solid side of the claw faces up whereas the hole for holding a weapon faces to the sides - not good. But there again getting it to hold a weapon is a challenge ! His balance is good due to the three part splayed foot but every movement of the leg you make causes the waist to split apart.

So: OK excavator, complex TF, OK robot but the waist is a huge problem. Please read the Build King review where I'll expand on my perception of Build Hurricane's failings in combined mode.

Build Hurricane is Car Robots toy C-019 and also appears in the Build King giftset numbered C-022

Grimlock

Grimlock is the Robots in Disguise release of Build Hurricane. I'm not sure why the name Grimlock was used on this toy - trademark retention ? - as it's the only time it's not shown up on a dinosaur (or a car meant to be the dinosaur) There's nothing about the toy to connect it to G1 Grimlock.

Grimlock is very similar to Build Hurricane acquiring an Autobot symbol on the side of the cab and a couple of extra paint applications.

Grimlock was only available individually carded - there was no Landfill boxset. The initial release of the Build Team & Mega Octane in the UK was an exclusive to Woolworths, but further (imported ?) stock later materialised in Toys R Us.

Wal-Mart Grimlock

The Wal-Mart Landfill set unites the build team for the first time in unified colours. Grimlock swaps his dark green for yellow and light green for black. There's some silver scarring added to the body of the excavator. The clear plastic is now clear dark blue.

Grimlock is only available in the Landfill giftset.

Target Universe Constructicon Scavenger

The idea of recolouring the Build Team as Constructicons was mooted quite early on and in 2005 the Build Team recoloured were up for release when the Universe line was cancelled. In 2006 Target released a pair of Ultra sized twin packs with two build team members in each along with a vs pack Overbite (BWII Hellscream) vs Repugnus (BW Fuzor Buzzclaw recolour). Bonecrusher (Build Boy/Wedge repaint) sold with Scavenger (Build Hurricane/Grimlock repaint) and Hightower (aka Hook - a Build Cyclone/Hightower repaint) sold with Longhaul (Build Typhoon/Heavy Load repaint)

Scavenger is the only real failure amongst the repaints: The dark green is swapped for purple and the light green for lilac. His cab symbol becomes a Decepticon one. The only Constructicon green is painted on the side of the treads. I'd have made the body of the toy Constructicon green and the excavator arm purple.

Lets the side down a little again.

[Philip Ayres]

Build Cyclone

Having done cars, a fire engine and trains Takara turned it's attention to construction vehicles next Four construction vehicles were selected to serve as Cybertrons. Build Boy as the name suggests is the smallest of the tem and also the leader of the team.

Build Typhoon & Build Cyclone are two toys that share the same basic structure, transformation and articulation. However there's not a single major piece that is exactly the same on both toy, moulding differences are everywhere. Like the other two standard size Build team members he has a name referring to a storm that rotates which is in a way prefiguring the usage of these three parts in the combined form.

Build Cyclone is a four wheeled crane cast in red plastic. The crane base rotates and the crane arm raises, but does not extend or allow the hook to pivot much. There are a pair of small supports for the crane that fold out to the sides from under the front bumper.

Build Cyclone has a sort of third mode: bend the crane hook under the crane and it flips a long gun barrel out of the top of the crane. This mode looks not unlike the GI Joe vehicle the Slugger.

TF: Remove the crane arm & the crane base and separate the two. Pull down the back of the truck being careful not to extend the robot's hips contained within. Fold the feet up from their position curved over the top of the toy and fold the heel spurs down from under the toy. Stand on feet. Fold the front wheels and the panels round them out to the sides, then fold the lower arm then the hand down from there. Mount the crane base on his back with the cab window pointing down. Fold the top of the cab back to go round the joint on the T bar then fold the head down, pegging into the robot's neck and turn the head round. Pull on the crane hook to fold out a black gun barrel. Mount this in his hand as a rifle. Fold up the control cab for the crane revealing a gun hidden within - remove and place in his other hand.

The robot looks very similar to Build Typhoon, but in red and with grey exposed robot parts. The head is red with a silver face and a black visor.. His wrists bend, he's got ball jointed elbows, shoulders & hip. His knees bend and his head turns.

Good solid toy, giving a nice chunky robot which is almost what you feel you need from a construction vehicle. Two decent hand weapons.

Build Cyclone is Car Robots toy C-021 and also appears in the Build King giftset numbered C-022

Hightower

Hightower is the Robots in Disguise release of Build Typhoon. The same basic colours are used but he gets an Autobot on the side of the crane base that isn't the control room. The gun barrel becomes pale grey,

Hightower was only available individually carded - there was no Landfill boxset. The initial release of the Build Team & Mega Octane in the UK was an exclusive to Woolworths, but further (imported ?) stock later materialised in Toys R Us.

Wal-Mart Hightower

The Wal-Mart Landfill set unites the build team for the first time in unified colours. Hightower turns his red into yellow and adds some silver paint marks (dirt ? Camouflage ?) on him.

This version of Hightower is only available in the Landfill giftset.

Target Universe Hightower (Hook)

The idea of recolouring the Build Team as Constructicons was mooted quite early on and in 2005 the Build Team recoloured were up for release when the Universe line was cancelled. In 2006 Target released a pair of Ultra sized twin packs with two build team members in each along with a vs pack Overbite (BWII Hellscream) vs Repugnus (BW Fuzor Buzzclaw recolour). Bonecrusher (Build Boy/Wedge repaint) sold with Scavenger (Build Hurricane/Grimlock repaint) and Hightower (aka Hook - a Build Cyclone/Hightower repaint) sold with Longhaul (Build Typhoon/Heavy Load repaint)

Hightower keeps his existing RID name but let's face it we all know he's meant to be Hook. He's mainly green in this form with a purple crane and robot chest. The non control side of the crane base has a Decepticon symbol on it.

Once again another great repaint in this set.

[Philip Ayres]

Build Typhoon

Having done cars, a fire engine and trains Takara turned it's attention to construction vehicles next Four construction vehicles were selected to serve as Cybertrons.

Build Typhoon & Build Cyclone are two toys that share the same basic structure, transformation and articulation. However there's not a single major piece that is exactly the same on both toy, moulding differences are everywhere. Like the other two standard size Build team members he has a name referring to a storm that rotates which is in a way prefiguring the usage of these three parts in the combined form.

Build Typhoon is a four wheeled truck cast in yellow plastic. The cab is central at the front under the front of the tipper box (I checked to see what it was called !) which does actually tip up on this toy.

TF: Pull down the back of the truck being careful not to extend the robot's hips contained within. Lift the tipper box & connecting arm up. Rotate the tipper box & cab round so the back of the tipper is hanging off the front of the vehicle. Turn the tipper box round 180 degrees. Fold the feet up from their position curved over the top of the toy and fold the heel spurs down from under the toy. Stand on feet. Fold the front wheels and the panels round them out to the sides, then fold the lower arm then the hand down from there. Bend the piece attaching the tipper to the vehicle back over the front and under the vehicle. Turn the cab round so the hinge on the bottom is at the front of the vehicle/top of the robot. Open the cab up, fold out the head and close the cab.

The robot looks very similar to Build Cyclone, but in yellow and with grey exposed robot parts. The head is yellow with a silver face.. His wrists bend, he's got ball jointed elbows, shoulders & hip. His knees bend and his head turns. The tipper box can be removed from his back and mounted on a hand either as a shield or as an opening claw weapon.

Good solid toy, giving a nice chunky robot which is almost what you feel you need from a construction vehicle.

Build Typhoon is Car Robots toy C-020 and also appears in the Build King giftset numbered C-022

Heavy Load

Heavy Load is the Robots in Disguise release of Build Typhoon. The same basic colours are used but he gets an Autobot symbol on the front of the tipper.

Heavy Load was only available individually carded - there was no Landfill boxset. The initial release of the Build Team & Mega Octane in the UK was an exclusive to Woolworths, but further (imported ?) stock later materialised in Toys R Us.

Wal-Mart Heavy Load

The Wal-Mart Landfill set unites the build team for the first time in unified colours. Heavy Load is yellow already so all he gets out of this repaint is some silver paint marks (dirt ? Camouflage ?) on him.

This version of Heavy Load is only available in the Landfill giftset.

Target Universe Longhaul

The idea of recolouring the Build Team as Constructicons was mooted quite early on and in 2005 the Build Team recoloured were up for release when the Universe line was cancelled. In 2006 Target released a pair of Ultra sized twin packs with two build team members in each along with a vs pack Overbite (BWII Hellscream) vs Repugnus (BW Fuzor Buzzclaw recolour). Bonecrusher (Build Boy/Wedge repaint) sold with Scavenger (Build Hurricane/Grimlock repaint) and Hightower (aka Hook - a Build Cyclone/Hightower repaint) sold with Longhaul (Build Typhoon/Heavy Load repaint)

Longhaul is mainly green with a purple tipper box. The Decepticon symbol is transferred to the cab roof looking forward which causes problems in robot mod because it ends up upside down (See G1 Starscream's wings on reissues ad nauseum)

Apart from that it's a fine repaint. I'd have perhaps made the tipper box green as well but ....

[Philip Ayres]

Build King

My original Build King review "I love this toy. The 4 vehicles are great, excellent robot modes that look quite block but are still fully articulated. Great heads on the robots all with individual expressions. And a unique combining style with 3 options !" Doesn't cover the combined form enough and barely makes mention of the robot modes.

I've only built the option with the green excavator as the back and arms so far..... "

Having done cars, a fire engine and trains Takara turned it's attention to construction vehicles next Four construction vehicles were selected to serve as Cybertrons. Build Boy as the name suggests is the smallest of the tem and also the leader of the team.

To my mind there are two forms of combining robots toy: Combining Robots - where two or more robot toys can be combined together but only in one way and each robot has only one place it can go. God Ginrai, Victory Sabre & God Fire Convoy are good examples of this first category. A Combining Systems on the other hand allow for substitution of component robots and different combinations - examples would be the Scramble City Combiners, The Micromaster Combiners or the Energon combiners.

Build King possesses a unique Combining System where Build Boy takes his place and the chest and head of the combined robot but any of the others can serve as the arms while the remaining two pieces serve as the head. When combined you can shift from one combination to another by transforming the limbs while attached and moving them relative to Build Boy which I believe is the origin of the names for the three toys that form the limbs - Hurricane, Typhoon & Cyclone are three storms which are basically circular in nature.

To prepare for combination:
Build Boy
Chest & Head mode

Build boy is the centre piece for all possible combinations of Build King and has just one combined mode: Fold up & forward the top of the cab, fold out the larger robot head and close the cab. Separate the shovel, unpeg the caterpillar tracks and fold to the sides. Rotate the tracks so the orange sides face up and then pull the shoulders forward till the end of the track sits between the two slots of plastic sticking out the sides of the vehicle. Fold the shovel support so it's under the front of the bulldozer facing out. Fold down the peg in the back.

I've found this insufficient in the past for holding the tracks & shovel halves out to the sides so what I tend to do is turn the tracks so the shovel halves point up and let the ball joint's socket on Build Boy's arms do the work of supporting the tracks.
Build Hurricane
Leg Mode: Remove the excavator arm. Fold the T bar up from under the excavator. Fold out the doors at the back of the cab.

Instead of the lasts step here you may want to try folding out the sides of the robot feet from the ends of the tracks.

Arm Mode: Remove the excavator arm. Remember I said I was dreading TFing Build Hurricane to robot mode ? More of the same here. So much so that I'm off to Cobraislandtoys to look at the instructions. Turn the cab so the tip of the T bar is showing in front of the cab window. Pull out the front two thirds of the tracks and the very front of the tracks. Open the doors at the back of the cab and fold out the robot head locking everything above the turntable in place. Pull the tracks out to the side so that the connecting panels at the back of the tracks are fully extended. Pull the tracks down out in front of the T bar and fold the cab sides as far out as possible. Fold both cab side up so they're pointing upwards and rotate so the sloped sides are the same side as the robot head. Swing the connecting panels and the legs round so the screw on the connecting panel points up. Turn just the tracks round so they point out the T bar side again. Open the all three bits of robot feet out. Fold the tracks down at the robot's hips. Turn the bottom two thirds of the tracks so the green painted side faces out with the T bar. FINALLY bend down the end of the T bar.

Far, far too complicated ! More comments to follow when combined.
Build Typhoon
Leg Mode: Remove the tipper box. Fold the back wheels out to the sides. Fold the robot feet out. Fold out from under the front of the vehicle the T shaped connecting bar.

Arm Mode: Remove the tipper box. Rotate the tipper box support out over the front of the truck and have the cab so the small window faces back. Fold both the feet and heel spurs out. Extend the back of the vehicle but this time you want to fold extra "leg" out from inside the robot's hips. Fold the sides of the front out and then rotate so the front of the vehicle is facing upwards. Pull the robot legs out to the sides. Bend the robot legs forward at the ball joint, bend down at the ball joint and bend up at the robot's knee. Fold down the feet and heel spurs in front of the robot legs/what we will now have to call the combined robot forearms. Bend down the end of the T-Bar.
Build Cyclone
Leg Mode: Remove the crane arm. Fold the back wheels out to the sides. Fold the robot feet out. Fold out from under the front of the vehicle the T shaped connecting bar.

Arm Mode: Remove the crane arm and cab separately. Fold both the feet and heel spurs out. Extend the back of the vehicle but this time you want to fold extra "leg" out from inside the robot's hips. Fold the sides of the front out and then rotate so the front of the vehicle is facing upwards. Pull the robot legs out to the sides. Bend the robot legs forward at the ball joint, bend down at the ball joint and bend up at the robot's knee. Fold down the feet and heel spurs in front of the robot legs/what we will now have to call the combined robot forearms. Bend down the end of the T-Bar. Reattach the Crane cab.

Once you have your team in the necessary form with two vehicles forming legs and one forming the arms they need to be put together. Take your leg pieces and put them vehicle underside to vehicle underside. Make sure the sides of the top of both T bars facing you is not the screw side. Slot the T bars together. Take your arm component, repeat with the T bar and slot into the spare space at the top of the combined T bars. The combined form now has a circular hole in the middle with three spoke holes sticking out. Slot Build Boy's peg into the hole, turn so he's upright and peg the top of the arms into his back - single peg for Build Hurricane, two for Typhoon & Cyclone.

Extend the excavator arm claw and place in one hand - peg holes can be found on the feet of the robot used to form the arm. Extend the crane arm gun and place in another. Peg the tipper box under the arm.
Build Hurricane Arm Mode:
Pro: You get both Build Cyclone & Build Typhoon forming solid block like legs which give the toy a symmetrical look beneath the waist. Both legs swing to the side where the upper leg joins the bulk of the vehicle mode bellow a very high knee that bends, swivel bellow the hip and have a universal joint at the hip.

Con: The folded out connecting panels for Hurricane's legs aren't attached - every movement of the arm causes them to move from their position linking the arms with the shoulders. He should have ball jointed shoulders & elbows in this mode but as I've said the stability of the arms is very poor.
Build Typhoon & Build Cyclone Arm Modes:
Pro: MUCH improved arms stability thanks to the pegs attaching to the arm support pieces rather than the body. You get a little wiggle from the shoulders when you move the arm but seeing as the pieces that move are much further out now the effect is much reduced. The actual arm articulation here is a ball jointed shoulder and a bending elbow, but the extra joints to extend the legs on the robot allow for the arms to be flexed back at the shoulder.

Con: Build Hurricane is a leg, much thinner than it's counterpart and annoyingly slightly shorter creating either a lopsided Build King or one who's other leg is stuck out to the side a bit to loose the height on the connector. We covered the other leg's articulation above and Hurricane's is the same except the joint connecting leg to body is a ball joint and not a bending one.

The problem here in all three modes is Build Hurricane. You either get very dodgy arms or a dodgy leg. I've long been tempted to buy a second of either Build Typhoon or Build Cyclone and substitute it into the mix. Hurricane is an OK deluxe, it just on it's combine form it falls down. I wonder if it might have been better if the third component was built on the same base style as Typhoon & Cyclone ?

Other than that it's a decent combiner, decent colour balance between the component parts and an interesting system of combining them. It's in theory possible to put Build King together and to rotate the limbs through all three modes without taking the toy apart ! All you need to do is turn Build Boy 120 degrees and TF the arms to a leg and a leg to the arms. In practice however ....

Build King was available as a giftset numbered C-022 or by combining C-018 Build Boy, C-019 Build Hurricane, C-020 Build Typhoon & C-021 Build Cyclone

Landfill

Landfill is formed by combining the four individually available Build Team members - Wedge, Hightower, Heavy Load & Grimlock. There is no Landfill boxset in it's original colours.

Landfill is almost identical to Build King with the exception of the Autobot symbols added to each of the components.

The initial release of the Build Team & Mega Octane in the UK was an exclusive to Woolworths, but further (imported ?) stock later materialised in Toys R Us.

Wal-Mart Landfill

The Wal-Mart Landfill was available as an exclusive intended to be on sale for the first time on "Black Friday" 2003. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the USA when lots of people go out to start there Christmas shopping. Apparently it's referred to as Black Friday because it's the day in the US financial year (1st Jan to 31st December) when the balance books for shops go into the black because of all the increased trading. An exclusive available this day means increased trading.

This set unites the build team for the first time in unified colours - in this case yellow, but a yellow slightly off the colour I'd associate for construction vehicles. The yellow I'd use would match the yellow of yellow Lego bricks. Even saying that this is a really good looking set and the look is improved by having the same colour all over.

This version of Landfill is only available as a giftset.

Target Universe Devastator

The idea of recolouring the Build Team as Constructicons was mooted quite early on and in 2005 the Build Team recoloured were up for release when the Universe line was cancelled. In 2006 Target released a pair of Ultra sized twin packs with two build team members in each along with a vs pack Overbite (BWII Hellscream) vs Repugnus (BW Fuzor Buzzclaw recolour). Bonecrusher (Build Boy/Wedge repaint) sold with Scavenger (Build Hurricane/Grimlock repaint) and Hightower (aka Hook - a Build Cyclone/Hightower repaint) sold with Longhaul (Build Typhoon/Heavy Load repaint)

Devastator can only be formed by buying both of these Ultra packs. Again the unified green and purple colour scheme benefits the toy.

[Philip Ayres]

It's coming. There's no hiding place........

[Andy Turnbull]

DUN DUN.....DUN!

Andy

[The Doctor]

...FERMLINE!

-Ralph