Robots in Disguise
Car Robots in disguise, mainly Last Updated: 11/28/03
Wal-Mart Landfill Team added (Deluxe, after Jhiaxus)


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    Welcome to my Robots In Disguise page! The core of the line is reissues of Car Robots, so a lot of my reviews are just pointers to the Japanese toy reviews. However, there's a lot of recolors in RiD and late BMac stuff, so those are covered here as well.

    By the way, I will probably play with the colors over time. Right now I'm going with the warm colors seen on the RiD packaging, but if it causes too many eyes to bleed, I'll change it. RiD logo courtesy of Ben Yee of BWTF.com.


BASICS
  • Spychanger Two-Packs: Click here for a review of the SpyChangers, which make up the first three two-packs. Changes for RiD are: no rubsigns, visible Autobot symbols on them now, minor color changes (windows mainly, plus some details added). Go to BWTF.com for side by side comparison pictures. They seem to be made of the same quality of plastic as the "original" Spychangers. No techspecs on the trilingual packaging, and the package backing shows Ironhide and WARS with each other's guns. There are also no instructions, but do you really need 'em?

    WAVE ONE - Reviews above.
    • Ironhide/Mirage - Ox and Counter Arrow of the SpyChangers. I plan to kitbash Ironhide into Trailbreaker and Mirage into Starscream (yes, a jet).
    • Hot Shot/REV (Race Evolution) - Autofire and Eagle Killer. I plan to kitbash REV into Hot Rod, no plans for Hot Shot yet. Hot Shot retains the glowing eyes feature that Autofire had.
    • WARS (Wicked Attack Recon Sportscar)/Crosswise - WARS and X-Car

    WAVE TWO - REVIEW
    • Daytonus/Side Burn - New molds that were only available in limited edition in Japan in 1995/6, a formula racer (F-5?) and a Dodge Viper.
    • Prowl 2/Side Swipe - More new molds, a composite police car (bits of three models) and a funky sports car.
    • CORRECTIONS: One, I got Block Town mixed up with the unreleased GoBots. The four molds above were released in VERY limited numbers in Japan, but NOT with Lego-like playsets. Two, I'm told that Prowl 2 is a custom "cop package" Chevy Caprice all the way, no mixed models.

    WAVE THREE - REVIEW and Pictures of Robot Mode and Vehicle Mode plus packaging.
    • Optimus Prime - Single-packed larger figure. Transforms into Battle Mode (Super Fire Convoy) version.
    • Ultra Magnus - Single-packed larger figure. Very show-accurate robot mode.
    • X-Brawn/Scourge - The only two-pack of this wave. Both are very good. Scourge is only the cab.

    WAVE FOUR - REVIEW of the Kay Bee Exclusive clear Spy Changers (they put the space in there), sold individually but with techspecs this time. It's just the first six (Hot Shot et al), but in clear plastic. Yes, Crosswise is more clear.

  • Obsidian - Beast Machines Obsidian recolor in light tan and brown desert camo. Looks nice. No separate review. Being sold at Spychanger price, generally cheaper than the original Obsidian.
DELUXES
  • Deluxe Cars - Speedbreaker and Mach Alert, Wildride reviews.
    • Side Burn - Speedbreaker with an Autobot symbol on his roof. No real changes that I could see other than that. Techspecs call him Speedbreaker, and refer to a power-up that suggests they mixed up the specs for this and the Super Speedbreaker recolor.
    • Prowl - Mach Alert with an Autobot symbol on his hood. The Japanese lettering has been retained. His missiles have been replaced with the opaque missiles from Super Mach Alert, and his techspecs also refer to a power-up.
    • X-Brawn - Wildride with an Autobot symbol on his hood. His headlights have been slightly remolded and repainted, possibly to avoid trademark problems with Mercedes Benz. His bigger missile has been remolded to be a bit blunter, likely for safety reasons.
  • Super Autobot Brothers: Recolors of the above three cars. In Japan they were Super Speedbreaker, Super Wildride and Super Mach Alert. Here, the names have stayed the same on the packaging. No reviews.
    • Side Burn - Recolored in Hot Rod colors, essentially. The different plastic used and the fact that more of the toy is painted (or at least the paint is of a different thickness) causes some of the pegs to require a bit more force to seat. Aside from the Autobot symbol on the roof, this version has two significant differences from the Super Speedbreaker version. One, it has the Dodge Viper symbol in the hood ornament position. Two, Dodge and Viper trademarks are molded into the underside of the roof piece. Many Viper fans are thrilled that Side Burn is now an officially licensed Viper. Finally, it's worth noting that the transformation difficulty is listed as 3 (Advanced), which is about right. The instructions are extensive, and clearer than the Japanese ones.
    • Prowl - Seems to just be the Super Mach Alert mold with an extra Autobot symbol on it, although I didn't buy this one. It even has "Mach Alert" painted on the doors. Color scheme is blue and white police car colors.
    • X-Brawn - Super Wildride, essentially, although with the headlight design concealment found on X-Brawn (i.e. not an official Mercedes-Benz). Repainted in garish off-road rally colors. Also did not buy this one, so I don't know if there's any more subtle changes.
  • Versus Sets - Two-packs of Basic-size figures for a Deluxe price. REVIEW - This includes the old Machine Wars reviews.
    • Tow-Line versus Skyfire - Recolors of Hoist/Hubcap and Thundercracker/Skywarp from Machine Wars. Tow-Line was called Wrecker Hook in Car Robots, Skyfire is a new recolor for RiD, with slight remolding to correct existing problems.
    • Skid-Z versus Wind Sheer - Recolors of Mirage/Prowl and Megatron/Megaplex from Machine Wars. Skid-Z was called Indy Heat in Car Robots, Wind Sheer is a new recolor for RiD.
  • Other Deluxes
    • Bruticus - Three-headed dog Predacon. New mold, leftover from Beast Machines.
    • Ruination Team - Mega-Octane is a Deluxe. Rollbar, Armorhide, Movor and Ro-Tor are basics. All sold separately. REVIEW of all five together, plus a review of a knockoff of the Car Robots version.
    • Landfill Team - Reissues of Build King members. Looks like they will only be available individually in original color scheme.
      • Grimlock - Power shovel/Track hoe. (Build Hurricane)
      • Heavy Load - Dump truck. (Build Typhoon)
      • Hightower - Crane. (Build Cyclone)
      • Wedge - Bulldozer. (Build Boy)
    • Storm Jet - A recolor of Jetstorm (BMac) in nifty G1 Jetfire recolors. One per case, scalper bait all the way, sigh.
    • Megabolt Megatron - A left-over BMac mold being promoted as Megatron's "Emissary" (Fort Max head) mode. Kay Bee exclusive.
    • Destructicons - Kay Bee exclusives released under the RiD logo, recolors of the G2 Combat Hero molds.
      • Scourge - Combat Hero Optimus Prime recolored as RiD Scourge. It's a good color scheme, but Hasbro seems to be milking it a bit heavily (expect a recolor of Deluxe-level Armada Prime in these colors too).
      • Bludgeon - Combat Hero Megatron recolored in greens and yellows, apparently intended to be an evolution of the G1 Pretender Bludgeon. Lots of reports of extremely loose joints. Has some minor assembly remolds and a shorter pneumatic hose than Megatron.
    • Jhiaxus and Megabolt - Recolors of Storm Jet (et al) and Megabolt Megatron, last gasp RiD exclusives from Kay Bee.
    • Wal-Mart Landfill - Yellow and black recolors of the Landfill team, Wal-Mart exclusive gift set.
MEGAS
  • Sky-Byte - AKA Gershark, a recolor of Cybershark. Also called Skyshark in some releases.
  • Predacon Three-Pack - Gas Skunk, Dark Scream and Slapper, three TMII Basics in one box for a Mega price. They are, in order, Stinkbomb, Nightglider and Spittor II. Click here for a review of this trio as they originally appeared. No techspecs on the RiD versions.
  • Rail Racer team - Reissue/slight recolor of JRX with much or all of the clear plastic replaced with opaque, and some modifications made to missiles to make them more child-safe.
  • Recolor Mania - A three-pack of Vehicons recolored as Autobots (Scavenger, Mirage GT and Nightcruz), and a two-pack with recolored (and slightly remolded) G2 Laser Cycles (Axer and Sideways). Review of both sets. The cycle set is a Wal-Mart exclusive.
    • Tip for Axer: If you're having trouble getting Axer's fists to stay on the pegs in cycle mode, try this. Flip the wheel to the outside, then really push down hard on the fists (the wheel gets in the way of this normally). Then flip the wheel back into position.
ULTRAS and bigger
  • Megatron - Gigatron, listed as a Predacon, no apparent changes at all. Only six modes are advertised, suggesting they do plan to introduce the Devil Gigatron remold. Ultra price point. 7/8: UPDATE: While it uses the Gigatron colors and only lists six modes, some of the people who have found this toy inform me that it is the Devil Gigatron mold with the extra tabs for the elephant mode.
  • Galvatron - Devil Gigatron rename, likely with the same minor mold differences as Megatron (i.e. safer missiles). Ultra price point.
  • Optimus Prime - Fire Convoy with slight color variations (flatter colors) and more Autobot symbols. The voice chip may or may not have English phrases. Super price point.
  • Ultra Magnus - God Magnus (reviewed in the Fire Convoy link above). Sound chip also probably modified. The God Fire Convoy combination is called Omega Prime. Super price point.
  • Scourge - Black Convoy re-release, with a number of small mold changes mostly for safety, but no electronics, sigh. TRU exclusive.
  • Air Attack Optimus Primal - Originally planned for the end of Beast Machines, he finally came out as a Toys R Us exclusive at the very end of Robots in Disguise. On the plus side, despite being a Supreme size ($40 when Cheetor came out at that size), it's only costing $30. It's big and bulky and worth getting.
  • Fortress Maximus - A limited edition U.S. release, mostly to online stores, in Brave Maximus packaging. Review of Brave Max. 5/8/03: Looks like this may never come out. Sigh.
  • Dreadwing - A recolor and slight remold of the G2 Dreadwing toy, with the components renamed Dreadwind and Smokejumper. A Target exclusive, and apparently colored for hanging out with Armada Thrust, despite being released as Robots in Disguise.