Beast Wars (Reissue) Scorponok

As a Collector who didn't become a Beast Wars 'fan' until long after the toyline had ended, the myriad reissues have been a great benefit to me. Much of my BW collection was obtained via the secondary market, but Takara Tomy's Telemocha reissues back in 2007 allowed me to pick up new versions of key characters featuring more TV show-accurate paintwork, and the Beast Wars Reborn set from the previous year even included retooled parts for greater accuracy.

Hasbro's more recent reissue strategy has been haphazard at best, trickling out random figures, with a strong bias toward recycling the same old G1 molds we've seen in previous reissue lines, but the decision to reissue Beast Wars toys - in recreations of their original packaging, no less - allowed for some more direct comparisons with their contemporary output in the War For Cybertron: Kingdom toyline... and, surprisingly, some of the new toys came off worse for that comparison.

One such example, in my opinion, is Scorponok. I've covered a version of the Kingdom figure in another post, so let's take a look at the original figure... or as close as one can get outside of the secondary market.

Star Wars TransFormers Luke Skywalker (Snowspeeder)

Aside from a handful of notable exceptions, I tend to find myself very much against the concept of TransFormers crossovers. They end up either being simplistic retoolings (or repaints) of existing figures or, in the case of the early Marvel and Star Wars crossovers, pale imitations of the mainline toys.

In a lot of ways, given the source material, it actually shouldn't be too difficult to turn sci-fi vehicles into robots, but the results of both of these early crossovers did just one thing right... and it wasn't the transformation or the robot modes. The first batch ran sporadically between 2005 and 2012 with no real highlights (with the possible exception of 2007's Death Star/Darth Vader), then returned in 2018 with just two toys which were only marginally improved.

I never bought any of them, but my best friend did pick one up as a birthday present for me back in 2007, most likely because I've always been a huge fan of this particular Star Wars vehicle. So, let's take a look... How bad could it be?

Robots in Disguise Railspike

Every TransFormers team needs a leader, and for Team Bullet Train, that's Railspike. This role also makes him the uppermost section of the Rail Racer gestalt and, considering how Midnight Express handled being the legs, one would have to become concerned about how so similar a cylindrical vehicle could handle being both an individual robot and the upper chest, arms and head of a combiner.

It's probably not a good sign that neither Hasbro nor Takara Tomy ever repainted this mold, or used the same template with alternate vehicles... But let's see how Railspike works out on his own merits...

Robots in Disguise Rapid Run

Components of TransFormers gestalts have always tended to be a bit weird. Five-component teams, like the original G1 teams, had a certain balance, and two-parters like the Energon Powerlinx gestalts at least had simplicity on their sides...

 

Other combiners, such as G1 Devastator, or the combined form of RiD/Car Robots' Team Bullet Train, somehow end up with one component that feels almost redundant, so minor and perfunctory is the role they play in the larger robot. With Devastator, that was Long Haul... with Team Bullet Train, it's Rapid Run.

But is he a decent toy in his own right, or just necessary cog in the gestalt machine that is Rail Racer? Let's find out!

Robots in Disguise Midnight Express

I have to admit that, much like the RiD Dreadwind & Smokejumper set, I can't remember when I acquired Team Bullet Train - each sold separately in the west, despite being a boxed set in Japan - but I do know that I bought them all together, most likely from eBay and, if the metadata on my original photos is anything to go by, about ten years ago.

As far as I can recall, I wasn't even aware of them when I bought RiD Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Megatron and Galvatron... Possibly not even when I later acquired Scourge or the Car Brothers. In fact, pretty much all I can remember is that I thought they looked like crap when I first saw them... but my feelings toward them later changed dramatically and, while I really coveted the Takara version with its translucent plastic, I ended up 'settling' for Hasbro's version.

The concept - a set of three bullet trains that transform into individual robots and also combine into a single, larger robot - seemed somehow almost stereotypically Japanese (rightly or wrongly, I see Japan as being a little obsessed with trains, not least because of the Densha de GO! arcade games which involve nothing more than the seemingly mundane and routine task of driving a passenger train on a set route, yet have been adapted to home consoles from the original PlayStation to the Nintendo Switch) and, while my appreciation of the RiD/CR line is still a little variable (too many Matchbox-style 'Go-Bots', G1 repaints and Beast Wars cast-offs for my liking), Team Bullet Train/Rail Racer is now among my favourite TransFormers toys.

Let's take a look and try to figure out why...

 

Energon Treadbolt

(Femme-Bot Friday #66)

A few years ago, a good friend of mine developed a habit of buying almost anything with TransFormers branding and gleefully presenting it to me at the earliest opportunity. She also really loved visiting charity shops so, when she happened upon a TransFormers Energon toy sitting all alone and virtually complete, she snatched it up at a knock-down price and handed it over the next day.

Being based on a poorly-regarded Armada mold, Treadbolt isn't a toy I would have bought myself, but was more than happy to receive as a gift, particularly since the only thing missing was the missile for the Mini-Con activated missile launcher in the robot's side - even the collectors' card was included.

Funnily enough, it was only a couple of years ago that I discovered Treadbolt is actually a Femme-Bot, which naturally made her vastly more interesting, not least because she's a repaint of the Constructicon-themed Autobot Armada Scavenger, and essentially uses the G2/European Constructicon colourscheme.

3H BotCon 2001 Universe Arcee

(Femme-Bot Friday #26)

Once in a while I get a bee in my bonnet about a particular mold, or just a particular iteration of a particular mold... Especially if that iteration is an exclusive. For example, having spent many years thinking Beast Wars II Lio Convoy was the most ridiculous TransFormers creation in all history, I suddenly decided it was awesome and set about collecting as many instances of the mold as I could (currently the original and black versions of both the Robot Masters mold and the Beast Wars II version... Flash Lio Convoy I haven't bothered with thusfar because he looks rather like he's made of sparkly wee).

The latest example of this strange mania is the Beast Wars TransMetals version of Blackarachia which, thankfully, has only two iterations. One was the mass release in the TransMetals toyline... The other was this limited edition (1200 pieces, according to TFWiki.net) from BotCon 2001, back in the days when it was run by 3H Enterprises...

TransFormers Collectors' Club BotCon 2009 (Timelines) Banzai-Tron

I have to confess that the whole Action Master phenomenon passed me by completely. I'm not even sure they made it over to the UK, though I wasn't really looking for TransFormers by that point. The idea was that certain Cybertronians lost the ability to transform through use an a new kind of fuel - probably the weirdest, not to mention (oxy)moronic decision in the entire history of the TransFormers toyline - and thus equipped themselves with transforming partners of one kind or another - in the case of Banzai-Tron, a kind of TargetMaster who was a robotic crab.

This Timelines homage to the Action Master was an attendee extra figure for BotCon 2009's 'Wings of Honor' storyline, packaged with Skyquake, and uses the Superlink Shockfleet/Energon Mirage mold, even though the original toy showed no boat-like elements.

Superlink Laserwave

Shockwave is one of many characters who had been overlooked in the TransFormers toy ranges following G1 and, technically, he wasn't really a TransFormer anyway - he was one of many third party transforming robots who was repurposed by Hasbro.

Strangely, Hasbro/Takara Tomy seemed to lose access to the name 'Shockwave' for several years, not to mention applying it, seemingly at random, to the character known as Tidal Wave in the west, leading to miscellaneous variations on the theme of Shock/Laser/Blast/Wave for any character fans might recognise as Ol' One Eye.

As another robot who originally turned into a gun - an enormous, purple laser gun, no less - but such alternate modes are very much out of fashion these days. Since Megatron moved on to being a tank, it's surely logical that someone like Shockwave, generally to be found with a honking great cannon on one arm, would follow suit... And so, we have Laserwave...

Superlink Shockfleet (Energon Mirage)

Boats have been quite an unusual alternate mode throughout the many TransFormers franchises, and it's not hard to see why. The shape of the average hull tends to mean a large number of panels hanging off the robot mode, or an incomplete vehicle mode...

...Or, in cases like Shockfleet, both.

Superlink Roadbuster Wild

Roadbuster is a prime example of why I was all set to completely ignore Energon/Superlink as a toyline. He empitomises the clumsy, clunky design sensibilities not only held over from Armada, but developed to a whole new level of blockiness - as if Fisher Price were suddenly working on TransFormers. The original Roadbuster had all the complexity of a Mini-Con, and a bright red, white and blue paintjob to match. And, as it turns out, Roadbuster W was about the last Energon/Superlink toy I picked up... purely because of it's G1 Hound-inspired paint job.