The Energon Pub

With my recent, well publicized , Brave Maximus purchase, I have really been getting into the Car Robots series.

I am a G1 guy. As such my collection currently consists of G1s, BTs, Alts, MPs, some customs off ebay, and Classics. I also bought some figures from the Energon and Cybertron series that work in the G1 world. These include, but are not limited to, Arcee, Primus, Unicron, Downshift, and Alpha Quintesson.

Now then, back on topic. I passed by RID/Car Robots the first time around, not really giving them any heed. However, now that I have started looking at the fuigures, I am really liking them. For the smaller ones, like W.A.R.S., their similarity to the matchbox cars I loved as a kid is astonishing. I love it! I recently ordered a Car Robots Magnus and Scourge and they are fantastic. I also picked up the Botocn set from '03. I am really digging these. I haven't gotten around to opening the MISB botcon set yet. I still need the Sunstreaker hotel exclusive from this botcon.

So I was curious as to what everyone slse's thoughts on this line are. Also, is there much of a quality difference between the Car Robots and RID lines? So far I have been sticking to Car Robots, but if I can get similar quality from RID, it makes little sense to spend more on Takara products.

Oh, and what do you think of this guy's prices?

http://stores.ebay.com/ToyArena_Transfo ... idZ2QQtZkm

I loved Car Robots/RID, it was the line that got me back into collecting TFs. As far as differences in quality, asides from some paint jobs that very slighty, there's none that I know of.

I'd recommend you grab Super Fire Convoy/Optimus Prime from this line, not only is he a great toy, but he and Magnus combined into Omega Prime is sex in plastic. Also try and go for RID Megatron, the black paint scheme looks better, and the RID version has the Devil Gigatron mold changes for the extra modes. And all the gestalt teams win on so many levels.

I have the RiD spychangers and ruination. I wanted more, but could never really find them or when i did find them, they were overpriced...i wasn't gonna pay £90 for both Prime and Magnus (£45 each)

I have the 6 spychangers and i love them! But they need a city ... Brave Maximus! ... But well ... he's not on my list at the moment

Tell me more, tell me more!!!

I don't remember much more in the UK besides megatron, optimus, magnus, spychangers, predacons, build team, bullet train and ruination

I totally feel your new found appreciation for that series. I myself was an adamant G1 collector as well, but I have recently been purchasing as much Japanese and Korean boxed Transformers from various series.Recently i have become very enamored with Beast Wars, and in watching choice episodes on youtube, and buying from ebay.. i bought Beast Wars 2 Galvatron and Lio Convoy, the Takara Beast Wars 10th anniversary reissues, Big Convoy-Love him, and Magmatron.

Now Car robots was one that I was very interested in, I went to the same ebay guy your link goes to and got Fire Convoy for a good 65.00 MISB, and bought the Magnus for 32.00. He is a great ebay seller, and notifies you via e-mail when it ships, and sends regular tracking through FEDEX. I love Toyarena, until you posted that link, it was what I thought, my secret, cheap ordering guy.. but hopfully he won't run out of stock, cause I really want more figures.

As far as Robots in Disguise vs Car Robots goes, i found a site that does comparisons from the Japanese issues versus the european releases which i assume are very similar to US releases.., I love the Car Robots Fire Convoy, he is very special, when you combine his armor, he has lots of articulation, and great paint scheme, and the molding, color, and plastic quality is a little better then the RID version.


EDIT!! here is the link to the site that does a comprehensive comparison, i love this site!!!
http://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vjap.html

I would definatley buy fire convoy, and since you have Magnus and Scourge, its just a matter of getting the Megatron and fire convoy, they are the most expensive I have seen so far, but the gestalts are good and the articulation in this line up is fantastic!!!


the story is good, Predacons vs Autobots..with Megatron stealing the sparks and protoforms to create Decepticons..its an interesting take on G1.. but My feeling is that the new transformers animated tv cartoon will have a new fire truck optimus Prime, in which case, only expect to see the car robots figures jump in value, especially that Fire Convoy..


Good to see you taking an interest in other series, I felt like I was the only one who had been so g1 stingy..

I(f you get a chance check out youtube episodes of Beast Wars, BW 2, and BW Neo..if you want watch RID, but it is like watching Digimon, heck it was produced by that company..so expect kiddie stuff all around..


currently I'm obsessed with BW Optimal Optimus or Primal Prime.. I like Optimal Optimus, he's got a great design, but the Primal Prime repaint has a cool color scheme that looks like the G-1 Prime..only he's a clone.. so I'm kinda perplexed on which one to buy and where to get him cheap..

I don't really collect Transformers toys anymore because of the lack of space in my pad, but I would love to get a boxed Scourge and Sky-Byte. Car Robots/RID as a whole was so great. I love it, despite it being the series that got knocked quite a lot.

I'd recommend you grab Super Fire Convoy/Optimus Prime from this line, not only is he a great toy, but he and Magnus combined into Omega Prime is sex in plastic.

That's just... wrong...

Well, first off, you need the RailRacer team.

Quite frankly, it's the best combiner ever made. RailRacer is posable, coheasive, and well proportioned. He's also the most solid combiner ever.

Individually, the team has its ups and downs. Rail Spike is probably the worst due to some ugly kibble. Rapid Run may be the best overall, but suffers from a bit of plain-jane-ness. Midnight express is somewhere in the middle. He's nifty but had giant legs ala Magnus.

Now, if you've got the spare green, you really should get your hands on the Sams Club Prime and Magnus. They are outstanding. I wish I bought 3 of each. Seriously. Someone is going to disagree with me on this, but that yellow version of Prime is one of the coolest alternate paint schemes ever.

Good luck finding/let alone paying for a set now though.

Its a hit and miss line is RiD/CR. The hits were VERY hit (Prowl is one of my all time fav transformers ever, as is RiD Prime). on the otherhand I have absolutly no love for the Predacons. They just dont do it for me (much in the same way that most BW toys didnt). I loved the cartoon.

EDIT:

Counterpunch wrote:Well, first off, you need the RailRacer team.

QFT

RID Prime is quite awesome. But if you go get him, get the Takara Car Robots one. He yells at you in Japanese, and that is just too much fun.

RiD got me back into collecting full-time (I bought the occasional BW figs beforehand, but nothing spectacular) it started with the repainted Combaticons, since I missed them the first time around (though it took me until I think two years ago to finish Ruination... damned elusive Mega-Octane)
Also, while some aren't too pleased with them, I love the combination style introduced in Build King/Landfill. As previously stated the God Magnus and Fire Convoy combination is plainly put a work of friggin' art, the "Autobot Brothers" are all great moulds despite having a rather unique style to them that some people didn't agree with.
I also love the Spychangers... I recall being able to transform them in the time it took to play the G1 transforming sound, great effect with a little imagination...
I'd go into the rest of the fine points in the line, but this post would get far too long, so to shorten it down a considerable ammount:
"Car Robots/RiD was a great line full of awesome new moulds and kickin' repaints. Though the show (in english anyway) wasn't too great, the line remains one of my favourites in TF history."

Count me in for the hit or miss nature of this line. Some, I wholeheartedly love, like RID Prime--best Prime figure ever-- and Mega/Galvatron (I even hunted down and overpayed for a Botcon Deathsaurus), and most certainly the train team. Can't say they form the best gestalt ever, but it is a very fine figure.
The car brothers I don't like, the Predacons stunk, and I'm not really a big Ultra Magnus fan. Magnus is cool in his own right, but he lacks some staying power on my display.
I still can't manipulate the combination of Omega Prime, but pictures of him look very cool.
I hate Landfill, despite having three of him. The only one I really enjoy is Universe Devastator. Landfill is just too gangly and disorganized looking for me. Sorry Landfill.

Even though you beat me on that Brave auction (stupid bit torrent killed my refresh), I got one coming too. $30 or so more though. But its gonna still be sweet.

Totally agree about yellow Optimus. He's AWESOME.

Just got MY Brave Max (anniversary present from my GF)...

DOOD, nobody told me his Headmasters Head was a Headmaster itself! That's the best thing I've ever heard of!

I love RiD. It rekindled my interest for Transformers after I was put off by the Beast Wars years, although I didn't start collecting again until the Alternators came out.

But I was so happy to see TFs return to its roots with vehicles. The autobots are awesome, as is Scourge, and a few of the other non-beast Decepticons. I'm currently about to complete my RiD collection with Railracer, which looks really awesome!

Counterpunch wrote:Well, first off, you need the RailRacer team.

Quite frankly, it's the best combiner ever made. RailRacer is posable, coheasive, and well proportioned. He's also the most solid combiner ever.

Individually, the team has its ups and downs. Rail Spike is probably the worst due to some ugly kibble. Rapid Run may be the best overall, but suffers from a bit of plain-jane-ness. Midnight express is somewhere in the middle. He's nifty but had giant legs ala Magnus.

Now, if you've got the spare green, you really should get your hands on the Sams Club Prime and Magnus. They are outstanding. I wish I bought 3 of each. Seriously. Someone is going to disagree with me on this, but that yellow version of Prime is one of the coolest alternate paint schemes ever.

Good luck finding/let alone paying for a set now though.

I agree whole heartedly, the Repaint Transformers universe Fire Convoy is fantastic..I love that yellow color too, and the Comic continuity story is really awesome, apparently he is sucked into the Universe realm, where Optimus Primal is gathering primes and Autobots from around the alternate realities for a royal rumble with the final battle of Unicron.. who apparently exists in all realities but has made this one his bas of operations, ect.. so nice story great figure.. good call Counterpunch!!

by the way, i recommend that you don't get the super 2 boxed version of omega Prime.. its just cheaper to get Prime and you already have Magnus, they still combine, but tis not worth the price for the boxed st.. no matter how flashy it is..

Also the car Brothers, Mach alert, Speedbreaker, and wildride are great to go along with Optimus prime. Yes the train set combiner is fantastic!!
http://www.bwtf.com/cr/toys/reviews/jrx/index.shtml

Congrats Pitts. You will love it.

Yah, the headmasters head being a headmaster is awesome.

Too bad you can't take the exo suit off spike.

Anyway, thanks for the great info. So lets see if I got this right.

The must haves are:

Car Robots Prime
Sams Club Prime/Magnus
Car Brothers from RID or Car Robots.
Railracer from from RID or Car Robots.
Megs and Galavatron from RID or Car Robots.
Ruintation or Baldigus? Anyone have both? How is the quality?


And ofcourse theones I already have: Magnus, Scourge, Brave Maximus.

RID is still the best modern TF line. The only ones I'd NEVER part with. If only they made better decepticons, it would be the perfect line.

Bonger wrote:With my recent, well publicized , Brave Maximus purchase, I have really been getting into the Car Robots series.

I am a G1 guy. As such my collection currently consists of G1s, BTs, Alts, MPs, some customs off ebay, and Classics. I also bought some figures from the Energon and Cybertron series that work in the G1 world. These include, but are not limited to, Arcee, Primus, Unicron, Downshift, and Alpha Quintesson.

Now then, back on topic. I passed by RID/Car Robots the first time around, not really giving them any heed. However, now that I have started looking at the fuigures, I am really liking them. For the smaller ones, like W.A.R.S., their similarity to the matchbox cars I loved as a kid is astonishing. I love it! I recently ordered a Car Robots Magnus and Scourge and they are fantastic. I also picked up the Botocn set from '03. I am really digging these. I haven't gotten around to opening the MISB botcon set yet. I still need the Sunstreaker hotel exclusive from this botcon.

So I was curious as to what everyone slse's thoughts on this line are. Also, is there much of a quality difference between the Car Robots and RID lines? So far I have been sticking to Car Robots, but if I can get similar quality from RID, it makes little sense to spend more on Takara products.

Oh, and what do you think of this guy's prices?

http://stores.ebay.com/ToyArena_Transfo ... idZ2QQtZkm

His prices look pretty good, actually.

A Rail Racer set for only $50. Not too shabby.

Now that I have Brave Maximus also, and I just won a Super God Sword off eBay last night, I am really considering getting Magnus and Prime to make God Fire Convoy/Omega Prime. Just so they can weild the sword every once and a while. But in my mind, it is STILL Brave/Fortress maximus' sword, and he will not loan it out very often, I am affraid.
Overall, RID does not do it for me though.

Lord knows I don't want RID Megatron!

Godmodule wrote:RID is still the best modern TF line. The only ones I'd NEVER part with. If only they made better decepticons, it would be the perfect line.

It is seriously looking that way to me.

The better series than Armada and Energon, Car Robots... We have the cool Omega Prime and of course Brave Max. My Brave Max pictures. One more thing is the human character in Car Robots are least irritating than Armada's and Energon's.

Some interesting observations - here's mine.

RID was the first post-Gen 1 series that I thought was interesting. The figures had that elusive mix of decent alt modes and excellent articulation.

I only owned the US version of the figures but would recommend the Takara versions - the paint jobs were cleaner and figure such as railracer had clear windows rather than painted details.

Must haves to me are Scrouge, Optimus, Railracer and the repaint Car Brothers - plus the elusive clear Car Brothers.

Eye Candy:

My favorites from the series..
Magnus:

If you don't like him then... talk to the hand!!




Fire Convoy:






I don't know, I always thought Fire Convoy was more of the one man army versus Big Convoy...

Sheilds up captain!!!


Omega Prime:



Megatron:


Landfill and Wedge:

Look!! Its Bumblebee leading a Gestalt team???


Railracer:




Cryotek:


What a scary Mug!!

My all time favorite, besides the obvious ofcourse.....
Super X-Brawn!!! (redeco) A Must Buy!!!









Keep it real!! Robots in disguise, or car Robots rulz!! a great concept.. great gestalts, loads of articulation..well in the new molds atleast.. but still a nice series.. if only peter cullen, frank welker and co.. were brought in to dubb it, and make it more like g-1.. it would have been a great cartoon too.. oh well..
Fight on!!