Rail Racer (RID)
| This article is about the Robots in Disguise Autobot combiner. For the Universe Railbot combiner, see Rail Racer (Universe). |
- Rail Racer is an Autobot combiner from the 2001 Robots in Disguise continuity family.
Rail Racer is the combined form of Team Bullet Train. He's basically kickass and you can't hope to beat him.
Rail Racer is composed of:
- Railspike (leader)
- Midnight Express
- Rapid Run
Fiction
Cartoon continuity
2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon
- Voice actor: David Lodge (English), Shōji Izumi (Japanese), Mikhail Tihonov (Russian), Jorge Ornelas (Latin-American Spanish)
Team Bullet Train formed Rail Racer for the first time to fight Megatron after saving the Linear RFG train. As the Autobot Brothers watched in awe, Rail Racer proceeded to see Megatron off, stating that he can't stand anyone who blows up railway tracks. Bullet Train to the Rescue Rail Racer saw Megatron off again when the Predacon leader attacked Metro City, although on that occasion it turned out that the attack had been a diversion while Sky-Byte carried out a mission elsewhere. The Secret of the Ruins
Team Bullet Train formed Rail Racer for the highly important task of watching Grandpa steam off into the distance. Secret Weapon: D-5
When Rail Racer attempted to fight the Commandos, they responded by forming Ruination, much to the surprise of all Autobots present. Ruination quickly took the upper hand, but the Autobot Brothers lent a hand and Rail Racer was then able to use their Ultra Blast to blow Ruination apart. Commandos
Rail Racer also defended a power plant against the Decepticons, The Fish Test but the second time he faced Ruination was when the Commandos stole some energy from the East Power Station. While the pair were grappling, the Build Team siphoned off the stolen energy and let Rail Racer know it was safe to retreat. The Decepticons were not pleased. A Test of Metal
After the Autobot Brothers had been taken hostage, Optimus was led to a remote location, where the Decepticons told him his troops were being held. Predictably enough, it was a trap, and the Decepticons attacked the Autobot leader once he was alone. Team Bullet Train rushed in to help their leader, combining into Rail Racer once on location. However, Scourge warned that if the Autobots were to resist, harm would come to the three brothers. Rail Racer was forced to do nothing as he and Optimus took the full brunt of the Decepticons' assault. Thankfully, Ultra Magnus rescued the brothers and came in to help fight Megatron and his troops.The Two Faces of Ultra Magnus
Landfill and Rail Racer finally fought side-by-side in order to protect Fortress Maximus from the Decepticon forces Fortress Maximus and later fought Ruination at length while the Build Team hid the giant robot in Metro City. Koji Gets His Wish They again fought a protracted battle when the Decepticons located Cerebros and activated Maximus. The Autobot forces were finally able to see the Decepticons off when Koji Onishi commanded Maximus to halt. Maximus Emerges
After the Decepticons located the Autobot base, they were lured to a predetermined location where the entire Autobot force was waiting in ambush. The arrival of the "Megastar" turned the tide in favour of the Decepticons, and Rail Racer attempted to attack it from below but was blown back by a barrage of missiles. Surprise Attack! His attempts to prevent Galvatron drain energy from Fortress Maximus also failed, and Team Bullet Train separated in order to beat a hasty retreat. Galvatron's Revenge The final formation of Rail Racer came when the Autobots moved to defend Optimus Prime from the Decepticons. They were able to shield Optimus from Galvatron's paralysing ray long enough for their leader to recover and return with reinforcements. During the decisive battle between Omega Prime and Galvatron, all of the Autobots were held in a paralysed state by the Decepticon leader, but were freed when Galvatron was defeated by Omega Prime. The Final Battle
Ultra Magnus...to the Rescue?
Rail Racer was seen via T-AI's viewscreen, presumably on a mission since the Autobots had spread their forces thin. Ultra Magnus...to the Rescue?
Ask Vector Prime
In some universal streams, such as Viron 704.31 Epsilon, Dominus Trannis was the result of Rail Racer being reformatted by the Robo-Smasher. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/30
Toys
Robots in Disguise (2001)
- JRX (Multi-pack, 2000)
- Japanese ID number: C-015
- Rail Racer combines Railspike as the upper torso and arms, Rapid Run as the mid-torso and backpack, and Midnight Express as the legs of one large robot. He carries Rapid Run's shield/launcher as well as a large cannon formed from both Railspike and Midnight Express' weapons. Rail Racer (or rather, JRX) could be assembled by buying the three individual Bullet Trains, though all three members of Team Bullet Train were also available in a complete box set in Japan.
- There are significant differences between the Takara and Hasbro versions of Rail Racer. The Takara version has several portions cast in transparent plastic to give him clear windows, requiring extensive paint applications to blend in. The Hasbro version released in 2001 replaced the transparent plastics with opaques to cut back on the number of needed paint applications. There were also several smaller changes made to the individual components (detailed on their individual pages).
- Rail Racer holds the unique distinction of being the first combiner to have no external combiner kibble.
Notes
- The Takara versions of the Bullet Trains appear to have had a particularly bad run of quality control regarding the paint applications, with many having sloppily-applied decos. While the individually-packaged Bullet Trains came in clear-window packages to see the toys, the box set was completely windowless, so it was kind of a crap shoot as to the quality of paint you got with the set.
- Reportedly, the Bullet Trains, which were developed with Takara's very flexible pricing structure, really did not fit into Hasbro's more rigid existing price-points, budget-wise. They cost too much to be sold as Deluxes, but weren't really up to Mega-costs.
- In the cartoon, Rail Racer sometimes refers to itself as "we", which opens up questions on how much of an emergent personality this combined form has compared to previous Generation 1 combiners.
- Coincidentally, Rail Racer was released around the same time as the Grand Liner, a set of trains that combine into a massive robot in the competing Super Sentai line. (Power Rangers fans may know it as the Supertrain Megazord.)
- His individual component's names (J-5, J-7, and J-4) are based on their respective bullet train models (J500 Series, J700 Series, and E4 Max Series).
- An abandoned OTFCC 2004-exclusive redeco of 2001 Robots in Disguise Rail Racer would have been named "Dominus Trannis". While not the same character as the original Trannis, his name was inspired by that character. "Astrotrain" and "Steamhammer" were decided upon as names for two of the components and "Loco" or "Cowcatcher" were considered for the third. Both Steamhammer and Cowcatcher went on to inspire names for later official toy releases.
- In 2015, the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime would canonize these characters in fiction.
Foreign names
- Japanese: JRX[1]
- Korean: J.R.X (제이.알.엑스 Jei.Al.Ekseu)
- Russian: Sprinter (Спринтер, "Sprinter")
References
- ↑ Acronym for "Japan(ese) Rail Express".
