Hey folks, got a problem and hopefully everyone here can help me decide. A couple months ago, I went to a Vintage Stock and found all four of the Robots in Disguise construction Autobots(Wedge, Grimlock, Hightower and Heavyload). They were still in package and pretty cheap, and I knew someone who was looking for them at the time. They'd already gotten them, though, and so I've been sitting on the four of them for a while now. Now I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with them. I've been going through some extra TFs and such, and I keep thinking about adding these four to the pile. At the same time, I don't own them yet, and I really dig combiners. Yet I've also heard mixed things about them. So, Transfans, here's the question: Should I keep them in package and look at selling them or are they cool enough to warrant keeping and cracking open?
I personally love them. There is some versatility in the combined form that is really nice to display. I prefer the universe devastator repaint...but the original and th yellow variant are quite nice. As for selling them...they don't go for a whole lot, as they are generally used for customs now.
they are a bit on the floppy side and took me a little effort to combine. but really, aesthetically, they are great individually, and the multiple combination options make him easy to please just about anybody's tastes. their gimmicks aren't exactly cutting edge, but they do their job perfectly. Personally, I'd keep them, and combine them. Landfill displays nicely and is quite stable. if ya got them really cheap, display Landfill.
I owned the yellow Walmart version. It's a pretty cool combiner. Not the best, but it works. And they're pretty affordable too.
The only weak link for the RiD Combiners is the backhoe imo. Everthing else looks and works perfectly in all three modes, but the backhoe is just a floppy, oddly designed mess. That said, I personally love mine. I got the all yellow set and they end up looking real nice combined, or just individuals on a team. Seeing as how there aren't all that many modern Autobot combiners, it's a nice piece to have in a collection, especially if he's facing off against Energon/Classics Devastator. Though it will be tricky trying to combine them all together, getting everything just right can take a bit of fiddling.
I love the build team! so much so that I ended up buying the mould three times over (origianls, Wallmart Yellow and Universe Constructicon repaints). Decent individual robots, a combined mode that you can make in multiple configurations... just great fun. Grimlock/ Scavenger (the Back Hoe) is the weakest, mainly due to the many moving parts around his crotch (!) which are necessary for his gestalt arms configuration. I just like how they look like tough little Tonka toys. The Wallmart yellow versions do seem a little looser than the originals and the Universe repaint though (or at least mine were). Hmm...RiD was probably the last time we got decent gestalts. The bullet train combiner, Rail Racer, is also highly recommended. As is Artic Camo Ruination.
Not a fan at all. I have a combiner shelf and he is the only combiner I own (and I own almost all of them) that didn't make the cut and stayed in storage.
RailRacer is completely better in terms of execution, posability and play. But Build team is pretty fun. Unique concept, too.
had the walmart yellow set; sold it after i got too frustrated with the floppiness in combined mode. i think the combination method was good idea but poor in execution, they're kinda hard to keep connected and balanced all at the center point, and like many had said, the backhoe is just plain awkward except in the vehicle mode. i thought the combined mode looks pretty good in most cases, but just too fidgety to hold together without the chest plate guy falling off or the top torso guy falling backward. i'll probably get them again individually w/out the backhoe and a double of either dump truck or crane.
The Energon Combiners, despite the mirrored limb issue, were always far better combiners imo then the stuff from RiD. Though I still feel, to this day, that the best combiner ever made was Tripredacus. All three bots were great in alt mode, great in bot mode and combined in a way that made one fantastic gestalt bot. I wish we could see more of that kind of combining where there's actually a bit of transformation involved as opposed to the simple vehicle-as-a-limb scramble city style we usually get. I still feel Movie Devastator would have been far better of a concept, on screen and in toy form, if it was just three or four bots who fully merged together as a gestalt then being an army of vehicles that just piled on top of each other. .........I never even thought of that. With a few simple changes you could probably transplant some of the backhoe pieces onto one of the other bots as well. I may have to try this myself.
RID Rail Racer would highly disagree. As for RID Landfill. I really enjoy the toys, to the point that I have all the repaints as well as the Car Robots version. Overall I've never had a huge issue with any of them being floppy. If I were the Original Poster, the only reason I would sell them is if he could sell them for more than a complete loose set would cost.
Keep them and open them. I regret selling my open set years ago. Now I just have them on cards. They are not my favorite combiner, however they are better then most recent combining Transformers. I also agree that RailRacer is superior to the Energon Combiners, without Fansprojects add ons of course.
Probably my favorite Toy ever. JRX is a close second, but mine is kind of floppy around the waist. I've got the original version, and I just, love it. I'd say the only reason you'd sell it is if you could get one of the loose sets of the Construction or Original Release colors and make some of your money back on top of that.
Funnily enough I was digging through my TF storage today and sniffing around my RID stuff. I pulled out the Build Team and considered sticking Landfill out on display. The individual figures are great but when I combined them I was reminded how lacking that form was. It's always fiddly to get together and I find the slightest knock makes the limbs fall off the tri-connector. So in the end I put the Build Team back into storage and stuck Rail Racer out on my shelf instead.
I was once in your position and I opened them, and I was sorry, they look better in the package IMO, Landfills sux.
I was actually considering getting 2 more landfills of original colors and then forming 3 unique landfills (since landfills are CHEAP) I can do one landfill with all green (cept the core), one that's all yellow, one that's all red... can't be more specialized then that!
