First appreciation thread for the year, let’s open with a half-buried saga... The ROBOTS IN DISGUISE series is really underrated. Having checked it out earlier this year, I became an immediate fan, and I think that even though it’s the most “anime” of all the Transformer series (having been produced at the 90s-00s, US-anime’s boom era), I think it’s got some great points. THE CAST Even though most of the actors are imported from DIGIMON and other Saban shows, the cast deliver excellently on their roles. I know Neil Kaplan and Daniel Riordan are no Cullen/Welker or Chalk/Kaye, but I find their Optimus/Megatron still great and just as compelling as the other two. Beyond them, it is a great surprise to hear Jason Spisak (the dark brooding Razer from GREEN LANTERN) as the human sidekick Koji Onishi, as well as hearing Daran Norris and Steven Blum from TF PRIME as Heavy Load and Dark Scream. THE CHARACTERS Many of the old characters are given some great revisions: - Optimus Prime is prominently a firetruck for the first time, and it fits him as a hero and rescuer well. And more significantly, Optimus DOESN’T DIE. In a saga where Optimus Primes die and resurrect, the fact that this one manages to survive a battle with Megatron/Galvatron makes him a serious badass. - It was a great move to make Megatron a Six-Changer (car, dragon, bat, jet, hand, griffin, hydrofoil, etc). Even though his plans of stealing Earth’s energy were mostly anime-level ludicrous (from destroying a dam to sabotaging a space bridge), his mode made him a formidable warrior, switching between alternate modes to give him more unpredictability. - Scourge in this continuity was a fantastic fusion of a cloned Optimus and Starscream (a black repaint, who wishes to supplant his leader and rule all by himself). The first ever major Nemesis Prime, he was a great and menacing character (to both sides of the war), and his performance by the late Barry Stigler is fantastically chill and mean. The new characters aren’t too bad either: - Side Burn makes a great substitute Bumblebee as “young human sidekick robot”, with one distinct quirk: he has a fetish for scarlet sportscars. It’s one of those funny anime obsession things: he was once lured into a Predacon trap thanks to Megatron disguised as a red car, and throughout the show he constantly chases and harasses a young woman named Kelly who owns a red sportscar (or not, which sort of makes it even more bizarre and funnier). - Koji isn’t too bad either, he’s the Japanese Spike Witwicky (Spike, NOT SAM – that’s probably Jack Darcy). His father got kidnapped by Megatron, which gives him the motive and right to work with the Autobots, and even after his father is free he still continues to work for the Autobots, proving to be a crucial factor when Fortress Maximus appears. - T-AI is an interestingly diverse character: she’s a Autobot hologram in human form, who’s part human liaison to Koji, part second-in-command and lieutenant to Optimus Prime, and part exasperated matron to the more youthful of the Autobots (particularly Side Burn and Wedge). - There are actually some pretty fancy combiners in this: the Trainbot combiner Rail Racer, the Build Team combiner Landfill and the Decepticon combiner Ruination are some of the best-looking combiners out there. And they’re at least scale-accurate in their combination (Ruination especially sort of fits vehicles around appropriately, doing an even better job than his G1 Combaticon counterparts). - and finally, the series’ show stealer is the Predacon shark Sky-Byte. This dude is the Transformers’ Harley Quinn/Team Rocket: a poetry-loving henchman who wants to prove his worth and badassness, but who always gets tied up in bad luck and his own errors... and niceness. He’d be a great hero if he wasn’t desperate to prove himself as a villain. THE HUMOUR This show has more humor and arguably better humour than the other TF shows. Of course, it was a 90s anime, it was mandatory for the show to have its characters, even its evil ones, act comedic and sometimes even goofy for the children. But still, there are some great gems, a fine example being: Slapper: [disguised as Side Burn] Take that, you evil Decepticons! We're the good guys! Gas Skunk: [disguised as Prowl] Yeah. I'm a police Autobot. You're under arrest for bad behavior. Dark Scream: [disguised as X-Brawn] Yeah, we're gonna put you cowpokes in the corral, or some other junk. Gas Skunk: Hey, where's Sky-Byte? He's supposed to be in on this. [Sky-Byte emerges, disguised very poorly as Rail Racer] Sky-Byte: Heeere I am! Rail Racer, fighter for justice! Slapper: Hello? Rail Racer isn't quite that flamboyant, you know! You're never gonna make it as an actor! Gas Skunk: Well, he could always work in cartoons. The Predacons ride roughshod over plausibility, the fourth wall, and the entire "robots in disguise" concept in one fell swoop. The Fish Test - Transformers Wiki This was actually a funny scene and an example of great dubbing and great humour. It’d be difficult now for there to be a sequel/spin-off to RID. A comic series seems most likely (after all, 1980 G1’s returned in comics with REGENERATION), and would have to continue the saga from where it left. Probably have RID Megatron escape from prison and head back to destroy Earth with Optimus in pursuit once more, or something. But I would welcome an RID revival.
It had decent characters, a decent story and decent anime style animation. Which sums up the show. It was decent. It seems the lead villains are the most memorable characters. Scourge was awesome and I wish we could get another Optimus based villain like him. Skybite I hated, like I hate all comic relief. The Autobots are likable even if a lot of them were underdeveloped. I wouldn't mind seeing a new version of the Autobot Brothers. The Predacons are the second worst incarnation of Megatron's faction in TF cartoons and an insult to the BW Predacons. Luckily, the Decepticons' arrival, halfway through the series, managed to at least give us some villains that could be taken seriously and where a huge threat when compared to the Predacons. In fact Scourge and co. got a quite interesting story. At least until they went TF: Energon on their arses. Also, RID is the most generic Japanese anime feeling TF series, IMO. And Megatron's plan at the end of the show to harness power from children's belief that good will triumph was just... How? How can someone make sense of that. RID is an enjoyable series if you like or at least can put up with Japanese Anime but has a lot of flaws. There most definitely are far better Transformers series out there but much worse ones as well.
One of my favorite eras. Toys, show all that. It was a nice, contained, alt verse that blended the eras of the time together. A proper representation of TF for the new millenium. So yes, I appreciate it. For those that need to catch up, check out Transformers Robots In Disguise - Car Robots - RIDForever.info - it's our pet project archive-y thing just for RID stuff.
One of the best things about RiD is that it has something for nearly everyone in it. Mainly because there's literally something from EVERYTHING in the show and toyline! G1 combiners? Check. Beastformers? Check. Evil black repaints? Check. G2/Machine Wars highlights? Mega-check. Multiple Alt-modes? Check. "Self-combining"? Check. Cityformers? Check. Innovative new transformations and combiners? Check. Braves references? Check. Anime influences? Check. Realistic car alt-modes? Check. What could have turned out to be a recycling-project turned stopgap or cash-grab turned into a celebration of 15 years of Transformers history instead. After the grit, introspection, and exotic forms of Beast Machines, Car Robots / RiD reminded us what made Transformers great from the very beginning. Cars, robots, and FUN.
If I remember correctly some of the figures were a bitch to transform, but damned if I didn't love me some Sky Byte. And I often wondered if Sideburn's obsession with red sports cars was the robot equivilent of beastiality. And I agree with Dirgestone. The Rid Optimus Prime figure was one of the best ever.
Would love a post-series storyline with a reformed Sky-Byte trying to fit into life as an Autobot, despite still possessing his legendary bad luck and ability to mess up. Sky-Byte Saves the Day sorta gives us a glimpse at what he might be like as a hero. I can see many scenes where he comes up on the member select program and Optimus asks T-AI to check if anyone else is available though.
To me, it was an imaginative period in the franchise, a real zeitgeist sort of thing, where it's a feeling of a time where "you had to be there to know" sort of thing. Favorite moment in the entire series is when Sky-Byte's following Koji, and the kid comes out of his house. Panicking from fear of a ten year old, Sky-Byte just crouches next to a garage to hide from Koji. Not behind it... Next to it. In plain sight, right there, like a Looney Tunes gag... And Koji walks right on by him, not even noticing. That right there is awesome.
The show RID was just bad. A boy falling in love with a hologram, skybites poems, Scourge got pink optics, to mutch comedy, a horny autobot fallowing a "red sports car", a lot of chibis. Nah, I did not like this show.
I thought rid was awesome. The predacons made that show so fun to watch. The only thing I didn't like was that everyone YELLED EVERYTHING THEY WERE DOING AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS!!!!!!!!!
I heard that one of the coolest characters Hot Shot originated from here. Also there was a nice nod of G1 Mirage's fake betrayal in this series.
