Found a loose complete JRX today at a shop near me…and I don’t think pictures do him justice. I wasn’t even looking for him and I found him…he’s awesome. Took it all apart to see how Railspike, Midnight Express, and Rapid Run looked individually. Needless to say I quickly put them back together.
Yep, I believe that's the only difference. Edit--From the TF wiki: "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)." Railspike/J-Five: "The Hasbro version released in 2001 replaced the transparent plastics with opaques to cut back on the number of needed paint applications. An Autobot insignia was also added to the left side of the train mode, and the barrel of his gun was lengthened for unknown reasons. Early versions of the toy had unpainted windows, but later runs added metallic blue paint to them." Midnight Express/J-Four: "The Hasbro version released in 2001 replaced the transparent plastics with opaques to cut back on the number of needed paint applications. An Autobot insignia was also added to the roof of the train mode, plus the yellow detail paint was replaced with a metallic gold. Early versions of the toy had gray-painted windows (the only one of the three trains to have painted windows in the first release), but later runs added metallic blue paint to match his teammates." Rapid Run/J-Seven: "The Hasbro version released in 2001 replaced the transparent plastics with opaques to cut back on the number of needed paint applications. However, this also enabled them to add several other piece of deco, including an Autobot sigil on the roof, golden stripes on the robot-mode shins and gold on the very tip of the train's "nose". All of the yellow paint was also replaced with metallic gold. Early versions of the Hasbro Rapid Run had unpainted windows; later runs added metallic blue paint to them."
I have wanted JRX/ Railracer for a while, but I have been putting it off because of how bad the individual bots are....well actually mainly the one with the HUGE legs. If the price were right I would buy it.
I got a JRX for my birthday a few years back. Amazing combiner, probably my favorite of the ones I own. The individual figures are all really cool and the gestalt itself is amazing. I really dig all of the clear plastic on the Takara version, it looks a lot nicer than the solid plastic with paint on the Hasbro version.
Congratulations! He's an excellent figure. Push that grey part on his crotch up (it's there to give J4 a longer body when they aren't combined ) and pull the backpack down a bit, he'll look even better balanced. I love their individual bot modes, too.
JRX/Railracer is an awesome combiner, and the individual robots are pretty cool as well. Midnight Express included, the only thing I don't dig about him is his name.
I dont know if he still has any, but ebay dealer liqdeal had brand new JRX's for only $50 a couple of days ago. Thats where mine is coming from.
He's an awesome piece, congrats! I'd say he's one of my favourite combiners this side of Magnaboss (I've got a soft spot for the 'boss, he's what got me back into TFs in the first place).
