Railspike (RID)


 * Railspike is an Autobot from the Robots in Disguise continuity family.

Railspike is the leader of Team Bullet Train, a trio of Autobots who patrol the railways. Don't let his politeness fool you into thinking he's soft, though. He's just as ready, willing and able to unseal a tin of whoopass on rowdy Predacons as anyone, and he's incredibly good at it. He can sometimes get frustrated by the more eager and foolhardy actions of his subordinates, but manages to take it all in stride.


 * Japanese name: J-Five

Robots in Disguise cartoon

 * Voice actor: Mike Reynolds (US), ??? (Japan)

Robots in Disguise

 * Railspike (Mega, 2000/2001)
 * Japanese ID number: C-012


 * Railspike transforms into a Nozomi 500 bullet train. In this form, he can link up with the other Bullet Trains to form one long locomotive. In robot mode, his train link-section forms an electronic light-up (non-firing) blaster.  He can also form the torso and arms to the team's combined form Rail Racer.


 * There are significant differences between the Takara and Hasbro versions of Railspike. 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. 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.


 * JRX (Multi-pack, 2000)
 * Japanese ID number: C-015


 * All three members of Team Bullet Train --J-Five, J-Four and J-Seven-- were also available in a complete box set in Japan.

Trivia

 * Railspike was portrayed slightly differently in the two different versions of the cartoon. Though both were rather polite, Railspike was portrayed as being much older and gruffer than J-Five.


 * 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.