Midnight Express (RID)


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

Midnight Express is a member of Team Bullet Train, a trio of Autobots who patrol the railways. The junior member of the team, he's also the one most likely to do something really dumb. He's a bit impressionable, a little too eager at times (even compared to the battle-ready Rapid Run), and not quite as skilled as a robot his size and strength should be. Maybe he'll get his act together one day, once he's got some more experience under his belt.


 * Japanese name: J-Four

Robots in Disguise cartoon

 * Voice actor: David Lodge (US), ??? (Japan)

Robots in Disguise

 * Midnight Express (Mega, 2000/2001)
 * Japanese ID number: C-014


 * Midnight Express transforms into an E4 "Max" bullet train.  In this form, he can link up with the other Bullet Trains to form one long locomotive.  His back-end link-section can be re-assembled to form a spring-loaded missile launcher.  He can also form the legs to the team's combined form Rail Racer.


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


 * 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

 * Midnight's portrayals in the Japanese and English versions of the cartoon differed considerably more than those of his teammates. In Japan, he was given the voice and mannerisms of a little kid, high-pitched wail and all.  For the English version, he was an older, fussy C-3PO-type with a bit of an aristocratic air.


 * 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.