Love it or hate it - RID!

[andersonh1]

Might as well apply this idea to Robots in Disguise, the unique little catch-all line that borrowed figures from every Transformers sub-line up to that point as well as adding some new figures. G1, G2, Beast Wars and Beast Machines figures all had a place here.

Love - RID Optimus Prime/Fire Convoy: One of my favorite figures ever. Takes the concept behind Powermaster Prime and adapts and improves upon it. The standard robot mode works well on its own as a robot, though the vehicle mode is dependent on the rest of the fire truck to function properly. The super robot mode is surprisingly stable and posable, and the figure can of course combine with Ultra Magnus as well. It's a very nice Transformer with some great engineering.

Hate: the three Beast Wars basic repaints, Gas Skunk, Slapper and Dark Scream. I didn't care for the original figures or their color schemes, and the RID repaints do nothing to help. The three Beast Machines Vehicon repaints are perhaps even worse, taking great figures and ruining them with bad color schemes.

[Onslaught Six]

Whaaaat? The Vehicon pack is glorious. I love Artic Scavenger. Nightcruz is a good, cleaner version of Spystreak, and I dig Mirage GT in a G2 way.

Loved: G-G-G-Gigatron! Technically only ever got the Devil Gigs paint version, but have long since regretted that I never got the original. I mean, he's just spiffy.

Hated: Sky-Byte. The character himself is genuinely good, and I actually really do love the shark altmode design. In fact, I love his design in general--giant clawhand, finhead, huge shoulderpads. The problem is, of course, in the execution. It's not truly his fault, it's TMII Cybershark's. His transformation is just too damn fiddly for his own good. If the shark altmode wasn't designed to be in a constant swimming motion, he'd be a better toy--perhaps slightly more bland in altmode (I'll admit that if you can get him into it, it's a damn good looking altmode--those paintapps! I'm surprised they didn't ditch a bunch of it for the US release.) but his robot mode surely would've benefitted. I feel bad for not liking the toy more. It's one of those things.

[138 Scourge]

I wouldn't feel too bad about it. Hell, I saw the thing on clearance twice back in the day: As Cybershark and as Sky-Byte, and even clearancing 'em down to five bucks didn't get me to buy that mold.

Lessee...

Love: Scourge. Surprise, right? But he rules so hard. Great mold, fantastic robot, amazing trailer, cool color scheme. I don't care if it became a cliche for about a minute there (and I'd argue how "overdone" it was) but this was the best use of this concept.

Hate: Shit, I dunno. There were lots of RiD toys I saw, but never picked up. The Car Bros, I guess. No version of these guys has ever appealed to me, they just look like kibbly messes. I mean, props for being done differently, but good lord, looking at 'em makes me never want to fiddle with one ever.

[Dominic]

I actually kind of like the 3 packs. But, yeah, Skybite is an awful toy.


I am sticking with Gigatron/Megatron/Galvatron and the Carrios. Scourge, trust me, the Carrios are much easier to fiddle with than the pictures might lead you to believe.


I admit, there is nothing in that line I really dislike. I have my complaints about the merge teams, (of course). But, there is nothing in that line I had any real complaints about beyond rarity. (My skip rate for RiD was the lowest of any TF line, with the only toys I never owned being Stormjet, Supreme Optimus, and one of the trains.) The Spychangers, if taken as filler, are actually kind of fun.


Dom
-cannot justify this not being my favorite line.

[andersonh1]

RID was the last line where I bought the majority of the figures in the line, at least before it turned into the repaint precursor to Universe. And I'll second Dom on the car brothers. Three great molds, and fairly unique at the time. Yeah, they've got shell bits hanging off of them, but those bits are often used as part of the design or are otherwise fairly unobtrusive.