We've officially reached the point where they're remaking characters from toy lines and cartoon shows that are remakes of the original Transformers characters.

Car Robots, as sold in Japan, was a weird mix of original toys (with Beast Wars Neo level complexity) and recycled toys from G1, G2, and Beast Wars. Hasbro wanted to develop Armada as this huge multimedia property, but since it would take time to develop, they imported Car Robots as a stopgap measure to have something on the shelves to sell.

Scourge was a redeco of the 1995 Laser Optimus Prime from G2. Since it was being marketed as a bad guy, but clearly had the classic Optimus Prime styling, this was explained in-universe as Scourge being a protoform that scanned Prime and took on his appearance. Where the G2 Laser Prime toy was chock-full of gimmicks like light-up headlights and a light-up sword, they neutered all these features for the RiD release of Scourge.

Hasbro waffled on the naming scheme for this toy, and in livestream videos, even people on the Transformers team said they couldn't remember whether they had ended up naming the product Black Convoy (Takara's name for the character from Car Robots) or Scourge (the domestic RiD name). The toy was solicited to Walmart as Black Convoy, and that name appears on shipping cases and on Walmart shelf labels, but the final toy is named "Robots in Disguise 2000 Universe Scourge."

As a minor point of contention, if they'd named him "Car Robots Universe Black Convoy" the date would have been correct, but Robots in Disguise, the Hasbro property based on Car Robots, didn't debut until mid-2001.

So, it was pretty clear when they sold the Legacy version of Laser Prime that a RiD Scourge redeco was probably in the works. It's an obvious way to get us to buy the toy again. However, they really failed to capture what made the Scourge toy attractive and interesting to begin with.

Takara went through a long string of doing evil black redeco versions of previous toys, and Black Convoy was one of the first ones. If Hasbro had marketed such a toy today, they would probably name it Nemesis Prime, but they were recycling lots of existing trademarks and assigning them to RiD characters (Prowl, Mirage, Ironhide, etc.) so he became Scourge. Where the original truck cab had generous levels of vac-metal chrome on the front bumper and grill, the Legacy version uses metallic silver, which reads as gunmetal against the black plastic, to achieve the same effect.

The old Scourge was black and grey and used a teal color as a secondary color to add some much-needed visual interest. On this toy, the teal is present, but its minimalist use makes it almost invisible—there is some pinstriping that frames the truck cab windows, and a bit of tampographed deco on the hood section, but it might as well not be there at all.

The trailer section on the 2001 toy was gorgeous, with almost the entire thing vaccuum metalized and shining brilliantly, making it a visual improvement over the 1995 release during G2. The Legacy version is drab-looking with its silver metallic paint, and is not nearly as visually striking. Also, this version of Scourge inherits the much-too-small trailer from Legacy Prime, with the length of the truck cab actually exceeding the length of the trailer.

Naturally, he shares the same needlessly convoluted transformation with Legacy Prime. As a robot, he's predomiantly black (some of this accomplished with plastic colors, some accomplished with glossy black paint) and a bit of dark grey for the biceps and upper legs. The original RiD Scourge was actually more grey than black, and still used the teal liberally as an accent color. This version has a little teal around the chest windows and shoulder launchers and knees, but the teal is completely absent from the shoulders and pelvis and upper legs. It still manages to read as RiD Scourge, visually, but it's not a very authentic homage. It's more of a reconstruction of the character (and looks like somebody was going off of memory). He does have tiny, upside-down G2 Autobot symbols on his shoulders, which were the Combatron symbols for Car Robots (the Hasbro 2001 toy replaced this deco with Decepticon symbols).

He comes with a big, translucent red-pink sword (the Sword of Fury, according to the RiD cartoon) as well as the big, round axe thing. He's also got a red-pink Matrix (Scourge never had one in the RiD cartoon, though one supposes this could be a Matrix of Fury) with silver painted handles but an unpainted pink shell casing. It's funny how we went for years with no Matrix toys and now there's a whole slew of them, and in varying colors to boot.

Is this toy worth fifty bucks? Probably not. I remember G2 Laser Prime being only $29.99 at Toys "R" Us, and that toy was bigger and did a hell of a lot more. RiD Scourge, as sold in 2002, was a Toys "R" Us exclusive and sold for the same price, but of course the electronics were gutted to keep costs down.

It's highly unlikely we're ever going to get updates for the entire RiD cast, though. Sky-Byte seems to be a favorite, of course, but the other characters have largely faded into obscurity. So, it's fun that they're celebrating the original Robots in Disguise series, even if it was likely just a matter of "how can we sell Legacy Prime to consumers a second time?"

Zob (found the new Playmates classic U.S.S. Enterprise and phaser yesterday, too, so that was pretty cool)

On 9/30/2022 4:42 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> Zob (found the new Playmates classic U.S.S. Enterprise and phaser yesterday, too, so that was pretty cool)

Where did you find them at?

On Friday, September 30, 2022 at 6:04:24 PM UTC-6, Travoltron wrote:

> Where did you find them at?

Got 'em at Walmart. They also had the new Kirk and Khan action figures, but I didn't bother picking them up.

Zob (has a big box of Star Trek figures around here somewhere)

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> We've officially reached the point where they're remaking characters from
> toy lines and cartoon shows that are remakes of the original Transformers characters.
>
> Car Robots, as sold in Japan, was a weird mix of original toys (with
> Beast Wars Neo level complexity) and recycled toys from G1, G2, and Beast
> Wars. Hasbro wanted to develop Armada as this huge multimedia property,
> but since it would take time to develop, they imported Car Robots as a
> stopgap measure to have something on the shelves to sell.

Nothing quite like random redecos to sell. I do love the variety in that
toyline though, and I kind of wish that Hasbro had marketed it as a
celebration of everything that had come before, along with what is new.
Just a little something on the packaging, or little trading cards,
explaining the history of the toys.

> Scourge was a redeco of the 1995 Laser Optimus Prime from G2. Since it
> was being marketed as a bad guy, but clearly had the classic Optimus
> Prime styling, this was explained in-universe as Scourge being a
> protoform that scanned Prime and took on his appearance. Where the G2
> Laser Prime toy was chock-full of gimmicks like light-up headlights and a
> light-up sword, they neutered all these features for the RiD release of Scourge.

Did the a car Robots version have the electronics? (Checks wiki… nope? Huh)

> Hasbro waffled on the naming scheme for this toy, and in livestream
> videos, even people on the Transformers team said they couldn't remember
> whether they had ended up naming the product Black Convoy (Takara's name
> for the character from Car Robots) or Scourge (the domestic RiD name).
> The toy was solicited to Walmart as Black Convoy, and that name appears
> on shipping cases and on Walmart shelf labels, but the final toy is named
> "Robots in Disguise 2000 Universe Scourge."

Both are good names. I think I would have preferred Black Convoy, just to
get Convoy into the US. Plus, avoid ambiguity with the Sweep Lord.

> As a minor point of contention, if they'd named him "Car Robots Universe
> Black Convoy" the date would have been correct, but Robots in Disguise,
> the Hasbro property based on Car Robots, didn't debut until mid-2001.

The cartoon was in the fall. I remember that some people were upset that
their local station didn’t air episodes because of 9/11.

> So, it was pretty clear when they sold the Legacy version of Laser Prime
> that a RiD Scourge redeco was probably in the works. It's an obvious way
> to get us to buy the toy again. However, they really failed to capture
> what made the Scourge toy attractive and interesting to begin with.

Honestly, I think he’s attractive and interesting, in similar ways, just
not that authentic. It’s a little weird seeing the pinky-red in the robot
mode, as that’s not a Scourge thing (well, eyes), but it looks good.

But he’s the bright, detailed Black Evil Prime, rather than the duller
variation that is Nemesis.

> Takara went through a long string of doing evil black redeco versions of
> previous toys, and Black Convoy was one of the first ones. If Hasbro had
> marketed such a toy today, they would probably name it Nemesis Prime, but
> they were recycling lots of existing trademarks and assigning them to RiD
> characters (Prowl, Mirage, Ironhide, etc.) so he became Scourge. Where
> the original truck cab had generous levels of vac-metal chrome on the
> front bumper and grill, the Legacy version uses metallic silver, which
> reads as gunmetal against the black plastic, to achieve the same effect.
>
> The old Scourge was black and grey and used a teal color as a secondary
> color to add some much-needed visual interest. On this toy, the teal is
> present, but its minimalist use makes it almost invisible—there is some
> pinstriping that frames the truck cab windows, and a bit of tampographed
> deco on the hood section, but it might as well not be there at all.

The original Scourge had a much more vivid metallic teal paint, with
thicker lines. Since this is a much smaller toy, the hilight lines are
smaller and they are less visible.

> The trailer section on the 2001 toy was gorgeous, with almost the entire
> thing vaccuum metalized and shining brilliantly, making it a visual
> improvement over the 1995 release during G2. The Legacy version is
> drab-looking with its silver metallic paint, and is not nearly as
> visually striking. Also, this version of Scourge inherits the
> much-too-small trailer from Legacy Prime, with the length of the truck
> cab actually exceeding the length of the trailer.

It’s not even a very bright silver paint. Look at the pointless splashes of
silver on the first Universe toys, and compare. This is almost pewter.

> Naturally, he shares the same needlessly convoluted transformation with
> Legacy Prime. As a robot, he's predomiantly black (some of this
> accomplished with plastic colors, some accomplished with glossy black
> paint) and a bit of dark grey for the biceps and upper legs. The
> original RiD Scourge was actually more grey than black, and still used
> the teal liberally as an accent color. This version has a little teal
> around the chest windows and shoulder launchers and knees, but the teal
> is completely absent from the shoulders and pelvis and upper legs. It
> still manages to read as RiD Scourge, visually, but it's not a very
> authentic homage. It's more of a reconstruction of the character (and
> looks like somebody was going off of memory). He does have tiny,
> upside-down G2 Autobot symbols on his shoulders, which were the Combatron
> symbols for Car Robots (the Hasbro 2001 toy replaced this deco with Decepticon symbols).

Given that the robot chest windows are fake, the really could have gone
with a more authentic look. I’m wondering if they looked at just the
original toy, or the Timelines toy as well, which had red chest windows
because they were the real windows.

And, again, there is a lot of pinky-red in this mode — the windows, and
around the shoulders.

(If they were looking at Nemesis Primes, the reds would be much darker, the
teal dull, and the trailer black… and there would likely not be the teal
hilights on the robot helmet…

> He comes with a big, translucent red-pink sword (the Sword of Fury,
> according to the RiD cartoon) as well as the big, round axe thing. He's
> also got a red-pink Matrix (Scourge never had one in the RiD cartoon,
> though one supposes this could be a Matrix of Fury) with silver painted
> handles but an unpainted pink shell casing. It's funny how we went for
> years with no Matrix toys and now there's a whole slew of them, and in
> varying colors to boot.
>
> Is this toy worth fifty bucks? Probably not. I remember G2 Laser Prime
> being only $29.99 at Toys "R" Us, and that toy was bigger and did a hell
> of a lot more. RiD Scourge, as sold in 2002, was a Toys "R" Us exclusive
> and sold for the same price, but of course the electronics were gutted to
> keep costs down.
>
> It's highly unlikely we're ever going to get updates for the entire RiD
> cast, though. Sky-Byte seems to be a favorite, of course, but the other
> characters have largely faded into obscurity. So, it's fun that they're
> celebrating the original Robots in Disguise series, even if it was likely
> just a matter of "how can we sell Legacy Prime to consumers a second time?"

Toxitron would have been a lot of fun. And then give a semi-matching redeco
of the upcoming Junkion weaponizer.

I hold out hope for a Selects version.

> Zob (found the new Playmates classic U.S.S. Enterprise and phaser
> yesterday, too, so that was pretty cool)
>

I initially thought this toy looked OK, but the more I looked at him,
the more he bugged me.

This is the first time in many years that I had to bring out the paints
to fix Hasbro's mistakes. But it's going to be so much work. I have no
idea how to properly paint over all that translucent pink on his
shoulders without making a mess of everything.