Railspike
| STRENGTH |  |
| INTELLIGENCE |  |
| SPEED |  |
| ENDURANCE |  |
| RANK | |
| COURAGE | |
| FIREBLAST | |
| SKILL | |
RAILSPIKE is the leader of the Bullet Train team. He is courteous, polite, and intelligent - but don't let his gentlemanly manners fool you into thinking he's not cut out for battle. He can lock, load and fire the rocket launchers on his shoulders like any true warrior. To bring down the enemy, he uses a sonic umbrella that emits ultrasonic waves as it rotates.
- Color Scheme:
- In both robot and bullet train modes he is about half blue and half white. He has a big Autobot logo on one side, which is red, and his cockpit/cab window is transparent green, as is part of his weapon.
- Robot Mode:
- Sporting some of the biggest shoulder pads since Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia, Railspike also boasts a fairly robust chest. His relatively small arms don't help much, succeeding only in making the shoulder pads look bigger. To be fair, though, his legs are also badly proportioned. ;-) He is second only to Midnight Express in sheer dorkiness. If he weren't a bullet train, and a member of a combiner team, I'd probably leave him on the store shelf. Yech.
- Vehicle Mode:
- A bullet train! Ok, so there are two others on the team, but I love trains, particularly light rail designs like these. If I have one complaint it's that to be sold in the USA, Hasbro had to make his weapon's gun barrel longer, making it too long to fit in it's special storage place in vehicle mode without sticking way out. If a millimeter were shaved off the tip of it, the weapon unit would be able to fit flush against the back of the train, which would look immensely better. They also turned what were clear plastic windows on the Japanese versions of this toy to opaque plastic... cheapos.
- Transformation:
- Not too hard or tricky. The front end is split and manipulated into position, as is the back end, to become his arms and legs respectively. A little fiddling with the cab section to properly stay on his chest, rotate the head to face the right way, and he's done. I'm happy with the complexity of the transformation.
- Gimmicks:
- He has free rolling wheels that let him glide a ways on any smooth flat surface, which is cool. His weapon has a red LED that lights up fairly brightly when you press the small button on its side, which is supposed to illuminate the barrel of the weapon.
- Pros/Cons:
- Dorky robot mode, but he IS a bullet train, and he DOES combine with other team members to form a larger robot, so dorkiness can be forgiven.
- Notes:
- Merges with other Bullet Train Team members to form Rail Racer.