TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

Clay's review of: RM-03 Rijie

Name: Rijie
Allegiance: Cybertron
Function: Spy
Sub-Group: NA

One of the senior Cybertrons who awakened on Earth with G1 Convoy. Wields an electro-disruptor and is able to make himself vanish, but only for six minutes. An excellent marksman, this warrior is deeply trusted by G1 Convoy.

Thanks to Doug Dlin of BWTF for translating the RM tech specs.

Takara's Robot Master line was designed to focus on small toys that kids could afford to buy with pocket-money allowances. Re-released were the spring-flip molds from Machine Wars, and Rijie is one of them.

Vehicle Mode:
Rijie is a little Indy-500 race car. In this mode, the toy features painted details not present in previous releases, including "ROBOTMASTERS" and "RM-03" on the spoilers. It's also worth noting how similar the color scheme is to the original G1 Mirage. Actually, Rijie is probably Takara's name for the original Mirage, but I'm too lazy to find the data list for the Japanese names. (Actually, I looked it up: Ligier is the Takara name for G1 Mirage). They're both painted with #26, though.

The robot mode is also very well hidden visually, even if blatantly alluded to by the advertisement decor.

Robot Mode:
As a robot, Rijie is top of the heap. The transformation is very quick thanks to the spring mechanism, and the toy benefits because this is not the only gimmick. His knees are rotational joints, and his hips, shoulders, elbows, and head are all ball jointed. The only thing limiting his posability is the front fender. It could have been made to be a detachable shield, but it's a very minor disability to begin with.

Additionally, he also has one of the best features of Transformers ever: little light-up eyes. After you're bored with that, he has one more surprise up his sleeve... er... pants' leg. Hidden in the interior of his lower legs are two pieces to make a two-barreled handgun. It's the ability to store the weaponry in the vehicle mode that I really like, as opposed to just having a bag of loose parts. He also comes with an additional chrome handgun (just as Bound Rogue and R-blade do), but there's nowhere to stowe it, so I tend to not bother with it that much.

Transformation: 10 - Cool little gimmick, and the robot and vehicle modes don't suffer from it.
Durability: 9 - Pretty solid little thing. Might lose the extra handgun, so put that somewhere safe, and you should be good to go.
Fun: 10 - Great little toy!
Price: 5 - Picked mine up online for $8.99. Stiff for a toy this size, but it's still the best paint job of the mold so far.
Summary: 8 - The Robotmasters line may have its share of repaints, but Takara chooses which molds to use very carefully. If you can find it cheap enough, go for it.