A redeco of Armada Sideways, Rapid Run of the Energon franchise is yet another figure from the Giant Bin that was sold off millennia ago.
Apparently this character actually has a backstory, rather than being a mindless repaint of an older generation figure.
The mercenary Rapid Run is among the legions of Decepticons that struck a deal with Unicron to supply him with Energon in exchange for hyper-power. – Transformers Wiki.
I’m not even sure what hyper-power is, or how valid that bio is (I’m assuming it was taken from the back of the figure stock, in which case it shouldn’t be considered canon either) but I’ll roll with it.
A very aged and average deluxe-sized figure, Rapid Run is, as I mentioned above, a simple redeco of Armada Sideways. He’s never appeared in the series proper as far as I remember, and is part of a large amount of redeco’d Armada figures that were released under the Energon brand.
Rapid Run as a basic figure doesn’t sport anything remarkable about it – its range of movement actually isn’t too bad; he can actually look good in certain poses (unlike many Armada-era figures that could barely stand). Of course, signs of this figure’s age are still very apparent in the lack of knees and whatnot.
The missiles in the forearms can be fired via attaching a Mini-Con to the pegs and pushing out. I don’t believe the mechanism is actually spring-loaded; it’s more of a drop the missile out, not shoot the missile out type of thing.
The main gimmick/feature for this figure, shared by Armada Sideways, is the Mini-Con head exchange. He’s shown here partnered with his Mini-Con partner Nightscream.
With Nightscream pluged in, the arms that stick into Rapid Run’s torso push down on some switches and cause some wicked sorcery in the chest to reveal an Autobot logo where there previously was none before.
With the Decepticon Mini-Con Nightcruz taking the reins as Rapid Run’s head, some further sorcery is worked inside Rapid Run’s torso to reveal a Decepticon insignia beneath his clear plastic chestpiece.
I find myself liking the Decepticon head more – Nightscream just looks silly with the yellow on the head.
I’ve always found this to be such a cool gimmick when I owned Armada Sideways, but looking at it now the heads do look rather silly. I mean when you think about it the Mini-Con’s are basically doing handstands on Rapid Run’s shoulders with their crotches opening up for his eyes and their legs spread far and wide up above to form some semblance of horns…
Nightcruz (on the left) and Nightscream (on the right).
Neat little Mini-Con figures, very awkwardly proportioned to accommodate for transforming into…well, heads. I find it curious that Nightcruz received face detail painting but Nightscream is just like blank.
But wait, there’s more! These two Mini-Cons can actually combine!
That’s right ladies and gentlemen, Nightcruz and Nightscream can combine to form the ever-original Nightcreeper! Following young children home at night since 2004.
With Nightcruz forming the lower half and Nightscream forming the upper, this is actually a pretty neat little figure. It certainly is a much more complete figurine than either Mini-Con was originally, and sports all the essential points of articulation in the limbs. We actually get some elbow and shoulder articulation, and the face certainly doesn’t look half bad for a Mini-Con.
As for Rapid Run’s vehicle mode, he transforms pretty easily into a Cybertronic motorcycle. It could also be Earth-based, but I have yet to see a motorcycle like that on the streets.
And to complete the play value, we get the option of having the Mini-Cons ride Rapid Run either separately or combined as Nightcreeper!
I only went for the display of having Nightcreeper ride Rapid Run, since in that form it’s actually the correct size of rider-to-cycle. I’m not gonna lie though, it’s not half bad of a display.
Also note how Rapid Run’s wheels are like barely touching the ground. The undercarriage areas sport so much kibble it’s only really possible for Rapid Run to roll in a straight line. Must suck when he needs to turn.
While nothing remarkable and a rather dull figure due to the character’s insignificance, Rapid Run is pretty much a forgotten eleventh-hour edition to the Energon line-up. It does what it needs to as a Sideways redeco, but I’m not particularly fond of the yellow and maroon color scheme.