While I've never been much of an opponent to name reuse in the past, I'm beginning to worry that Hasbro's getting a bit out of hand with the practice. It's fine to re-release BM Obsidian in a brand new colour scheme, but if he's going to keep the name, he should at least have been painted black this time. Sandstorm would've been a more suitable name for this toy.
Vehicle Mode
Measuring 11.5 cm (4.5") long, Ridsidian is a VSTOL aircraft, similar to the V-22 Osprey:
https://www.aeronautics.ru/img003/v-22-osprey-01.jpg
Like the Osprey, Ridsidian's twin rotors can tilt forward in order to fly faster. But while the Osprey functions as a troop/equipment transport, Ridsidian is clearly designed for combat. Twin five-barrelled rocket launchers are mounted on his sides and a heavy machine gun is housed underneath his cockpit.
Whereas BM Obsidian was dark and light green with blue stripes, Ridsidian is grey and beige with brown camouflage splotches. His cockpit windows, rotors, and stabiliser fins are transparent light orange and his rockets are yellow. A real Operation Kick Hussein's Ass look. His machine gun is hinged, his "head" can look slightly from side to side as well as extend, his fins pivot, his rotors spin freely, and their housings move around on ball joints. His gimmick consists of pressing on the bottoms of the rotor assemblies until the rotors pop out. Kamikaze!
The only mould change I can detect on this toy is that his machine gun seems a little thicker and is angled downwards slightly.
Transformation
Pull down on the aircraft's tail, which causes the robot chest to swing down and the head to flip up. Simple and effective.
Robot Mode
Ridsidian stands 9.5 cm (3.7") tall at the head in this mode. His head is beige with brown patches on the top, sides, and down the front. His eyes glow light orange when he is held before a light source. He's got joints at the head, neck, shoulders, elbows(two joints), hips, knees, and feet. As with Storm Jet, you have your choice of either a two-legged robot or a hover mode robot.
Next to his desert colour scheme, the neatest thing about Ridsidian is that he has a deep purple Vehicon Spark crystal mounted on his back instead of one of those dull red crystals that Storm Jet and the Autobot 3-Pack have.
Overall
Susp Sez: As far as re-released filler toys go, this is one of the nicer ones. I much prefer Ridsidian's colour scheme over Obsidian, plus the fact that he's about two dollars cheaper. It's a pity that Hasbro couldn't have given him a new name and a tech spec, but that's what fan fiction is for. 8.5/10
Susp
"When destiny cries out my name, I must answer." -BW Sandstorm
Thanks to
CosmicRust.com for the pics. You can check out a full gallery of Obsidian pictures
HERE.
| Reviewer | Suspy |
| Date | May 31st 2002 |
| Score |  (8 out of 10) |
| Reads | 7470 |
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