Alex “Orion Pax” Jones is a legend in the LEGO community thanks to his spot-on replicas of ’80s toys in LEGO form, especially the Transformers. A year after debuting his high-flying Aerialbots, the undisputed champ of transforming toy tributes is back to ring out the Transformers’ 40th anniversary year with his latest masterpiece: the Trainbots! It’s hard to imagine transforming locomotives picking up much steam with kids today, but if there’s anyone in the middle of the Venn diagram overlap of LEGO, Transformers, and trains, it’s our TBB readers!
Each of the six Trainbots is fully transformable and can couple together to run on LEGO tracks, with the red diesel engine equipped with a power unit to pull the others. The combined form, Raiden, towers at 65cm tall and stands atop a track base with cherry blossoms and a torii gate. Ever the master of presentation, Alex unveils the transforming trains on rails with all the pomp of a proper ’80s toy commercial.
A true deep cut, the Trainbots were released as part of the Headmasters wave in Japan only, never getting a US release. Per Transformers lore, the Trainbots were built in Japan as part of the Raiden Initiative and the robots are quite patriotic using Japanese names. Yukikaze is a shinkansen 200 series, Suiken is a Tokai type 153, Seizan is a Hakuchō 485, Kaen is a de10 diesel, Getsuei a ef65, and Shouki, the leader, is a Shinkansen 0 series.
If Alex’s Trainbots and the 4oth anniversary (sheesh, I’m getting old…) has you feeling nostalgic for more amazing retro toy builds, check out our Alex Jones archive and see why he’s as worthy of the Matrix as his namesake Orion Pax, aka Optimus Prime.
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