Custom Robo's Holosseum Champion - Ray for Smash Switch!

[Rayleigh]

...god, I saw that gamecube symbol and mistook it for a Robo Cube...

That's how you know I'm crazy in love with that darn game.

 

[smashkirby]

Hey, does Ray show up as a Spirit battle in WoL?

 

[Rayleigh]

I only know of Flare as a Spirit Battle, and that ZSS starts off with a Ray Gun in it.

Neither Ray MKll, Bayonette, or Ray MKlll (who I don't see on the wiki, but I'm certain is there; wiki isn't up to date with all the findings) are not part of any Spirit Battles. Possibly because there wasn't a good choice for them (though characters like Samus and Meta Knight come to mind) or because there were already enough Spirit Battles? Can't say.

 

[AceZTeller]

Update on spirits! I just got Ray Mk. II, and the game says he's enhance-able at level 99. Basically put all my snacks into him to see what's up, but I'm guessing he turns into Ray Mk. III. Updating soon.

Edit: it wasn't a fight, it was a treasure chest that I found him in.

Edit 2: It is indeed Ray Mk. III that it evolves into.

 

[Rayleigh]

Edit 2: It is indeed Ray Mk. III that it evolves into.

Cue inflated ego for being right


Now that I think about it...Can you have both Ray MK ll and Ray MK lll? I don't know how many support slots Flare has, but you could theoretically have every Custom Robo Spirit strapped to Flare...then Strap that to Ray MK Mii (I'm proud of that pun).

"We'll make fighters from their Spirits...and carry them into battle with us."

Wrong franchise but oh well.

 

[AceZTeller]

Cue inflated ego for being right


Now that I think about it...Can you have both Ray MK ll and Ray MK lll? I don't know how many support slots Flare has, but you could theoretically have every Custom Robo Spirit strapped to Flare...then Strap that to Ray MK Mii (I'm proud of that pun).

"We'll make fighters from their Spirits...and carry them into battle with us."

Wrong franchise but oh well.

You don't have to evolve ray mk II, so there's probably a way to get it aside from the treasure chest. I'll take a look in a sec

edit: I just realized what you wrote, and it seems that Ray Mk. II and Ray Mk. III are "primary spirits" which means they can be equipped by "secondary spirits". Primary Spirits cannot be equpped, so you could not have every robo theoretically on one robo spirit.

 

[Rayleigh]

Interesting...especially if Bayonette also ends up being a Primary Spirit.

Would mean you can only equip one ro-

...Wait...Are we playing Custom Robo in Smash now? One Robo. Add on 'parts'. Go into battle.

 

[smashkirby]

I only know of Flare as a Spirit Battle, and that ZSS starts off with a Ray Gun in it.

Neither Ray MKll, Bayonette, or Ray MKlll (who I don't see on the wiki, but I'm certain is there; wiki isn't up to date with all the findings) are not part of any Spirit Battles. Possibly because there wasn't a good choice for them (though characters like Samus and Meta Knight come to mind) or because there were already enough Spirit Battles? Can't say.

Hmm... interesting. I already know of Flare's Spirit Battle and apparently you find Ray MK II... in a treasure chest. Well, at least it's easy to acquire him, right?
I... THINK Bayonette is possessing... well, who else? ()

I don't know how you come across Ray MK III, but I'll be rather shocked if it doesn't involve a Spirit Battle with a Mii Gunner wearing the Ray MK III outfit.

 

[AceZTeller]

Hmm... interesting. I already know of Flare's Spirit Battle and apparently you find Ray MK II... in a treasure chest. Well, at least it's easy to acquire him, right?
I... THINK Bayonette is possessing... well, who else? ()

I don't know how you come across Ray MK III, but I'll be rather shocked if it doesn't involve a Spirit Battle with a Mii Gunner wearing the Ray MK III outfit.

Well prepare to be shocked then! It seems the only way to get Ray Mk. III is by enhancing Ray Mk. II.

 

[smashkirby]

Aw, darn. Really? Not going to lie, I was actually really hoping for a battle with Ray MK Mii (Oh, thanks a lot, Rayleigh ! Now I'M using that!) It would have been an interesting way to utilize Ray MK III's Mii Gunner outfit, just like how Lip (from Panel de Pon) has a Mii Swordfighter utilize her Mii costume for her Spirit Battle.

Well, either way I'm simply glad that Custom Robo is even in this game whatsoever, so beggars can't be choosers, right?

 

[Rayleigh]

Welp!

By fortune, I was able to acquire Smash Ultimate today at ye ol' Local Game Stop...

...But the real miracle is that, tucked away in the corner is an enclosed cabinet of used DS Games...Ladies and gentlemen, I finally have my own copy of Custom Robo Arena. It's a Smashmas Miracle.

EDIT: Oh snap, my first Spirit was Ray, and the first costume for sale is Ray. THE GAME KNOWS.

EDIT2: NOTHING NEW I'M JUST REALLY HAPPY RIGHT NOW AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

EDIT3: The store changed stock before I had money to buy the costume. Life is cruel.

EDIT4: Bayonnette Spirit Battle pits you against Dark Samus (Yellow) and Samus (Blue). They spam Missiles, that do extra damage. It is a Stamina Battle, and you fight on Mushroomy Kingdom (Battlefield Form)

EDIT5: Bayonnette is a Support Spirit that causes you to Equip a Steel Diver (reminisicent of a Straight Bomb) upon battle's start. It costs two points to equip.

 

[smashkirby]

Welp!

By fortune, I was able to acquire Smash Ultimate today at ye ol' Local Game Stop...

...But the real miracle is that, tucked away in the corner is an enclosed cabinet of used DS Games...Ladies and gentlemen, I finally have my own copy of Custom Robo Arena. It's a Smashmas Miracle.

EDIT: Oh snap, my first Spirit was Ray, and the first costume for sale is Ray. THE GAME KNOWS.

EDIT2: NOTHING NEW I'M JUST REALLY HAPPY RIGHT NOW AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

EDIT3: The store changed stock before I had money to buy the costume. Life is cruel.

EDIT4: Bayonette's Spirit Battle pits you against Dark Samus (Yellow) and Samus (Blue). They spam Missiles, that do extra damage. It is a Stamina Battle, and you fight on Mushroomy Kingdom (Battlefield Form)

EDIT5: Bayonette is a Support Spirit that causes you to Equip a Steel Diver (reminiscent of a Straight Bomb) upon battle's start. It costs two points to equip.

Man, Smash Ultimate is just being REALLY kind to you here, huh? It must be the game's 'Smashmas' present to you for all the Custom Robo stuff you've done over this year.

 

[Rayleigh]

I didn't put it in at EDIT6, but I also got the Ray MK-3 Helmet, too.

This has been the best day I've had these past four months. Now I just need to get the suit, level up MK-2 to MK-3, and get Flare.
..not to mention get to binging Custom Robo: Arena. Maybe play through Revolution again.

But, real talk? The Bayonette Spirit Battle represents the two Robos, Spear (Samus) and Lance (Dark Samus), that are fused to create it...Now that's quality.

 

[AceZTeller]

Oh my god Bayonette is Lance and Spear as a fight? Sakurai (or someone on the dev team) is clearly a fan then, cuz thats a DEEP cut into CR lore.

 

[Rayleigh]

I was so Hype when I got into that fight, man...and then realized 'Oh god, I'm Little Mac and there's bombs and missiles going everywhere, this is a custom robo match.'

Despite the burn marks, I was feeling the Custom Robo love...Same with the spirits of our Advance Wars and Golden Sun brothers (although they weren't as exciting...only have, Matthew, Mia, Ivan, and Jenna ATM. They lacked that -ahem- Flare that the Bayonette fight had.)

 

[AceZTeller]

I also saw the CR arena that you said you now have. Nice! Its definitely got a cleaner story than CR:BR, if not a wee bit more repetitive. I like being able to buy parts more than getring them given to you, but it leads to some grinding.

 

[Rayleigh]

Well, to be fair, having repeatable battles in the story mode would have been nice...you don't really have that option in CR:BR . It'd have been mighty cool to have some sorta non-story tournament(s) for unlocking new parts, but also getting some normally throughout the story to prevent from having to grind before progression; nothing breaks my heart more than a story game that demands you stay in one place doing arbitrary missions (COUGH DRAGON AGE INQUISITION)

I think that'd be the ideal mix, yeah:

- Story Mode unlocks a series of 'base' parts and robos, and some special ones to boot.
- Non-mandatory tournaments for money (also get money or Story missions) that can be spent on variants

...I mean- Getting the Gatling Gun Left (or Right) from a shop would feel better than getting them in the story mode along with the Gatling Gun earlier on.

EDIT: Aaaaaaaaaaaah, I got the Ray costume now too.
EDIT2: Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, I got Flare now (The fight is Pink Samus, with a Ray Gun and Rocket Belt in Pokemon Stadium...props for the Colosseum reference)

Flare is a Neutral-Color Novice-Rank Primary Spirit with Three Slots. She makes you faster but also easier to launch.

EDIT3: Flare's max Power is 4712 at level 99.

 

[AceZTeller]

Aw, darn. Really? Not going to lie, I was actually really hoping for a battle with Ray MK Mii (Oh, thanks a lot, Rayleigh ! Now I'M using that!) It would have been an interesting way to utilize Ray MK III's Mii Gunner outfit, just like how Lip (from Panel de Pon) has a Mii Swordfighter utilize her Mii costume for her Spirit Battle.

Well, either way I'm simply glad that Custom Robo is even in this game whatsoever, so beggars can't be choosers, right?

It seems you were half right. I just came across ray mk. II's spirit board battle. Its a battle against the mii gunner with a rocket belt and the ray mk. III costume!

 

[Battiest Badger]

I'd say I've opened up a decent amount of the World of Light map, and I've yet to run into a Custom Robo spirit. Whereabouts are they? (I've also skipped some fight that weren't necessary for World Traversal, if I already had a path open.)

 

[Rayleigh]

You'll find them on the Spirit Boards, but I've yet to see them in World of Light myself.

 

[Battiest Badger]

A couple updates.

1) When I said I'd opened up a decent amount of the map... Oh, boy. I've opened up more now, and realize the folly of my earlier statement. I feel even farther from the end now than I did before.
2) Still no luck with the Spirit Board, but I found Ray Mk II in World of Light. I'll put it in spoilers if any of you haven't found it and may want to know (assuming it's always in the same place).

Spoiler

In the Southwest of the map, there's that island facility between the jungle and the mushroom gorge. There's a chest on the island, before you enter the facility, and I found it in there.

 

[Rayleigh]

Being the madman that I am, I've taken inspiration from our Brothers in the Golden Sun Thread, and am consolidating our information into a Google Document. I'll put the link up by the weekend's...uh- end, as it's not quite done yet.

...Also, I just realized something; If Smash Bros. premise is indeed that of 'Toys Coming to Life', Ray MKlll/-01 would be a natural fit...alongside characters like Geno- but that's another story.

...although then I'm left thinking about the nature of a Bayonetta toy. Does she have an action figure?

 

[smashkirby]

Being the madman that I am, I've taken inspiration from our Brothers in the Golden Sun Thread, and am consolidating our information into a Google Document. I'll put the link up by the weekend's...uh- end, as it's not quite done yet.

...Also, I just realized something; If Smash Bros. premise is indeed that of 'Toys Coming to Life', Ray MKlll/-01 would be a natural fit...alongside characters like Geno- but that's another story.

...although then I'm left thinking about the nature of a Bayonetta toy. Does she have an action figure?

Oooh, I can't wait to see your PowerPoint!

By the way, if you don't mind me saying this... I'm pretty sure it's been outright reinforced in Sakurai's explanation about what WoL entails that Smash Bros. DOES indeed take place in a child's imagination and that every character really is just a toy coming to life. Supposedly, that's even the explanation for why Smash is such a massive crossover.

 

[Rayleigh]

I dunno why, but I fear the things that a Bayonetta Action Figure would have seen.

Well lads...I've done it.

I had most of it done on the first night, but I had to flesh out the Chances section (namely the competition area)...which ended up boosting the page count to twenty-two. Big thanks to the Golden Boys for the inspiration...and we certainly needed a consolidated (and update-able) place for all of our information.

 

[AceZTeller]

I dunno why, but I fear the things that a Bayonetta Action Figure would have seen.

Well lads...I've done it.

I had most of it done on the first night, but I had to flesh out the Chances section (namely the competition area)...which ended up boosting the page count to twenty-two. Big thanks to the Golden Boys for the inspiration...and we certainly needed a consolidated (and update-able) place for all of our information.

And a rousing applause from me in the back.

Seriously, I gave it a reading and it was THOROUGH. Excellent work.

Though as an aside, even if Ray never gets into smash, the community will never die. I highly suggest putting the CR discord link in there somewhere. People wanting him in smash is fine and all, but people playing CR more and more is playing longball imo.

 

[smashkirby]

I dunno why, but I fear the things that a Bayonetta Action Figure would have seen.

Well lads...I've done it.

I had most of it done on the first night, but I had to flesh out the Chances section (namely the competition area)...which ended up boosting the page count to twenty-two. Big thanks to the Golden Boys for the inspiration...and we certainly needed a consolidated (and update-able) place for all of our information.

My goodness, this is amazing! You did a bang-up job on this! I loved reading this article! I hope you plan to spread this around!

 

[Rayleigh]

Glad you liked it, and I hope you guys help in that regard as well: one man alone cannot a game series save.

...Well...maybe one man with money, or a man in one of those feel-good movies. Like the ones with the sport players and their coming-of-age stuff. Maybe we talk about it a bit in the Custom Robo Discord, I dunno.

 

[AceZTeller]

Glad you liked it, and I hope you guys help in that regard as well: one man alone cannot a game series save.

...Well...maybe one man with money, or a man in one of those feel-good movies. Like the ones with the sport players and their coming-of-age stuff. Maybe we talk about it a bit in the Custom Robo Discord, I dunno.

Not to immediately shift your focus, but I recently lost to my brother in CR who was playing the Hornet Gun. So I'm looking forward to that Hornet Gun dump when you have time.

 

[Rayleigh]

Also I kind of want Commander Shepard in Smash, now that I think about it. Shame about that whole EA thing though.

---------------

I'd completely forgotten about writing up that little manifesto...until you brought it up. Here come the memories, I'm going to go sit in the corner and rage for awhile...maybe write it up in a separate document versus as an outright post here. I might also do a proper write-up of my older posts as well; clean them up for a better image and all that.

 

[smashkirby]

Hey guys, do you think we might be getting more Custom Robo Spirits in the form of 'event-exclusive' ones? I mean, with Smash Ultimate's recent Spirit Fests...

 

[Rayleigh]

I don't know if we'll be getting 'new' spirits, as I do not know if that's been a thing (versus increase spawn and loot from certain ones), but we could get some sort of Robo-Fest that includes the luikes of Chibi-Robo and Custom Robo.

Also I'm working on another doc.

 

[Giga Kaiju]

Passing by to say that after weeks and weeks of enjoying Ultimate, it is an amazing. The game is just so much fun.

BTW, I got the Mii Costume of Ray and it is GLORIOUS. It looks as if he/it is part of the roster. Also got a couple of spirits of the CR series while going on the WOL mode. It is great. Glad to see the series being represented like this.

With that said, time to go back to playing Ultimate I guess, hehe~

(Hopefully eventually I get to go online to actually see if it got fixed after days of trial by others to represent Ridley, Ray and K. Rool out there~)

.

 

[smashkirby]

I don't know if we'll be getting 'new' spirits, as I do not know if that's been a thing (versus increase spawn and loot from certain ones), but we could get some sort of Robo-Fest that includes the likes of Chibi-Robo and Custom Robo.

Also I'm working on another doc.

Well, considering how Mario seems to have gotten some with the most recent 'Spirit-Fest', maybe new retro/obscure ones are in the foreseeable future? Including Custom Robo (and Chibi-Robo), I mean.

Also, is it another doc about Custom Robo in Smash?

Passing by to say that after weeks and weeks of enjoying Ultimate, it is an amazing. The game is just so much fun.

BTW, I got the Mii Costume of Ray and it is GLORIOUS. It looks as if he/it is part of the roster. Also got a couple of spirits of the CR series while going on the WOL mode. It is great. Glad to see the series being represented like this.

With that said, time to go back to playing Ultimate I guess, hehe~

(Hopefully eventually I get to go online to actually see if it got fixed after days of trial by others to represent Ridley, Ray and K. Rool out there~)

.

Nice to hear you're liking Smash Ultimate. Also, this is part of why I'm cool with Ray (MK III) being a Mii Costume (for now, at least). The costume looks SO accurate to the character to the point that it DOESN'T show off too much of a Mii's facial features that you can actually feel immersed in the idea that the ACTUAL Ray MK III is a playable character.

Good luck on beating WoL too. I hear it's pretty lengthy...

 

[Rayleigh]

Cue Speech/Long Post Theme

The document is mildly related to Custom Robo, but chiefly has to do with the notion of 'Character Chance'.

After going through the 2015 polling data, which put Custom Robo as Rank #1 for a Nintendo Character pick (After eliminating all entries and de-confirmations), I found it amusing how this could be the case. So I've been taking to looking over other data for characters, their history, et cetera, and essentially compiling a list of characters that could or could not enter into the Smash Roster via Smash 5 DLC or in a later entry of the series. I've divided the document between First Parties and Third Parties...but included Second Party Developers like Camelot, Noise (Makers of Custom Robo), and GameFreak (People always forget that it is...also they forget that GameFreak made the treasure that is Tembo the Badass Elephant.) under the First Party label.

Naturally, this is not 2015, and we suffered the Trademark Fiasco...but this is more about candidacy data versus community want. As it Stands now, Custom Robo does not rank on my rendition of a Nintendo Top Ten Chance for DLC, but places Seventh when it comes to the Smash 6 list (That also assumes that no one from the DLC list makes it and no future games come out with likeable characters...but I digress)

--------------

Side Note, I'm doing some digging in order to find out information about the Sales record of the Custom Robo series. Data is sparse and suspect, and you'll rarely find both Lifetime sales and First-Week Sales for many games in the mid-late 1990's...and rarer still will we get numbers that aren't marred by odd numbers that shouldn't exist technically. thus, you're going to find that I have to do a lot of comparisons with limited data:

Spoiler

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The total sales numbers come from a site called vgchartz. As you'll see below, I've determined them to be hilariously illogical. Nonetheless, they're included for speculation and humor. If you take them serious, please do so with a glass of water from the Great Salt Lakes of Utah.

• Custom Robo (N64) is stated to have sold around 35,579 copies in its first week. This is pretty good, when one takes into account that the video game market in 1999 was not exactly the colossus that it is today. (Odyssey's Japanese week one was around 480,000)
  • At roughly $65 dollars suggested retail price, that's $2,312,635 in first week sales.
  • Adjusting the suggest price of $65 (1998), you get $103.34 (2017).
    • I don't know if that is relevant, but multiplying that number by the first week sales gives you $379,953,677.09, which looks scary..so it stays in this post. Ooga Booga.
  • I've found data hinting at .33m total sales...but then you'll see .04m of that is 'Other'...so whether this data is factual to actual commercial sales or has something to do with imports is unknown.
• Custom Robo V2 is stated to have sold around 62,558 copies in its first week. That's nearly twice the amount of its predecessor.
  • For reference, Pilotwings (N64) sold 136,986 copies by the end of it's first year. Custom Robo V2 neared that halfway point in one week.
    • Pilotwings (N64) Is a launch title. Custom Robo V2 came out four years later.
  • In the US, Pilotwings sold roughly 90,000 copies in its first week.
    • Data points to the US being a stronger market than in Japan during this time, at around a 7-1 ratio at its maximum. One could theorize that Custom Robo could have done better here had it been ported.
  • Wave Race (N64) sold 154,000 copies in four months (September to December 1997).
  • I have data showing that the total sales of Custom Robo V2 only number around .39m...but this data does not appear to be accurate due to other data projection rates.
    • And the fact that .05m people of undeterminate nationality bought it commercially, though it was only available in Japan.
• I've found no data on Custom Robo GX.
  • But hey- we got a game afterwards so...well enough?
• I'll find people claiming that Custom Robo (GC) sold less than half a million (.37m to be specific) overall.
  • ...but this only comes from broken US records...and illogical EU records as the game was not commercially available there. Thus, I cannot take this data as anything interesting.
  • Amusing enough, this data would show that, if all the data I've gathered so far is factual, that Custom Robo (GC) is the second highest selling Custom Robo Game of the franchise.
    • ...But this data also claims that no one in Japan bought this game, despite it coming out there before in the US.
      • Thus, if this game had Japan sales numbers, it'd be the highest selling game in the series.
    • It also claims that .7 million people in Europe bought it.
      • In short, don't consider the word of vgchartz to be particularly valid, at least in the world of more obscure games.
• I've found data for Custom Robo Arena pointing to a global total of .16m, which sounds somewhat believable...but as this is only from a single source, the same I've been mocking this time., I would not pay it much mind...but Arena was likely one of the least purchased, alongside GX.

I'm currently compounding more sales data for the series, and cross-referencing it with data for other games that came out at the time.

 

[smashkirby]

Hey, guys. Rayleigh discovered something rather interesting regarding the current state of NOISE (Custom Robo's developer). Care to take it away here, Rayleigh?

 

[Rayleigh]

Thanks for backing me up for that non-double post, Smashkirby!

So...Yes, right. Well lads and lasses? For a backdrop for those who do not know, I've been compiling data (sales, company relations, ETC) for various prospective characters as I did for Custom Robo earlier this very page (We sure did slow down there, didn't we)? I was going over Dragon Quest's sales and history with the Nintendo line of platforms...when I found out NOISE, the developers of Custom Robo, had a hand in the development of 2015's Hoshi no Dragon Quest (Dragon Quest of the Stars/ Star! Dragon Quest). Hoshi no Dragon Quest was/is a Japanese-Exclusive mobile game.

Now, when you find out a nugget of information like this? Well, as any good Commander would, I took a dive (puns!) deeper into this little mine of information...which lead me right to NOISE's website. Right there, for clear verification, was Hoshi no Dragon Quest. Thanks to some translation assistance, I began to look over NOISE's recent activity...and it's been relatively quiet since some minor work in 2016.

...until now.

In April 2018, NOISE's staff consisted of only Twenty-Seven members. But, in December 2018, just a few short weeks ago? They moved their workplace to a new building in Tokyo. Why, pray tell, would a small company go through the effort of moving their staff and equipment to such a central location? Curious, I dug deeper...and found out that they are hiring Programmers, Graphic Designers, and Project Planners. These are some pretty big jobs you're filling at your company; these aren't support staff or the sort. Prior to this, there were only twelve programmers and seven graphic designers...and fewer planners and directors.

There's no information as to what they are working on, but a company does not move it's operations or expand its numbers unless they're getting ready to make some NOISE (I'm not sorry).

Maybe we're getting a new Custom Robo. Maybe they're making another Mobile Title like Hoshi no Dragon Quest, or some other project that I could not fathom...but if they're looking to make money, I can think of only one series of projects under their belt that have garnered them funding...and it's (second) highest-selling entry received a Virtual Console Re-release in both 2008 and 2016.

EDIT1: Now that I think about...didn't the copyright controversy happen in 2016? Before the Virtual Console re-release?
EDIT2: I looked over the data:

1) The Custom Robo trademark people were referencing expired in March Fourth, 2016. It talked about disc data
2) Nintendo starts talking to their boards about the Switch in around April 2016.
3) Custom Robo V2 comes out on the Japanese Wii U Virtual Console June Eighth, 2016.
4) That's a difference of three months and four days (3/4/16 and 6/8/16)
5) Custom Robo is dead and can't be used, huh?

 

[HYRULESHERO42]

It’s been a long time since I’ve played a custom robo game, but I am all for Ray making the roster. But what scale would he be? Am I correct in thinking custom robos are very small? Or would his size match Link?

 

[Rayleigh]

It’s been a long time since I’ve played a custom robo game, but I am all for Ray making the roster. But what scale would he be? Am I correct in thinking custom robos are very small? Or would his size match Link?

Check out the link my signature, The Case For Custom Robo, for a good deal of information like that. But, to summarize:

- Custom Robos average around 8-10cm tall. For reference, this makes them around 4-5 time the size of Captain Olimar.
- The Two Ray Models people think about the Most, Ray MKlll and Ray-01, are usually perceived differently:
A) Ray MKlll is imagined around the size of Toon Link or Olimar.
B) Ray-01 is imagined to be around the size of Samus.

 

[smashkirby]

Man, the thought of Ray getting resized in Smash just... throws me off so much. As most of us know, the Custom Robos (Ray included) are (canonically) 8-10 cm. tall. Yet, in regards to Smash, I can't help but picture Ray being about as tall as Samus or Link.

 

[Rayleigh]

Man, the thought of Ray getting resized in Smash just... throws me off so much. As most of us know, the Custom Robos (Ray included) are (canonically) 8-10 cm. tall. Yet, in regards to Smash, I can't help but picture Ray being about as tall as Samus or Link.

I'm glad you brought this up, since it comes to the question of: Should you resize them based on the world of Custom Robo, or should you resize them based on a Custom Robo's world.

If you look at the former concept, it makes sense for a Robo like MKlll to be scaled to the size of Olimar or Toon Link since Conventional Custom Robos (Unlike autonomous ones) are very small. So having Custom Robo represent itself within Smash makes sense, and this is why the Ray MKlll assist trophy works the way it does; it's small. Custom Robos are small...but a Custom Robo fighter would have to be larger than the Assist Trophy was, as it was too small to be a player-fighter.

But if you look at a Custom Robo within it's own world, you would find that a Custom Robo like Ray-01 is fairly tall, likely around the height of the player protagonist, who is a 17-18 year old male. You can assume them to be around 5'8"-5'10". Within the Holosseum, Ray-01 is the canon Avatar of the Protagonist and one of the predominately human robos, alongside the other Shining Fighters, the Aerial Beauty line, and the Strike Vanisher line. Place any of these next to a Metal Grappler (Bigger than a normal man) or a Little Raider (around the height of a child) and you realize that they fit that nice 'adult human shape' and 'adult human size'. So, within the world of a Custom Robo (AKA within a Hollosseum battle), Ray-01 is the size of an adult male. If you translate this information into Smash, and take the Toys to Life concept to heart, Ray-01 would be comparable to characters like Link, (Dark) Samus, all four Marths, and Bayonetta.