RD basses are great. they are a little different from the older Gibson EB and Thunderbirds in that they have solid maple body and neck. Still a glue in neck though – typical Gibson. The standard is passive, the Artist all active. Solid body Gibsons were usually mahogany until the Grabber/Ripper/G3 series came along, and this is the first active Gibson bass. The compression / expansion circuitry is all quite interesting,

Very big and heavy, but with a terrific range of sound. I prefer the Artist to the Standard. You can get super bass, to super treble and anywhere in between. I play it live more than most of my other Gibsons because of this flexability

And yeah, they really do look cool
You can see some info on these basses here
Gibson RD artist bass Gibson RD standard bass