Official solicit:

TRANSFORMERS Classic Deluxe: RODIMUS Figure

Young and bold, RODIMUS races headlong into danger, throwing caution – and his orders – to the wind. He dreams of heroic deeds and hopes one day to gain the recognition his actions deserve. Despite his inexperience, he is a talented fighter. In battle, he can often be seen racing at speeds up to 180 miles per hour, dodging explosions and laser blasts in an attempt to close on his objective.

Awesome robot-to-race car vehicle figure features a flip-out data-com communicator in vehicle mode and a tailpipe that becomes a photon laser with firing projectile in robot mode!

Fall 2006
MSRP 9.99USD

The original Transformers movie opened the same day as my 11th birthday. I had probably the biggest birthday party I ever had, or ever will have, that Friday. My Dad rounded up pretty much every kid I knew, took us all to the theater, then out for pizza after that. It was one of the few times as a kid I felt like me and my Father bonded over something, as he seemed to genuinely enjoy the movie as well - and even laughed when Spike infamously dropped the *S* bomb. By the end of that Summer, I would go see that movie something like 3 or 4 more times in the theater, with various friends, any friends who wanted to go see it with me again.

I had more than a few Transformers toys back then, but I never got my hands on the hero of the movie, Hot Rod (or Rodimus Prime either…). I never even saw him, but for one fateful road trip later that Fall, somewhere between California and Salt Lake City, just some drug store we stopped at to get some snacks etc. While walking around, I saw Hot Rod on the shelves, and try as hard as I could to get my Dad to buy it for me, NO DICE.

As the years went by, and I got out of toys, then back in, then out, and then back in, I’d kind of always still wanted Hot Rod. Not that brick of a figure they released in ‘86 of course, because that thing was really awful. No, I wanted A Hot Rod, something that really captured the look and feel of the movie figure as best as it could, maybe even along the lines of a Masterpiece edition (which still may happen some day…).

So when the Transformers Classics line came out a few years ago, and it was announced we’d be getting a figure based on Hot Rod that was more accurate and articulated than the original G1 toy, I knew I had to have it.

On the card, we can see Hot Rod is now known simply as “Rodimus”, which is as I understand it due to a copyright issue or lapse. Lame, but fine. Call it what you want, but this is clearly Hot Rod. Once opened, we can see Hot Rod comes equipped with a gun and missile, and that’s about it.

Out of package, and in alt mode, we can see Hot Rod is a fine reinterpretation of his 1986 self. Slightly updated, but still encapsulation the feel of the original toy, this Hot Rod is even actually a little bit longer in car mode than the original! Also, as you can see in the far right picture, the gun and missile are incorporated into his vehicle mode and double as a jet turbine/exhaust with flames shooting out for effect, so he can actually keep his weapon on him at all times - nice design element!

My one gripe with this, and all Transformers lately - the hard plastic tires have to go. I know rubber tires on toys tend to degrade after awhile, but still, these awful looking hard plastic blech are just awful. They have no personality, and just make the toys look cheap too. BRING BACK THE RUBBER!

As for robot mode, the transformation is easy enough and doesn’t take very long. Hot Rod stands at a less than impressive 5 or so inches tall, which despite being longer than the original in vehicle mode, Hot Rod is actually quite a bit shorter than the G1 toy in this mode. There is a lot of detail in this mold, and it really captures the look of the 1986 movie version quite well, from his fin to the signature exhaust pipe blasters on this forearms. The colors are a rich crimson and orange, and are closer to the G1 toy than the movie versions. Although I’m not really sure how I feel about that fuschia-ish color on a toy anyways, right?

I’m not super thrilled with the sculpt of Hot Rod’s face, it seems like he’s a little more angry/mad and angular that he should be - but that’s probably a minor grip for a 9 dollar toy. One nice thing though, and despite being referred to as a “Flip Out Data-com Communicator” on the package, is that Hot Rod clearly comes with what is a saw-blade extension in his left hand/arm, as seen in the various scenes of the ‘86 movie when he and Kup crashed onto Quintessa - it’s a nice little touch and certainly warms the nerd heart, yeah?

The paint apps all range from fine to good, with the bulk of applications coming in the form of the flame decals on the hood/chest area, and then some silver/chromes here and there for effect. It would have been nice to have an Autobot symbol right smack in the middle of his chest, but that’s easily enough rectified if you want to order some from Reprolabels and diy.

Articulation on the figure is really hit and miss, despite having about 14 points, there are some pretty big design flaws that stunt most of that to feel like less. First of all, his head only moves left and right, not being on a ball-joint he can’t look up or down over his rather large chest. Next up, the shoulders are extremely limited in their movement, (as seen in the far left pic) with extension away from the body only coming at about 25 degrees or so because of the type of joint used, and also constantly ends up hitting against his fin/back-pack area too. Next up, the elbows are only on a hinge, with no circular rotation, making his arm movement ever more decreased - couple that with the length of his gun being longer than his forearm, and Hot Rod has to get pretty creative in shoot-outs while holding his gear. From the waist down though, he’s got much more range of motion and the figure really picks up some of the slack there. A nice center of balance allows him to hold the patented Murdershow Karate Kick Test™ with no problems though, so watch out Ninja-bots!

In the end, I’m left a little cold with this figure. Sure, he looks cool in the pictures, but in hand (and this is a problem I have with all of the Classics line), he’s really small. 5 inches tall in robot mode, his head is just around the size of my pinky fingernail too - that’s small! There’s just something puny feeling about him, I dunno what, but I don’t like it.

Second, while there was clearly a way engineered into the figure which allows his windshield/cockpit to open when he’s in vehicle mode (you can actually see the hinge and pin for it), but for some reason it’s been disabled by gluing the cockpit shut. I’ve seen some tutorials online showing various ways to modify the figure so it will open, but I’m really not sure why this was done at all to begin with. Opening doors and windows on cars is cool, what’s the deal Hasbro?!

Finally, the posability on the figure is pretty limited by the lack of of movement in the arm/shoulder area, and the head rotation is especially irritating as well, since ball jointed heads are nothing new and would seem to be easily enough incorporated into the figure. Hasbro really missed out on this figure I think, by not taking care of those problems in the design phase, leaving us with something that just looks cool but can’t do much more else.

For having to wait almost 20 years to get a decent Hot Rod figure, this just isn’t it. Sure, it’s definitely the BEST Hot Rod figure we’ve ever gotten, and may continue to be so for a while, but still, he’s just not quite up to snuff. Even considering the problems of this toy, and not just my own idealized perfect version of him that only exists in my head, I still know that Hasbro can do better.

And should.

Or else.