Review #22: Legends Class Hot Rod
Hello again, dear readers. And greetings from an airport! Sadly, not traveling recreationally. Have to go to the home office of the company I work for for a few days... Such is life. But maybe while I am in Columbus, I'll get to see some of the city's famous superheros? Sadly, I doubt I'll be so fortunate, if for no other reason then I am relatively confident that that webcomic is fictional... but one can always live in hope, yes?
So, where was I? Ah yes, Hot Rod Month, part III! As stated last time, we'll be looking at the few Hot Rods I own in order from smallest to largest. So we'll be taking a look at the next one up, 2008's Legends Class offering in the Universe line. Should (theoretically) be a shorter review, hopefully just the thing to kill time while waiting in airports! Let us take a look at this Classics style mini-Hot Rod, shall we? |
The 2008 Legends Class assortment that this figure was a part of was sadly one of those blink and you'll miss them wave of toys, and indeed I never saw them in retail. Fortunately, I was able to snag a set of them, and the also elusive previous wave, consisting of Legends Class versions of Bumblebee, Brawn, Beachcomber, Cosmos, Warpath, Wheelie, and of course Hot Rod. Ebay came to the rescue for a surprisingly good price seeing as these toys are not the easiest ones to find. All in all, a wonderful assortment of Legends class figures updating many of the G1 mini-bots, and I'll have to review them one of these days. But one name in that list was not a mini-bot... (Well, at least until he became Star Convoy's bitch, ha ha.)
Hot Rod (or Rodimus without the "Prime," as he is often named these days for trademark reasons) was a curious choice to receive the Legends treatment. But he is not unique in this. While I love the Deluxe Class versions, my Legends Jazz and Hound are both pretty neat, too. Can the same be said here?
Hot Rod (or Rodimus without the "Prime," as he is often named these days for trademark reasons) was a curious choice to receive the Legends treatment. But he is not unique in this. While I love the Deluxe Class versions, my Legends Jazz and Hound are both pretty neat, too. Can the same be said here?
Well, in vehicle mode, it definitely looks like Hot Rod. He's red. He has a spoiler. He has flames. Those are the hall marks of a Hot Rod. The lack of an exposed engine block is a bit disapointing, but such is life. I don't demand that every Hot Rod be identical, and this one certainly hits most of the important details, if in a somewhat vague way.
The top face of the spoiler is painted a metalic gold colour, but it is a colour that has a funny way of blending in really well with the red plastic, so that from some angles and depending on how the light hits it, it almost doesn't look as if it has any colour to it at all. That is really the only complaint I have on the paint, I wish they had just painted the yellow parts of this guy a more vibrant yellow (rather then the somewhat dull colour they did use for the yellow on him) and then used that same yellow on the spoiler. Not often you'll hear me complaining that Hasbro should have used one less colour on their paint applications, but that is the case here.
One other minor nit pick... A shame that the plastic that connects the spoiler to the rest of Hot Rod couldn't have been red plastic. That black bar just sticks out and is a bit of an eye sore. I suspect it is a matter of that piece having been molded with Hot Rod's other black plastic parts, although since this was the first use of the mold, one wonders why it couldn't have been molded with the other red parts?
Overall, though, an adaquate if not outstanding vehicle for Hot Rod. You can tell it is him, and that is the important thing. But, while sadly I never got this figure, I must say that the mold actually worked a heck of a lot better when it was redecoed into Smokescreen a few years later.
Well, I'm going to pause here. I think we'll be boarding in twenty or so minutes, and I don't want to be in the middle of typing something when that starts. But I have a lovely two hour layover in Atlanta, so hopefully that will give me time to have a spot of dinner and work more on this!
The top face of the spoiler is painted a metalic gold colour, but it is a colour that has a funny way of blending in really well with the red plastic, so that from some angles and depending on how the light hits it, it almost doesn't look as if it has any colour to it at all. That is really the only complaint I have on the paint, I wish they had just painted the yellow parts of this guy a more vibrant yellow (rather then the somewhat dull colour they did use for the yellow on him) and then used that same yellow on the spoiler. Not often you'll hear me complaining that Hasbro should have used one less colour on their paint applications, but that is the case here.
One other minor nit pick... A shame that the plastic that connects the spoiler to the rest of Hot Rod couldn't have been red plastic. That black bar just sticks out and is a bit of an eye sore. I suspect it is a matter of that piece having been molded with Hot Rod's other black plastic parts, although since this was the first use of the mold, one wonders why it couldn't have been molded with the other red parts?
Overall, though, an adaquate if not outstanding vehicle for Hot Rod. You can tell it is him, and that is the important thing. But, while sadly I never got this figure, I must say that the mold actually worked a heck of a lot better when it was redecoed into Smokescreen a few years later.
Well, I'm going to pause here. I think we'll be boarding in twenty or so minutes, and I don't want to be in the middle of typing something when that starts. But I have a lovely two hour layover in Atlanta, so hopefully that will give me time to have a spot of dinner and work more on this!
Well, bother. The airport I had the layover in didn't have wi-fi. (Or rather, not free wi-fi...) So, having gotten setteled in the hotel, I am finally getting back to this even if it is a wee bit later then I'd intended. Heck, by the time I finish, it will likely be early tomorrow. So, I believe I was about to look at the robot mode, yes?
Well here it is. I am, frankly, slightly underwhelmed by it. It isn't bad... it just isn't great. It's just kind of okay, and that is even taking the scale into account. (I tend to be more forgiving of flaws the smaller a figure is.) Although I suppose I should give it props for being the first figure I've reviewed for this month that gets the spoiler in vaguely the right spot for robot mode... Although being painted the way it is, it does kind of blend in with the rest of the figure and not provide a very good contrast. Articulation is about avarage for a Legends class figure. His hips are ball jointed and his shoulders can rotate. I'm not going to knock the figure for this, though. It is the pleasent exception when a Legends class figure has more articulation then that, and when it does more often then not it is because a joint needed for transformation by happy chance is also one useful for posing. |
Comparison time! Two comparison photos this time. One is the standard comparison with a DVD case, and one showing all of the Hot Rods we've looked at thus far lined up together.
So yeah... Not a figure I regret having, but not one I would call an essential or a must have. If by chance you come across one cheap, I wouldn't suggest turning your nose up at it. But nor, unless you are a Hot Rod fanatic in the way I am for Optimus, would I suggest going out of your way to get this guy. |
Review added by Yotsuya, 19 April 2012. Please comment!