RodimusWave 1 of Transformers Classics have arrived courtesy of a UK eBay seller. Reviews of all 4 will follow over the next few days. Each toy has a lovely embossed Autobot or Decepticon symbol on the plastic bubble - a nice touch, and one that's sure to produce a few mispackaged variants.
Rodimus is the classics version of the G1 Hotrod character. It's the latest G1 character reincarnated in the first wave of classics - most of the others are original Autobots or Decepticons, with
Astrotrain a 2nd year character while
Hot Rod is a 1986 movie toy, and not a
Diaclone or
Microchange reuse.
Hot Rod reappears with a Targetmaster a year after his original release, and then as [url=http://www.tfu.info/1991/Cybertron/HotRodimus/hotrodimus.htm
The car itself is obviously Hot Rod - the basic colour is dead on, even if the fin is slightly off colour being orange instead of yellow. The fire detail is present on the bonnet along with the engine block and the long clear blue sloped window, while the silver pipe detail is down the sides of the car. The rear of the car puts me more in mind of
Sideswipe rather than Hot Rod. There's space under the back of the car to store his missile launcher, and you can attach the blue flame missile in the stored mode to make it appear as if there's a flame jet from the rear of the vehicle. There's some nice interior detail visible through the window which makes me want to be able to raise the roof up to put a small figure inside. Sadly you can't.
Rodimus has an attack mode: Slightly pull the sides of the back of the car away from the central bit attached to the fin, and then fold this section onto the top of the car and the wind screen. The instructions don't show this but I think it looks better if you rotate the sides of the fins as you go - the fin is in 3 pieces with the sides able to rotate forwards or back if there's enough space - so the basic shape of the fins is pointing backwards still. The stored missile launcher is now on top of the car facing forward reminding you of some of the Targetmaster vehicles. I could swear I could remember a toy which had an automatic flip up feature like this where the back folds on top of the roof. I may be thinking of
Cybertron Override or Galaxy Force Nitro Convoy though. The missile's range is about 1m.
To Transform into Robot Mode you first go to my version of the attack mode by slightly pulling the sides of the back of the car away from the central bit attached to the fin, and then fold this section onto the top of the car and the wind screen while rotating the sides of the fins so they still point backwards. Pull the sides of the car at the front out to form the arms, and fold the hands out from the inside of the arms. Fold the front of the car under the car to form the robot chest and reveal the head. Pull the rear wheels out to the sides by about 5mm and fold down the panels just below the robot chest to reveal the upper legs and lock the wheels in place. Fold the feet down from the back of the car, and fold the heel spurs out from the back of them. Fold each leg out to the side to straighten them - there's an odd sideways joint below the hip and then fold down at the hips extending the sides of the upper legs to the sides of the legs slightly. Slide the upper body forward a couple of mm at the waist. Rotate the entire back/fin panel like G1 Hotrod so the fin points down and you're done.
His articulation consists of ankles, a rotating joint below the knee, knee, hip, shoulders, elbow and neck. Unless the panels at the side of the upper leg are folded to the sides this will limit the joints at the knee. This in turn means the legs can't be fully straightened under the waist and looks a little odd. It also means the legs have an odd habit of swinging sideways.
The robot mode looks like a slightly chunkier and squarer version of the original G1 Hot Rod. Almost everything is in the right places here apart from the engine block - previously the back of the head - now forms Hot Rod's collar. The hands can hold the missile launcher, but the peg for that and the hand size is slightly smaller than the standard 5mm pegs used in the last few years. The left arm has an additional feature that folds out from under where the hand is - the cardback claims it's a communicator but it looks more like the buzzsaw Hot Rod uses in the movie. The head has a lightpipe using the same purple blue plastic from the windscreen.
Apart from the minor gripe about the upper legs this is a good toy and a decent upgrade of the original character. My feeling is though it suffers slightly in comparison with the other three toys in it's wave:
Astrotrain,
Bumblebee and
Starscream.
I've recently become aware of a variation in Classics Rodimus when I read
the 2005 Boards Review of Protector & Sidearm and discovered that a small minority of people had difficulty getting Rodimus to hold Sidearm. I'm one of those. The fist holes on my Rodimus, plus the hole for mounting the gun in the vehicle and the gun handle itself, seem *slightly* bigger than the 4mm standard size used for Rodimus weapons. The difference isn't much, my Rodimus certainly can't hold a 5mm peg in his hand but it's enough that Rodimus can't hold Sidearm and that the Rodimus weapon doesn't fit onto the Protector trailer. Take note and beware.
Settle down, we're going to be here a while with the repaints.
Henkei RodimusRodimus was issued as part of the Henkei line in Japan as toy C-05. Here his flames are painted gold, with an orange painted bonnet (under the flames), an Autobot symbol on the bonnet and a gold chromed spoiler.
There's some nice comparison pictures at
EBI LabsShattered Glass RodimusShattered Glass Rodimus - available at Botcon 2008 - takes the original Rodimus mould and uses the following colour swaps:
Black replaces Red
Grey replaces Orange
Clear Orange replaces Clear Blue.
New purple with silver edged flame details are added taking up a larger area than before.
Essentially this is the Dark Rodimus repaint predicted when I first reviewed the toy and very similar to the
black e-Hobby version from 2001
Henkei WildriderHenkei Wildrider is an exclusive item from the "Chara Hobby 2008" show in Japan on August 30th, 2008.
Wildrider is very very similar to the Botcon Shattered Glass Rodimus. The flame decals are smaller, more the size of the standard release Rodimus, and coloured only silver bar the Decepticon logo on the bonnet. The clear plastic is coloured red and the spoiler is chromed silver.
Yeah, they're pretty similar. Of the two I think this one edges it for me but neither is cheap to get !
Henkei Sons of Cybertron RodimusAll goes quiet then for a few years. Then in 2010 the Transformers world went Rodimus crazy, probably due to him being the star of the Transformers 2010 series in Japan which was the third season of the western cartoon series. The number of Classics Rodimus reuses from this point onwards is incredible. I sat down to write the update for Battle In Space Rodimus and realises there were FOUR other uses of the mould missing from the review since I last updated it at around the start of 2010.
Sons of Cybertron Rodimus is a clear version of Classics Rodimus,similar to the
Clear E-Hobby version of Reissue
Hot Rod made in 2001. He comes in a 2-pack with
Sons of Cybertron Optimus, a clear version of
Classics Deluxe Optimus Prime. A similar Animated Sons of Cybertron set exists containing
Crystal Optimus, a clear version of
Animated Battle Begins Optimus Prime and
Crystal Rodimus, a clear version of
Animated Rodimus Minor.
Universe Challenge at Cybertron RodimusI'm quite pleased that, instead of releasing odd repaints, there's a trend towards bringing decent toys of popular toys back as the original character. Fans may groan, but people especially new fans, will always want Bumblebee, Hot Rod, Starscream etc. For several years now Star Wars has had a Legends line keeping popular moulds and characters on the shelves alongside newer toys.
The Challenge at Cybertron set features new versions of Classics Rodimus,
Universe Cyclonus (
picture) and
Universe Galvatron (
picture). All three toys go for a supposedly more cartoon like appearance. Rodimus swaps the burgundy red for a very bright red and black for grey, with the grey of the hands being painted a much lighter grey. All OK so far. Most of the orange stays the same but the spoiler is now painted bright yellow over the orange (I scraped a little of the paint off a non exposed section to check). An Autobot symbol is found on the centre of the bonnet. Still OK. The Clear blue is swapped for solid red. WHAT?
? And then painted light blue?
?? NO! But sadly it is so. I hate loosing clear plastic pieces and here we loose the windscreen, lightpipe and clear missile. The loss of the windscreen is particularly sad as it means you can no longer see all the interior detailing. The blue paint over the top of the red plastic makes the toy look like a knock off on the windscreen, and just doesn't work on the exhaust. The exhaust isn't even fully painted with the trigger part of the missile unpainted which results in a small red ring between gun barrel and "exhaust" I get they're going for a cartoon like look but the photos I've found of Hot Rod in car mode his windscreen is more white. An opaque blue or black would have been better than this, but I'd have much preferred a clear colour like a smoked black or very pale clear blue.
The Challenge of Cybertron set was available in the far east, through toy dealers and given away as prizes at the
Auto Assembly 2010 convention. It never received a retail distribution in the west.
For comparison pictures see the
2005 Boards Challenge at Cybertron review thread.
Reveal The Shield Battle in Space RodimusOne of the main problems with the Challenge on Cybertron set was the Galvatron within it. A criticism of the original was it could have been more purple and loose the pinkish connector parts. The connector parts stayed and the toy became more of a pale grey for the Challenge set. So it was with some relief that it was discovered that the Rodimus & Cyclonus from this set would be re-released in a 2-pack as part of Reveal The Shield *WITHOUT* the Galvatron from the Challenge set.
Early rumours and pictures indicated Rodimus was getting his clear parts back but sadly these proved to be false. In fact the only discernible change between the two versions is the replacement of the Autobot symbol on the car bonnet/robot chest with a die cut rub sign.
Aside from the toys this set includes a die cast Matrix, originally available with the Japanese exclusive 2002
New Year's Convoy and a brand new comic book story written by Simon Furman and drawn by "Boo" set within the original Transformers: The Movie story.
Reveal The Shield Battle in Space became available in the USA at the end of 2010 and in the UK at the start of 2011. ASDA have it for the cheapest standard price of £19.99 but a recent Tesco sale has seen it reduced to about £15!
E-Hobby RodimusLate in 2010 E-Hobby announces a pair of three packs featuring the Henkei/Transformers United versions
Autobots and
Decepticons from the 1986 Transformers Movie. The Autobot set consists of a slightly recoloured & battle damaged Kup, a Junkion Warrior based on the Wreck-Gar toy but with a new head and Hot Rod. Hot Rod in clear blue plastic. What
?? Is this where all the Clear Blue that we needed on the Challenge at Cybertron and Battle in Space sets went
?? The spoiler becomes clear green and the windscreen becomes clear.
TF Wiki's entry on Hot Rod toys says the following about this forthcoming toy:
emulating the scene in The Transformers: The Movie where Hot Rod catches the Matrix of Leadership to keep it from hitting the floor after a dying Optimus Prime dropped it.
They've also got a
picture of that scene and it's quite clear that it's the Matrix making everything look that colour rather than Hot Rod turning that colour.
Having said all that I think it looks rather nice and want one!
TFCC SideburnWay back in the dim and distant past of 2000, the Japanese Car Robots toy line, sold in the west in 2001/2 as Robots in Disguise, had a blue sports car:
C-004 Speedbreaker (RID Sideburn). During the series this character has a power-up turning into
C-026 Super Speedbreaker (RID Super Sideburn), a red Hot Rod homage. In 2011, the tenth anniversary of Robots in Disguise,
the Transformers Collectors Club is repaying the favour by repainting Classics Rodimus as Speedbreaker. Colour swap time:
Blue replaces Red.
White replaces Orange.
Clear Yellow replaces Clear Blue.
I think that looks gorgeous and that may get me to stump up the £50 necessary to join the club.
Future RepaintsBoth of original Hot Rod's 2001 E-Hobby repaints have effectively been done to the Classics mould:
Black as Botcon Rodimus and
Clear as Sons of Cybertron Rodimus, So I'm not seeing many repainting opportunities here. One route might be to further play on the Hot Rod/Speedbreaker link and raid Speedbreaker's recolours:
OTCC 2003 Roulette,
OTCC 2003 Shadow Striker and
Universe Sideburn . Another might be to repaint Rodimus as one of the other characters to have been turned into a Hot Rod homage:
Armada Hotshot or
Cybertron Hot Shot spring to mind.
? And then painted light blue?
