Look, this was made specifically for me, ok? I rented Transformers: The Movie compulsively around the turn of the millennium, and pretty much know the whole thing by heart, Hot Rod’s one of my favorite characters ever, my G1 Hot Rod figure (specifically, the 2002 Commemorative Series reissue, reviewed over here) is a favorite of mine, and they’ve never done a pink Hot Rod before (well, the ReAction Figure was pink, so, no proper mainline figure).
How it started.
Yes, while it depended a little on which transfer of the film you watched, Hot Rod first burst onto the big screen confidently wearing a bright purply-pink color scheme, one that would be forgotten and subsumed by a more toy-accurate red as soon as the show picked up after the film. The reason behind this was that the original prototype of Hot Rod’s figure was pink, but someone somewhere got cold feet about a boy’s toy being that shade, and changed it before the final release, late enough that the movie’s colors were based off it.
As if Prince Adam hadn’t been rocking a pink shirt a few years earlier.
And it’s something HasTak’s management still seemingly has a hangup about. 2020’s Studio Series 86 Hot Rod, despite being in a line that aimed for film-accuracy, was released with a red base color, and Hasbro designer Evan Brooks, in an instagram post about the figure, confirmed that it was supposed to be properly pink, but upper management shot it down. But in 2022, it’s time for Hot Rod to finally be the color they were supposed to be, and it’s been done in the most unusual, unexpected way: By taking a G1 reissue, and painting it in screen-accurate colors, going back to the beginning.
On one hand, you can’t see the figure. On the other hand, that art!
This release is the first in something being marketed as Transformers Retro, though it brands it as “The Transformers: The Movie” on the box (which, by the way, is shaped like the G1 box, but windowless, and covered in absolutely gorgeous art), which, based on the one other announced release (a G1 Starscream repaint), seems to be taking vintage G1 toolings and giving them animation-accurate colors. And what a way to start it off! A shame that this release (and the one other in the line so far) are stuck in the Wal-Mart Exclusive prison, where that store’s lackadaisical approach to actually stocking exclusive figures makes it hard to get (I doubt it’ll ever hit physical store shelves, though a round of stock is currently up for preorder on the Canadian website). That, and this release is being sold for the pricey, and oddly specific amount of $47.97 Canadian, which comes with the territory for G1 reissues. But, it’s a set of barriers I was willing to navigate to see this rose-tinted dream made plastic.
Vehicle Mode
That spoiler’s got to be a hazard in traffic.
As a part of the first burst of Floro Dery-designed 1986 characters, Hot Rod eschewed the realistic alternate modes of the bots that came before, and instead opted to change into a space-age concept car from the far-flung future of 2005, with an exposed engine, giant exhaust pipes on the side, a domed cockpit, and a big spoiler in the back.
A matching pair.
The car’s about the size of a modern Deluxe figure, but way denser, feeling like a solid brick of plastic (with a bit of diecast metal hiding in the rear), and comes with no hollow bits whatsoever.
A surprise tooling that will help us later.
This figure’s take on the alternate mode is a lot more blocky than the sleeker shape of the screen design, almost seeming chibified in places, but it wears its mass well. The designers even went out of the way to sculpt an interior into the cockpit, though you’ve got no way to access it. I’d say the biggest departure in design is the support struts on either side of the spoiler, a concession to fragility.
Which one is “how it started” and which one is “how it’s going” depends on your point of view.
So, these colors are the big selling point. To begin with, the stickers of the original are completely gone, all details are entirely painted, which is a relief to me, in some ways. Vintage G1 stickers are stressful to apply if you’re a stickler for getting them on straight, since they come to pieces if you try and take them off (Toyhax, reviewed here, may cost mad money, but their stickers can endure being re-applied). On the other hand, my copy came out of the box with the paint on the hood chipped (I was able to patch it with a toothpick slathered in Gundam Marker Yellow), so perhaps it’s a mixed blessing.
Before I repaired it (to the right of the engine).
Either way, the stickers don’t factor into this mode very much, though it’s kind of odd seeing a sculpted indent for a rubsign on the roof that’s no longer there.
The only other G1 bot I’ve got.
You have to flex the spoiler to get it around the edges of the trailer, but it fits.
As for the car’s colors themselves, the red’s been cleanly swapped out for a wonderful purply-pink. It’s not quite the same shade all over, if you look closely, the hood and roof are marginally darker than the body, though it’s very close, and it’s a perfect color choice, regardless. Meanwhile, the engine block and pipes are no longer chrome, and are a light, milky gray. To be real, I kind of wish they’d kept the chrome, it was a good look, even if they’re going for a “cell animation” look with the gray.
Studio Series 86 Hot Rod’s pipes are a better choice of color, though the pink means the Retro one wins overall.
The hood, with its flames and Autobrand, is entirely painted on in orange, yellow and red, and in a nice bit of attention to detail, it’s not the same design as the original sticker, but is instead a simplified, animation-accurate set of three flames. As for the yellow spoiler and clear blue windows, those are the same shades, to my eyes, while the wheel rims on the car’s tires are a slightly lighter gray.
Proto Colors squad!
In terms of build quality, it’s a heavy, solid, bricky car. It actually feels different from my Commemorative Series version in my hands, and initially I thought maybe the materials used were different, until I realized that nearly every surface of the original has stickers or chrome on it, while this one is bare plastic and paint. Outside of that, it’s just as heavy and chunky as the original, and still comes with nicely rubberized tires.
Get ready to hurl a brick!
One issue that seems limited to the new one is its hood, which doesn’t lock down as well as the older one. Lifting the car by the hood can make it flop upwards from its proper position, and make the engine block rattle around. Nothing on it pegs in, and it’s held in place entirely on joint friction, which is now looser on this release. It’s not a huge thing, though, and it stays in place as you roll it around on the table.
This is kind of a one-sided showdown.
Outside of that nice rolling, Hot Rod comes with their traditional pair of photon pistols, with that same funky detail of them actually being two distinct sculpts. This time around, they’re cast in the same milky light gray as the engine and exhaust pipes, and I’ve got to say, it doesn’t look great on them. Compared to the darker shades of the original guns, the details on these get washed out.
Prepare to fire the milk!
While these weapons don’t stash anywhere on the car, you can plug one of them into the engine for an attack mode, and it’s here that I became aware of an interesting bit of retooling on this version: The port on the engine block, and the handles of the guns have both been retooled, and made wider.
Check the handles.
A quick Wiki walk tells me this isn’t a new thing, it’s been this way since the 2004 Takara “Bookbox” reissue. Why does this matter? Because both the guns and the port on the engine are now 5 millimeters, meaning they’re compatible with the War for Cybertron weapons system. You can give Rod’s guns to basically any current Generations figure to use, and you can mount almost anything on the engine block. I went with my Battlemaster Firedrive, in order to convert Hot Rod into their Targetmaster variant.
Cheaper than tracking down any of the versions that came with the original Targetmaster.
It’s a little change, but the seemingly unintentional integration with the current accessory ecosystem helps a lot.
I feel like they’d have a lot to talk about, being basically the same thing.
Transformation
This is an all-time favorite transformation of mine, and might be the best part of the figure, because it’s just a really pleasant set of steps, in a tactile way.
Before the fun begins.
It’s simple enough, (extend the feet and arms, flip the hood down, rotate the spoiler/roof) but also involved enough to feel satisfying, and moving the big chunks around feels good (the legs in particular). I can almost recommend the G1 Hot Rod tooling simply for its fidget toy energy.
Robot Mode
Soak it in.
This is where the lion’s share of the repainting comes into play, but let’s back up.
And look at the back.
G1 Hot Rod’s sculpt is pure retro-robot. It’s a familiar set of details: The hood-chest, the spoiler on the back, the pipes on the arms. But it’s all on a character that’s chunkier and brickier than most versions. It’s person-shaped, if that person were wearing cardboard boxes.
Fits right in with the King of Boxes.
The funny thing is, ignoring the proportions, the sculpt actually does feature most of the details of the screen design, just a bit warped, with the biggest deviations being the car parts and exhaust pipes attached to the boots, and the engine block that makes up the back of their head.
Statuesque.
Speaking of the head sculpt, it’s definitely a proportional departure from the screen design, but a neat-looking one, with an oddly tall forehead, and a chiseled, neutral facial expression. It almost feels like the static, non-moving faceplate of a super robot. I’m not complaining, though, it’s got vibes.
What a stunner!
The biggest downside of the sculpt, though, is how they look from the side: Extremely flat, but also with a big hole through their torso, odd to see on a figure that’s otherwise dense and chunky.
Both flat AND hollow.
So, these colors. This mode is where they really make an impression. The base color is the same shades of lovely vibrant purply-pink, and fine-I-guess milky-gray pipes.
Still a part of the Proto Colors Squad.
But the rest of the deco has been entirely reworked, and that’s impressive. See, they could have just taken the original deco, changed the red to pink, and nothing else, and I’d have been happy (and some people may have preferred that, since then it would look specifically like the original prototype), Instead, the new deco layout is aiming to be as screen-accurate as it possibly can.
Like night and day.
Their boots are now dark gray, and there’s a little bit of orange above them to suggest knees, there’s orange and yellow at the wrists, over painted gray hands, painted gray on the intakes on their shoulders, an orange painted collar, and even a miniscule little gray square on their head crest. A subtle bit of extra work that I really like is on both the figure’s head and pelvic plate, where it’s revealed that the mismatched shades of pink were intentional, as both areas have two-tone patterns imitating the subtle shading of the animation model.
Maybe a base that barely makes it up to your legs isn’t the best defense.
The best thing about this new deco (outside of an over-the-top dedication to screen accuracy) is that it makes me look at the sculpting itself in a new light, because it highlights all these animation-accurate details that were always there, and just weren’t emphasized by the colors previously. Heck, comparing the two side by side, this release actually has a more complete deco than the Studio Series 86 release!
The Letter versus The Spirit, unless you’re talking deco, in which case it’s flipped.
I’d say the only real downside of this new colorscheme is that the lack of stickers has exposed bare screwholes in a couple places, on the shoulders and just above the feet. It’s a fair trade, though.
Two youths with a hefty destiny.
For build quality, the figure’s still a solid, dense brick, and is even a little more solid than the car mode, since the hood-chest locks in firmly at the waist. It didn’t need help standing on its broad, flat feet, but it gets help anyway, due to the weighted diecast metal toes the figure has (which are unpainted, and shiny).
Flamewar’s making fun of their brickiness.
So, yeah, articulation is pretty nil. It’s G1, no one cared back then. Hot Rod’s here to look pretty, not perform for you. The figure’s elbows can bend up and down, and swivel sideways, their shoulders can sort of flex backwards and forwards, and, oddly, they have swiveling wrists, particularly baffling since there’s no transformation-related need for them (which is really why most of the other joints are even there).
“Ehh, whatever.”
And that’s it! It’s not about poseability, it’s about vibes.
Enough vibes to blast ‘Cons.
For features, Hot Rod can now hold both photon lasers, in each hand. And, again, the figure’s fists have been retooled to be compatible with modern Generations accessories, so you can have fun giving Rod modern weapons, or giving their weapons to other figures.
It’s a Targetmaster Tradeoff.
The cross-compatibility just adds a little more.
As ridiculous as you want it.
Stick’em up! Because they literally can’t.
Oh, also, because I’ve got nowhere else to note it: For some reason, the wheels on the figure’s shoulders have been slightly retooled on this version, in a way that’s only visible in robot mode, the side facing front has now got more tire and less hubcap.
Check the shoulder wheels.
It doesn’t really affect anything, I’ve just not seen it noted anywhere.
Overall
Perfect, ten out of ten, no notes.
So says Danny.
Okay, look, this is laser-guided towards me. G1 Hot Rod’s a fun figure that’s stood the test of time. It’s not a fancy modern articulated thing, it’s a complete brick, but it’s a good-looking brick that’s fun to transform. If that appeals to you like it does to me, you’ll love it.
The (G1) Rod Squad.
But in this new deco? Magnificent, perfect. Hot Rod is finally pink, and they went back to the beginning to do it. But more than that, it really feels like extra work went into this paint job, making it as film-accurate as possible, and stuffing it with detail. It’s a gorgeous display piece, and a fun thing to have in your hand all at the same time. It makes me wish I had more G1 stuff, so this one wasn’t so out of place on my shelves. On that note, if they keep making more Retro figures in this style, I’m probably in. Do Optimus next!
An even bigger Rod Squad.
As for that somewhat hefty price tag, and the hoops being a Wal-Mart exclusive means you have to jump through, this is one time I’d say it’s worth it. Heck, I’d call it more worth it than the straight up Vintage reissue was, thanks to the hefty deco on this version. This is full of way more plastic and metal than a normal Deluxe, and seems to have gone whole-hog on the paint, so I can see where the money went. Bottom line: It’s worth it, and it’s about time.
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