Originally written November 2018. I think this was the first time I talked about Hot Rod in my reviews.
Last month, Canadian Transformers fans were treated to new, special theatrical screenings of the original 1986 Transformers animated movie, myself included (2022 edit: No, not the ones they just did, there was another set before that). Love it, hate it, think it’s overexposed, think it’s the highlight of the franchise, it’s a massive touchstone of everything Transformers. It’s also the first starring role of one of my favorite characters in the franchise, the hot-blooded young Autobot warrior, Hot Rod. Not quite up there with Prime and Bumblebee, Hot Rod’s still an important character to the franchise, so it makes sense that they’d receive a high-end figure in Takara Tomy’s Transformers Masterpiece line. Officially numbered as MP-28, this version Hot Rod dates back to 2016, and is actually the second attempt at a Masterpiece of the figure. The previous one was larger and more complex, being able to change between Hot Rod, and their powered-up form as (decades-old spoiler) the new Autobot leader, Rodimus Prime. That other figure is notorious for being overly fiddly, complex, and prone to breaking, so this second version aimed to just be Hot Rod, and also be in the smaller (and cheaper) scale of the newer Masterpiece Autobot cars.
From the time the first promo images appeared, this was a controversial figure. The stated mission of the Masterpiece line is to be a perfect representation of a classic character’s cartoon appearance, and MP Hot Rod made some design compromises, particularly in his robot mode, that may have gone against that, leading to some divisions in the fandom. But, two years later, with the benefit of hindsight, how’s it held up? Let’s re-examine this Masterpiece, and find out. In short, those problems are definitely present, but are offset by a lot of equally good qualities.
Vehicle Mode
For lack of better terms, Hot Rod changes into a swoopy space car. Like most of the characters that made their debut in the animated movie, Hot Rod wasn’t designed to be a realistic vehicle, but rather, a sci-fi one, which designer Floro Dery infused with a certain retro-futuristic look. So, while this car’s not so futuristic that it doesn’t include proper wheels and a driver’s cab, it’s also got elaborate exhaust pipes down his side, and a big, pointy yellow spoiler coming out of his back. It’s extremely thin and sleek, and its wedge shape communicates speed. It’s also made out of sturdy materials, and fans that complain about hollow figures or flimsy plastic have nothing to fear here.
One excellent thing about this figure: The color balance is perfect. Hot Rod’s colors have always been difficult to replicate in toy form, with many figures opting for some version of red or orange. This one gives them a proper, rich reddish-purple base plastic color, contrasting with both painted and sculpted orange and yellow parts, along with clear blue windows (though there’s just robot bits inside, not seats). Their most distinct character detail, a flame pattern on his hood with an Autobot symbol in the middle, is perfectly replicated. They have some chrome parts, too, like their exhaust pipes and engine block, and I’ll admit, I wish the chrome parts were just shiny painted plastic. As anyone who owned a Beast Wars Transmetal back in the day can attest, chrome can chip and peel. Already, the engine block on mine’s chipped a bit, and the transformation can make it worse.
The real, major issue with this mode is the fact that this car can’t really roll without the robot bits underneath scraping the ground. I seem to recall it not scraping the ground out of the box, but many transformations later, ensuring everything on it is fitted as well as it can be, I still can’t make it happen.
In terms of gimmickery, Hot Rod can interact with two of their accessories in this form, a pair of grey laser pistols, based on the ones that came with their original 80’s toy (reviewed here), and were seldom used on the show (Hot Rod would usually just shoot lasers from the pipes on their wrists). The engine block can flip up, and a single gun can be mounted where it was, with the gun having a second, flippable handle to make it fit. It looks a bit awkward, but it also did on the original toy. In a not-based-on-anything-but-much-nicer feature, both guns can also mount behind the car’s driver’s seat, using a really nifty system you sometimes see on prestige toys, where instead of just pegging into a hole, the guns fit into a flat panel that compresses inward.
Transformation
This is a bright spot on this figure, especially considering some Masterpiece figures can be notoriously difficult to transform. Not this one, though. While it isn’t exactly a 10-step figure, Hot Rod’s nice and easy and intuitive to convert into a robot, or back again. Everything tabs in, holds solidly, and has an obvious place to go and stay. You do need to be careful moving the head and engine block around on their axis though, or you could scrape paint off of either of them. But overall, it’s a very impressive trip from one form to the other.
Robot Mode
Alright, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way, and address the reason this figure’s controversial: Hot Rod’s proportions are weirdly off, and inaccurate, on top of just being bad-looking, the big offenders being the chest and legs. Basically, Hot Rod’s entire chest and stomach are formed by the hood of the car, and creates a front that’s noticeably too large and wide for the rest of their body, with the effect being somewhere between them having a barrel chest, and wearing an apron. As a byproduct of this, their arms also appear to be too far apart, and their head looks a bit narrow. Admittedly, the animation model that the figure’s based off of cheated and shrunk down the hood to make the robot mode more proportionate, however, the previous Masterpiece figure of Hot Rod didn’t have this issue, thanks to cuts on the hood and chest that allowed it to compress. The fact is, this was done to facilitate a gimmick, which I’ll talk more about below.
The second issue with Hot Rod, made worse by the overly-large torso, is that their waist and legs are a bit too skinny and sticklike. The effect is that their whole body is proportioned something like an upside-down triangle, instead of the more proportionate body their’’s supposed to have. Finally, Rod’s also got a bit of a backpack, though that’s more forgivable, considering those parts had to go somewhere. All that being said, this guy’s a bit hard to photograph, and these problems are almost unfairly emphasized by their official stock photography, being much less noticeable in person. The fact is that, while these flaws definitely exist, they’re not as obvious in the flesh, and posing Rod correctly can de-emphasize him (though one shouldn’t have to hide those flaws).
Standing about as tall as a Voyager-class mainline Transformers figure, Hot Rod’s colors continue to be basically perfect, adding in a bit more dark brown to the toy, in the form of their boots. They also have an excellent facial sculpt, translating the animation model’s face into plastic quite well. Their poseable, opening hands are kind of odd-looking, in that they replicate the oddly skeletal look of the animation model’s hands but it’s a detail I appreciate. Speaking of poseability, that’s another area where this figure can’t be beat. They’ve got the full suite of Masterpiece joints, including ankles, knees, hips, the waist, neck shoulders, elbows, wrists, and those opening and closing hands. But it’s not just that they’re very articulated. It’s that the figure articulate s with personality. It’s sort of an indescribable extra, in that it’s easy for them to look heroic and dynamic with just a few twists. The waist bend, unfortunately, looks odd, due to the joint for it being right at the front of the waist, making you detach the hips from his body to lean them over
In terms of gimmicks and accessories, I’ll start with the controversial one, the reason why no attempt was made to shrink the hood-chest down: It actually opens up, by a jointed panel, to expose an empty chamber, intended to house an Autobot Matrix of Leadership, the plot device Hot Rod inherits at the end of the original movie. Here’s the kicker, though: Masterpiece Hot Rod doesn’t actually come with one. Instead, you’re meant to use the Matrix accessory that came with MP-10, Masterpiece Optimus Prime, which, for demonstration purposes, I have on-hand.
This rubs me the wrong way for a few reasons. Firstly, there’s the basic fact that so much work was put into making this figure compatible with an accessory you can only get with another, far more expensive figure (in fact, on the secondary market, it’s common to find bootlegs of this toy that actually come with a Matrix). Secondly, this gimmick came at the cost of sacrificing the overall design and aesthetics of the figure, and causing a big, obvious issue in the form of their chest. Thirdly, Hot Rod was never actually shown stashing the Matrix in their chest in this form, only later on in the show, as Rodimus Prime, meaning this wasn’t even some sort of essential, key character trait or scene reference they were making.
At least their other gimmicks and accessories, which mostly replicate moments from the animated movie, are fun and clever. Firstly, by opening the top of their head, you can flip a clear blue visor over their eyes, to replicate the magnifying visor they famously used in a particular scene in the movie. Secondly, they can still hold those seldom-used toy-based grey guns really well, and pose with them.
Thirdly, Hot Rod comes with a shiny silver buzzsaw weapon that can be mounted onto one of their wrists after folding a hand away, based on the one used in the film’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stand in our Way” sequence (yes, I did link it, and yes, you should watch it again, I’ll wait.)
Whereas the previous Masterpiece depicted this buzzsaw in its actual, three-bladed form, this one turns it into an effect part, sculpting it as though it were in the process of spinning, which is a cool effect, even if it does make Hot Rod look a bit like a horror movie killer.
Finally, Hot Rod’s most amusing accessory is a grey fishing rod (with some black paint on the tackle), based on the one used in their oddly quaint introduction in the animated movie.
It’s a bit hard to pose them like they’re actually fishing, but there’s plenty of neat stuff the figure can still do with it.
Overall
It’s almost frustrating how close to good this figure is. Much of the sculpting is excellent. The colors are flawless. It’s got an elegant, well-designed transformation. It’s extremely poseable, and chock full of personality. But I just can’t get around the robot mode’s outright bad proportions, and how they seem to only exist because of a questionable gimmick that’s compromised the final product. If this weren’t a Masterpiece, I wouldn’t be as bothered, but in a line fixated on “perfect” representations, it just doesn’t stack up, which is disappointing.
(2022 notes: It wasn’t much of a recommendation back then, and now, it’s fascinating how this figure’s gotten more invalidated. Studio Series 86 Hot Rod’s come out since then (reviewed here), and managed to fix all of the proportional problems this figure had, and even comes with a Matrix. Basically, all this one’s got going for it in comparison to that is a) the fishing rod, and b) the transformation on this one was a bit more fun, to me. Heck, if you want a Hot Rod with a simpler transformation that leads to a disproportionate robot mode, Titans Return/Legends Hot Rod (reviewed here) did that better, by turning those proportions into a more stylized robot mode, instead of trying and failing to be the animation model. Basically, history’s left this release behind, but it represents a fascinating evolutionary step on the road to the highs we’d hit later on.)
