New Galleries: Masterpiece MP-25 Tracks and QT-17 Tracks

I quite like the flame pattern on the q-tracks. It would be perfect on the deluxe.

Wait a sec, his weapons platform doesn't have any treads or anything to prop it up off the ground? It seriously just sits there like a legless table?

The pics with Streak just make me feel worse about the fact that mine had his door snap off at the hinge.

Those Ironhide pictures look excellent

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Wait a sec, his weapons platform doesn't have any treads or anything to prop it up off the ground? It seriously just sits there like a legless table?

Out of curiosity, did anyone catch that he can have a cartoon accurate chest as well?

Tis not shaped cartoon-accurate, though, which was one of the things that gets me about this figure since the trapezoidal windshield helps make him look fat.

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Wait a sec, his weapons platform doesn't have any treads or anything to prop it up off the ground? It seriously just sits there like a legless table?

Out of curiosity, did anyone catch that he can have a cartoon accurate chest as well?

Tis not shaped cartoon-accurate, though, which was one of the things that gets me about this figure since the trapezoidal windshield helps make him look fat.

I agree it's not show accurate but Ironhide looks fine for the most part

Another month rolls in, another Takara Masterpiece figure comes out and you can be sure Seibertron will give you a gallery. This time it is for Takara's Masterpiece MP-28 Hot Rodimus, or as well call him in the west, Hot Rod.

This is a hotly anticipated figure since it is Takara's second take on this character in the Masterpiece line, and a chance to make up for the previous figure which a majority of fans found underwhelming. While this is similar to how Takara did an MP redux on Optimus Prime and Starscream, this figure differs in the fact that it is clearly an interpretation of the Hot Rod character from the 1986 Transformers film and not the Rodimus character he becomes later. The previous Masterpiece toy tried to represent both and thus a lot was sacrificed, leaving a gap in everyone's Masterpiece collection for an actual Hot Rod toy which could scale better with the newer Masterpiece figures post MP 10 (Optimus Prime).

You can be the judge of how well this toy answers your needs with the pictures in the gallery, which contain an extensive amount fo comparison pictures with the toys mentionned above and Ultra Magnus, among others. About Ultra Magnus, early pictures showed the capability for Hot Rod's car mode to fit on Ultra Magnus' trailer. While he can, Hot Rod's car mode is too wide to enter the trailer via the ramps. Let us know if you spot anything else in the gallery that you were unaware of before and if anything you see helps you make up your mind on whether or not this toy is for you.

Enjoy!

Transformers Masterpiece Hot Rodimus

This new Hotrod is definitely more fun to play with, and scale better, but it got its own issues. The ground clearance in alt mode, the comparative lack of details (vs. Hasbro's toy accurate red lower legs with paint apps), the flat chest, the overall body proportion, etc. are a turn off to me. As a shelf display piece, IMO the old MP is still better.

Guess I'm the lucky few since my old MP Rodimus doesn't have any major QC issues as so many others have, so I never hated the toy.

I'd surely trade the old for the new though if I get the opportunity just for that new toy smell.

william-james88 wrote:

cloudballoon wrote: The ground clearance in alt mode

Yours has ground clearance issues? It was debunked when people started to get him that any gound clearance issue was due to mistransformation.

There are two things that cause the ground clearance issue ... when his lower legs are not properly pegged into the two tabs on the underside of where the spoiler is located and when the orange collar is not properly positioned. Once those two areas are properly adjusted, he just barely has ground clearance, but isn't that kind of typical of fancy looking sports cars in the real world?

Some other thoughts on this figure ...

I like him a lot better in hand, but I still have issues with him. Legs and groin area are not wide enough, legs are a little too long, but those things can be chalked up to style choice. My biggest gripe, even more so than the flat chest, is the very obnxious red pieces that stick up behind his head and interfere with his silhouette with regards to the yellow spoiler behind his head. For a Masterpiece figure, that should have been resolved by rotating those pieces 180 degrees or by having a couple of extra panels that fold down, which would also help fill in the gap behind his head. I even figured out an alternate chest transformation that bulks him up a little more and gives some additional dimension to his awkward chest. The backpack isn't quite as obnoxious as it appears in pictures online either.

Hot Rodimus is better than Tracks (though both suffer from being too thin) but not as good as Wheeljack (who is currently my personal "this one is perfect" Masterpiece figure, with Prowl being an extremely close second). I have issues with Ultra Magnus as well, though he has some clever transformations. The unique transformation on Hot Rod is his upper arms which you'll see when you get him.

Transformation is enjoyable and good and most everything has a place to peg into. Face sculpt is great, head shape is great, visor implementation is great. Hands are great for holding weapons, but his middle finger is sculpted weird and the joints that are seen on many Transformers fingers are too large so they look like he's wearing multiple rings on each finger.

One other thing that irks me on him ... his upper legs connect to his pelvis via ball joints which I'm not a fan of on a Masterpiece figure. It kind of makes him seem like he could have been a really nicely done Generations figure had he been downsized a bit to fit in scale with those figures.

It's a good figure, it just needed a few more things done to make him a true Masterpiece.