by craggy » Sun Jun 24, 2012 5:19 am
I don't mind the Classics Hot Rod toy. Not that much anyway. It should be quite telling though, that despite TF:TM being one of my favourite films ever, not to mention one of my favourite pieces of TF fiction ever...that I didn't buy any version of it until Protector came around.
Protector itself is fine. He doesn't just look like a taller, older, more whiny version of Hot Rod, no, but I don't mind that much. I think it's actually a better interpretation of the character of Rodimus Prime than just having the same robot mode model as the un-Matrixed version. Quite tempted to get the weird coloured United Rodimus to put in Protector, but yet to find any pics of it to help me decide.
For Hot Rod though, the only version that I feel has been actually really good is the MP. The Takara MP at that. Because it has the colours right. Hot Rod in the cartoon (and comic, even if it was different) was always pink/magenta, rather than just plain red. The MP designs are obviously going to be the most toon accurate, but the colour, along with the shape of the car, are the only ones to really capture the character properly.
I'd love a newly designed Classics Hot Rod. In the right colours, with something as close to the original alt-mode as possible. Deluxe scale would be fine, with the engineering and posability of the modern line. Jazz, Wheeljack, Drift, etc. are all miles ahead of the current Classics Rodimus in all respects. If HasTak wanted to create a Voyager Rodimus Prime toy that had a proper Deluxe sized Hot Rod that joined up with a trailer to be Rodimus Prime then that'd be just as good, if not better, but I'd really just like a nice articulated, reasonably accurate version of the character to go with Gen Kup, etc.
Oh, and despite all my "Geeewun!" talk, I actually really liked the Energon Rodimus with the truck alt mode. Just felt he was maybe a little too similar to Optimus. Could definitely see him taking on that kind of mode at some point though.
assembling a Neo-G1/TF:TM cast. Please PM if you have (or know of) the following at a reasonable price: Classics or Henkei Astrotrain, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, or 3rd Party iGear Ratchet and Ironhide.
Also looking for Universe Repugnus and Overbite, Frostbite and Longhorn and any Webdiver toys.