by Wolfman Jake » Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:20 am
- Motto: ""A mountain with a wolf on it stands a little taller."
-Edward Hoagland"
- Weapon: Retractable Mecha-Fangs
Going by the leak we saw earlier, you know, the "Big Foot sighting footage," this looks to be an amazing rendition of Hot Rod. In this clearer pic, the figure is obviously very mistransformed. The arms are completely backwards! You can tell from the hollow parts on the "tops" of the fists, the missing forearm sculpting and paint details, the missing white paint apps on the shoulders, and the fact that the wheels are facing front, not back, on the shoulders. If this is a Deluxe-scaled figure at the Voyager price point, I think some of that extra cost could come from added accessories, but my bet is that the extra "value" is found mostly in the complexity of the figure at the Deluxe scale. I'm not sure how those arms get turned around when you transform him the right way, but it's got to be at least a little more complicated than what we usually see in a Deluxe Class War for Cybertron Trilogy figure. Looks like those hands are articulated as well, a la Earthrise Optimus Prime. I wouldn't be surprised if the wheels on the outsides of the lower legs can be rotated to the back of the legs instead as well, but time will tell. It's not the end of the world for me if they don't, since that's where the end up usually on the majority of Hot Rod toys, including the original G1 figure, but I've got a good feeling, just based on how well the rest of the figure seems to come together in robot mode (when properly transformed).
Kup looks a little less on point to me, unfortunately. I don't mind the added "tech" detailing under the windshield, as Kup is a Cybertronian pick-up truck, and that matches with other Cybertronian car forms we've seen in the War for Cybertron Trilogy so far, particularly in Siege. But, he is missing some paint apps, like some gray on his midriff, and I don't like that his back wheels are just in the middle of his shins in robot mode. Maybe something wraps around from the back of the legs to cover them up? Looking at Kup's character model, his shins do push out quite a ways further than the upper parts of his legs, and these lower leg panels seem to be flush from the knee down to the feet (which also look to be very mistransformed). It's easy to see how the shoulder and side torso assemblies are suppose to come together, so I'm not dinging the figure for that, but the "Huffer hoodie" behind the head is way too far up. It should really only come up to the top of the neck/base of the "skull."
Wolfman Jake - Spendin' the day howlin' away.