The Energon Pub

Greetings Seibertronians! Fellow Seibertron user Sabrblade has pointed us in the direction of twitter user @UNOYUKIN07153 who has tweeted what looks like excerpts from an upcoming issue of Figure King Magazine (Masterpiecenews inbound).

These pictures concern the Commander Class release of Transformers Kingdom, Rodimus Prime, who has proven to be a divisive figure within the fandom. The pictures show a comparison with Studio Series 86 Voyager Class Hot Rod. We also get some new shots of the trailer that Rodimus comes with.

Check out the pictures below:





Do these new images sway you to one side of the debate? Are you still committed to owning Optimus Prime's successor? Will you be getting him to light the darkest hour against HasLab Unicron?

Shout out in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!

I now needs to compare my Earthrise Optimus with Hot Rod.

I'm not going to surprised at all if Rodimus is the same height as OP and Megatron...
Still not a fan of the face sculpt; that harsh diagonal crease in the middle of each cheek... It makes him look old, and just odd.
Also his eyes are too high... Like Kup's.
Like I've mentioned about some ER figures, this is another example of too many molded details imo. The waist/hips... The side of the spoiler you see in bot mode... The upper arms and the lower legs... Not saying those parts should be completely void of any detail. But they just don't add anything substantial (imo). And all of those lines/indentations, etc. must cost a little bit somewhere in the process.
I don't mind the look of the alt mode, but that doesn't mean a ton to me, so the trailer isn't enticing at all. That "$40 worth of plastic" would never be part of my display.
Even without seeing all of the accessories, I don't foresee dropping $80-$90 on this.
And still, I haven't decided on a 'hard pass' yet. I've skipped every Titan and Commander Class figure since... Well, CW Devastator. So who knows.
Just seems highly unlikely right now.

Sowndwave76 wrote:I'm not going to surprised at all if Rodimus is the same height as OP and Megatron...
Still not a fan of the face sculpt; that harsh diagonal crease in the middle of each cheek... It makes him look old, and just odd.
Also his eyes are too high... Like Kup's.
Like I've mentioned about some ER figures, this is another example of too many molded details imo. The waist/hips... The side of the spoiler you see in bot mode... The upper arms and the lower legs... Not saying those parts should be completely void of any detail. But they just don't add anything substantial (imo). And all of those lines/indentations, etc. must cost a little bit somewhere in the process.

Actually you are correct. When you have that much detail, the tolerances on the tooling tends to be much higher, which usually wields more waste in the factory, increasing the cost quite a bit. It is why traditionally head sculpts in the toy industry can cost more then the bodies they are plugged onto.

Now me, I love the extra detail personally. I do agree it can be a bit much in areas, but It makes the figure imho look much more interesting and cool. But, that same logic also fueled the Bayformer designs, Which I'm not the biggest fan of. guess I'm a hypocrite

I agree with the face looking too old. but hay, at least he isn't straining to see like the G1 (squinty eyes)

ZeroWolf wrote:
These pictures concern the Commander Class release of Transformers Kingdom, Rodimus Prime, who has proven to be a decisive figure within the fandom. The pictures show a comparison with Studio Series 86 Voyager Class Hot Rod. We also get some new shots of the trailer that Rodimus comes with.

Is that meant to be "divisive" instead of "decisive"?

Not a fan of the face sculpt, but I'm a little happier to see the size comparison. Not sure it's worth the commander class pricing, but at least it looks like it would be more then a Leader Class

glad to see he's not just a glorified retool of SS hotrod with a trailer. feeling alot happier about picking him up now.

I'll weigh in on the Rodimus Prime sitch

As someone who is pretty neutral about Hot Rod as a character, this one looks pretty good. I like all the Siege-esq details he has and the weary-er headsculpt helps sell the evolution aspect of RP. The trailer looks pretty well intergrated too, seeing it does have a little ramp to park other Autobots inside with is a big plus (that's part of why I love ER Prime so much). I'm two for two with the Commander class releases so far, Skylynx was an instant buy for me and I caught Jetfire on sale when that whole big walmart markdown thing happened. Rodimus i am just not sure on. As a toy he looks really well done, hits all the marks a proper G1 update should, but it comes down to attachment to the character which is absent for me (so far)

Might be worth noting I do have TR Hot Rod and love him dearly with out the attachment, so maybe I'm a hypocrite

Chriphord wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:
These pictures concern the Commander Class release of Transformers Kingdom, Rodimus Prime, who has proven to be a decisive figure within the fandom. The pictures show a comparison with Studio Series 86 Voyager Class Hot Rod. We also get some new shots of the trailer that Rodimus comes with.

Is that meant to be "divisive" instead of "decisive"?

Thanks for catching that, it's been fixed.

Immortal Starscream wrote:

Sowndwave76 wrote:I'm not going to surprised at all if Rodimus is the same height as OP and Megatron...
Still not a fan of the face sculpt; that harsh diagonal crease in the middle of each cheek... It makes him look old, and just odd.
Also his eyes are too high... Like Kup's.
Like I've mentioned about some ER figures, this is another example of too many molded details imo. The waist/hips... The side of the spoiler you see in bot mode... The upper arms and the lower legs... Not saying those parts should be completely void of any detail. But they just don't add anything substantial (imo). And all of those lines/indentations, etc. must cost a little bit somewhere in the process.

Actually you are correct. When you have that much detail, the tolerances on the tooling tends to be much higher, which usually wields more waste in the factory, increasing the cost quite a bit. It is why traditionally head sculpts in the toy industry can cost more then the bodies they are plugged onto.

Now me, I love the extra detail personally. I do agree it can be a bit much in areas, but It makes the figure imho look much more interesting and cool. But, that same logic also fueled the Bayformer designs, Which I'm not the biggest fan of. guess I'm a hypocrite

I agree with the face looking too old. but hay, at least he isn't straining to see like the G1 (squinty eyes)

I also prefer the extra greebling they added to the WfC figures. It allowed them to be more visually interesting then the bland looking G1 toon models. I look at most MP releases and think that the colours need something else doing to them, to break them up.

I'm okay with the face sculpt as his upgrade to Rodimus added lines to his face anyway.

Immortal Starscream wrote:I agree with the face looking too old. but hay, at least he isn't straining to see like the G1 (squinty eyes)

That's not age, it's giri. Sounds like a lot of you don't recognize what the pressures of leadership can do to a bot.

Maybe that's why Optimus covered his face

Definitely down for Rodimus. The trailer seems to be super chonky compared to Optimus’s. Only time will tell what other secrets are tucked away in him.

My Earthrise/Kingdom Optimus Prime is going to DIE.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Immortal Starscream wrote:I agree with the face looking too old. but hay, at least he isn't straining to see like the G1 (squinty eyes)

That's not age, it's giri. Sounds like a lot of you don't recognize what the pressures of leadership can do to a bot.

GET OUT OF MY LAWN, YOU WIPPER-SNAPPER!

I would have liked to see him compared with POTP Rodimus Prime.

Fingers crossed that one of Rodimus Primes accessories is Kingdom Galvatron

If the trailer can hold the classics Junkions then I might be tempted if it goes on sale. Looking forward to the inhand comparisons with WFC Prime and POTP rodimus.

The trailer being able to open up in the back like that makes it look like a garbage truck. Which is quite appropriate, considering the price.

It would be nice if Hasbro sold the Rodimus figure separately, like they did with the MP 10 years ago.

Where's the shot of him shaking hands with prime?

The comparison shot seals this as a pass for me. I just don't care enough about the character to need/want both Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime at $110 for what is essentially a reaaaallly good deluxe, a probably reaaaallly good voyager and a very solid trailer. I'm sticking with just Hot Rod. Now I just have to find one without QC issues on his left calf so I can exchange mine. 0-2 so far.

Rodimus always had an old-age face. The Matrix gave him wrinkles:





Compare to Hot Rod's younger, cleaner face:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:The comparison shot seals this as a pass for me. I just don't care enough about the character to need/want both Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime at $110 for what is essentially a reaaaallly good deluxe, a probably reaaaallly good voyager and a very solid trailer. I'm sticking with just Hot Rod. Now I just have to find one without QC issues on his left calf so I can exchange mine. 0-2 so far.

QC issues and.... $110 for a commander?

SpikeyTigertron wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:The comparison shot seals this as a pass for me. I just don't care enough about the character to need/want both Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime at $110 for what is essentially a reaaaallly good deluxe, a probably reaaaallly good voyager and a very solid trailer. I'm sticking with just Hot Rod. Now I just have to find one without QC issues on his left calf so I can exchange mine. 0-2 so far.

QC issues and.... $110 for a commander?

80 + 30 = 110 and he gets bad Hot Rods.

Sabrblade wrote:Rodimus always had an old-age face. The Matrix gave him wrinkles:





Compare to Hot Rod's younger, cleaner face:

Instant maturity!

They lost me with the articulated fingers. I have never had a figure with fingers like that that could hold their weapons. I prefer fists with 5mm holes. So as much as id like to say yes, this is an easy pass

Cheetron wrote:They lost me with the articulated fingers. I have never had a figure with fingers like that that could hold their weapons. I prefer fists with 5mm holes. So as much as id like to say yes, this is an easy pass

Usually, those have a rectangle peg hole inside their palms. Some figures can't hold their guns anyway, but many other have those pegs being rock solid. Mileage varies.