The problem with Hot Rod being the coolest character in Transformers the Movie was that his toy wasn’t very good at all. Personally I preferred Blurr, and the Rodimus Prime toy did at least have some extra parts to play with. Even the addition of a target master version later in the line (which honestly looked ridiculous with a big tank turret sticking out of the top of a sports car) couldn’t entice me.
This Classics Hot Rod however is a different matter, giving us the Hot Rod toy we all wanted 20 years ago, with articulation, transformation, style and proportion.
Although not the most articulated of the Classics figures, there’s plenty of detail here, and more colour than many of the others figures. But the attention to detail is very high. Hot Rod’s left wrist conceals a flip out ‘communicator’ clearly meant to be his saw-hand weapon used to free Kup from the robotic tendrils under the sea of the planet Quintesson, while the car mode is based on the real life inspiration for Hot Rod’s original design, an obscure car called the Dome Zero.
Classics Hot Rod(imus) was one of the figures that set a new high bar for Transformers and has in turn led to standouts such as Movie Concept Bumblebee and Universe Sunstreaker. Definitely a must buy for those of us who remember Transformers the first time around.
Tags: transformers
