Toy Review - HOT HOUSE (Gens Selects WFC Trilogy)

HEISS HAUS
Series - War for Cybertron
Sub-line - Trilogy
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - Repaint of Earthrise Airwave
Wave - Sure, why not?
Released here - ??
Approximate Retail Price - US$19.99 (AU$26)
Approximate Size - 12.5cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Sub-Group - Macromaster
Alt-mode - airport
Main Features/Gimmicks - Modulator, A.I.R. Lock system
Main Colours - blue, grey, amber
Main Accessories - 3-part blaster/lance

NOTE: This toy is a straight up repaint of ER Airwave. See the Airwave review thread for more comments and discussion about the original mould; this review thread will focus on differences made.

https://i.ibb.co/NScnwdX/Earthrise-hothouse01.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/k0SZQGR/Earthrise-hothouse02.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/qj81yNP/Earthrise-hothouse03.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/RvfvjB3/Earthrise-hothouse04.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/sWPSqwn/Earthrise-hothouse05.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/qnnJSq5/Earthrise-hothouse06.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/0Q5ZtGv/Earthrise-hothouse07.jpg

THOUGHTS
Out of the four CHUG Micromaster Stations, Hot House is the weakest as an homage of the G1 toy. It works fine as an airport; objectively even better than G1 with the longer runway. But the battle station mode is clearly Airwave and doesn't remotely resemble G1 Hot House's tank. Greasepit works better even as a repaint of Ironworks as they've done a decent job in reconfiguring the station mode as a servo (even including petrol pumps and a sign); and the battle station mode also works better because there's a tower and main cannon, same as G1 Greasepit. And I acknowledge that this is also a happy coincidence because both G1 Ironworks and Greasepit's stations incidentally have towers and a main cannon/launcher. Having Airwave/Hot House share a mould was always going to be more challenging; while they both share an airport mode, they have very different looking attack modes. I might see if I can muck around with Hot House to see if I can fan mode a tank out of it; but as it is with it's official configuration, the attack mode doesn't work as Hot House.

Honestly... unless you're looking to complete the G1 Micromaster Stations as CHUG toys, you can easily skip Hot House, especially if you already have ER Airwave. The robot and airport modes work fine (the robot is a new design and doesn't resemble either G1 Airwave or Hot House), but the battle station mode is a let down.

Side by side comparison of ER Airwave and WFC Trilogy Hot House's base modes show that Hot House really is nothing more than a repaint of Airwave. Unlike [url=http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/27454-Toy-Review-Generations-Selects-Greasepit]Greasepit[url], no effort was put into making Hot House's base mode look more distinctive from the original mould.
https://i.ibb.co/wN35D7Q/Earthrise-hothouse00.jpg

My fan-made tank configuration; an alternative to the official base mode that's attempting to be more G1 accurate.
https://i.ibb.co/c8Lf7V8/Earthrise-hothouse08.jpg

I think it's a statement to the toy's plainness that, although a few of us already had it, a unique review thread has never been created. I've had it for almost two months and never felt inspired to make a unique thread.

The colour choice and lack of unique parts / parts arrangement really lets this figure down. White, Blue and Orange going to Red, Light Blue and Orange is a pretty uninteresting shift and really makes

Hot House feel like Airwave playing dress-ups, rather than a unique character.

In contrast, Ironworks and Greasepit actually felt like different characters, although there was only 2 parts different between them. The bowser, sign and relocated arm in service station mode, as well as a distinctively different colour palette made Greaspit feel like a different character. Even just not painting the control tower stem would have made a noticeable difference.

Gok - your fan-mode is pretty great and a marked step above the effort Hasbro made for him.

I say get this only if you want to complete the Earthrise Mircomaster bases and can get him for ~$45.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seraphim Prime

Hot House feel like Airwave playing dress-ups, rather than a unique character.

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I said it on Twitter a while back, but I'll repeat it here. This toy is actually Fire Guts Airwave.