Toy Review - JP MP-28 Masterpiece Hot Rodimus (Hot Rod)

[kurdt_the_goat]

I still quite like MP-9, but i'm glad they decided to do Hot Rod in a smaller scale; as nice as MP-9's car mode is, it is hilariously big really. For MP-28, they've managed to make 2 really good modes with very little compromise i feel. The car is even better than MP-9 - just as sleek and without the orange arm pieces on the sides, though there's a slight colour mismatch on his elbow pieces, that's me being too picky! Just because the high gloss magenta on the rest looks so nice is it noticeable.

The robot definitely pegs together a whole lot more solidly, and in hand, the proportions aren't really bad at all. They actually look much more humanoid than say Prowl or Sideswipe. His legs could do with a bit of heft but it balanced well and i'm glad they didn't overcomplicate their transformation. The top half is complex with some good "Masterpiece moments" and the backpack... well i can't see how they'd make it any smaller, so i think they did a good job.

The transformation being very similar to one of the scenes in the movie is a great touch, anime magic be damned! Overall very happy and as some photos show, it's nice to have more S3 representation... that reminds me, i should have pulled out Legends Arcee for these shots, she's another good MP stand-in like Springer.

[yoshi594]

Decided to transform Hot Rod to car mode and was frustrated with the collar piece...the clearance isn't enough! I've got no problem with the leg pieces, just that darn collar piece! (iirc mp-09 had the same issue but i was able to get proper clearance with that).

Also gun storage in vehicle mode.







I was only able to get the gun shown to fit into hot rods engine. Didn't have offshoot readily available to see if he fits, but i'm pretty sure his peg won't fit.

[kurdt_the_goat]

At best there must be about 2-3mm clearance with everything aligned, but it's still not enough to roll it around without fear of scraping. It'd be nice if it rolled better, but not a dealbreaker for me cause mine just sits there

[drifand]

Chrome on my ironhide is chipping off not sure hot rod is worse

[millhouse]

Love this figure. My TT MP-9 Rodimus is now going to be permanently displayed as Rodimus in robot mode, with MP-28 Hot Rod in both robot and car mode (couldn't buy just one!). My Hasbro Rodimus is sitting inside the Takara's trailer.

Great fun, love the ankle articulation and, given the issue in terms of TFTM1986 designs transferring to an actual Transformer (hey, at least the first two seasons had pretty blocky robots!) I'm extremely satisfied, even with the large backpack.

[GoktimusPrime]

Still not personally interested in buying this toy, but I had a fiddle with someone else's today. I'm really impressed with how they're able to cram a lot of the vehicle mode kibble into the torso. MP9 does it too, but MP28 does it at a greater extreme. MP9 still incorporates a fair amount of the vehicle into the legs, and while I think it does it reasonable job, there are still bits of kibble like pipes and tyres visible at certain angles. MP28's legs do not incorporate vehicle components into it -- they're just legs. The upside to this is that they look just like Hot Rod's legs do in the cartoon, totally devoid of any vehicle parts which have magically disappeared. The challenge is that, of course, parts cannot really disappear on a real life toy. And herein lies the fun in this toy; much like with toys like MP Bumblebee and Ironhide, TakaraTOMY have done an impressive job in attempting to create the 'illusion of mass-shifting.' A greater amount of the vehicle is now absorbed into the torso. This does give MP28 a chunkier looking body, but not necessarily in a bad way. They've done an impressive job in trying to make Hot Rod look as slick as possible while concealing a lot of the vehicle into the body.

The articulation on this toy is insane. I was surprised to see that, just like with MP9, MP28 also has double-jointed knees, allowing him bend his legs completely (and thus assume this pose). He could also sit in Seiza, although Hot Rod never actually did that in canon (only Rodimus Prime). But what surprised me is that his arms are also double jointed! Furthermore, if you do nothing with the upper arms, they end up looking like this with the tyres on the back, which indeed the official transformation fort his toy. But the upper arms are also able to reconfigure with the tyres facing the front, so that it looks more like Rodimus Prime, and I didn't actually try it, but it might also be possible to have the tyres facing out to the sides, which would be toy-accurate. Would someone else care to try this on their MP28 to confirm or deny if this is possible? If so, then this is a really neat feature, as it doesn't seem to serve any other purpose other than to achieve this look.

I don't understand why Hot Rod comes with a Matrix Chamber. Yeah, it's a neat enough gimmick... but it doesn't seem to canonically make sense. This is Hot Rod, not Rodimus Prime. <shrugs>

I can see what people mean about the really low undercarriage clearance. You've got to make sure that all the tabs are pushed in all the way to allow the vehicle to roll without the bottom scraping. Hot Rod's primary weakness is now speed humps. If you experience scraping then flip the toy over and see which tabs you haven't pushed in far enough. Also... the chrome! I have never seen a toy with such bad chrome flaking! It's even worse than Beast Machines Ultra Jetstorm insofar that it starts coming off straight away (at least Jetstorm lasts a few months before starting to flake horribly ).

Anyway, that's all I can remember about my brief encounter with this toy. Still not convinced to buy it though, as nice as it is, my Hasbro MP9 suits me fine, but I can definitely see the appeal of this toy. Just such a shame about the crappy chrome though.

[Sinnertwin]

I saw him in the plastic yesterday & I was quite impressed.
Definitely felt light to me, but a very impressive representation indeed

[Borgeman]

I don't understand why Hot Rod comes with a Matrix Chamber. Yeah, it's a neat enough gimmick... but it doesn't seem to canonically make sense. This is Hot Rod, not Rodimus Prime. <shrugs>

I brought this up during the Hasbro meet on the weekend - I could only ever remember Rodimus inserting/removing the matrix, even in the Dark awakening episode he removes it before becoming Hot Rod. But it was mentioned that at the end of the episode Optimus inserted the matrix back into the KO'd Hot Rod!

So its canon, just