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

[CHILENO20]

Kaz is like that little collecting devil sitting on you shoulder. "You've got to get Eva Prime. Dude, that purple!" I have no willpower...

lol, yep! He is right about Eva Prime. But will I be spending that much on that MP? Hell No! My boundaries are simple, collect just the obscure ones ie: Clampdown, Exhaust, Bluestreak 18B. Already have Exhaust on the way.

[BigTransformerTrev]

While all of you are enjoying your MP Shockwaves I finally got MP Ironhide and Hot Rodimus


Not much I can say at this point that hasn't been said already. The vehicle mode is very low and sleek, really pushes that Cybertronian look and how flat he was racing around in the movie.

The robot mode is the big winner for me, I just LOVE posing him with his fishing rod in different places And his guns and saw make for some great action shots!

Only thing I didn't like was how much of a bastard of a time I had turning him back into a vehicle. Besides that a great figure indeed.

[willocrew]

I also got this robot today alongside iron hide. Robot mode looks perfect. Although they could have made the chest a little more curved rather than flat..but that's just a personal preference. And did I mention that the robot mode is perfect?

Transformation is a bit cheap feeling. Doesn't feel like a premium figure.

But overall loving it.

[drifand]

I love this figure but car mode is useless as it does not sit flush on the ground.

Car mode 5/10

Robot mode 8/10 only because he is the most agile of the MPs

Paint wise, is TT high profits margin.

Transformation is good, I can do it easily.
Only challenge was clipping the backpack.

Plus for able to hold weapons well unlike mp9

Should have included new offshoot

[SharkyMcShark]

This was my first official Transformers figure for about 18 months. I bought it on a whim at the one remaining comic book store in the city for maybe just over the equivalent price of getting it shipped from RK.


The vehicle mode looks really good from more or less every angle. It manages to avoid looking overly bulbous, which I felt was a flaw of MP-9's Hot Rod mode. I've not yet quite gotten the right alignment of all the figure's parts for the (possibly fictional) 'few millimeters of clearance' that would allow it to roll. Would Takara release a figure that can't actually roll? Head says no, heart says 'this is 2016 TakTom we're talking about so almost certainly yes'.

Transformation is actually quite fun. Aside from the chest, spoiler, and upper two thirds of the arms everything else from the vehicle becomes one discrete block on Hot Rod's back. I generally dislike transformations that basically involve folding the car shell up into a backpack and then unfurling the limbs (which is more or less what the process here amounts to), but the folding and tabbing is a really satisfying process. To be fair to the figure this is probably the only proper way to stay true to the source material, as Hot Rod didn't really have any recognisable vehicle kibble in robot mode aside from the chest, pipes and spoiler - in many ways Hot Rod and many other of the 86 bots were a precursor to some of the later Bayverse designs in this regard. The only stressful part of the process was getting the tab on the back of the collar into the slot on the backpack. The first time I transformed the figure it felt like the backpack wasn't hinging down far enough for the tab to meet the slot. After working it in a few times it seems much easier, and much less frightening.

Robot mode is where this figure shines. The only place where it deviates from what we saw on screen is the backpack, which to be fair once in hand isn't as egregious as it looks in pictures. Otherwise colours are on point, it interacts perfectly fine with all accessories (unlike MP-9) and it hits the sweet spot between poseable and stable without compromises. In particular the addition of the waist crunch joint along with solid ankle support means that you'll get a lot of joy out of posing this figure.

Some of the joints on mine are perhaps slightly looser than I'd like, but there's nothing that can't support the figure's weight, and certainly nothing outright floppy.

Otherwise the only criticism I think I can conjure is that this figure does fell perhaps a bit on the light side? I have a preference for red orange Hot Rods over magenta? I kind of wish it came with a target master? Nothing particularly substantial or objective.

Fun figure. The only reason you shouldn't grab this if you're on the fence is if the vehicle mode potentially not rolling is an issue. Otherwise, worth a buy.

[willocrew]

Hot rod looks good in robot and vehicle mode. But to be honest, it doesn't look like a premium masterpiece toy. It looks almost like a "transformers generations" or a supreme class figure. I've got a generations/henkei Jazz. Hot rod is quite similar.

[tangy]

is anyone still waiting on their delivery from Premium Collectables? I've messaged them directly but havent heard anything back for a while

[drifand]

Hot rod looks good in robot and vehicle mode. But to be honest, it doesn't look like a premium masterpiece toy. It looks almost like a "transformers generations" or a supreme class figure. I've got a generations/henkei Jazz. Hot rod is quite similar.

Takes a lot of guts to admit a sad side of a premium toy if it is at all.

[kup]

I recently opened MP Hot Rodimus. Out of the box in car mode, one could easily think they just bought a G1 reissue in an MP box. It is nearly the same size and looks nearly identical to the G1 toy. Even the underside resembles the original toy as you can see the same sort of kibble such as the upper head and chest.

During transformation however, the similarities end as we then start to witness modern toy engineering that is fairly easy, fun and intuitive but somehow feel very familiar....

Well that is because the engineering in this toy happens to be a much more refined version of the MP-09 release! Yes, that horrible beta version toy they tried to pass on as Masterpiece that was a horror mess to transform has basically the same engineering as this toy! But how can this toy be fun to transform and MP-09 so horrible? Well that's because MP-09 always had a good engineering concept just horribly executed. Hot Rodimus fixes all the weak plastic tolerance issues, over reliance on weak panel joints on the legs. Like with MP-09, much of the car mode shell compresses onto the back only this is done much more effectively so all the kibble is nicely compressed and does not look like a disjointed mess that can barely keep together in place without unpegging all the time.

In short, the engineering here is what MP-09 should of had in the first place. I am glad they made this toy because I always suspected that under all the mess, there was a good toy in the core of MP-09. MP Hot Rodimus confirms just that.

Accessories are what you would expect - A pair of guns that can also be mounted in car mode. Robot mode can actually hold them well! Wow, how about that? (MP09 couldn't even do that right). However there is no Firebolt and instead we get a silly as hell fishing rod representative of the one we see at the start of the '86 movie. Nothing special, it is just one single plastic piece.

[GoktimusPrime]

Accessories are what you would expect - A pair of guns that can also be mounted in car mode. Robot mode can actually hold them well! Wow, how about that? (MP09 couldn't even do that right).

TakaraTOMY's can't but Hasbro's can. Hasbro's MP Rodimus Prime has thicker tabs that slot into the hands.