Toy Review - Titans Return Hot Rod
HOT ROD
Series – Titans Return
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 3
Released here – November 2016
Approximate Retail Price - $29.99
Approximate Size Pies - No pies included unfortunately
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode – Sports car
Main Features/Gimmicks – Headmaster
Main Colours – Red, Orange
Main Accessories – Two matching gun halves, Firedrive Titan Master
Hurray, they've reclaimed the Hot Rod name!
- Vehicle mode is very aesthetically pleasing. Curvy in all the right places. It's got quite a good size to it, it rolls well, and the weapon interaction doesn't look anywhere near as half assed as the Chromedome weapons. It feels kind of light though.
- Let's talk colours. The red is perhaps one tiny dash of orange away from being firetruck red. I like it a lot but then I'm one of those perverts who hates magenta/purple/pink/maroon Hot Rods. Otherwise there's not really that much grey on the figure. Most of the rest of it is orange and yellow. It's nice, and matches the IDW colour palette for this character.
- Transformation is simple but pleasing. There are a couple of nifty steps in there that didn't have to be but make for a much more pleasing figure, like the abdomen/car front folding in and the sides of the car forming the rear of the boots. Going back to car mode I also like how the knees become the back of the car.
- Firedrive is absolute garbage. Completely unpainted flat grey bot mode. The head is dying for a splash of any colour but red on the helmet. The dash of white on the face manages to clash with the rest of the figure's colours. I own eight of the twelve (thirteen with Brainstorm I suppose) released deluxes from this line and this Titan Master is the weakest deluxe head, by far.
- The robot mode leaves me with very mixed feelings. It's a perfectly functional robot mode, it has all the poseability you could want from a 2016 deluxe, it looks great proportionally with the long limbs, high shoulders and V shaped torso.... but I just don't like it as much as I should given all of the above. Objectively this should be one of my favourite releases from the last little while and aside from the hollow forearms () and lack of paint on the head I can't flaw the figure in any meaningful way. It just feels more light and rickety than I'd like. Subjectively, in hand it feels like the mutant child of a normal Generations figure and a PlaySkool Transformer.
I genuinely hope this is one of those figures that grows on me with time because theoretically I should be all over this.
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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
That's pretty disappointing for a contemporary toy considering that a lot of BW figures can withstand not being just dropped, but being deliberately pegged on floors, across rooms etc. When I was shopping for the Wave 3 TR Deluxes, I was carrying TR Cerebros in my hand and as I was grabbing these toys off pegs I accidentally dropped Cerebros. One of Fort Max's "antennae" came off but it was easy to put back on, otherwise no damage. So yeah, a modern toy should really be able to withstand a simple drop (for child safety reasons if nothing else; this is why Hasbro can never reissue G1 Fortress Maximus).
