Quote Originally Posted by Tilarta View Post
Well, the first difference is rather subtle, most people would miss it. Hot Rod is red, Rodimus is marone (a darker red).
The next one is fairly noticeable though, Rodimus has black legs below the knee as compared to Hot Rod's legs which are red.

The caravan in itself is not always indicative of being Rodimus, just like Optimus without his trailer is still Optimus. I've seen some designs where Rodimus detaches from his caravan and his vehicle mode without it is identical to Hot Rod's. And in Transformers Animated, he has no caravan at all, yet is still identified as being Rodimus.
Hot Rod's a confusing one.

The legs on the original Hot Rod toy were red. The original Rodimus Prime was similarly coloured, though with slightly muted red for the legs, and more orange creeping into the design.

In the cartoon, the two models were blended, and Hot Rod was given orange thighs and black boots, and a red body. Rodimus Prime was given a similar, but darker/less vibrant/matured colour palette.

In the early 2000's Hasbro had lost the trademark to Hot Rod, so all Hot Rod toys were called Rodimus (Animated, Energon, etc)

In 2010, Takara released a combined Hot Rod / Rodimus Prime Masterpiece that had an integrated Hot Rod - Rodimus vehicle mode. This idea was carried forth into the Power of the Primes release.


If you're looking for a decent cartoon Hot Rod, the PotP Rodimus Prime includes a relatively decent Hot Rod inner robot that would probably look decent with the Generations Arcee. The LG45 is a great toy, but a bit more muted in colour which I personally associate more with Rodimus Prime (in terms of cartoon accuracy - I personally prefer the muted look to the vibrant colour scheme), but the brighter TR one which you've gone with is probably closer to what you're after.