Toy Review - Hot Rod (Studio Series 1986)

[sideswipes brother]

Just got this guy today..... i very much approve....yes i do.

[Skyfire]

I had a lot of trouble with the lower leg red ensemble staying clipped into the front part of the lower leg. Then I made a discovery. If the foot is tilted out too much (to the little toe side), the grey plastic piece that connects the foot rubs against the curved red panel that tucks inside the leg cavity. As the foot tilts and the grey piece rotates upwards, that piece pushes more against the curving out surface. This springs the red ensemble out and stops it from clipping.




Tilting the foot inwards (towards the big toe) solved my problem.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

He came out on Saturday here in the land of the aged sun. I bought one. Off the shelf no less, a definite rare occasion for me.
I must say say he looks pretty small in his voyager box, but pretty nice. I think quality wise he definitely is built better than a deluxe, but the accessories alone don't push him ito the voyager type feel for me. More of a deluxe and a half in a way. Like CJ and bumblee are scouts and a half I guess. It's weird. Having said all that though, I got him for a satisfactory price and am pretty happy about that. I think had I payed taktoms rrp of 5000 yennies, I'd feel a bit less well disposed towards him, but as it is I didn't and I am happy with him.

Great articulation, especially in the legs, the shoulders feel a little tight and a tad restricted due to the way they are connected to the main body. I really dig the inclusion of the Visor. Used how many times? Once? But it needs to be there.
The accessories are nice and fun. I really like the way the saw blade was sculpted with circular motion um, motions on it. The guns are not duplicates of each other either. Of this I approve! Finally the Matrix. A great little accessory and the light burst is a very nice addition. you can even hold it up to the lights for some bling bling action! The blast effects are.. ok. Better off for the car mode I think. Despite me previously complaining about his small size as a voyager, the smaller size fit Hot Rod. A voyager would be too big for the young guy.

Vehicle mode, is... wide. I very much prefer the MP version for vehicle mode, something just looks a bit off with this one. Maybe too cartoony looking? Too flat? Too wide? To stubby? I dunno, I can't quite put my finger on it. Also, that damn piece of yellow hinge. WHY? Why isn't it red? It would fit in better.

So overall, worth it. I like him, he's fun and good looking and scratches most of the itches that need scratching.


Must buy? Yes, but not at full price.

Oh a slight side note it would seem that Takara are still making their own boxes (well the back) for the studio series. Kingdom/Siege/Earthrise have just had th e hasbro packaging with a big sticker slapped over them. Studio Series seems to have a Japanese Printing especially done for them. (although the Studio Series have consistently had JP printings.)

[High_Q]

Vehicle mode, is... wide. I very much prefer the MP version for vehicle mode, something just looks a bit off with this one. Maybe too cartoony looking? Too flat? Too wide? To stubby? I dunno, I can't quite put my finger on it.

For me, SS86 Hot Rod's alt mode is ugly because, from the side view, the thickest part of the car is its centre. MP-28's alt mode was perfect, with the thickest / tallest section around 3/4 to the back of the car, making it sleek, like a retro 70s supercar. MP-9 alt mode isn't too bad either.

Really unfortunate since SS86 Hot Rod in bot mode is a better overall representation of the animation model than MP-9 and MP-28.

[Butcher31]

I've been keeping records of parts counts and weights of my figures, then running regression analysis to see how strong the correlation is with price. It's pretty strong. And this figure has a lot more parts than your standard deluxe and actually more than your standard voyager. So on paper it's better "value for money" than a lot of other voyager figures.
Although this is just one way to describe "value". I know it's very subjective.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I've been keeping records of parts counts and weights of my figures, then running regression analysis to see how strong the correlation is with price. It's pretty strong. And this figure has a lot more parts than your standard deluxe and actually more than your standard voyager. So on paper it's better "value for money" than a lot of other voyager figures.
Although this is just one way to describe "value". I know it's very subjective.

Get yer logic and reasoning outta here mate.

Yeah, I can feel the quality and its plain to see its obviously more than a deluxe size could handle.

[Skyfire]

Get yer logic and reasoning outta here mate.

But I want MORE independent variables - number of metal pins, number of different colours, number of tampos... Then we can go full blown multiple regression !

Or maybe just Pearson correlation since it's the moulds that cost 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars i.e. part count (mould count) vs price.

And so ends the lesson in becoming a Hasbro accountant .

[Butcher31]

Get yer logic and reasoning outta here mate.

Yeah, I can feel the quality and its plain to see its obviously more than a deluxe size could handle.

Sorry. You're right. I'll see myself out.

I included screws and pins but they don't make a difference to the price. Yeah, including paint and tampos would be interesting.

[Dimi194]

So I initially had 0 interest in this figure because I already owned the TR version (as with Kup and Blurr) - but when I was in Kmart and looking closely at him I realised just how nice he looked...

And wow I'm so glad I got this guy! The robot mode is excellent, and all the accessories are really nice (wish the Matrix blast effect used the 5mm hole on the back to connect so it could be used on more figures though). The articulation is just next level, and even the touches like the opening hands and flip down glasses really show why this guy is at the voyager price point.
He's also one of the first figures I've bought in a while (non-movie SS at least) that I needed to look at the instructions to transform - I was shocked that things like the hands flipping was done purely for robot mode and had nothing to do with the transformation!

Car mode is nice - slight shame about the knees sticking out the back, and mushroom wheels SUCK but the rest looks great (including the lovely spoiler) and the yellow hinge doesn't bother me too much.

A fine piece of engineering - if I didn't have such an attachment to the TR Blurr (even with his bland colours) I'd certianly think about biting on the SS86 version of him too!