View Poll Results: Worth buying?

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  • Yes

    15 55.56%
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Thread: Toy Review - RODIMUS PRIME (Kingdom)

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Krayt View Post
    Why!!!!???!?!?!

    Why do they have to make every Rodimus also a Hotrod? There was no need and never was...

    The overly long car/cab just ruins the entire piece for me. Sure G1 looked stupid without the trailer... but you just made it work and played with it. We had Hotrod and Rodimus, and if I wanted to downgrade I’d park Roddy behind a door and Hotrod would come racing out for a bit.... kill some ‘Cons and then race back.

    I get why that's annoying for some, but this isn't that. The detached vehicle is it's own thing, and not just another Hot Rod - the POTP version did that, while this is a chunkier thing that's clearly aiming more for power than speed. Hot Rod's car mode is all sleek lines and very flat, while this is chunky, taller and very different in a number of places.

    The length of the overall 'campervan' mode isn't because of the car, that's more of a stylistic decision. I'm glad they went with it too - most G1 Rodimus designs are too fat and stubby. Apart from the gap in the pipes, this is a great update.

  2. #12
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    Got this today at BigW toy sale. So far, I can say pretty happy with it. However, is it worth $149? Nope. Is it worth $109? Also no. Well, it depends....

    Rodimus is one of those figs/characters that I like, but I don't know why I like. I mean, apart from the movie, what memorable stuff did he do? Probably something, but I don't... remember anything. I'm not a Hot Rod fan (he got Optimus killed!), so its not that. Dunno, maybe its just cause hes a Prime? Anyway, I really enjoy the PotP Rodimus, which I will concede is not a great figure. But it is a lot of fun, although it scales with absolutely nothing. But enough preamble, onto Kingdom Rodimus.

    Everyone seems to agree that this bot mode is pretty spiffy. There's not much to complain about here. Transformation is good - complex but not difficult or frustratingly annoying. Everything folds away nicely for a clean transformation. No faux chest, and it holds a matix too (nice!). Little bit of backpack (with downward facing vents that equal prime-jets in my mind, although fairly sure there is no canon to support this), but certainly not excessive. High level of articulation, allowing him to throw some very nice dynamic shapes.
    For me. the detachable vehicle concept is where this figure goes wrong. I get the 'play value' of having a separate vehicle, but this is the root cause of the figure's issues. I would have been happy with an alt mode that depended on the vehicle and trailer being combined (like the G1). This would have allowed for a more cohesive alt mode. The space Winnebago has been comprised by having to separate. When did this ever happen in movies or comics? Who would display Rodimus in alt-mode as just the front vehicle bit?
    The trailer is ok, though mine doesnt seem to stay closed together very well. There's a bit going on, not all of it necessary. Quite happy with the 'battle-platform-with-big-cannon-thing' as per the G1 fig. Great posing and play value. Seems to fit cars better than ER Prime. The sword is a cool extra. Wished they kept the separating gun concept like PotP. Blast effects - all the odd ones seem a bit useless for this fig, but I guess the point is you can use them with other figs, so whatever. The blue is a nice change tho. The black exhaust ones are just dumb.

    I find myself comparing this to ER Prime and ER SkyLynx. Not sure if that's fair, but hey, that's where I'm at. For me, SkyLynx beats Rodimus across the board. Figure wise, I think RP beats ER Prime, mainly due to a little extra engineering, articulation, and paint apps. Rodimus' trailer and accessories are better too.
    Does any of this justify the (extra) price? Hard for me to say - there is only $5 difference between what I paid for the two WFC Primes (yes, I paid impatience tax for ER Prime!), and RP was the same price as SL. So that's all bit subjective, however I would have likely skipped Rodimus at $150. So I can't justify the price to you, but I do think that you will like the figure if you're happy to drop $109 clams on it.

    Out of interested, weighed my two recent Commander Class figs: Rodimus is 620g and SkyLynx is 810g. If that's of any interest to you.
    TF Figs of 2023:
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  3. #13
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    Another gripe: Rodimus' yellow wingthing is completely lost when in vehicle mode, where in the G1 original figure (and other figs), it was part of the design. They may as well have had it detachable in Kingdom Rodimus, and saved the trouble of accomodating the trailer design to deal with it, as it recedes too far into the trailer to be seen.

  4. #14
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    Got my Rodimus yesterday and he is a very solid figure- there is a lot of heft or density, reminiscent of the quality of Sky Lynx. The transformation threw me for a loop for a bit, even with instructions.

    There are a few issues. The trailer doesn’t peg together with the cannon inside, and barely does even when it’s not in there. There also seems to be a bit of bad clearance for the head/neck and the collar area. It’s hard to get a good head pose. The silver face doesn’t bug me as much in person, though I would have preferred something similar to either POTP Rodimus or SS86 Hot Rod. I’m not a huge fan of the sacrifices made to accomodate the separating chubby car/cab either, as they make the transformation needlessly complex and the alt mode less cartoon (or even toy) accurate.

    On the positive side, this figure has a much cleaner robot silhouette than the POTP leader, with better articulation and overall stability. It fits in well in terms of size with the WFC and Generations lineup.

    Overall a nice figure with a lot of quality, but a bunch of small issues that hold it back from being a perfect rendition of the character. I definitely wouldn’t mind a cartoon-style Optimus Prime in this same vein for Commander Class. A full-painted trailer with all the bits, no sacrifices in bot mode and anime-styled paint all over would do wonders. I found myself turned off by the cheap-looking Earthrise leader Optimus, so maybe it’ll come in the next few years or so. Given the $20 or so in consumer price difference between those two figures, there is a world of difference. At the very least, this Rodimus Prime figure is a good experiment in what can be done with the Commander Class budget, instead of only big chonker figures like Jetfire and Sky Lynx. What other characters can be done in a similar way?
    Last edited by Bidoofdude; 16th June 2021 at 08:45 PM.
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  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bidoofdude View Post
    Got my Rodimus yesterday and he is a very solid figure- there is a lot of heft or density, reminiscent of the quality of Sky Lynx. The transformation threw me for a loop for a bit, even with instructions.

    There are a few issues. The trailer doesn’t peg together with the cannon inside, and barely does even when it’s not in there. There also seems to be a bit of bad clearance for the head/neck and the collar area. It’s hard to get a good head pose. The silver face doesn’t bug me as much in person, though I would have preferred something similar to either POTP Rodimus or SS86 Hot Rod. I’m not a huge fan of the sacrifices made to accomodate the separating chubby car/cab either, as they make the transformation needlessly complex and the alt mode less cartoon (or even toy) accurate.

    On the positive side, this figure has a much cleaner robot silhouette than the POTP leader, with better articulation and overall stability. It fits in well in terms of size with the WFC and Generations lineup.

    Overall a nice figure with a lot of quality, but a bunch of small issues that hold it back from being a perfect rendition of the character. I definitely wouldn’t mind a cartoon-style Optimus Prime in this same vein for Commander Class. A full-painted trailer with all the bits, no sacrifices in bot mode and anime-styled paint all over would do wonders. I found myself turned off by the cheap-looking Earthrise leader Optimus, so maybe it’ll come in the next few years or so. Given the $20 or so in consumer price difference between those two figures, there is a world of difference. At the very least, this Rodimus Prime figure is a good experiment in what can be done with the Commander Class budget, instead of only big chonker figures like Jetfire and Sky Lynx. What other characters can be done in a similar way?
    With the trailer not closing properly. Check if the blast shields on the turret are folded the wrong way. If they’re folded “down” like you think they would(and it’s how they’re packaged on mine), they bump against the treads but and prevent the main joint from folding a complete 90 degrees, which then prevents the trailer from closing properly.

  6. #16
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    27th Jun 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by doublespy View Post
    With the trailer not closing properly. Check if the blast shields on the turret are folded the wrong way. If they’re folded “down” like you think they would(and it’s how they’re packaged on mine), they bump against the treads but and prevent the main joint from folding a complete 90 degrees, which then prevents the trailer from closing properly.
    Nah... up or down it’s the same

    The cannon is just a bit higher overall than intended... and touches ridge lines in the roof.

    I’ve been slowly sanding my ridges back.... keeps getting better, but I hate doing it

  7. #17
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    Opened mine up yesterday and this is a solid figure, and I actually have a lot of fun with the trailer (all too often, Optimus' trailer feels like an empty box that opens with little additional play value so Rodimus' gun turret is really good in comparison). The vehicle minus the trailer is too chunky to look good, what makes it feel off for me is how the rear juts up compared to the rest of the vehicle, I'm just too used to the sleeker lines of Hot Rod. I didn't really like the transformation, there were several steps that I felt was needlessly fiddly, like they needed to add complexity, so that made it confusing. Otherwise, well worth the sale price of $109 (harder to justify at $149, but I think borderline worthwhile).
    "sometimes the things you see might not be real and the things that are real you might not see"

  8. #18
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    My copy's calf flaps don't want to clip in, just like my SS86 Hot Rod. Not the same mechanical issue (or fix like I discovered with Hot Rod). I can't yet make out what I'm doing wrong or the mechanical fault. I guess Rodimus really does evolve from Hot Rod...

    Edit: well I figured it out - you've got to squeeze (apply pressure) right at the bottom edge of the calf flap, where it clips into the red, rectangular hole.

    Christmas at Rodimus's...

    Last edited by Skyfire; 19th June 2021 at 04:19 PM.

  9. #19
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    I certainly think this figure is worth $109 on sale but I wouldn't cough up $150 for it.

    The robot mode is fantastic. A small nitpick is that I'd have preferred a dark gray for the boots rather than black.
    The space winnebago has pretty much been retconned into a space truck. I'm on the fence about this design choice. Its actually doesn't look bad but I think it was more to justify the price tag. MP-9 nails the space winnebago look.

    Having a separate "Hot-Rod style" truck cab seems a bit like a justification for the price tag as well. The cab-mode doesn't tick any box properly. It's too chunky to resemble Hot Rod's sleek vehicle mode and its too car-like to look like a truck cab.
    The transformation of the cab to Rodimus Prime also seems like it was made more complicated to justify the price tag and to bump up the parts count.
    Altogether, with a little bit of dumbing down this figure could easily have been sold as a Leader which is what I think it should have been.

    I'm still very happy to have it though at the Big W sale price.

    I am somewhat concerned that in the future Hasbro will try to palm off Voyager/Leader figures as "Commander Class" by making them overly complicated. Seems like a big possibility given they've almost run out of the larger sized Transformers to do who would genuinely justify the Commander scale [Like Sky Lynx and Jetfire]. Fiddly, over-engineered transformers are what the MP line is there for!
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  10. #20
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