I was excited to get this guy and have been looking forward to his update for a while. Armada Hot Shot is not a very good toy asit is filled with crappy gimmicks that take all the cool out of him and yet I found myself wanting one after playing the PS2 Armada TF game, as it made the figure look quite good. Obviously it was altered quite a bit. So ever since then I have been wanting a better Hot Shot. Incidentally for those who want to have a better look at the series toys, Takaratomy still host the website here.

Hot shot was called Hot Rod in Japan, and since Henkei is the same, I will now refer to him consistently as Hot Rod (HR).

HR is an odd toy. He comes with his Minicon partner Jolt, and a couple of guns. Affectionately known as "Giant Bazooka." The MD only had one, but now he has 2. Lucky guy. Not documented in the instructions is the optin to mount eh bazookas onto his fore-arms, much like the look of Animated Hotshot from Transwarped. I think it looks pretty cool!

Naturally he has better movement, no crappy springy gimmicks but still suffers from massive shoulders. I presumed they would stay there, as that is the looks of the guy and they have been improved greatly, but still manage to get in the way quite a bit. Leg articulation is way up and his arms are about the same, let down only but the shoulder pads... He is much better balanced than before as well.

HR comes wit Jolt, a little red helicopter who in the original toy would activaet gimmicks. Now he just helps out I guess.. Jolt is smaller than he was before and transforms differently too. He is light and can't stand up very well at all as he has no heels at all. Strange, but I don't think HR would have been complete without him. He has elbows and a pretty well defined face. No knees...He can connect to HR in 2 ways for powerlinking.

Powerlinking is when the minicons would join to the bigger bots to add some power. Jolt can still do this, but it doesn't actvate anything and just looks like there is a helicopter joined to HR's shoulders. Still, better than losing articulation for some rubbish gimmick IMO. In vehicloe mode, he slips under the spoiler for a bit of rear-helicopter action(tm) Again, no gimmicks. Slightly different config from the first as the first toy had the option of moving the blades of the chooper to the rear of the car. This config is missing fromthe Henkei version.
Light piping has been included for this guy. It works ok, but the shoudlers get in the way of the light, so its rarely as good as it could have been. His Visor can slip down over his eyes to simulate the yellow version of Armada Hot Shot when he had hi Giant Bazooka up and ready. This option was removed for the "Powerliked" version that I have which is why it isn't in nay pics. With enough light and the right angle, you can still get his eyes to shine through.


His vehicle mode is an excellent copy of the first, just a little smaller. Still sports the Insignia on his spoiler which is the only one he has.


The Bazookas can be mounted underneath the car as exhaust pipes and look nice. No Jam, but we have Hot Rod instead. Oh I managed to negelct taking a pic of the flames for his gun when in vehicle mode. It actualy looks quite good, a nice tight Nitro-type flame coming out. Might get on to that later actually. The hole in the rear window is where Jolt' nose goes in for vehcile mode...


The Verdict
Overall a pretty good update for an originally pretty crap toy. Updates is (in my mind anyway) what the Henkei/Classics/new Universe should be all about. Some good movement and balance as well as a limited but still nifty sidekick. The yellow blends well (best I have seen so far for the henkei) and he has some good personality to him. I give him 7/10

Lots more pics here that I didn't use, including comparisons with AR Powerlinked Hot Shot

Extra info. The comic that comes with him has him state that he is the Future leader... I wonder what Rodimus thinks about that?