I'm sure they can be bought by anyone with an internet connection...

 

And then they tower over everyone else that they shouldn't tower over... Rodimus would have that same issue vs Galvatron as well.

 

That could work but unfortunately, Prime is shoddy. I have a better Prime and by getting both Leaders, that sinks $100+. Then that disregards the recent Galvatron and means I would have to wait for a Leader Class Galvatron/Megatron to oppose them. Galvatron alone would be roughly $50. Collecting Leaders becomes costly fast and consumes space at an alarming rate.

 

Disappointed in Optimus Prime. It sucks that his chest is a cheat.

 

If Hot Rod is an actual voyager or close enough as has been rumored, you could always use Hot Rod as a voyager Rodimus to go along with CW Optimus to fight your voyager Megatron and TR Galvatron respectively. That's pretty much what I have in mind. That way, I can have both voyager and leader class scraps between the four since I have figures in both classes already.

 

That's pretty much what I'm doing; Hot Rod's appearance is close enough to Rodimus Prime that I can just pretend it is Rodimus Prime since he still has his winnebago in alt mode

 

Nice idea for a workaround and I would get a Matrix out of the situation. Only problem I can see is that it would be sinking a lot of money and space to essentially a Voyager Class, however, so even that's got its downside.

 

Yeah, but...two fer the price of one!   Leader class Roddy Prime AND a Voyager Roddy Prime and Hot Rod. That's essentially three figures and a matrix for $45 bucks.

I'm not a Hasbro bot or shill, btw. I'm just uber excited for this figure. lol.

The other thing is I've never actually owned a voyager or leader Roddy/Hot Rod. I've missed all the prior figures for one reason or another, be it cost/missed because I wasn't collecting at the time or just not a great figure. In fact, the only Rodimus I own is Armada and that's charitably deluxe. So that's why I'm a bit on the excited side for this.

 

Still really love the entire concept of the leader figures and their evolutions. Orion and Hot Rod especially.

Anyone else notice that Optimus is pretty much a brainmaster now? In many ways it feels like he's test engineering for a future Star Saber. Matrix in the torso being a mini robot, then he folds up into a bigger cube type to fit in a bigger body and gives the head. Love the concept entirely though with how they are doing it. Really has this added feel of Orion as the Optimus prime master.

Hot Rod's more integrated transformation feels more like him becoming Rodimus. And Optimal/Primal feels a lot like he's evolving into Optimal with his combination method. Optimus though, I find it really interesting that his evolution is more becoming a cube shaped like a bigger Prime master. The overall gimmick does feel exactly like what they should do for Star Saber.

I do hope they still do a release of an Ariel, A3, and Dion though. Deluxe to go with Orion. Ariel probably wouldn't be hard to fit into one of the retools of the fembots. A3 could be done from Scourge with Alpha Trion's head. Then Dion I don't know. Possibly another Kup rehead?

Again Hasbro, you really wowed on these! Looking forward to buying as much of the line as I can!

 

Want that Hot Rod figure.

 

There hasn't been a voyager or leader Rodimus or Hot Rod.

Other than the size, THIS is the problem with Rodimus...
Inexcusable in a $45-50 toy.

 

I'm very curious about how the core bots will stand with PE ginrai it looks like they may measure up fine. If that's the case, and if we get some form of megatron like this, it will be hard to resist.

 

I've gotta admit, I'm really liking this new power of the primes gimmick. It's kind of a really neat way to celebrate these characters. I've been trying to get away from anything that's not masterpiece, but I need a Rodimus and a true Orion Pax is too hard to pass up. Looking forward to more photos!

 

You're clearly not the target audience then- with this level of playability and ingenuity something had to give. The MP had the battle platform. This integrates the transformation from hot rod to rodimus. To integrate better it would need to be priced higher and lose its inherent playability, which this being a mainline, means it is intended first and foremost as a kids toy. Kids and parents don't want a $100 price point or 600 folding tabs and panels plus even when they do that it hasn't been great lately (see mpm prime).

 

I'm an adult collector, and *I* don't want a super-expensive price point or a million folding tabs or panels just to get a Hot Rod toy that can become Rodimus Prime. If I want origami, I'll take up origami.

 

Hot Rod totally has a fake chest. Understandable, but disappointing nonetheless.

 

Well yeah, you can find a Slugslinger online, but not for retail price and not without buying a spare Hot Rod and Kup.

 

I would argue that I am the target audience - I'm someone who will freely spend $45-50 for a Transformer toy.
And I promise I don't want a $100 price point or a buttload of folding tabs and panels - I'm not doing a lot of "playing" with the toys, so I don't want to spend a half hour figuring out how to transform anything. That doesn't mean it has to look like total shit from behind either, like someone forgot to do something with that entire part of the transformation.
My argument is that it shouldn't look like that for $45-50, and it's ridiculous to try to defend that. The size being too big is my personal thing, other people may not care, and I can continue to use Protector armor for a Rod Prime. But there's no getting around what looks like half a toy shell missing.

 

I\'ve just thought on. I\'m totaly confused why we never saw a full color combined mode. Since you know, they\'re all here in color.

 

Masterpiece and third-party/KO disagrees with you.

See earlier reply to your earlier post of the above: