Very simple.

Hot Rod gets the matrix and becomes Rodimus Prime. Optimus Prime comes back to life and Rodimus Prime gives the matrix back to Optimus Prime, reverting back to his Hot Rod form.

After returning the matrix, Hot Rod finds he still retains some of the wisdom and experience he had as Rodimus Prime; not a Prime but more than Hot Rod, he adopts the name Rodimus Major for a short time but then decides to drop the "Major" part.

 

Well, I...oh, wait. You appear to have an answer already.

Hmm...ok, still wiser, yep...more than 'Hot Rod, all right...Major for a while, that's solid...

Looks like everything checks out here!

 

Thats my explanation. i thought someone else would have had their own.

 

Kissplay Rodimus=Rodimus

Alternators Rodimus=Hot Rod

For me.  

 

His Rod was no longer Hot?

I got nothin.

 

I've never actually bothered to think about it until now. I like your explanation though Bass...very cool.

 

Yeah, never really put any thought into it before, and Bass' solution works pretty damn well now that you mention it.

 

My explanation is that he appears before the Autobot High Court with his Form Eleven B Stroke Seven Nine J filled out in triplicate, 75 Cybertronian dollars, and the reasoning that having a 7-character name is luckier than having a 6-character name.

 

Sorry if that sounded asinine. Seriously, that's a good explanation.

I personally don't have one--I tend to accept anything that's given to me in canon (if I like it and it fits with the rest), and then just ignore everything else, especially the stuff that's really explained by IP law or corporate policy or whatever.

So for me he's Hot Rod, then Rodimus Prime, then Hot Rod again. In G1, at least. Everywhere else, he's a seperate character in a seperate storyline.

 

So then where was Optimus Major? When he returned to life he wasn't the leader right away, yet he was still Optimus Prime.

Hot Rod
Rodimus Prime
Rodimus Major

You'd think the other Autobots would get fed up and call him "Rod"?

 

Someone told him there was a gay porn actor using the same name.  

 

I just call all my Rodimii Hotrod.

 

Yeah, it was Tracks.

 

Well, Orion Pax changed his name to Optimus Prime when he was rebuilt and given the Matrix, so when Hot Rod acquired the Matrix, there was the equivalent change of name...though Ultra Magnus was not called Ultra magnimus Prime  

 

Ultra Magnus with armor=Ultra Magnus

Ultra Magnus without armor=Magnus

For me.  

 

I don't care what name is on the packaging, he's still Hot Rod to me.

 

After becoming Prime, he went through a lot of crap, I think he just decided to stick with his name and drop the Prime after that.

As for Rodimus Major, I think they were just trying to tell us he was majorly now Rodimus called? If that sentence isn't broked enough for you already.
DN

 

For my toy universe, Classics Rodimus is Hot Rod until they make a Rodimus Prime toy (inwhich I hope they do). Unless he has the Matrix, he will always be Hot Rod

 

Yeah, I pretty much agree. If he's actually Rodimus Prime I'll call him that, albeit reluctantly, but all the sports-car Rodimii are "Hot Rod" as far as I'm concerned.

A little OT, I really hate the names "Rodimus" and "Rodimus Prime." I still think it was unforgiveably lazy of the original movie writers to name him that. That was really the BEST they could come up with for the new Prime? At least "Optimus" sounded like a Latin-derived description of his qualities: he was optimal, or optimum. "Rodimus" is just a lazy pseudo-Latin-sounding version of "Rod."

They should have at least come up with a cooler, more Latin-sounding name. Maybe something derived from the Latin words for "hot" or "fast"; Calidus Prime, Rapidus Prime, Accelerus Prime. I dunno. But "Rodimus"..... that's almost as lame as "Kup."