Haha! He'd be supremely drunk, and it would probably be part of a plan to catch Ricky and Julian.

 

 

Hot spot can put out trailer park fires, right?

 

Yeah, but even he struggles with bottle kids

 

I've seen blue, white, yellow and red firetrucks. No colors of toy firetrucks surprise me.

 

I haven't been keeping up with the going-ons of the 3P world but yesterday I just saw a pix of the 3P equivalent of Hotspot..omg it looks aweful!

This Hastak version is more beautiful & for lack of a better word graceful lol. The posability & likeness of anime accuracy is truly spot on. Another home run for the CW line.

This is the pix of that monstrosity that i saw..  

 

Who needs Defensor's limbs, anyway?

 

Hmm... can someone post a pic of combined mode with the Hot Spot legs extended and his arms lying flat against his body? I'm hoping the HS arms can make sort of makeshift hips for Defensor.

 

This guy is great. I love the color. His transformation to combiner mode is fantastic. My only issue is I think his ladder feels slightly flimsy and fragile. Kinda rubbery.

 

Is anyone else having trouble keeping the front end of the vehicle mode pegged together? It's like the pegs aren't even there. Is this a common problem or did I just get the short end of the QC stick?

 

Mine pegs, but barely. The plastic used in the construction feels cheap, like a new 3rd party company that everyone's raved about until they get the first item in hand and it's of questionable quality. That's how it feels and it's rather disappointing.

I don't think his ladder will be with us in time. It's either going to crumble or snap and when that happens, bye bye Defensor.

 

Not necessarily. The head actually clips into place on the torso. Simply remove the broken ladder sections.

 

That's what I was afraid of. It's sad because my Protectobot limbs are tight and solid. I was hoping Hot Spot would be the same. I was afraid I was going to break him just by transforming him.

 

Has anyone taken the combined mode head apart to reverse the central crest? It looks like ot should be able to work the other way round....

 

Have mine coming from HTS again I never had him as a kid but that blue color there is just something about it.

I never got the GDO and had sold my Inferno from that mold.

I might have to silver up those windshield wipers just to break it up, even though I know most wipers are black.

Hey, sometimes when you think it's just a toy then you find out there is a real one some where.

 

So, Hot Spot finally arrived today, and mine seems to have a weird QC problem -the blue plastic that makes up his left leg (and Defensor's right) is much more flexible than the other. His other leg will snap into place with that peg and slot near the top solidly - the left would rather flex and let the peg pop out.

Initially I thought there was a screw loose (on the toy, people), so I took a screwdriver to it, and while the screw was loose, while tightening it helped, the plastic still has flex to it; while the other side is solid with virtually no flex.

This cause issues in Defensor mode, because with how top-heavy he is; he slouches forward far more than Motormaster ever did due to that weak point. Yes, Menasor stands better than my Defensor does. I either have to ratchet the hips one click back (so Defensor is basically looking up) or put the arms straight down.

It's at the point where I can live with it rather than send it back and try to get it exchanged with BBTS, but the first Hot Spot I see at retail is coming home with me.

 

Yeah man I just got my HS today and he feels cheap as fuck. He's all bendy and twisty and feels super unstable, like he could melt in the sun.

Plus I'm not a fan of the design. He looks really evil and not somebody that I'd want to see coming to rescue me. It's not just the red eyes, but also the menacing brow and faceplate, plus all the dark highlights (which look amazing in combined mode), not to mention the big claw-like protrusions on his ladder.

 

Someone went crazy with the glue for the combiner port latch on mine... When I was putting defensor together I couldn't get his arm to go in and noticed that the black piece that springs back wasn't moving. Well it was glue tpgether, so I took it a part and took a hair dry to the arm till I ripped it apart...

Works now and I love how defensor looks with the pe kit... However it was still annoying

 

A couple more hairdryer sessions have worked... well, not miracles, but wonders on Hotspot's legs, so now it pretty much stays in place, allowing Defensor to not flop forward so much.  

 

Hot Spot: The “lost” combiner team leader returns...



I never had Hot Spot as a kid. The only Protectobot that I ever got was Streetwise, so the Combiner Wars Protectobots are my first experience with this team. I refer to Hot Spot and his fellow Protectobots as the “lost” combiner team because they never got any toys since the G2 Protectobots were canceled, until last year. Okay, that’s not quite true in Hot Spot’s case – he got a few exclusive repaint homages, like the GDO repaint of the Universe Inferno/ Grapple mold, and then the Asia-exclusive repaints of the whole team came out. None of those were combiners, however, and nearly all were repaints or remolds with new heads.



This Combiner Wars Hot Spot is new mold, and is definitely a combiner torso. How good of a torso he is for latter-day Defensor is another matter entirely.



The good:
Hot Spot looks big and tough in robot mode, owing to his big, broad shoulders. Otherwise, his torso is about as wide as Silverbolt’s. He’s mostly light blue, with the red chest plate homaging the G1 toy, and black thighs and upper arms. The fire truck’s front end becomes his feet and calves, which I believe is the reverse of the G1 toy. The black-painted front windows end up on his feet, which look a little weird, but this Hot Spot has more to his feet than his G1 predecessor ever did. The fire truck’s light-bar ends up split in two and each half is just below his knees. It’s interesting to note that his wheels end up on the insides of his legs.



He has a decent range of articulation, but no turning waist, sadly. His head is the same light blue as most of his body, taking a cue from the cartoon, whereas G1 Hot Spot’s head (and that of the GDO version) was black. His mouthplate is a darker shade of blue, and his eyes are strangely red, but this was true of the G1 toy and was carried over into the animation as well. He has his twin fireball canons which he can hold in each hand and strike some interesting poses with. The kibble on his back doesn’t overbalance him in and can even be used to help with dynamic poses if you don’t have a stand.





The fire truck mode comes after a fairly easy transformation. The cherry-picker/ ladder assembly is the trickiest part, but more on that later. It looks really neat and futuristic, like a modified version of the Rosenbaur Panther that Sentinel Prime from Dark of the Moon turned into. I actually like that it’s not blocky like G1 Hot Spot.



The ladder assembly can rotate 360 degrees, and the ladder can raise the cherry picker bucket up to save humans trapped on higher building floors. You can also mount the cannons on either side of the bucket assembly to serve as a turret for either putting out fires or taking out airborne Decepticons. There’s even a way to mount the cannons such that the handles stick up so that a Legends-class figure can “man” them, although the small bot is really just hanging off, but it looks cool. There are also 5mm hardpoints at the base of the ladder assembly, and on the fire truck just under and forward of the ladder base where you can mount or store accessories. He has eight wheels and all roll freely.





The transformation into Defensor’s torso and thighs is neat and innovative, although there are some chancy parts (see below). The ladder/ cherry picker wraps around Hot Spot’s torso vertically, and panels on the sides of the ladder base unfold to form Defensor’s basic chest plate. The ladder wraps around such that the cherry picker basket ends up on top of the torso and reveals Defensor’s head.



The bad:
I really, really want to like Hot Spot. He looks awesome in all three modes and is definitely a better combiner torso than Motormaster or Prime. Trouble is, there are significant flaws that cause him to still be outclassed by Silverbolt.



In robot mode, the red chest piece has to pivot outward to open up so you can get Hot Spot’s head out. Unfortunately, on mine, this piece pops off if I so much as look at it wrong. I think one of the round tabs is warped so that it doesn’t hold the chest plate securely. There’s nothing I can do about this now. I’m not brave enough to use a hair drier for fear that the plastic will warp even further.



During transformation, moving the ladder assembly’s base is scary because it is attached to the rest of Hot Spot’s body with a skinny little swing arm. This part looks like it could break easily if you accidentally twisted it the wrong way. You have to pivot it back and forth when transforming him, and the little swing arm sandwiches between his shoulders in fire truck mode, so be very careful when transforming it. It locks down securely in all three modes, so once you get it in place, no worries.



The other problem is that the wheels are not pinned. I’ve had wheels on his shoulders and calves just pop right off during transformation, which is really annoying.



The vehicle mode is greatly undersized, and is very skinny. I’m not going into scale because that’s a can of worms, but if you put Hot Spot next to Universe Inferno or RTS Grapple, the contrasts are glaring. Also, there are plastic cut-outs in the middle of the fire truck, just before the ladder assembly, where Hot Spot’s head and face show through. Major points deducted for that.







In torso mode, Defensor’s chestplate is supposed to peg onto Hot Spot’s folded-up shoulders. However, every time that I try to move one of Defensor’s arms, the pegs pop out. Not only that, Hot Spot's shoulders do not stay pegged together when you move Defensor's arms. Wait a sec, didn’t I go through that last bit with Motormaster?

On top of that, Hot Spot’s legs are supposed to collapse and shorten to form Defensor’s waist and thighs, but the right leg won’t stay pegged in. I have tried clear nail polish on these peg slots, but it hasn’t helped.

The verdict:
Hot Spot looks great in all three modes, but is very flawed. I can only recommend him with a lot of conditions and caveats. If I see another one on a store shelf, I’ll pick it up and see if it has the same issues.



In my head canon, I see Hot Spot as a secret sufferer of primus apotheosis (see the IDW comics or the TF Wiki), or wanting to be as much like Optimus Prime as possible. He does everything possible to hide this, and is constantly moving at a manic pace as a result. He is an excellent, hyper-energetic commander, always ready with a plan or a pep talk to boost morale. He is fearless in battle and a natural combatant, but treasures all life.



Inside, though, he is always mentally comparing himself to Optimus Prime, and secretly fears that he’ll never measure up. His primus apotheosis isn’t exactly subtle, since he’s got black sections on his chest that resemble windows, he turns into a truck, and his head and mouthplate somehwhat resemble Prime’s. His chest even has a chamber for the Matrix of Leadership! This is only known to his physician First Aid, psychologist Rung, and secretly to Optimus Prime himself. I think it adds an interesting dimension to a G1 bio that is otherwise too good to be true and a little dull.

 

Can you detail what you did with the hair dry? Mine has the exact same problem. I tried tightening the screw as you did, also to no effect.