Kiss-Play Hot Rodimus

(First off, this is my first review here, so apologies if I miss something out or ramble too much. Basically, Hot Rod (as he will be for the purposes of this review) is a thing of such pulchritudinous wonderousness, I just had to talk about him).

Hey, remember when you were small and it was Christmas, and your Great Aunt Doris would come over on Boxing Day with all the rest of the relatives, and you'd always hate it because her present would be some outsize jumper that was the colour of sewage and itched like a First World War uniform after the delousing agent ran out? Of course you did. But, did you ever have a Christmas where, totally unexpectedly, she got you something COMPLETELY AWESOME? Well, Kiss-Players Hot Rod is a bit like that.

Alright, maybe my expectations weren't that low - but they certainly weren't much. For a start, there was the fact that I already have Mirage, and while this certainly is a magnificent mould and car model there are no changes at all except for the colour (and the head, but I'll come onto that in a bit). Secondly, as a fan of Binaltech over Alternators, there's the fact that he's not die-cast, which is most disappointing given the premium paid on importing. And third, there was so much fan bitching before his release, not only the ongoing Kiss-Players hate ("it's blatant child porn! Let's nuke Japan!") but also the arguing over his flame wrists/striped chest/yellow hands. So much negativity, I thought, cannot be a good sign.

And yet. Kiss-Players Hot Rod is here and he really is phenomenally good. Really really. Why? How can I spew forth such gushing praise for a plastic, yellow-handed, son of a remould? Well, here's a few reasons:

1) The alt mode. Although Mirage is lovely, there's no doubting the fact that making him a Ford GT was a bit of, shall we say, a departure from his usual F1 racer. Whereas the GT really suits Hot Rod. The front, for example, has the same classic profile (only minus a ridiculous engine block plonked right in the middle of it). The enclosed nature of the GT's design parrallels the original pop-up cockpit of the old "futuristic car". The paint-over-plastic lends it a suitable glossy sheen, and once you see it you realise that a simple recolour was absolutely the right way to go - put flames all over this and you ruin the essence of it. Even nicer, the little two-pronged swinging joint visible through the rear window that clips the boot in place (it's coloured grey on Mirage) is coloured yellow, giving just a little hint of the G1 toy's rear spoiler. Marvellous. Oh and hey, remember those really crap painted rear lights on Mirage? Well, forget them again, because Hot Rod's are proper coloured red transparent plastic.

2) The robot mode. Now, I know that Mirage was the first time we saw this mould, but honestly, now I've seen Hot Rod I'd be amazed if it wasn't designed primarily with him in mind. The bonnet-becoming-chest, for example, works exactly the same way as it did on the G1 toy, and the rectangular crotch piece echos it too. This is pure speculation on my part, and doubtless Nevermore will pop up to completely contradict me, but I wonder if Hasbro went with Mirage because Ford asked the first release to be in the standard blue Ford GT colour, like with Tracks being yellow at first. Of course, this is the first time this mould has showed up in Japan. Meanwhile, the flames on the wrists don't look that silly, honestly - they're a nice wink to the original, as are the splashes of cherry red that are only visible in this mode. The hands, however - there's no denying it, they do look like Ronald McDonald's. But I can live with it. (I wish they'd made the thighs orange, though). Also - a big bonus for me - there's no glue overspill, which means he transforms fine (I nearly wrecked my Mirage through this). And I've not even mentioned the head, which, honestly, is the best I've seen in the BT/Alt/Kiss Play lines (more on this later). It really, really is Hot Rod, which is particularly lovely because he no longer has that whacking great lump of chrome occupying half his skull.

3) The extras - and I'm not just talking about Syao Syao. But let's get her out of the way first. I have no deisre to add to the stinking, festering mountain of flayed horses that has accumilated since the Kiss-Players line began, so I'll stick to the facts. Yes, you can see her pants. Yes, she is wearing a padlock, although frankly it looks much more like an iPod. No, the postman will not call the police and have you arrested were he for some reason to tear open your parcels while delivering them and catch a sight of the actually very tame box art.

No, what I'm talking about are things like the fishing rod/arm cannons, which is, frankly, the greatest homage since Martin Scorsese sat himself down with a copy of Infernal Affairs. I'm talking about the way that the engine gun can split and attach to either side of Hot Rod's legs, mimicking the chrome pipes on the G1 character's legs (since you can also do this on Mirage, it's another indication to me that this mould was designed with Hot Rod in mind). And I'm talking about the visor. Oh yes. This is really, really beautiful. Obviously a reference to the scene in Transformers: The Movie where Hot Rod is on Lookout Mountain and spots the Decepticons in the Autobot shuttle, what you can do is push back the crown of Hot Rod's head, push down a transparent visor and then put the crown back. Presto! Instant glasses. There just aren't words to describe how cool this little feature is. How many other BT/Alts have a funky head gimmick? None of them, that's how many.

Negatives? Well, there is one, but it might be unique to me - the right-hand-side door came loose the very first time I opened it, detatching itself from the black plastic underneath it, so it now flaps a bit (although stays in place fine in both modes). Bit of a QC issue there. But other than that, well, the only complaint I have is that he's not die-cast - but I expect that if he was, I'd have actually died of joy. So in a way, making him plastic saved my life.

Incidentally, there's also a CD, but since it's in Japanese and I did German at school I haven't bothered listening to it. What I do like is that in the instructions booklet, Syao Syao pops up with a comically cross face shouting a load of kanji. This made me laugh, although I have no idea what she's saying.

Frankly, this is a sheer piece of lush. BT is dead; long live the Kiss-Players. I'm hoping to get Autrooper at Christmas (he'll be Streetwise for me), although he'll have to go some to beat this. I might even ask my Great Aunt Doris for him...

+1

Must agree entirely with this review.
Hot Rodimus is a really great Alternator which, for someone who has stuck exclusively to Binaltech until now, is a feat in itself.
The paint apps are spot on, the mold is instantly recognisable as Hot Rod and looks real good next to Excellion and the original Hot Rod.

Love it to bits - its a keeper

I give a much higher score to Alt. Mirage, personally. The colors (and head) look better to me in both modes. Rod just looks too 'samey' all over in color for my tastes.

Mirage has tighter joints too.

How the Animated toy line REALLY came to an end

Nice review, Smokey. I, too, am absolutely in love with Hot Loddy Mas!

I've gotta disagree on the hands, though. I LOVE that they're yellow. How many Alts DON'T have black hands? (Lessee... Tracks, Swerve, Prowl, OP, Mirage, and Camshaft. Only 6 out of 24. And Tracks barely counts, as his are dark gray.) I welcome the bright color. Plus, G1 Roddy had bright orange hands, so it's well precedented.

Also:
At least on my Mirage, they were separate pieces of transparent red plastic, too. Hasbro just used a somewhat cloudy stock, so it's a bit hard to tell.

Really? I think the maroon, orange, and yellow touches add just enough variety.

Not on mine. Don't get me wrong -- my Mirage is far from loose, but my Rodimus doesn't budge unless you really mean it!

Does the chest lock in to the side tabs properly, or is it still loose and floppy like Mirage?

Urgh. I really, really, like the look of KP Rodimus, but so far I've held to Alternators only, even when BTA put out a few characters that Hasbro didn't. Rodimus is plastic, so I wouldn't have the "problem" of a die-cast BT not "matching" with my Hasbro Alts. But it's nasty expensive, and I've always managed to buy my Alts at retail, except for the two I got on sale from HTS and of course Nemmy.

It would be really nice if Hasbro happened to announce that they're bringing this guy to us after Rumble and the Jaguar Ravage. But then, Alts are either ended or on hiatus until after the movie, at which point Hasbro not deciding to do Rodimus would leave it nearly impossible to get Takara's. What to do, what to do...

That fishing rod is a nice homage when it's done up like the exhaust-pipes-blaster, but why would a Ford GT be carrying a giant fishing rod around with it? The surfboard-sword that KP Convoy had was at least not completely out of place.

Neither my Mirage nor Roddy has any loose joints (except that dumbassed chest jointing), but Mirage has a little more resistance, especially in the knees and several arm joints. If it's the reverse for you, I'd chalk it up to random variation from toy to toy.

On the color, I'd probably like it better if the upper legs of the robot were orange or something more contrasty, instead of pretty much the same red as the rest of the body. All that red really makes the bright yellow mitts stand out all the more. I might like that better if the hands and most of the yellow bots were replaced in orange as well.

Though I personally think the whole thing, car and robot looks better in blue, so there probably some general bias there.

How the Animated toy line REALLY came to an end

Well, by the same token, I've always had a major soft spot for Hot Rod/Rodimus (as you can tell by my handle). So I'm by no means impartial, either.

I'm still waiting for mine to arrive from BBTS. I hate the idea of Kiss-Play, but after I learned from the BotCon news that the Alt line was going on hiatus and there was no chance of seeing Rodimus state side I just had to order this new version of one of my favorite characters. I'll toss the box and probably Xiao Xiao pronto (depends how bad she looks in person), and won't touch another KP toy (unless it's Bumblebee) but Rodimus is worth enduring the bad to be able to get one awesome toy.

This'll probably the only KP I'll buy, unless they do another notable character that's not available in Alternator form. The price is insane really, I got the added benefit of local VAT and a handling fee from the courier as well. The only other major negative is the terrible box which is two thirds empty, which is kind of stupid really. The artwork is very tame, it kind of looks bizaar rather than smutty (or dirty or whatever).

My opinion of the toy is largely positive, as a Ford GT it is stunning, although there are some minor quality issues with the stripes. I did have trouble transforming him initially since the front grills (which are attached to his arms) wouldn't detach from the hood, I thought the pegs would break but they didn't. In robot mode his joints are as stiff as Mirage's, and his cape holds together better for me though. His head doesn't look narrow enough to be Hot Rod's, that's not a major complaint. The arm guns are a really nice touch, but there's no place to stick them in car mode. The other guns look kind of puny but that equally applies to Mirage.

In summary: nice, but it cost me dear

Edit: When I changed him back to his car mode, I noticed he doesn't line up quite as well as Mirage, just the back end really, and as a consequence the doors.