Note: I wrote this as a post in the UK thread, and it was suggested that I stick it here. DX9 Carry, complete with far sub-Napalm quality pics. Seriously, have a look as his photos in the Carry thread, they are great, and do far better justice to the figure than I ever could. I've always been a bit of a Rodimus fanboy. It isn't anything like my Magnus obsession (43 different Magnuses and counting!) but still, I'm not likely to pass one up. When I saw the early pics of the DX9 version, I was immediately taken with it, despite never having seen the Studio OX artwork that it is based on. I was also thoroughly intrigued by the idea of an all-in-one robot to SSSSPPPPAAAAACCCEEEE WWWIIIIIINNNNEEEEBBBBAAAGGGOOO (sorry, I had to get one of those in) transformation. I don't often bother with packaging much, other than complaining about how unnecessarily massive some TP efforts are (Warbotron, I'm looking at you, shaking my head slightly. And farting, but that's something else entirely). I was talking with Zaltron of TFS-Express about this recently; its really starting to be a problem. Iron Dreg from Toyworld comes in an insanely huge box, which is both unnecessary and has implications for shipping costs. Carry's packaging is worth mentioning for 3 reasons. First, it's very pretty (though you can't tell from that picture; curse you, Sun, why must you frustrate me so?); DX9 have a well deserved rep for quality box art, and Carry really does continue with that tradition. Secondly, the box is tiny! Legends Magnus' box is the same size as a Hasbro leader box; Carry is really crammed into his little cardboard coffin very efficiently indeed. He comes with a collector's card, poster (more later) not-Firebolt and the barrel for the targetmaster weapon/rifle for Firebolt. That's where the first problem came in. The barrel piece was underneath the tray, ad not secured at all. It was a couple of minutes before I realised that it was on the floor. A bit shoddy. No where near as bad, however, as the fact that Firebolt is just sitting loose in top of Carry. This has resulted in damage and scratching to some peoples' purchase, particularly on the windscreen. There was space for a bit of bubblewrap, for crying out loud. Moving on, I mentioned a poster. It's lovely to look at, but... The folds ruins it beyond repair. The paper and ink just don't sustain even a single fold. Ah well. Carry himself is a lovely looking beast in SSSPPPPAAAA....sorry, vehicle mode, though that panel at the top could have been a better colour match. Mine also had a few fine scratches on that panel, but nothing to complain about. He is heavy, and clearly compacted down; no-one is sleeping in this camper. A bit of trouble in paradise: Those marks were there out of the box, pre-transformation. I haven't decided whether I can live with them yet. It seems there was a bit of extra plastic at the edge of the bonnet, which caused the stress fracture. For an idea of size, I only had Legend Mags available: It certainly isn't in scale with his own Nebulon partner! The transformation is both a lot of fun, and a bit terrifying. The instructions ask you to do something impossible early on; you need to move the arms before unfolding the massive spoiler. After that initial unclipping and unfolding, which definitely contained some squeaky bum moments, everything is very obvious, without being boring. It isn't that you have seen these methods before, but more that you are surprised that you haven't seen them before. Legs, chest and arms all come together brilliantly...and then yer bum will be squeaking again trying to get the rather large, but understandable, backpack sorted. All of those panels and bits fold and clip together back there, but some of the joints are very tight, and the plastic starts to bend before the joint moves. Despite that, I got him changed without any damage or stress marks, and he is a damned handsome specimen. He also seems to have managed a very impressive mass shifting trick: He's actually slightly taller than Magnus, all of a sudden. From that compact Winnebago, we have a leader class robot. The hands on mine are very good, with a single point of articulation there. EDIT I'm wrong! The fingers are individually articulated; they were just stiff. His shoulders are a bit limited, as the height of them hit his head when moves out to the side, but everything else is as you would expect; hips, waist, elbows, wrists, knees, full ankle tilts and great stability from a double-folded heel. A little about Firebolt now. He turns into Rodimus Prime's trademark long rifle, not the shorter Targetmaster gun from the G1 Hot Rod toy. I'm a bit conflicted about him; he's a nice enough little robot, who looks pretty decent on his own: but lacks paint. Cool blue lightpiping though, which is odd since Carry does't have any. The face looks like he is distressed: which makes perfect sense once you learn that he is in constant anticipation of a transformation that require him to split from the crotch up! Youch. The barrel clips on, and the orange spoilers partsform. Aside from that, it's just a case of pegging hands to hips and bifurcating him. He reminds me of a very simplified version of MMC's Cynicus, and even has a build in sniper stand: Unfortunately, it looks OK, but that's about it. The foot at the back end pegs in, but there is no peg for the foot at the front; it just kind of sits there and flops about a bit. Keeping him lined up is a bit of a chore, really. Where it totally fails is being a flipping gun. The peg is far too short, so Carry can't hold him properly. The stock section also comes into conflict with Carry's forearm and bicep, so he can't hold it well at all. This is the best I could manage: but the hand to the front of the gun isn't actually holding it at all. Carry is a thoroughly enjoyable toy, a great robot to look at, and well articulated. My only question from a broad design standpoint is where to put him; too big to go with the current CW leader class, wrong aesthetic for MP...well, he can just be great on his own. Firebolt would be passable if that handle was just a few millimetres longer. It's a real shame, as are the several packaging cock ups that have lead to a few problems. DX9 aren't brand new, and have a, ah, very close relationship to Unique Toys, so they really should have done better. If you like the Studio OX aesthetic, and get a good one, you won't be disappointed. As for me, I think I'll have a word with the seller and see if I can get one without a cracked chest, and will be very happy when I do.
Awesome review. Your passion for the figure shines through in spite of the issues encountered. Shame you got a less than stellar one and hope it can be sorted. Carry is a curious beast, one that kind of stands alone yet fits wherever you choose to. He is joining Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Cupola and Star Saber in my Commanders display. Cheers for the pics shout out as well
Thanks Napalm. Carry looks pretty damned good with Citizen Stack. He's also stolen Steelcore's Corbot Carnage Axe.
Wow. What a great 3P figure. Im not a huge fan of the winey G1 character. He NEVER wanted to be Prime. But I love the Studio OX artwork this figure is based on. Nailed it. Great job DX9. Quality control is a tad off and the packaging is sub par for the price. But great figure. Highly recommend. Now for TYRANT! LOL
Now I do have a few minor quality control issues with my figure. The vehicle hood / robot chest does have a tiny paint blemish on the yellow flame. Nothing terrible... The vehicle roof was indeed scratched by the Target-master... Horrible packing job... The vehicle windshield was slightly scratched as well. But not terrible... The feet / heels were extremly tight but are NOT cracked. They are fine... The colors between plastic and paint are mismatched in vehicle mode. I can understand the need to have yellow plastic for the robot wings. They look fantastic. But the maroon paint on the vehicle side panels is much lighter then the maroon plastic around it. It looks pretty bad... And lastly, I dont know why they chose to paint several maroon robot parts with a maroon paint. It is a minuscule darker than the plastic, but otherwise completely unnoticeable. Why paint it at all? Or make it darker... Its baffling to me to take the time and resources to paint the figure the same color as the plastic? QC dropped the ball on that one...
man, i wish i had money for this dude. rodimus is one of my favorite characters but i hate the cartoon design. love the aesthetic of this toy though, absolutely amazing.
That's part of what convinced me to chip in for this. Masterpiece Rodimus was a pretty huge disappointment for me; From the glaring QC issues on the first run Japanese release to the bizarre redesign of the Hasbro release's elbows (No, seriously Hasbro, what the actual fuck? Was the original unsafe toy design because they functioned as elbows!?) to the aesthetics that... just never really worked for me (Too much Cartoon, not enough Toy. He feels... almost boring detail-wise.) Don't get me wrong, he's an amazing piece of engineering... possibly a little TOO engineered, and not taking into account the tolerance limits of the materials used. Carry, from some reports has similar problems but I can live with that. As a bonus, he scales much better with MP-10 in vehicle mode, given the trailer is integrated. We'll get a final verdict when he arrives I guess.
I still can't stop messing around with Carry. He is currently stop my PS4, with a Corbot Carnage Axe in hand, backed up by Citizen Stack.
Excellent figure, all around! I wouldn't even mind if HasTak never reissued MP-09 Rodimus Convoy as I already found my Rodimus Prime!
My replacement parts are finally coming tomorrow, together with MP Tracks. Apparently, it's half a Carry!
This guy finally arrived on my porch yesterday. Love him. I've always been more of a Rodimus fan, than a Hot Rod fan, and this guy checks off all the boxes for me (at least in robot mode, from the front). Wish the space winnebago was larger, and had a spoiler, but the laws of physics can only be bent so far with an all-in-one transformation.
Prelude: Everyone knows Hot Rod (sometimes called Rodimus), the young Autobot whippersnapper who rushes into danger. Almost everyone also knows that, in most G1-based continuities, he becomes Rodimus Prime, new leader of the Autobots. Hasbro and Takara seem to do their merry best to ignore that latter part, though. We’ve gotten numerous Hot Rod figures over the decades, but Rodimus Prime figures are sparse and if they do appear, they are usually a double act, somehow trying to integrate Hot Rod, too. Not so with Carry from third party company DX9, who is basically a Masterpiece-style Rodimus Prime, but without a Hot Rod inside (and without official sanction, too). Here we go! Robot Mode: Seeing as there isn’t really much difference between Rodimus Prime and Hot Rod (the latter usually has a slightly darker paint job) when it comes to robot modes, at first glance Carry could be either. Be it as Hot Rod or Rodimus, though, the robot mode looks amazing. Very tall and lean, Carry has pretty big spoiler wings on his back. In some pictures they look oversized, but in hand they do pretty well. An Autobot leader deserves mighty wings, not tiny ones. Looking at him from the back, the figure does carry (ha!) a bit of a backpack, but it’s far, far less than, for example, Power of the Primes Rodimus Prime, so no complaints. It doesn’t hinder him any. Carry features excellent articulation, with one tiny exception: the shoulders. Given the high shoulders and the spoiler wings on the back, an additional joint would have been great here to avoid bumping the top of his shoulders against the spoiler all the time. Apart from that, though, no complaints. Carry can move with the best of them and has a very solid stance; he can even stand on one foot for a running pose, no problem. In terms of gimmicks Carry’s chest can slide open to reveal a non-removable Matrix of Leadership inside it. Not sure why they didn’t make it removable, but it’s not a big thing for me. If you want to have Carry hold up the Matrix for his “You got the Touch” moment, his articulated hands can easily hold any of the Matrixes from Power of the Primes or the Masterpiece figures. The one great weak point of this robot mode is the weapon, which is also a separate robot (see below). The problem here is that the rifle is much too long for Carry’s hands to hold it properly and, if fully extended, can only be held by him when his elbow is straight. It doesn’t look too bad, but isn’t very practical. Thankfully Carry is able to hold all standard weapons with 5mm ports, such as the rifle of PotP Rodimus Prime, which looks really good in his hands. So bottom line: a great robot mode with only very tiny flaws. Two thumbs up (one of them not fully extended). This is where you see the main difference between Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime. Where Hot Rod was a futuristic racing car, Rodimus Prime is a futuristic Winnebago (or something to that effect). I have never been quite sure what to call this vehicle, but I like it very, very much. It just looks incredibly cool. Unlike most Rodimus Prime figures, the robot doesn’t need an extra trailer or anything, it just transforms wholesale into this vehicle. Most of the trailer chassis is folded together on his back in robot mode and the big spoiler wings become part of it, too, resulting in a one-piece vehicle. Speaking of spoilers, though, we have the one big flaw of this vehicle mode: no spoiler. Now granted, it makes absolute no sense at all for a Winnebago to have a spoiler sitting behind the driver’s cabin and in front of the trailer part, but who cares? We need that spoiler. Thankfully it’s available as an upgrade (see below), but it should have been there right from the start. Apart from the lack of a spoiler, though, the vehicle mode is top notch. No visible signs of a robot hidden inside, everything clicks together well, and the transformation is complex without being cumbersome. I do advise using the instruction sheet the first time, but after one or two transformations you’ll have it down. Nowhere near the annoying complexity of the Masterpiece Rodimus Prime transformation, for example. The rifle (or whatever other, better weapon you may want to give Carry) can be mounted on top. Bottom line: a great vehicle mode. If they had included the spoiler here, I’d easily give it two thumbs up. Partner: You might remember that some versions of Hot Rod came with a Targetmaster partner called Firebolt, who transformed into a double-barreled handgun. Well, Rodimus Prime never had a Targetmaster partner (depending on the continuity Firebolt was either dead by that point or wouldn’t appear until after Rodimus had reverted to Hot Rod), so it’s somewhat puzzling that DX9 saw fit to include one with Carry. A Targetmaster that is clearly not meant to be Firebolt, given that he transforms into something resembling Rodimus Prime’s signature rifle instead of a handgun. While the little robot is pretty good for a figure that size, the rifle he becomes isn’t really all that great. At full extension it’s too big for Carry to hold properly (he needs to fully extend his arms). It is possible to fold in a bit of the rear length of the rifle, but then you can’t mount the tiny orange wings on both sides anymore, so... not that great. I’ll probably leave the Targetmaster aside and keep the PotP Rodimus’ rifle in Carry’s hands for the foreseeable future. Upgrade: As mentioned above Carry is missing a spoiler in vehicle mode and, being a third party figure, naturally lacks the Autobot symbol on his chest. Thankfully Toyhax / Reprolabels is able to provide both. The spoiler part just clicks on top of the vehicle mode and can be stored in Carry’s folded-up backpack in robot mode. Plus there are quite a few stickers that give Carry that final bit of detailing he lacked (plus an Autobot symbol on his chest, naturally). So if you do buy Carry, I fully recommend getting the Toyhax upgrade as well. See pictures of the upgraded and spoilered Carry by following the link. Remarks: To make a few points here: no, Hot Rod did NOT get Optimus Prime killed. Optimus got Optimus killed by monologuing instead of blasting Megatron’s head off. Hot Rod merely failed to save him from his own stupidity. Also, Rodimus Prime was a far more successful leader than Optimus. He retook Cybertron and routed the Decepticons. He made peaceful contact with numerous alien races. He aided humanity in becoming a space-faring race in their own right. He treated the Dinobots as Autobots instead of locking them away in closets until they were needed. And all that despite having to deal with far more dangerous enemies than Megatron’s ragtag bunch of Decepticons. Optimus might have been a capable field commander, but Rodimus Prime was a true leader. As for the figure, DX9 has definitely delivered the definite Masterpiece Rodimus Prime here. The figure really has but two drawbacks in my mind, namely the rather impractical weapon (Rodimus Prime doesn’t really need a Targetmaster) and the lack of a spoiler in vehicle mode. Both can be fixed with appropriate add-ons, but it would have been nice if they hadn’t needed fixing in the first place. So slight point deduction for that. Otherwise, though? Great. If you are in any way a fan of Rodimus Prime, this is the figure you need. Rating: A- Source: Transformers-Universe.com
So want to pull the trigger on this guy. I get its a studio ox style but the wings are a bit too big for my taste. He is the best Rodimus out there. Not sure if takara is gonna take another stab or maybe Fanstoys in the future.
There seems to be a new run of these, lots of ebay sellers with MiB for ~100 US. If anyone has picked one of these up, are there any changes at all compared to the first run?
