I...I'm not even worried about the spoiler. I was just answering the question about whether the spoiler was painted over clear plastic. I think your confusing me with the person the guy I was answering quoted.

 

IT'S JUST A VOYAGER TOY WHAT A RIPOFF!!!!

 

Ok, so here's something interesting.

That new pic of the bottom may give us a clue how the shoulders end up facing the way the do in bot mode. It almost looks like the entire torso/head assembly is attached to that black swing running down the middle. I'm betting you unlock the arms, which double hinge down on the sides to take up their position in bot mode, then swing the entire front end through, and rotate the arms/shoulders around 180 degrees above and separate from the waist before swinging the chest back up and into place. There is probably another 180 turn at the waist, just as on SS86 Hot Rod, to get everything lined up face front.

He's definitely more complicated than he looks. Similar ideas to what Hot Rod used, but all executed just a little bit differently. And I still absolutely love that front wheel collapse for bot mode, such a fantastic detail they didn't need to do but did. It elevates the truck mode, which both differentiates him from the low riding Hot Rod and allows weapon storage for the sword, but tucks in so neatly in bot mode. Just a great touch. Top marks, design team. Top marks.

 

Everything about him looks great...... except for that face sculpt. Jeez, does it look awful!!!
What were they thinking?

 

Dr wu do ur thing! Give that bot a head

 

^ Yep! This is exactly what I meant when I said before there has to be another unseen rotation step somewhere to get the shoulders into the properly facing bot mode orientation without being essentially backwards. Something like what you describe here has to be what happens. Either that or those armatures have a double butterfly-esque hinge on them (I can't see under them unfortunately to rule that in or out) so that the shoulders literally rotate around the wheels.

But I still think the latter would be insane and that what you describe here is a more likely (and more efficient) engineering solution to his transformation. He really is brilliant for a mainline figure in many ways imho.

Also, not in reply to you (or anyone specifically, just in general,) but regarding the head sculpt. I'm not too put off by it personally. He does look a tad too frowny. But in the cartoon Rodimus (unlike Hot Rod) was always a weird, angular face design with a frowning, distorted looking visage. And like every other character, always appeared a little differently depending on the shot and the angle. Note the head crest details, too, which depending on the shot aren't as far off as one might expect.



My main criticism personally, as with the cab, is the deco more than anything else. I wish it was beige, grey, or cream rather than metallic silvery or gunmetal or whatever it is they're using here. His face was never reflective like that. They do this all the time in Generations with Megatron and other characters, too. Make things that were more grey or beige in the animation silvery.

Still, not anything that bothers me too much.

 

Who else is excited to see some reviews for this guy? No, just me? Ok

 

Yeah, it's the mouth and those eyes. He's supposed to have those defined angles on his face, but that weirdly large frown and his sunken-in eyes absolutely ruins the entire face sculpt. I'm hoping some 3rd party gives him a proper face sculpt because I really like the figure otherwise.

 

Huh. Why do his shoulder wheels expand like that?

 

THIS

 

I don't agree with a lot of what YoungPrime says, but scamming Amazon is totally cool and good actually.

I agree that I wish his face wasn't silver. It looks weird especially compared to '86 Hot Rod who has a really nice looking gloss grey paint on his face. It's weird, there are a ton of things that bug me about this Rodimus Prime, but I'm still absolutely hyped for it when it comes out.

 

I kind of wonder if they're going to do a possible 1st Commander Class "Netflix Version" with this guy

I could totally see it, since we all have plenty of little nitpicky issues with the deco etc, that Hasbro's probably taking note of, so after they've made us all buy the first round release and have depreciated the mold costs, then maybe they'll release a "premium paint version". Tbh, I would also like to see such a variant get some remolding, as I don't really like the head here--I feel like they were going for Studio Ox? or the old Terebi Magazine 2D drawings, but it just feels too crinkled and old. Wouldn't be surprised if the guy that sculpted SS86 Kup made this  

Well, I'm sure this will be one of those that I like a lot more when I get it in hand, even though SS86 Hot Rod is pretty perfect, stuff like the yellow joints really had me annoyed, but playing with it in hand I've gotten used to it.

 

They move during transformation. In alt mode, they are extended from the shoulder, giving the truck mode ground clearance. In bot mode they push up into the wheel well to sit closer to the shoulder, more similar to Hot Rod. So the wheel expands like that to clear the lip of the wheel well, then slides up and tabs into the slot there (the pic posted is mistransformed, obviously).

 

I am going for the assumption that TT and Hb have more behind the scenes access to design source materials to have arrived at this. Compare that to the OG G1 Rodimus face sculpt.

 

Ok, another observation I can't believe I missed from that underside pic. His legs DO NOT transform the same way as SS86 Hot Rod's. Look at them in that pic. The feet are already at the back of the truck mode. And the visible part there appears to be the BACK of the lower leg, unlike Hot Rod where it's the front shin guard piece. Which means they can't do the open up and fold out at the knee thing that Hot Rod does. Instead, these look to do the same opening up trick, but then pivot the knee joint out to extend the leg (picture Kingdom Cylconus' knees, only I'm guessing these tab in somewhere when you're done). If you look carefully you can actually see his actual knee joint (the gray bit) through the hole in the lower leg part, if my description is too hard to visualize.

The more I look at this the more I get MP Tigatron vibes. He LOOKS like he should transform exactly like Hot Rod, because they do all the same things. But they do it in different ways. Even the torso, which is fundamentally the same transformation of hood down to chest (or into it, in Hot Rod's case with the faux chest) and spoiler becomes the back, ends up feeling different because of the way Rodimus accommodates the new arm rotation mechanism.

I can't wait to get this guy in hand. He's going to be FUN.

 

Oh, I do see it now. Thank you!

 

I think a lot of people are not used to how Rodimus Prime's face looks, since he so rarely actually appears in fiction after the '80s. The sculpt here is spot on, the dude's supposed to look old.

 

Yeah, I have no problems with his head sculpt. It's certainly not cartoon accurate. But this is Generations we're talking about, not Masterpiece. We should be plenty familiar with more stylized takes at this point. It looks appropriately dour and frowny, which is the important aspect.

 

miles better than the “eternal pain” face

 

More like "which one of you dumbasses decided to give me this stupid pointy hat?".