My dilemma is, I have SS86 Hot Rod, POTP Rodimus and MP-09. In bot mode he's not better looking than SS86 or MP-09. In alt mode he wins over POTP, but not by miles and isn't that more fun. In my case, it's very hard to justify paying Commander price essentially for the near-useless alt mode.

If Hasbro DIDN'T come up with SS86 Hot Rod OR if I got the POTP Nemesis Rodimus instead, I will probably bite. Now, I'll sit this one out and not encourage Hasbro to charge a Leader class toy at Commander price.

 

Looks like either he's big-brained or is hiding a conehead under that helmet.  

 

Rodimus face looks kinda 'harsh' compared to the (final) G1 cartoon model, but I kinda like world-weary look to the sculpt myself. Beats the hell out of the original G1 toy's 'I'm allergic to shellfish' face sculpt, anyway.

 

A nice set, but $80 is a bit too much for me.

 

Personally I much prefer metallics in most cases instead of flat greys and beiges, unless the face is green or blue or something. And the headsculpt doesn't look that bad.

 

Seeing the underside of him shows just how intricate the transformation is. The sword storage is a nice touch.

 

I zoomed in on my phone as much as I could and looking at his face, it does look tons like Rodimus. I had/have issues with the slight bags under his eyes but when I zoomed in I realized it's pronounced so strongly not because of the sculpt but the cast shadow across the upper half of his face along with the muted blue eyes.

I have a sneaking suspicion that with his eyes painted a brighter blue it'll fix the dead eyes look. PotP Roddy had that issue and was fixed much the same. I also wonder if a more cartoon grey like SS86 Hot Rod would work much better?

 

I go back and forth on whether I prefer silver paint or more grey, flat ones for the faces. On one hand, the silver really pops, but on the flipside, it the reflectiveness does muddle the finer details a bit, while sometimes making other, less intended ones more apparent than they should be depending on the lighting.

 

Ah yea, my Apeface can't have his shield in use in jet mode...cuz the peg snapped off in the port :/

 

...people think Rodimus' G1 toy was good?  

 

Yup. It's G1.

 

He looks great to my eyes.

 

I like the extra storage but is a shame that they're apparently going away from the ports on the arms and stuff since I was looking forward to use a couple of Rungs as Rodimus' weapons/shrinks.

About the headsculpt, I have no problems with it. That's how Rodimus Prime should look (is much better than examples of actual bad headsculpts like Earthrise Megatron or even SS86 Kup and Blurr).

 

He's got a lot more to him than any of the recent leaders

 

With the disclaimer and caveat that I do not draw, and cannot draw, or even trace, well. And that I did this in a rush.

I decided to trace the recent face sculpt image and see what came out, since I remember in the MP Bumblebee 2.0 thread someone (much better at it than me lol) did the same, and it made it clearer how a lot of the perceived flaws were just consequences of lighting, and bringing weird animation cells to life in 3D.

I'm nowhere near as good at tracing as the person who did it then, and as I said, I rushed through this, but:



I don't think he's as far off as the photos make him look. I think based on this that we just aren't seeing an angle that shows us much of his eyes due to the helmet lip covering him and casting a shadow. (And of course, typical CHUG stylization, as is always the case. As others have said, this isn't an MP.)

 

Yes it was by 1986 standards.

 

No, it wasn't. Even in 1986 it was weak, and kids knew it. Hot Rod wasn't bad as he had a nice robot and alt mode and pretty good transformation, but Rodimus was a brick who barely even transformed at all. Compared to Optimus Prime his toy was cheap, simplistic, and ugly.

 

I both loved and hated that Rodimus Prime toy.

Loved the alt mode and weapon platform, but hated the bot mode.

 

You’re wasting your time. You will never convince some people that more goes into a pricepoint than how tall the figure is.

Parts count, engineering complexity, paint apps and the like mean nothing because for a very long time we called them ‘size classes’ and we all know how this fandom handles change.

 

Well given in was the first time Hasbro designed the figured from scratch and just getting molds from other toys they didnt do a bad job. I mean it was ridged and simplistic but not totally bad. The trailer was quite clever for the time.