Thanks, I may have to do that as the left headlight refuses to go all the way in.

 

Felt the same about this and truly cannot understand why they didn’t color it red.

 

Because they couldn't. For economy's sake, it's molded on the same sprue as the spoiler. It's a specific type of plastic they use typically for joints, or potentially fragile parts (like the rear wing). This plastic does not accept the factory paint at all. It just flakes off at the slightest provocation (if you have MP Sunstreaker, they attempted to paint his hands. That attempt failed, hard).

So the choice was either red joints and red spoiler wing, or yellow joints and yellow spoiler wing. Creating another mold just for the spoiler wing was not an option.

 

^^^

 

Makes sense now. Great insight.

 

Great robot mode, but I'm not loving the compromises in car mode. For a Voyager class you'd think they'd have finished off the rear end better. Or at all, really. TR Roddy has a much cleaner vehicle mode - a proper back end and even though it also has a visible hinge with a different color on the roof, it's much smaller than on this guy. Of course, since that's for structural strength it's a forgivable. Besides, Toyhax will certainly cover it up in the inevitable sticker set. I also don't like that the "cuffs" are visible in car mode. Hasbro couldn't have hidden that somehow?

POTP Hot Rod is also better IMO, though the difference isn't as great - still has an "unfinished" back end, although it doesn't look quite as bad. But the cuffs are at least on the underside of the car where they belong.

SS Hot Rod looks to be a nice piece, but far from flawless. He's one of the two SS86 figures I plan on getting, but the vehicle mode looks rather disappointing. I'd have preferred that the plastic used for the accessories go to finishing off the back end better.

 

Does anyone have a real bad stress mark on the side-of-the-leg hinges? (The back tire accordion).

 

Pros:
* Robot mode looks effin' amazing, with great proportion, clean back, and no appreciable hollow gaps anywhere.
* Car mode looks quite good and accurate as well, though not quite as nice as robot mode.
* Articulation is very good, with multi-axis shoulders, wrist, and finger joints. This design seems made for the 'segmented briefs' pelivis design we've seen a lot in WFC line toys. Much nicer than the 'apron flap' of POTP Roddy and other Hot Rod/-imus toys.
* Lots of added features and accessories, giving a Masterpiece line toy a run for its money.

Cons: (mostly nitpicks)
* A little more complex transformation than I like personally, but not difficult. It can be a challenge to get all bits lined up for car mode though.
* Car mode has visible knee joints in back and mismatched yellow hinge bits.
* Arms are held close to the body, which can restrict the range of motion somewhat.
* As is well-established by now, it's a tallish deluxe-size toy (about the height of WFC Ironhide/Ratchet) with greater complexity, solidity, and accessories than a similar Deluxe, sold at a Voyager price point.

Overall:
If this is the nature of the "toy with some extra sold at the next-higher price class", I think I could get behind it, as long as it isn't overdone.

 

This figure had the potential to be very good, but it's overengineered with far too tight tolerances for what the manufacturing can achieve.

 

At this point this explanation should be a sticky thread or something. Haha!

 

Amazingly enough, after several transformations, the figure does 'break in' nicely and everything lines up much more easier without much fuss.

 

I love him and he is what I think the next step in engineering for mainline needs to be for a standard. But he does suffer the same problem that every other hotrod/rodimus toy suffers from and it’s the arms being so restrictive in when they can be raised without bumping the back, I swear the design doc for every hotrod must outline “do not let the arms to torso ratio breathe”

 

Man, this is a good toy for the price seeing as I've been buying Iron Factory. Only real issue that gripes me is the yellow knees and lack of butterfly shoulders.

 

I think HasTak have done well with the back end of the car all things considered. To have a cartoon accurate back, all that mass has to go somewhere. In both MP's case, they went for clean legs with no car kibble attached, so the car shell gets folded up onto the back. MP-9 does it much better being a much bigger figure. You can only go so thin on plastic thickness and pin diameter to make the engineering viable. On a small figure like SS86 Hot Rod, it'd end up being a massive backpack.

 

Picked up him up and WOW! I'm not a Hot Rod/Rodimus fan but this figure is fantastic!

Pros:

• Clever transformation, the fake chest, hood transformation is extremely satisfying. A bit of clearance issues if you don't orient things correctly though.
• The attention to detail is impeccable. The hands swivel for a blowtorch, or peg (depending on the hand you swivel) Hasbro went way out of their way on the budget for this "Deluxe+" release.
• Paint and colors are spot on from what I can remember.

Cons:

• Clear Plastic hinge and pin. Looks sturdy but they make me nervous. you can potentially flex that pin too far and snap the plastic hinge in a few years of transforming the figure's hood. I'd rather have blue or black plastic instead of translucent.
• The accessories are neat, but I wish the Matrix could be stored in him somewhere.

 

Are you forgetting TR Hot Rod? A smaller figure which had a coherent back end? Now, he does have those boosters/vents which end up on his kneecaps, but there's no reason that couldn't be incorporated into the legs or the backpack on a voyager version without massively bulking up either. If Hasbro could manage a serviceable back end on the TR version without a massive backpack, why can't they here?

Even if I were a fan of show accuracy, I wouldn't accept it as an excuse for that mess on the back of the car mode. If Hasbro could produce a clean car and solid robot for Hot Rod as a TR Deluxe, they should be able to do even better on both fronts with the Voyager part count, "show-accurate" or not.

It's just a massive negative on an otherwise great figure (despite it's "show-accuracy"). I just wish Hasbro had put the budget into a proper back end instead of the Matrix and blast effects.

 

Just straight up giving up on hiding feet seems to be a trend. Scourge, Ironhide/Ratchet, Hot Rod, Jazz...

 

You kinda answered your own question, because show accuracy, Simple, TR hot rod isn’t bound by show accuracy. He has a real chest that IS the car hood so the backpack can afford to incorporate the back end of the car and be clean at the same time. He can have massive lower legs with car kibble on. SS86 HR has to use bulk of the torso volume to store the car hood. He has to have a clean silhouette on the lower legs (at least from the front). IMO He’s already done an amazing job of hiding a chunk of the back end of the car in the calves without breaking up the “wearing boots” Look.

 

Like I also said, show accuracy is a poor justification for lazy/bad engineering. If they could make a good Hot Rod with a complete-looking car mode at the deluxe price point before, there's simply no excuse for SS86 Roddy looking like his rear bumper and trunk got sheared off. He looks like he needs to go to a body shop! TR Hot Rod way a dead-on, complete rendition of the car, and a solid, unmistakable take on the robot. For twice the price, it should not have been necessary to shortchange the car mode for a "show-accurate" robot.



Here are the two most recent G1 Hot Rods. On the left is TR, which has a complete back end. The knees are actually incorporated as vents/thrusters. On the right is POTP Hot Rod, which has a much less complete back end, but it still manages to provide some semblance of a proper rear. Admittedly, the tail light Reprolabels help the illusion, but it's still far better than the bare backs of SS Roddy's knees just jutting out. POTP is a little more forgivable given everything the set does - this figure has to become the front end of the Winnebago and top half of Rodimus Prime, after all. The complete POTP Space Winnebago has big clomping feet on the back, but they at least peg onto the back to make a marginally coherent look. They tried to do something to clean up the altmode. SS Hot Rod just has to be Hot Rod, and they made no attempt to clean up the back end at all.

And that isn't even the only failing - the "cuffs" being visible in car mode is a minor issue in comparison, but it's still a problem. That detailing should be on the bottom of the car. How is that "accurate" to any interpretation of Hot Rod?

Ideally, this figure should have been a blend of the strengths of MP28 and TR, scaled back for the Voyager price point. "Show accuracy" does not exempt the designers from making the toy look complete. It's a decent figure overall, but this is IMO a major negative, and saying "show accurate" doesn't magically make it better.

 

The TR figure is pretty bad, though. Drawing comparisons to that figure in particular is not going to sway opinions. Do you actually have SS86 Hot Rod in hand? I would also have preferred a closed up back end of the car, but that would have made his robot legs look quite a bit worse. There's also only so much room for fancy paneling.