This may be old news, but over on Seibertron.com there's a review of TR Hot Rod, apparently a factory second.

 

I'm impressed by it. MP-09 Rodimus Convoy/Hot Rod tried to get the transformation to be animation accurate in one scene where his arms spin around to form the nose of the car, while MP-28 (or whatever number he is) tried to get another form of animation in toy form.

This seems to be the best of both worlds, the arms (and the torso, of course) fully rotate, but the legs collapse somewhat like the MP Hot Rod and everything pegs/tabs together just right.

HasTak really tried to put their best foot forward with this one and I think they succeeded. I'm truly impressed.

 

thanks for the link.  

Hips look super-loose. Hopefully, that's just a bad one or Takara fixes it.

It's a fun looking figure though. More than I thought. And I like the transformation. I was going to pass, but now I think I'll pick it up after all.

 

Saw the video on YouTube before seeing the link on Seibertron.

I may not be crazy about the figure, but I do really like certain things about the transformation and feel it does them better than the MP. For example, the way the legs transform (not so skinny as the MP's legs) and especially how the canopy stays in place, while the rear section folds over it (the MP solution of flipping the canopy to make it form part of the torso and then flip the rear section over it, takes too much space: this deluxe does it better and gets a smaller backpack and a better torso because of it.)

Seeing this...I'm reconsidering my inital decision and pick it up anyway. Maybe.

 

Looks like the final production version will be well worth picking up, not that I really had any doubts, but seeing it in action, I like that transformation scheme.

 

I definitely need this.

Not bummed at all by an unpainted titan master. Won't be using this feature anyway.

 

I'll be getting it, just to replace my classics HR since his arm articulation is...lacking, but I'll wait and see if I can pick it up retail. Don't feel like paying the extra cost of preordering it, when the figure just looks more-or-less ok. And what's with yellow flames on a yellow background? My classics HR has that and so does this one. I can barely see the flames!

 

Pretty sure that Hasui is designing the TR deluxes. So there's that.

 

Titans Return Hot Rod Video Reviews