This review shall likely be short, since I am typing from my phone. As an added warning, I am colorblind, possessed of deuteranopia, so my assessment of any colors may be off. Such said, let it begin.

As this is the first review that I have made, I have little practice in the way of reviewing, but a prudent step is to assess the packaging.


Notable elements of the packaging are that the box panels are primarily white with Autobot and decepticon sigils emblazoned and they graffiti-style fashion. The panel on the collector's right bears art advertising the Netflix series for this line, quality one on the left has a close up of hotlink's scowling visage. The back of the box shows computer rendered images of Hotlink, Heatstroke, and Heartburn, along with their ranks. Hotlink appears to be a private in the Decepticon Air Force with an especial focus on the Applied Sciences division. On the other hand, his instructions would have the owner believe Hotlink is a general in the Decepticon Infantry. The Target Masters, meanwhile, are privates in the Decepticon Space Force. I shall include a link to the rank diagram if I can retrieve it.


As for hotlink himself, his figure is remarkably well done. Hotlink is my first experience of the WFC:S Seeker mold and he does not disappoint. Contrary to what I have observed of the other seekers in this line, this one's battle damage is applied almost thoughtfully as opposed to the identical scuff-and-splatter of his compatriots. Hotlink's paint is a mix of what I assume to be a regal purple and the grey of unlit charcoal with flashes of yellow. While I would have appreciated hot-charcoal-colored paint on certain elements of him to match his cartoon appearance, I am content with the decorative choices that Hasbro made. Besides, I can always grab a brush.
The figure's construction is solid, though I do not reccomend treating the figure like Super Grover. His null rays / flamethrowers are slightly loose in the shoulder sockets, however. Indeed, this figure represents the character that launched the ring of flame that encircled Wheeljack and Bumblebee in the pilot episode of the Transformers series. His backpack is a slight light challenge to tab in. Fortunately, this figure's chestplate is not as loose as Starscream's is reputed to be. The fact that the shoulders have an added butterfly joint is lovely in that it allows one to pose the figure more dynamically. On a negative note, though, the construction of the feet is someone lacking, not for lack of articulation but for the fact the the feet are made of a short toe section and then a spur, limiting his options.

As for his alternate mode, I do appreciate it, but I cannot help the sentiment that he could have hewn closer to the flying tents that were seen on Cybertron instead of the starfighters from Battlestar Galactica. That said, his vehicle mode is by no means bad. The fact that his calves collapse inward to allow a deeper knee bend to facilitate transformation is impressive in my eyes and something that could be implemented in myriad figures in the future, but I digress. The battle damage decoration continues on his vehicle mode. In all honesty, all that can be said about a Seeker figure has probably already been said by people better versed in the collecting and reviewing culture than I am.
The included Target Masters are, speaking simply, more or less chromatically desaturated versions of Blowpipe. Of note, Heartburn has a red visor while Heatstroke has a yellow visor. Besides that, there are no differences between these Target Masters.
I would not presume to rate this figure on any scale, partly because I have no such scale. This set pleasantly surprised me and I would encourage anybody to obtain one for themselves. Of course, I encourage said collectors to exercise caution and discretion in the face of the plague we face.

In all, I am glad that I acquired this from my local retailer. I am somewhat surprised I could even get a hold of it to begin with given that this figure is rather new and I reside in Alaska. Here is the link for the rank system, or at least where I found it: THE STORY BEHIND THE TRANSFORMERS WFC MILITARY INSIGNIAS: REVEALED – Hasbro Pulse

 

looks WAY better than the original release. They might have a solid repaint line goin here. they all look GREAT

 

I want this so bad. I missed pre ordering it so I'll probably have to find one in store...

 

"Hotlink?! Isn't that a type of sausage?"
My lovely wife...

Yes... Yes, and old guard Deception, like Acid Storm.

I really like how subdued this figure is. I also like his play pattern I got mine from Canada.

 

Lovely...

 

Does anybody have an SKU or Brickseek URL for this?

 

I'll admit I didnt read the entire review above...

That said, is he the same figure as the Siege Skywarp figure?

 

Same mold with a much-improved paint deco.

 

Despite the Skywarp similarities I like this a lot. The shading with the purple paint looks more convincing as battle damage/wear than what we got with the previous tetrajets, and more battlemasters means more effect parts which I'll never say no to.

Now, gotta find a hazmat suit so I can hit the local walmart

 

But is he painted to look like Skywarp? Or is Hotlink a real character?

I'm trying to figure out if this figure can be my Skywarp or not, but not if it's decor is meant for a totally different character.

 

Hotlink is a real character... or atleast, as "real" as a background character with no lines in one episode can be. He was one of the "Welcoming Committee" that was in the first episode of the G1 cartoon.

 

Do you think it's a better deco from skywarp? Reason I'm asking is that when I look at hotlink I can't help but see the county fair airbrushed version of skywarp. I kind of like hotlink, but I right now I can't see anything but that county fair thing.

 

I thought the deco on the seekers was just horrible. The battle damage in particular just looked like splashed on silver paint, but the fact the used the exact same mask across all the versions of the mold made it look super hokey to me. I like the way Hotlink looks like he used to be all purple but it's worn down from fighting (I'm really like the damage on most of the Netflix figures after just HATING it on the Siege mainline figures)

 

File:Sunstorm Cartoon.jpg - Transformers Wiki - here's the screenshot of him
Hotlink (G1) - Transformers Wiki

he def. has a Skywarp vibe about him, but I'm waiting for Earthrise Skywarp.

 

Hotlink isn't Skywarp, but if you missed out on Skywarp then Hotlink makes a good proxy for him.

 

Were you really expecting them to make 10 unique patterns for each version

 

That's a good point - I hadn't thought about the paint deco on hotlink that way.

 

No but if the major releases that you know they knew they’d be doing up front (Starscream, Thundercracker, skywarp) each had unique masks, maybe they could have mixed and matched things a bit... group shots look really silly with everyone having the same exact pattern of “battle damage”

 

More specifically Hotlink's deco suggests he's been using those flame throwers for quite a while since he's got scorch marks on him.

 

I'm convinced that the choice to put battle damage on most of the cast was to leave it open to release "clean versions" in the future. There's a lot of things in Siege that seemed to be intentionally future-proofed. I'm sure if Impactor hadn't won the poll we would have eventually gotten a pre-war two pack of him and Megatron (I doubt it was a coincidence that they both had retooled heads accurate to the scene they shared together in IDW yet were released in different contexts).

It's interesting that the popular characters like Optimus, Megatron and the Seekers were given noticable battle-damage whilst the likes of Flywheels, Reflector and the Weaponizers either had far less or had it absent entirely.