Found this guy today at work and bought three of them (one for me, one for my 14-year-old son, and one for ViceGripX, who recently had a birthday). He's arguably the last of the Kingdom releases, since everything going forward will be branded with the Legacy logo (and even if you missed Kingdom Blaster, it's no big deal since he'll get a package refresh as Legacy Blaster)..

He's technically named Autobot Hot Rod. (There's a bicycle safety light with the trademarked name Hotrod, which may be preventing Hasbro from using the trademark unimpeded.)

They came so close to giving us a magenta-colored Hot Rod. I really don't know why Hasbro is so averse to coloring this guy the way he appears in The Transformers: the Movie. The first CAD renders revealed by Hasbro showed him in all his brightly-magenta colored glory, but they must have gotten cold feet at the last minute, AGAIN, because he's the same old maroon color that pretty much all the Hot Rod toy have ever been. Oh, well.

The toy comes packaged in robot mode, which is three and a half inches tall.. He's missing some colors (his arms are one big block of maroon, as are his lower legs) but this is, after all, a ten-dollar budget version of the character. Armor panels on the upper legs are painted orange, as is the majority of the chest. The spoiler is maroon plastic, but painted yellow in its entirety. Even the wheels are maroon plastic but painted black. I feel like the toy could have really benefitted from just being cast in several different colors of plastic. Then maybe they could have afforded to paint a few more things. I mean, even the G1 Micromasters were a minimum of two plastic colors apiece!

He comes with a sword (maroon plastic, naturally, with most of the blade painted light blue). As many fans have already pointed out, the sword is intended to combine with the parts that will come with Core-class Shrapnel and Iguanus from Legacy, which will complete the weapon with a proper hilt and crossguard.

The spoiler is kind of interesting. It comes in the package sandwiched between Hot Rod's body and the backpack plate, and it looks fine there. There's a second place to attach it, on the outside of the backpack, and even though the instructions disagree, this is a more logical place to connect it. Attaching it to the outside of the backpack has the added benefit of being able to plug the sword to the back of the spoiler for storage.

Transforming the toy involves collapsing the upper legs into the lower legs and unfolding the halves of the vehicle windshield and hood from the back of the legs, where they were tucked away. The robot head and chest do nothing, and the chest does not form the hood, but rather is a false hood that just ends up as part of the vehicle undercarriage. It was a bold move to split the windshield in half down the middle, but it looks okay if you manage to tab all the parts together correctly. The car mode does not lock together quite as cleanly as the CAD model would suggest. It's theoretical design versus toys in three-dimensional space.

Car mode is three inches long, bumper to bumper, with the spoiler bringing it to closer to three and a half inches. The windshield is painted a light grey-blue (a different color than the sword) and the hood has the classic orange color with yellow flame, but no Autobot symbol. C'mon, guys. You were already using a tiny tampograph for the robot mode. Just one more would have been boffo. (Well, it would have been two more, I guess. Half an Autobot symbol for each side. THAT would have been a nightmare to align precisely.)

The sword can plug into the top of the spoiler for car mode (this is the recommended method according to the package photos and instructions), or can be plugged into the front of the spoiler to become an extension of the spoiler itself (which is not mentioned anywhere in the instructions but is very clearly how the toy is designed to operate).

This toy is surprisingly great. I only started buying the Core-class toys because I thought the Autobot Ark toy was going to open up into a playset, and I would need tiny toys to inhabit it. Well, I'm going to keep buying them anyway. He's so tiny and adorable (not the smallest Hot Rod toy I own, but so much better than the Legends-class toy from the Combiner Wars days).. If you'd asked me how to design a tiny Hot Rod, I would have probably just suggested a miniaturization of the G1 toy. They went in a totally different direction with this version, but it ended up working out great. This is probably a totally non-vital toy for most people's collections (Studio Series Hot Rod is arguably the definitive Hot Rod) but it's still a cute little toy for ten bucks.

Zob (it wasn't even recognized by the Walmart computer system, that's how new it is!)

On Sunday, February 13, 2022 at 6:18:23 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:
> This toy is surprisingly great. I only started buying the Core-class toys because I thought the Autobot Ark toy was going to open up into a playset, and I would need tiny toys to inhabit it.

Arghh it hits 36 years too late for me. I would have loved rolling it down Metroplex's ramp back in '86 recreating that battle scene from the boxes. Oh how much more enjoyable my childhood would have been had this existed back then. WST Hot Rod is my reigning Metroplex ramp rider going on over a decade now and I don't think I'm gonna change for some newcomer with a fake hood on its chest. Yes I am bitter.

I doubt I'll ever find this toy. Are any of the online toy retailers
even selling it?

On Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 2:05:44 PM UTC-7, Travoltron wrote:

> I doubt I'll ever find this toy. Are any of the online toy retailers
> even selling it?

There's a place called Forbidden Planet that has him for $12.99. I've never ordered from them before, though, so I can't vouch for them. I'll keep an eye out for him locally, though. I'll totally buy him if I come across another one.

Zob (feels a little sheepish for buying three of 'em now)

On Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 3:05:44 PM UTC-6, Travoltron wrote:
> I doubt I'll ever find this toy. Are any of the online toy retailers
> even selling it?

Target here had like 20 of them, with Dracodon and megatron

On Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 2:05:44 PM UTC-7, Travoltron wrote:

> I doubt I'll ever find this toy. Are any of the online toy retailers
> even selling it?

Hasbro Pulse has him right now!

Zob

On Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 1:05:44 PM UTC-8, Travoltron wrote:
> I doubt I'll ever find this toy. Are any of the online toy retailers
> even selling it?

Isn't it getting repacked in Legacy? It would be odd to not have 1/3 of the build-a-weapon in the same wave as the other 2 pieces with Iguanus and Skywarp. I'm sure you'll have plenty of chances unless your heart is set on having it in Kingdom packaging.

On Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 1:05:44 PM UTC-8, Travoltron wrote:
> I doubt I'll ever find this toy. Are any of the online toy retailers
> even selling it?

I hope you got it by now if you want it. I found one in Kingdom packaging just last night at a Fred Meyer in Puyallup. And I saw the Legacy version in Bonney Lake a couple weeks ago. Fred Meyer seems to be good for the Kingdom tail enders in the area east of Tacoma as Pipes and Slammer are pretty abundant. But of course unless they're on sale the Fred Meyer core class are $16.99 and deluxes are $32.99! Then again, even Fred Meyer retail beats ebay when you're talking the rarer stuff.

I am opening the Hot Rod now and I really don't like having the windshield split down the middle like this. I also have problems getting everything to stay in place without unsightly gaps between the side windows and the doors. Ugh it seems like even the big Hot Rods going back to PotP Rodimus have this gap issue. But I swear if I master the gap I am going to have so much Metroplex ramp fun today.

On 5/7/2022 10:54 AM, Evil King Macrocranios wrote:
> I hope you got it by now if you want it.

Yeah, I took Zob's advice and got it off Hasbro Pulse.