hausjam wrote:Like most recent Hasbro Transformers, Hotrod looks awesome from straight on front. While looking cheap, messy and incongruous from pretty much every other angle. Great for roll-call shelves. Worthless for anything else.
Really? I think he looks pretty great from ALL angles, honestly. Obviously, straight on frontal is the best, but the sides look fine thanks to a compact backpack for much of the car kibble AND added plastic panels to hide any transformation recesses in the mold. From the back is never the best for any Transformers figure, and I don't know why anyone would complain too bitterly if that's the only issue. I don't care that the backs of the legs are hiding the back wheels and fenders. Everything else looks pretty much on-model to me.
Overcracker wrote:william-james88 wrote:Overcracker wrote:
Wonder what the rest of the parts are going to be to qualify for a Voyager price point. There’s clearly not enough plastic there for that.
What you see is what you get, that's all the parts you are getting for this voyager price point. Honestly, doesn't feel that much different to Doubldealer's leader class price point in terms of what you are getting for the price.
Really? Cause he's no bigger than deluxe Wheeljack. While Doubledealer is a bit short, he makes that up with mass. There's a lot going on with Doubledealer and a lot of plastic there for all 3 modes.
Plastic wise even adding in the guns, saw, matrix and effects parts, I think Roddy here is a bit light on the plastic count there for $30.
Maybe $25. Even the Studio Series stands don't make up $5 unless these guys are coming with some plastic displays or something.
Studio Series Hot Rod is right in that zone of being a very tall Deluxe, or a rather short Voyager. What pushes him over the $20 price point into $30 is all down to plastic mass, parts count, and paint applications. Bigger Deluxes of late, like Siege Ironhide or Impactor, can afford to be so big because they have lower parts counts, simpler transformations, and make do with large open gaps to stretch the plastic budget into the biggest volume possible. On the other hand, this Hot Rod, while being about the same height, has a much more complicated transformation, with small parts to tuck away, a flip out visor for the head, added panels to hide any unsightly gaps, and a gorgeous paint job that matches the red plastic to the red paint on the transparent blue plastic parts extremely well. Something like that takes multiple coats of paint to prevent bleed through from the plastic underneath. He also comes with some nice extras, like a Matrix of Leadership complete with a special effects part to make it look like it is emitting blue light, two guns based on his original G1 toy that also come with special effects parts to represent laser blasts, plus a big hand-mounted buzzsaw directly from The Transformers: The Movie. This Hot Rod is truly a premium figure. You can tell where the money goes for this guy, and it's appreciated.
Good point.
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And my LG Galvatron has a far better head added on then that of the sad original...damnation! 
