Rodimus has endured a curious existence in the Classics/Generations Transformers line. He was the standout character in the 1986 animated movie (which, to this day, remains the best Transformers movie), and he’s had a major role in IDW’s More than Meets the Eye (which, to this day, remains the best Transformers comic), so Rodimus really isn’t lacking in media representation, even though Michael Bay snubbed him.
But in the Generations toy line, he’s been a bit underrepresented, which is something of a head-scratcher when you consider just how many figures Bumblebee and Starscream have received over the years. Rodimus popped up in the very first wave of the Classics line, but despite seeing a reissue, that figure is pretty dated at this point. And when you consider characters like Ultra Magnus, Springer, Swerve, and Brainstorm have all seen recent Generations releases that are true to their IDW depictions, it’s been a painful wait for a new retail-level Rodimus to join them in our Lost Light displays.
And then, this year, Hasbro finally heard our pleas and gave us a new retail-friendly Rodimus . . . and it’s a legends-class repaint of a new Stunticon combiner figure. Hrm.
Let’s take a look.
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In and of itself, it’s not a “bad” figure by any means, but this is an odd avenue for Hasbro to release a new Rodimus, and seeing this guy on the pegs is almost painful because while, yes, it’s a new Rodimus, it’s so far from what will actually satisfy the itch, and I swear it’s only made that itch worse. As for the actual packaging, it’s standard legends class packaging with some artwork that features Rodimus as he looks here, so that at least provides some context. On the back, his — very — brief bio references his role in the animated movie, so the marketing tactic here is clearly to appeal to fans who remember him from the G1 days rather than the current comics.
As I mentioned, this is not a bad figure, but it is an odd choice for Rodimus. I mean, this body could just have easily been Cliffjumper or Windcharger, or any Autobot sports car who was a minibot. Rodimus has several design characteristics that are so intrinsically “him,” chief among them the flames on his chest, that to not see them here is a bit daunting. The flames are now on his butt, so that lends itself all too easily to a joke or two. The figure is a repaint of the recently released Stunticon Blackjack, and it’s a fine figure, but it just isn’t “Rodimus.”
The only thing here that’s new is the head sculpt, and it’s a damn good sculpt for such a small figure. The paint apps on it are even relatively clean. It looks good and is almost enough to sell the rest of the body as “Rodimus.”
The only accessory included is this big yellow axe that also serves as his spoiler in his alt mode. It totally works as a spoiler, but it is so big and weird when he holds it as an axe. It also becomes a sort of chest-shield-thing when he’s in combiner mode, so that’s another feature here to get used to — Rodimus is part of the Optimus Maximus combiner team along with Wheeljack, Prowl, Ironhide, and Sunstreaker. That’s another thing — his combiner teammates are all classic, season 1 characters, so it would seem that Cliffjumper or Windcharger would be better fits, but perhaps “Rodimus” was considered the bigger name and would then sell better? Who knows.
As a repaint, his color scheme is drastically different from Blackjack, so he doesn’t feel all that redundant. If you’re only going to snag one version of this mold, though, make it Blackjack — he’s a unique, new character and doesn’t seem like an odd fit for this body.
In terms of fitting in well with the rest of the legends-class line, I suppose he does. I mean, scale is all over the place with the legends figures because Bumblebee is the same size as Optimus Prime, so Rodimus fits in as well as any other figure does. I have no idea what I’m going to do with him, personally, because he doesn’t feel like a good fit anywhere in my collection. So . . . I need to figure that out.
Rodimus’ alt mode is the saving grace here because it honestly does look pretty cool and does justice to his “Hot Rod” mode. The yellow flames on the hood and the yellow spoiler totally work in creating a cool G1 Hot Rod effect. All he’s missing is the Autobot sigil on his hood. There’s plenty of room for one, so I may have to dig through my stack of unused Reprolabels sheets to find one that will work.
He’s intended to be part of the classic Autobot combiner team, but, since he’s a repaint and all, he totally works as part of Menasor too. If you haven’t been able to find a Blackjack, and I’ve never actually seen one at retail, then Rodimus may work for you as a fill-in figure. I think he looks kinda cool as part of Menasor, so if you’re not going to build the Autobot combiner, this is another option for Rodimus. I actually really like the yellow chest piece here, maybe even more than the purple. It should be noted that he doesn’t stay in place any better than Blackjack does, so you may want to use some museum putty or something similar to keep him fastened to Menasor’s chest.
Even though this is not the Rodimus figure I wanted, I remain hopeful that an IDW-inspired figure will eventually make its way to retail. This year Thundercracker received a legends class figure and a leader class figure, so I’m hoping the same diversity-across-class-sizes will apply to Rodimus as well and we’ll see a deluxe, or even a voyager, release sooner rather than later.
In terms of availability, I’ve seen Rodimus on the pegs at Toys R Us a couple times, I’ve seen him at Target, and I scored mine from Amazon, so he’s making his way out into the wild. If you’re after one, keep your eyes peeled.
