G1 Hotrider

Robot Mode: Hotrider is a pretty generic-looking hood-as-chest Transformer. He does deviate somewhat from this standard look by having the wheels of his truck mode very high up his shoulders, but apart from that he's not looking particularly extraordinary. His main colors are green and red, along with a very nicely sculpted silver head with red light pipes. It seems to be a trend for the Axxelerators (at least those I own so far) to have rather generic bodies, but very nice heads.

As an Axxelerator Hotrider's gimmick consists of using his engine block from his vehicle mode as a weapon in robot mode. The chrome engine still looks more like an engine than a weapon, but it does fit nicely into his hands. As a G1 figure Hotrider doesn't exactly excell in posability. He can bend his arms at the elbow and his legs at the knees. It does allow a simple "running pose", but no more than that. Overall Hotrider isn't a particularly outstanding robot, but neither does he have anything that really drags him down. All in all an average robot mode for the time.

Alternate Mode: Hotrider transforms into a green pickup truck with some pink splashes on the hood that might have been intended to resemble flames, but don't. Not really. More like someone used the hood for a Rorschach picture using pink ink. Anyway, much of the detailing is provided by stickers, the actual mold doesn't show all that many. The car has red-tinted windows with the G2 Autobot logo on the windshield, along with the spelled-out word "Autobot" next to it, for all those that didn't get it the first time. Hotrider's weapon now sits in the hood as an engine block, looking very nice and powerful there. So all in all an average vehicle mode for its time with no real flaws, but not in any way special, either.

Remarks: Hotrider, or probably his G2 incarnation Turbofire, had cameos in both the IDW and Dreamwave G1 comic books, but that's pretty much the extent of his in-media appearances. The toy originally came out at the very end of the "European" Generation 1 toy line, along with his fellow Axxelerators. Those toys already sported the G2-style faction symbols, but lacked the Generation 2 name on their packaging. That was in early 1993. Later that year the G2 toyline began in America, where Hotrider was renamed Turbofire. Turbofire featured smoky grey windows and eyes instead of Hotrider's red, but was identical apart from that. In 1994 Hotrider was released in the UK in G2 packaging, but the toy itself was the "red version", not the US "grey version". So basically you have three different versions of this figure in two different lines and with two different names.

Hotrider is the second Axxelerator I've reviewed (Zap/Windbreaker being the first) and of the three Axxelerators I own (Rapido being number three) he comes in third. There isn't anything particularly bad about him in either mode, but there is nothing exciting or special about him, either. So Hotrider is an average figure for his time. I got him cheap on ebay as part of a lot and for that he was worth it. Wouldn't dish out more than a few Euros for him, though.

Rating: C