G1 Rodimus Prime

Robot Mode: In 1986 Hasbro/Takara were slowly running out of old Diaclone and Microman robots to recycle, so together with the unveiling of the Animated Movie and Season 3 of the cartoon series, they started producing new ones, starting with the cast of the Movie. Rodimus is a pretty good example of the tremendous drop in quality this entailed. As a robot Rodimus is vastly inferior to most other Transformers figures produced before (and during) this time. His posability is limited to the shoulders, the rest of him is a brick. Detailing is pretty boring. His earlier incarnation Hot Rod wasn't any more posable, but looked a whole lot better. He's also spindly, has a very grouchy face, and somehow doesn't say "inspiring leader" to me at all. So bottom line, possibly the worst robot mode of that year.

Alternate Mode: Thankfully Rodimus' vehicle mode looks a whole lot better than his robot mode. It's an interesting cross between his old racing car form and and a much bigger, SUV- or caravan-style vehicle. Not sure any car looking like this ever actually graced the roads of Earth, but that doesn't really matter. It looks pretty spiffy. Not much play value or gimmicks here, but this was still back in the days when transforming into a car was the gimmick, so no complaints. By far the superior of Rodimus' two modes.

Partners / Add-Ons: In memory of the original Autobot leader Rodimus has a trailer that opens up into... well, not quite a battle station, but a kind of artillery platform. The trailer opens up and a big double-barreled gun emerges. Rodimus can stand behind it as a gunner. Not exactly the most sensational trailer-turns-battle-station ever, but decent.

Missing Parts: The big cannon that emerges from the trailer had two solar panels, one on each side, which I'm sadly missing.

Remarks: To this day I'm not sure of the story behind this figure. Rodimus clearly wasn't originally intended as the new Autobot leader, seeing as how Ultra Magnus was first advertised as such. The Animated Movie then put Rodimus into the number one spot, but this figure hardly does that justice, looking more like it was added on the fly. He's of roughly the same size as the previous leader Optimus Prime, but majorly out-classed size-wise when compared to his cartoon-nemesis Galvatron (as you can see above). Even leaving aside the issue of size, though, Rodimus isn't a good figure by any standard. Almost no posability, very little detailing, a rather bland gimmick, the only thing keeping him from being a total loss is his pretty decent vehicle mode. I really like the cartoon character Rodimus Prime, but the figure I only got for completeness' sake. Stick with the Titanium version if you want a good Rodimus.

Rating: D+