Shattered Glass Rodimus

Prelude: In the Shattered Glass universe, evil Autobots attempt to take over the universe, with heroic Decepticons the only thing standing in their way. And behind the evil Autobot leader Optimus Prime, lurks the wily Rodimus, always looking to usurp his leader and become Prime in his stead. Oh, and he is wearing an evil mirror universe goatee, because why not? Let’s say go!

Review: Now, seeing as I already did a full review for Studio Series 86 Hot Rod, of whom this figure here is a repaint of, we’ll just take a look at the differences. Now Rodimus is basically the exact same figure as SS86 Hot Rod, with just two changes. The first being a slight resculpting of the face to add a goatee and a smirk. The other is the new paintjob. Rodimus is mostly black with purple flames, a grey spoiler, and dark red windows and headlights in car mode. He also has all the same accessories as Hot Rod, including a Matrix with a glow effect, blast effects for his exhaust pipes, two blasters, and a saw attachment for his hand. The Matrix has a blood-red crystal at its center instead of a blue one and both the saw and the effect parts are red now, too.

That’s pretty much it in terms of differences. Rodimus is the same excellent figure that SS86 Hot Rod was. Very nicely sculpted, very nicely articulated, basically a Masterpiece figure at CHUG scale. Nothing bad to report here except that he, too, has two slightly awkward steps in his transformation from robot to car mode, but those are easily ignored. So bottom line: an awesome figure and it does look quite good in black, too.

Remarks: In the original Shattered Glass fiction, Rodimus was the first native of the evil mirror dimension that Cliffjumper encountered after being marooned there. It quickly became apparent that SG Rodimus is that world’s Starscream, always looking to stab his leader in the back and assume his place. Rodimus did become Autobot leader for a while, now calling himself Rodimus Prime, but it didn’t last. In the new IDW Shattered Glass continuity, Rodimus was the leader of the Wreckers and, true to form, sought to depose Optimus Prime, though with Ultra Magnus’ help this time. He ended up being killed by Soundwave.

The first Shattered Glass Rodimus took the best Hot Rod / Rodimus figure available at the time, namely Classics Rodimus, and painted it black. Fifteen years later we do the exact same thing again and it works just as well as it did the first time. Shattered Glass Rodimus is a great-looking repaint of a great figure. So unless you are morally opposed to turning good guys into villains, I can see no reason why you should dislike this figure. Fully recommended.

Rating: A-