The many faces of Rodimie

What kind of temporal anomaly is going on here then? Many hands of Rodimie make for light work.





Good thing this Rodimus figure is as good as I hoped it would be as I now have three of him!

Takara Tomy's version of Rodimus has arrived. I must admit I wasn't all that excited, as I already had the Hasbro version which was pretty damn fine!

The box is the usual Takara Tomy (TT) joy, it is carded, has a clear bubble for holding Roddy and the card for use in the game, that also has his stats can be seen through the card. On the back is a little story that starts and doesn't finish. A catalogue is inside with more information on Roddy, with the features of his bow and light piping eyes, stats and a bio, as well as a picture and bit of blurb on G1 Rodimus Convoy.

(TT) version is different enough for me to justify the purchase and I am quite pleased. Could I recommend it to a casual fan who likes Rodimus. Hmmm well it depends on their circumstances. If you already have the Hasbro version, I wouldn't bother. If you don't and are looking at one or the other, you have two main points that I think you should look at.

HB, TT and SOC.

These points are actually the main differences between all the TT vs. Hasbro Animated figures. Hasbro who have gone for the cheaper matt paint are nicely cartoon accurate. TT's ones though are the nicer looking toy. If there was no cartoon to support the toys, then I think TT would have won as they look very nice, but considering the cartoon then Hasbro wins the battle.

TT Rodimus is coloured quite differently to Hasbro's (HB) one. Whereas HB is a matt red, it is very close to the red used for Rodimus/Hot Rod back in the day of the G1 cartoon. TT however is a kind of burgundy colour, which is not very Rodimus/Hotrod looking at all, however, after having a look at the cartoon again, it would appear that Rodimus isn't G1 red. He IS more burgundy. Wowsers, that is interesting, so the choice has changed from a more G1-esque Rodimus to a cartoon Rodimus. Wooo, conspiracy.

Nevertheless, I was about to say that even though it isn't G1 coloured and quite a bit different, the dark colour works really really well. The paint applications are in the same spots, but the TT version seems to have a bit more 'bling' to it over the HB matte TT has a red Autobot insignia and HB has the grey on the hood, and the grey plastic used for the exhaust pipes is a slight shade darker on the TT one. The blue windows on TT are a tad darker as are the wheels as well. Same with the orange of the waist.

Like the Power Rnagers, Rodimus likes to combine powers!

I was showing these to a friend and he pointed out an interesting bit that I had missed. Both the HB and the TT ones have the same blemish on the spoiler, just on the right after the middle, is a small wavy bit and at the front of the 'v' is a little mixing error bit by the looks of it. Whether these were all made at the same time or not I do not know, but the colour is almost the same, I have a feeling the TT one is a little darker, but I think it might just be the light. My Sons of Cybertron opaque one does not carry this same blemish. Interesting indeed.

The figure is of course very nice, see my Sons of Cybertron review for a figure review. I am pleased to say that this one is tighter in the joints than the SOC one. Must be the types of plastic used that has allowed for SOC to get looser. The colours look really nice and the clean application of paint adds to his sexiness a great deal. The outline of the flames on the bonnet are more noticeable on due to the darker colours and brighter paint.

So does one win over the other? I would have to say, that the TT one does, after reviewing the cartoon a little more closely. After considering the price situation though, I would say it's not really worth importing as the HB one seems to do the trick fine. If you want a really nice toy though I would lean more towards the TT one for Rodimus. Wow this has been very interesting for me, I kind of assumed that HB had won the cartoon accuracy award, but not in this case.

Classics Rodimus re-colour chucked on for good measure.

Coll light piping in his head allows for easy glow.  Looks like he has pupils as well!

Check the colour.  Not actually G1 is he?  Hmmm.  So I think TT's is a closer colour to the cartoon!