To the anticipation of many, Hasbro decided to release Rodimus Prime under it’s Masterpiece flagship as a Toys R Us exclusive. Not so bothered about the exclusivity, what fans want to see is the overhauls that they made in regards of the QC issues that loom across the Takara-Tomy’s version.
Hasbro eventually listened to fans and here we got, a heavily overhauled version of MP Rodimus Prime. The downsize is of course the absence of the trailer preventing him to be transformed into Roddy’s futuristic Cybertronian truck. What is bonus here is his pet Targetmaster Offshoot with all other accessories.
While true about Hasbro lacking paint app, this Hasbro version of Matrix of Leadership that comes with Roddy comes with an unpainted gold and gray sections. However, his matrix is slightly remoulded compared to the Takara-Tomy’s version.
Packaging
Left side view shows his gimmicks
Back view shows his bio story
The plastic insert I removed most of the strings already and it still stays in place. Nice.
Packaging itself, is way smaller than Skywarp and not as thick as Grimlock, however the package is so conveniently sized that its like the DOTM voyager packaging, plastic is durable, 3 seals on top and a few more on the cardboard packaging. The inlet is cardboard and you need to lift it up to get the instruction sheet beneath. Toy and gimmicks are tied down by cardboard strings.
We decide to give it a 5 because its small enough to hide, the missus loves the packaging, the insert is a tight fit, which means even without the strings, its a snug fit to make it BIB.
Robot Mode
The side view – notice the back latches on properly and stays there.
Back View of his Upper Torso
Front View of his Front Torso
The Back View of his feet.
The Front View of his feet.
Posable and stable
The robot plastics is smooth and durable. Also paint apps is G1 accurate. It is posable well most of it, points of articulation are alot .
He deserves a pat because of his shoulder articulation, elbow articulation and the annoying feeling of not getting the piece to fit right, so specific in transformation.
Here are some improvements over Takara’s MP-09:
The elbow improvement made, i dont know how to describe it but its keeps the elbow from rotating loosely and snug fit for transformation.
Slightly improved shoulder articulation but not much, its replaced by durable abs.
The foot articulation and stability is improved, steel feet just like G1 Hot Rod and very solid.
The peg holes that connects his torso is now much better and locks smoothly, even though it can also latches off easily, its still stable enough that we had to shake it very hard before it latched off, moving hands also can latch it off.
The pegs that attached to the torso are also much better and suitable refer above.
Remember the Takara-Tomy version didnt latch on properly and also easily detaches and doesnt stays on properly?Owned as it is now fixed. We will show you some pictures of it latching properly.
The spring on his knees, fixed as well, we had a whiz of a time just bending it up and down, and it moves smoothly.
The epic fail on the first Takara-Tomy release of his feet, are now fixed, the side plates, now have their own proper hinges and latches on and off properly, the front plate also stays on properly now.
This must be one of the biggest QC overhauls that Hasbro had undergone because they fixed what went wrong in the first Takara-Tomy issue, and it wouldve been flying colours, if they fixed the shoulder articulation and the transformation.
Alternate Mode
We manage to transform him somewhat, and we’ll show you where the difficult part lies within the transformation. Second time in specific order according instructions and the 3rd time in no specific order also without instructions.
His cybertronian and part earth sportster mode also has been improved where there is ample room to roll and also none of his robot parts is touching the ground also pics of him with his Targetmaster, however with the plasma sniper rifle, the gun pointed down instead of up and getting both Targetmaster and rifle on the hood peg hole is quite tricky. You really need finesse.
This is a picture of the top raised, revealing the inner parts of the alt mode as you can see the feet is visible as part of the seats. Although not much room for any human figures to fit in and the seats look abit weird.
Note: This part is tricky to insert as it needs to be precise.
The design on the hood not much difference but is more G1 accurate.
This is the troublesome part as you can see the part that opens and close and suppose to be pegged in doesnt peg in properly, nor do the hands are inside properly, the only grace that saves it is that the pipes peg snugly fits into the hole and holes the part (arm) in place, not exactly a neat transformation.
The bottom view of the car, now we know we’re suppose to turn his head the other way, but wanted to see if it touches the surface even as we placed the head this way and surprisingly it still rolls smoothly, this position reminds me of the G1 version.
With Targetmaster Offshoot attached.
The back view, the rest of the parts aligned nicely, except for the spoiler, we noticed its still tilted, but we have yet to figure out, if we placed it wrongly or didnt turn it properly.
The Top view
No full marks for this because of the tilted spoiler and the arm transformation. We might be doing it wrong, but it proves our point of the transformation being annoying and abit frustrating albeit no toy is perfect but the alternate mode itself is fun to play with.
All in all the toy is an absolute classic. A much welcomed addition to the Masterpiece line.
So this is how it should look like if everything is in place.
There is nothing we can do about the springy hood and the tilted spoilers. Apparently the spoiler is still an issue, it could be just our figure but we’ll look into it further.
Aesthetics
Being true to G1 is the best design aesthetics of this guy. From our observation, he is the most accurate a toy can get to a G1 Rodimus Prime.
Articulation
He is a POA loaded action figure from head to feet.
Design
He is a scaled down version of MP which appears to be much shorter than the rest of the figures in MP line. He is dubbed as the pioneer of standardized sizes of ‘MP 2.0’ which is started from him. We can assume that he is an upgraded G1 toy with the size and complexity of a Masterpiece with a Generation/RTS feel and essence in all his design.
Gimmicks
The 2 Faces of Roddy – love this gimmick too.
The Tools Gimmick, the plasma torch and plasma cutter it fits nicely.
The Matrix, well the mini one the big one is in an epic pose below.
The Rodimus transformation – really love this gimmick.
Offshoot Upclose
Offshoot full view
Note: Offshoot is roughly the same size as RTS legend class or slightly bigger. His transformations are smooth and his articulation rest is amazing, he has ball joints for knees and hips and for his shoulders, for his elbows its basic joints.
Heres Offshoot in his Gun Mode from one angle. For more angles, please view the gallery below.
Rodimus wielding Offshoot as Gun Mode.
The twin guns, gunslinger view and they looked awesome.
The Combined Plasma Rifle, okay it took us awhile to figure out how to place both his hands on the rifle, and the result, is this and it still looks like its magically floating. He can hold it in one hand though.
This is classic all in one Roddy – a Targetmaster Roddy, Movie Roddy and Rodimus Prime all in one, his weapons combine, he ages back and forth, he has his tools from the movie, he has two Matrix of Leadership – one large and one small, he can be used with the Takara-Tomy winnebago and piece’ de’ resistance’ . He has Offshoot the Targetmaster exclusive.
Paintjob
Ironically on this one, the Hasbro version tried to appear to be more toy accurate. All the plastic colored version from Takara-Tomy has been replaced. The colors of the chrome exhaust and tires remained the same.
The gray areas appear to be more metallic while the magenta was replaced with dark maroon. The orange appeared more shady. Clear blue windows appear to be more darker almost tinted. The collar, brake lights cuffs and exhaust are all undecoed.
His head is unpainted like the original. Wielding tool is maroon not gray anymore with a transparent blue buzz saw. Spoilers are yellow with fins in glossy yellow.
The gray boots are now maroon, the feet are black, hip joints are black, and waists are painted. He comes with unchromed rims looked gray.
Roddy’s flame decal pattern is new and his Autobot insignia comes with a different size with no outlines.
Fun Factor
The fun factor must be his overhauled parts, the improvements in QC. Other factors are the weapons and accessories (though minus the trailer). The biggest fun of all is his Targetmaster Offshoot that comes with him offering him extra armament and multiple action poses which makes very articulated.
Complexity
Below for more, we’ll cover how to fix the transformation to alt mode. As mentioned, the transformations require finesse and precision with whole lot of patience.
First off the position of the feet joints, heres the tricky bit, its not a matter of just bend and stretching them out, it has to fit at an 90 degree angle, the ankle joints must align when you fold the feet it, and the feet must look something like this picture below.
Note: The head must be in that position, and both feet must be in this position, if the feet are protruding on the other side of the seat panel in a snugly fit (see next picture), then you have aligned the feet and ankle joints properly.
Here it is from an angle. Now the next tricky bit is the hands, they didnt fit, because the ankle joints weren’t aligned properly on the inside and to help make the hands fit nicely, don’t square of the fist, fold it in further like so.
The panels then close nicely and with snug fit of the pipes – its a sweet fit. Picture below shows the clearance of surface, that enables this baby to roll out.
Value
By the way when we bought this online, it was an estimate price of RM250-RM270, not bad for a Masterpiece price right?
Overall
Overall, he is still not perfect because we were annoyed with the alternate mode transformation, it passed our test though, and the picture below is just too awesome beyond words and its enough to make the score back up to 5 stars, but 4 it must stay. All in all the plastic is smooth and durable, paint apps is true to his G1 colour scheme, extra stickers available, fun to play and poseable and the pose below is superbly magnificent.
Gallery
Ratings
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Credits
Bearmafia
great review bearmafia.
thanks for the feedback mr edmund
great review bearmafia.
thanks for the feedback mr edmund