Cliffbee.com Earthrise Hot Rod Patrol Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Hot Rod Patrol
Series: Earthrise
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Muscle Cars



Big Daddy ("Autobot Daddy-O" for legal reasons)

CAR MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 6cm Width: 3cm

   A black 1950s Chevy-like muscle car with orange flames on the sides, silver windows and a big silver engine block on the hood. Big Daddy has sculpted headlights and a grille on the front. While I doubt he's the 57 Chevy we saw in G1 - he'd have to be licensed - he feels like the same car. There are small black Autobot logos on the sides - they're actually gaps within the orange paint of the flames - a clever touch.

   Play value is solely the rolling wheels - which you'd expect at this size. He rolls fine although the rear tyres actually slope inwards slightly, which doesn't affect the play value thankfully. He can form a solo gun which is this car mode with the rear flipped out and rotated. It _looks_ like a contorted Chevy rather than a gun.

   A fairly faithful reproduction of the G1 Micromaster vehicle, really. Big Daddy's distinctive vehicle mode is done well and does what you'd expect of it.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Flip over the rear to form his legs. Flip up the centre of the hood to reveal his head, unclip the sides to form his arms. Stand him up and you're done. The engine block on his hood is the hinge, which is very clever.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 7cm Width: 2.5cm

   A black robot with an orange head and orange thighs, Big Daddy has the silver rear window on the ankles and the silver on the hinge is visible behind is head. There's some orange on the top of his chest - the collar if you will. His face is painted purple, and I should mention all the orange parts are painted. The colour scheme is faithful to G1 - down to the silver behind his head. The main difference is this robot mode has a better overall shape, since rather than a large block of hood sticking out on his chest, it's now on his back. He still has large pylons on his shoulders (the front fenders).

   Play value here is just the poseability, as you'd expect. His shoulders and hips are ball jointed, his knees are hinged. His waist rotates through 360 degrees, The shoulders are really hampered by the pylons - there's not a lot of movement out to the sides, but his arms can rotate though 360. On the flip side, while his poseability is limited, this is still a faithful upgrade of his G1 self.

   A good robot mode aside from the shoulder pylons. They're true to G1 but limit his poseability, which sits a notch below other War For Cybertron Micromasters. On the whole, I'm happy with the better shape compared to the original - alongside a faithful to G1 colour scheme.

Trip-Up

CAR MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 6cm Width: 2.5cm

   A white Mustang with yellow windows, black plastic tyres and a large silver engine block on the hood. He has blue flames on the sides - and a white Autobot logo in the whitespace as on Big Daddy. Like his teammate, this vehicle mode is faithful to G1, but the yellow windows diverge slightly from the gold seen on the original. He's clearly a Mustang thanks to the sculpt on the front of the car, but there's no branding.

   Play value is solely the rolling wheels - same as Big Daddy. He rolls nicely and his rear wheels don't slope inwards. He can also form a solo gun which is again not much more than a Mustang with the end flipped out.

   A good Mustang mode which is similar to G1 aside from the switch to yellow windows. I'm partial to Mustangs and I like that they've managed to make this a obviously a Mustang despite the lack of licensing.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Identical to Big Daddy. Flip over the rear to form his legs. Flip up the centre of the hood to reveal his head, unclip the sides to form his arms. Stand him up and you're done. The engine block is again the hinge.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 7cm Width: 3cm

   A white robot mode with lime green painted thighs, head and collar. Trip-Up has a silver face with the silver hinge behind it. The yellow rear window forms his shins and the black front wheels are on the pylons above his shoulders - which makes them look thinner than they really are (black is slimming or something). His groin is black. Trip-Up's G1 robot mode had a similar layout, but had a really awkward shape (moreso than Big Daddy), with pylons, high set shoulders and a huge chest block. This body shape is much better.

   Like Big Daddy, his shoulders and hips are ball jointed, his knees are hinged. His waist rotates through 360 degrees, The shoulders are really hampered by the pylons - there's not a lot of movement out to the sides, but his arms can rotate though 360.

   I like this robot mode more than I do that of Big Daddy, but in reality they're very similar. He's not as true to G1 as the gold is now yellow - but also there was a lot more cleaning up of his G1 body shape shape for Trip-Up. So yes, he just just feels like more of an upgrade.

Combined Gun Mode

   It's not much more than the two gun modes stacked on top of each other... and it says a lot that most online stores choose to skip the stock photo of this mode. Yes, it's an extra aspect of play value, but it's really not better than... well any of the weapons the larger WFC toys come with.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   On the one hand, the shoulder pylons on both toys limits the robot mode poseability. On the other hand, both robot modes are significant upgrades on the limitations of the G1 toys. That said, the two toys share their transformation so there's no real variation here compared to some other WFC Micromaster sets. Both figures serve as faithful upgrades on the originals. Whether or not you like this set will depend on which of these aspects dominate your thoughts about them. For me, as I've always liked Micromasters and have a soft spot for Trip-Up, I love that these are true to original decos with better robot modes. But I do get that Trip-Up and Big Daddy sharing the same basic design may bother some more than it does me - 7.5/10

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