Name: Cybertron Defense Hot Shot
Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Armoured Combat Truck
ARMOURED TRUCK MODE
Height: 7cm Length: 15cm Width: 6.5cm
A light metallic blue armoured truck with big black wheels and some midnight blue panelling, Hot Shot has a red bumper and twin red cannons mounted on the roof. The colours are consistent with those of the original Cybertron Hot Shot and still work well for an armoured truck. There's a red badge stamped on top of the cabin, which has an Autobot symbol worked into it - a really nice touch. This is a good colour scheme that allows the simple blue to work without crowding things.
While the colour scheme is kept simple, the sculpt is quite good, with rivets, survival packs, hatches and the like all over the vehicle. The four tyres are ridged and there are dead hardpoints on the runners on either side. There aren't any windows - merely slits on the front and sides, suitable for a combat vehicle such as this. There are yellow spotlights mounted on the sides and the guns on top are quite detailed with silver tips.
The truck itself is a compact, rhombic shaped affair, basically designed to be as difficult to wreck as possible. As a result Hot Shot is quite solid compared to many other Transformer trucks (this is also partly due to a simple transformation). Fit For Natalie informs me that Hot Shot is a M1117 'Guardian' Armoured Security Vehicle.
The wheels roll, as you'd expect, and as with all Cybertron toys Hot Shot gets a key gimmick. When you plug his colourless Planet Key (code: d1o4) into the back of the cannon mount, the top of the cannons pop up revealing black missile bays inside, with yellow missile tips. To be honest, the truck looks better with the cannons closed. The bumper also opens out to the sides to give him an additional pair of cannons, and while this is done manually it looks better than the missile racks. The cannon mount turns through 360° while the cannons themselves can swing up and down - and do so independently. The key gimmick may not work, but the cannons are cool anyway. There's a little tray on the left side where you can store the planet key - it's actually meant for his blade in robot mode, but the key fits like a glove (thanks once again to FortMax Reed for this info). While the connection is too lose for robot mode, it'll happily stay in place on the truck.
While Hot Shot's vehicle mode is uncomplicated in many ways, it's a great armoured truck. The sculpt is good, the cannons on top are a lot of fun and the colour scheme works well. There are some really nice touches such as the Autobot symbol badge, the hardpoints (which end up on his forearms) and the robot head peeking out from the vision slits (if you look carefully).
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Extent the rear, which will cause the groin to pivot while the thighs extend. Flip up the feet, split the boots and set aside the blade lodged between them. Fold the groinplates down, split the front and pull out to the sides to form his arms. Extend and pose the forearms, fold down his head. There are three sets of missileracks which can be revealed here - hidden under panels on his shins that rotate, hidden under panels that fold down on his shoulderpads and those exposed by the Planet Key. The cannons can be repositioned allowing the last set of missile bays to deploy behind his head - or the cannons themselves to sit on either side of his head. I find that placing the blade between his boots when transforming him back to truck mode is quite fidgety - it tends to fall out.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 16cm Width: 10cm
The blue block opens up to reveal a robot that's largely black and red. His head and torso are black while the thighs and forearms are red. The boots are blue with black shinplates and feet, the upper arms are also blue with black plates covering the missileracks. There are a few silver and yellow paint applications, notably the silver face (with light blue eyes) and yellow crown. The colour scheme is busier now, but the added colour elements are appropriate here.
The shoulderpads are big blocks, as are the boots, giving Hot Shot a powerful look which matches that of the truck mode. The cannons look good over his shoulders, and the blade can be held in either hand or plugged into either armguard - a nice bonus, and the holes that allow this are dedicated to this feature. If you have them all exposed, the six missile racks make Hot Shot one very well armed robot - and with his stockiness the visual impact is quite marked.
The poseability here is good but not great - the head turns, the shoulders and hips rotate and lift out to the sides while the knees and elbows bend. The poseable cannons can lift up and down although the shoulderpads get in the way of side to side movement. The shoulder panels, when folded out, get in the way of the forearms a little, and sort of hang out, so I prefer to leave them up unless I have him in a firing stance.
The blade is really cool, and I love the added bonus of it plugging into the armplates. It's his only handheld weapon, but the hardpoints allow you to plug in Minicons as arm weapons. At any rate, with six missile racks, Hot Shot doesn't really need more weaponry - the guy's a walking armoury.
A good robot mode thanks to solid concepts and good execution. While the poseability isn't fantastic, his weapon options bring enough play value to make up for the limits to his articulation. The key gimmick comes into its own here, since the missile racks make more sense and are a dominant theme of this mode.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of. Takara's version is called Exigeyser, a much better name than the entire sentence Hasbro have given their version. BotCon Springer and Universe Roadbuster are repaints of Hot Shot.
OVERALL
While Hasbro's name for this toy is awful, the actual figure is pretty good. This guy serves as proof that simple concepts can work well if done right. The poseability and colour scheme are fairly simple, as is the transformation, but the vehicle mode is well detailed with a great set of cannons and the ridiculously well armed robot mode is a lot of fun. The key gimmick is almost a footnote, with the blade and missile racks stealing the limelight. A fun toy thanks to the effort put into the design process - 8/10
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