w Cliffbee.com: Transformer Toy Reviews: Rodney

Cliffbee.com Rodney Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Rodney
Series: Japanese Generation 1
Allegiance: Cyberton
Alternate Mode: Robot/Headmaster Head

Thanks to Griffin for loaning me Rodney, making this review possible.



ROBOT MODE
Height: 5cm Width: 2.5cm

   A purple and yellow robot similar to a standard large Headmaster Head. Rodney has a purple torso and head with yellow limbs and a gold painted face. His face reminds me of a hockey mask and there's a marked contrast between the dark purple and vibrant, rich yellow. Rodney's shape is noticeably different to the bundled Headmaster heads - his arms are smaller and sit higher while his thighs are huge, with a large groin between them. I'm not really a fan of the awkward thighs & groin, but I do like the colours.

   The articulation is the same as the other humanoid Headmaster heads, his arms are able to lift, Rodney is able to sit down, although his hips are well above the bottom of his groin so sitting poses look poor.

TRANSFORMATION TO HEAD MODE

   As with the standard Headmasters, you fold his legs forward and up and flip over his back panel to reveal the face. The twist is that while the others use their head as the connecting peg, the groin fulfils that role here - which is why he has such an unusual groin shape.

HEAD MODE
   A purple head with gold eyes, there are two spines on top of the forehead and the arms form yellow antennae on either side of his face. The face is detailed and while the detailing is impressive, it's a little hard to discern in dark purple. The colours here are strong and while they're an asset in robot mode, they do make him hard to match - none of the Headmasters really match his colours.

   I have Rodney plugged into Highbrow and the tech spec meter reads SPD 10, STR 6 and INT 10, representing a significant upgrade compared to the stats generated by Gort. Of course, Gort doesn't clash with Highbrow as Rodney does.

VARIATIONS

   As with all of the Headmaster heads, Rodney was only available in Japan. There was an all-white store exclusive version, which is very rare.

OVERALL

   Rodney is quite distinct from the bundled Headmaster heads, but I'm not so sure if the differences are enough to justify his cost on the secondary market. I like the strong colours in robot mode and the backwards transformation is a nice point of differentiation, but the colours mean he doesn't really fit well with any of the Headmasters and the reverse transformation makes for an awkward groin in robot mode. While the transformation is interesting, Rodney is still just a Headmaster head which turns into a small robot. If you have the money and want to grab one of these figures, Rodney is the most innovative, although Loafer is a stronger figure overall - 3.5/10

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