Hey, let’s take a break from BotCon stuff! I got other guys that weekend, after all!
This is Transformers Prime Hot Shot! I enjoy him very much. In a world where Bumblebee is Optimus Prime’s trusted yellow hot rodded sportscar and Hot Rod has taken back the “hot headed youth destined to be leader” job, I’m happy to see there’s still a place for Hot Shot nestled somewhere in between. Sure, he kinda has to be his blue-and-red-then-yellow Cybertron colors so he’s not exactly Bumblebee, but I understand that this is the compromise between him existing and him not existing.
Prime Hot Shot is a retool of the second Bumblebee Deluxe toy. I only have the first Bumblebee Deluxe toy, and so this mold was a new one to me. This version transforms a lot more simply than the first one, which is good for fun but not as good for show-accuracy. But this is Hot Shot, who’s not on the show (yet?), so it doesn’t matter that he’s not screen accurate to a screen version that may or may not exist. So I can bask in the fun of him.
His entire torso is geared to autotransform, you see. If you pull his shoulders/front wheels outwards from the hood, this incredible thing takes place where the torso and head orchestrates itself wildly into position. It’s kind of amazing. Everything else is kind of an easy afterthought. Pull out the legs, fold up the roof, the end.
Like the original Hot Shot, this guy has a visor that flips down! This really makes him feel like Hot Shot to me. Unlike the original Hot Shot, the visor is translucent plastic painted mostly black, leaving unpainted goggle lenses, which is an improvement over the original opaque piece. Also unlike the original Hot Shot, his head can turn at the neck. He’s pretty poseable overall for a Hot Shot!
One thing I have trouble grasping visually are his eyes. See those horizontal silver slabs? Those are actually his eyebrows! Below them are his eyes, and they’re blue translucent plastic, same as his windows and the unpainted portions of his visor. But you can’t really see them very well when they’re buried inside the middle of his blue face. They’re lightpiped, but the big plastic piece behind his head tends to block light from going through there. Maybe at some point I’ll paint his eyebrows black to help my brain read his face properly.
(I’ve never actually customized any of my Hot Shots. This would be a first. I might get a double, just to have a pristine specimen to match the rest of my Shrine.)
This toy comes with a fun story! I had this guy (and the rest of his case) preordered from Big Bad Toy Store, and they were due to arrive from UPS the day I left for BotCon. Well, dammit, I knew that the truck wouldn’t arrive until I got to the airport. And sure enough, I was right. No sooner than I’d been dropped off by my wife and gotten checked in than I got a phone call from her telling me the UPS guy got there with my Hot Shot as she was pulling up to our place. And because my wife is the best friggin’ wife in the whole damn world, she grabbed the Hot Shot for me, drove back to the airport, and handed him over to me on the curb. (We live one exit down the highway.) Hot Shot got to be my trip buddy!
One of the security guys asked if it was collectible and if I was gonna keep it sealed. He was really sad when I told him that he was gonna be opened as soon as I got to my gate.
And then licked.
INstead of painting his eyebrows black, why not outline his eyes? That would really help separate them from his blue cheeks. I’m half in getting him, but I have a higher priority for Knock Out and the Vehicon.
He will never replace Animated Hot Shot in my heart.
Someday Hot Shot, you will get your own toy again, and hopefully that one will not be a frustrating mess like the Universe toy was.
Also I can’t help but think it’d be more constructive to paint the eyes a different color, maybe a lighter blue.
But that’s me.
I have the same trouble with the face o.o
I want one too. He looks fun.
I’m glad you got him Walky. He looks great and he’s been repainted/remolded enough that when I get him it won’t feel like I’m buying ANOTHER Bumblebee toy.
That said , I still find feel it is cosmically unjust that you have more Hot Shot toys from a character thats been around a decade this year than I do a Generation One accurate Arcee (with or without Daniel as a Headmaster) for a character who’s been around two and a half times that!
But I have hope that with all the Generatioms toys coming I might finally get my wish. If not I’ll just keep hoping for the best. Besides I need to devote some time get Figuarts to make the Sailor Scouts!
The never ending battle indeed!!
Sailor Scouts/Senshi are just a primitive form of Pretty Cure anyway.
Figures you’d say that, Andrusi.
… all of a sudden I want a Jupiter figure!
To help separate him visually from Bumblebee, I like to pull up the roof kibble so it’s kind of in line with the hood piece behind his head, and move the doors back so they sit perpendicular to his body. It creates a different silhouette shape that way. And since I, too, only have the First Edition Bumblebee, the height difference also helps set them apart.
Apart from being a Bumblebee remold, this one looks to be the first Aligned character done right.
Blue Hot Shot is his best colour scheme
Cyb is my favourite of the lot and the first Hot Shot I knew of, so blue makes sense for him in my head
I had the same trouble with the eyes when I saw the photo. I think he’d look better if the eyebrows actually were his eyes, really..
I couldn’t really see the eye/eyebrow thing even though I knew what you meant. so I did a addition to the photo.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89991959@N00/7164290836
I think Luis is right, highlighting or painting his eyes would prob be a better idea than painting his eyebrows. when those get darker they just look more like eyes.
Also looking at this pic makes me think there was a design miscommunication and the eyebrows were originally his eyes.
Well, that’s not the happiest Hot-Shot I’ve seen.
Well I personally would recommend painting his animated inspired cheeks red like they were for Animated Hot Shot. With the eyes framed by the silver and red they’ll show up much better, it’s the fact that they blend in with all the unpainted blue beneath them that renders them invisible. I found him this past weekend and I am loving this guy. I’m trying my best to not start collecting yet another Tfs continuity, but I couldn’t resist this. I don’t have a love of Hot Shot though so he’s going to be a post-alternators Skids stand-in for me until Hasbro makes a proper classics version. The head is sort of a stretch but I just imagine the goggles are something he invented to see Limbo parasites and other things that out of phase with the normal dimension. =P
is it somehow possible to put a LED into his head?
that would fix this “couldn’t find his eyes” problem.
and it would be awesome
I prefer to think of the silver parts as his eyes anyway, since his actual eyes are at the same height as his NOSTRILS.
I’ll hand it to him for this: he’s the only Prime figure I’d be tempted to buy and I’m not even a Hot Shot super fan like Willis. I just think he’s for sure the best looking figure they’ve produced.
Ugh, is this ugly. I was trying to quote the following, with the Blockquote cite command, but obviously it didn’t work
(I’ve never actually customized any of my Hot Shots. This would be a first. I might get a double, just to have a pristine specimen to match the rest of my Shrine.)
That’s not a Hot Shot! That’s a Nightbeat!
In your own words:
Hooray! That’s the only version of a Hot Shot toy I didn’t own. Cross that off my bucket list!
You can argue that it technically Nightbeat, but at heart it’s still a Hot Shot toy.
This guy might be a excuse for me to get the RiD Bumblebee mold without buying a second Bumblebee.