I was really happy I got this for the deal I did at the Singapore Toy and Comic Convention (STGCC) two weekend's ago! After all, I'd held back on Universe and Henkei versions of both Cyclonus and Galvie, and missed out on Hot Rod because...I hesitated (Yes, the cardinal sin of hunting rare toys...)
Despite Hasbro releasing this set more than a month or so back, I still didn't stump up the cash for it. Why? Because there was a ton of them at department stores islandwide and they were still at retail (S$69.90, that's US$53.75.) TFs here always eventually go on sale, with prices dropping by as much as 50-70%, depending if there's a sale on top of the clearance prices or not.
Nevertheless, the rare or really popular characters get snapped up as they normally do everwhere. And Hot Rod was one of these fave characters. I never really saw the original single-packed Hasbro release on the shelf, let alone the shiny, chromed out Henkei version. If I did, they would be priced at double retail and I wasn't paying through my nose for it.So I waited. And thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long since STGCC threw up a great deal for this set at S$45, that's about 35% off retail! Happy, happy, joy, joy!--I was finally going to own my very first Hot Rod!!!
But since when did Hot Rod fight Cyclonus and Galvatron on Cybertron? Didn't Hot Rod's first and last fight with Galvie happen in Unicron, just before he opened the Matrix of Leadership and became (wait for it...porn star name...) Rodimus Prime? Maybe that's what Hasbro was going for, pretending that lil' Hot Rod here was his 'trixed up Prime self, hence the name on the box. A lil' lame, but still a commendable effort on Hasbro's part to fool the kids. Yeah, because we kids who were around in 1986 to watch the movie ain't being' fooled! :PPackaging strategy aside, let's see how this trio fared against the ranks of the rest of the Henkei/TF Universe!
