Rodimus Prime Reissue

Review by Ginrai

Rodimus Prime is the Transformer everyone hates. When we were all kids we all loved Optimus Prime, so it's natural to hate the guy who replaced him. "How dare he replace Optimus Prime?!" Well, it was kinda different for me when I was a kid. Little 5 year old me sat in the dark theatre and watched Optimus Prime die. And that little 5 year old version of me cried. But by the end of the movie, man, I was back in action. I was down with Rodimus Prime and his new brand of butt kicking. Of course I asked for Rodimus Prime for Christmas. I was the kid that Hasbro was looking for. I wasn't one of the millions who hated the way the movie cruelly massacred the kid friendly gun-wielding robots we all grew to love on the cartoon.

So I got the toy for Christmas and it was... well. It was okay. I remember getting a lot of enjoyment out of it, but six months later I was trying to trade it to some kid for Optimus Prime, so I guess I got over my love of Rodimus. I managed to lose the trailer part of Rodimus at school one day, and then I traded the robot to that kid, and he never gave me the Optimus in return. I got screwed! All I kept was Rodimus' gun.

A few years ago I succumbed to the vagaries of nostalgia and got the reissue Rodimus Prime from the local Toys "R" Us for $20 or something like that. I mean, looking at the toy now, objectively, it's... not... that... great. I guess it looks pretty good in truck mode, but can't really do much but drive around, and the robot mode is almost completely immobile. It's basically a statue. All you can do is raise its arms. Uh, what? Arm moving is an action feature? Star Wars toys have more articulation! Don't they? Well, I guess I don't have any Star Wars toys so I can't honestly say. That was a horrible analogy.

How does the reissue Rodimus Prime compare to the original? It's almost identical. Yes, the copyright is different. And the orange is slightly brighter in the reissue. That may just be because the old one is faded... I'm not totally sure. But it is a little brighter. Other than that, it's a perfect recreation. There are no child safety issues to be concerned with, since the original Rodimus was already as child safe as possible. It doesn't fire anything, it doesn't have small pieces to swallow, and it's pretty difficult to break. It's also not that exciting, but Rodimus still has a place in my heart.

One "feature" I think is really funny about the toy is that Rodimus has bags under his eyes. They made a big deal about how Rodimus was the matured form of Hot Rod. So how do they indicate maturity? Bags under his eyes! See, not sleeping enough makes you mature. Also he's a lot taller and skinnier. Hmm... Bags under his eyes... too skinny... maybe the real truth is that Rodimus developed a drug problem due to the pressures of leadership. I'm a horrible person, and since I'm finished desecrating yet another piece of my childhood, I'll just wait for my place in Hell now.

(C) 2009 Jeremy W. Kaufmann & CollectionDX