Here is Hot Rod in his vehicle mode. A Lamborghini Centenario, this guy will already have to win over the fans of the car brand. I think it's pretty successful. The details you'd find in such a car, including the subtle lining around the doors and bumper as well as the sculpt work applied onto the tires, doors, and headlights show Hasbro's devotion towards making their cars as accurately as possible with all the licenses they use. Maybe it's my lighting, but the shade of dark or possibly gunmetal gray looks slightly brown. I can assure you that it looks accurate in-hand, even though it's not properly black.
The side of his alt mode does feel noticeably panel-liney, but the windows on the upper side of the doors do not match the rest of the toy because of the paint on the clear plastic vs the opaque plastic. It's not terrible, but it's still something worth noting. One thing I like is that despite having snap-on wheels, he rolls very well! Why can't other Transformers do that?!
The time gun can be stored on the back with a tab going on a small slit, which is alright for what it is. It's also nicely sculpted and has some blue paint apps to make it less monotonous.
For a vehicle mode comparison, here he is with his wavemate, Crosshairs. While he didn't transform next to him or remain in vehicle mode like with Bumblebee, Hot Rod and Crosshairs do scale pretty well as fairly small sports cars. Hot Rod's profile is slightly higher thanks to the rooftop being a bit taller than with.
Transformation is very different from what I'd expect. After seeing the TLK Deluxe borrow the engineering of fellow Lamboformer Lockdown, specifically, the shitty AOE Deluxe. Also borrowing the same transformation scheme beforehand were Universal Ride's Evac and DOTM Roadbuster. But no, he's got an original transformation scheme! The arms are formed from the sides, yes, but they're much more proportionate and don't feel like they're etched onto the insides of the doors. The legs are made up from the back of the vehicle mode rather than having the legs just be independent of any car parts. The backpack is clean like the old toy, but we have door wings this time! And the chest is positioned accurately! The robot mode is outstandingly accurate to the CGI mode, as the toy designers keeping the Studio Series active ensured that they make the figures look as accurate as possible; Hot Rod does not fall short, with all of the sculpted details, key traits on the robot mode, and proportions being spot-on to the character design. While the legs do look a little hollow, it's mostly due to how far the wheels sticking out from the back that far (in addition to some fans likely mentioning that key details are a little inaccurate if they used promo renders). Either way, a very successful translation of our French boi.
His head sculpt is also accurately done, and I like how the orange is painted nicely onto the face without it overpowering the sculpted details he'd normally have as was the case for the dragon heads on Dragonstorm. His articulation consists of a ball-jointed head, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out, bicep swivels, elbow bends, wrist swivels, waist swivel, hips moving freely on ball joints (though one of them pops off a little too easily), thigh swivels, knee bends, and a bit of ankle pivot despite it being limited ball joints. His time gun goes on his hand nicely so he can STOP DA TIME.
It's also interesting that the surrounding magazine of the weapon can unclip if you want to give it an entirely different look. It sort of resembles the other pistol Hot Rod used when his Time Gun isn't ready to work properly. By the way, was it ever explained how often he can make time bubbles? Like is it only possible every 24 hours? I know he used it twice in the movie, once against the TRF and again against Megatron, so maybe that's the explanation and he'd have to use it wisely? But yes, he's a much stronger take on the character than the TK Deluxe we got back in 2017! Maybe the matte black is better on the old release, but I'll take a new mold that's closer to the CG model any day over a slightly more accurate deco.
For a robot mode size comparison, he's pretty much on a good scale with the other Deluxes in the same size class, being comparable to Crosshairs and Bumblebee in terms of height. I kind of wish Bumblebee got a remake so he can be better proportioned (while also being as tall as this new Deluxe). So yeah, definitely a good scale between these characters.
And here he is with his previous iteration, the WWII design. He's leaner, taller, and a much better toy than the other toy we got back in 2020! So yeah, if you're soured by the WWII figure, definitely get the TLK release. You won't be disappointed apart from the slightly annoying ball joint for one of the hips.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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