SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

Got the two a few days ago, and for the first SS86 figures I get, they might be the last ones as none of the others announced so far interest me.

But the ugly first: I'm just not super impressed in hand... I am disappointed that they aren't living up to the impression I had of them.

They are a tad cheaper plastic that we've seen with WFC Siege.

Hot Rod:

I'm scare that Hot Rod could break at any time as the lesser plastic and the very small parts and the very stiff ratchets articulation aren't a good match.

The worst is that Hod Rod's engineering for the arms articulation is a pretty big let down as it's done in such a way that it limits it's range a LOT.

You can compensate with weird angles and having the arms going up to his head, but just a different approach would have done a much better job.

I repeat, the way the arms/shoulders are done, may frustrated some of you as posing him is a challenge.

His transformation to car mode is a bit extensive and a pain... he reminds me of Apeface a bit as you need to get things just right and snapped in. Once done, it is quite solid.

Going back to robot is still challenging but not as much and aside the legs and the front of the car that you need to flip and snap in, it's not too bad.

He does look great but the arms being too close to the body and the hardship to move them easily does make him lose so many points. As a voyager, even with the extra accessories and fancy engineering, the truth is that he's really small and shouldn't be a voyager.

Annoyance for the accessories is the storage that's not the greatest... pinning the guns on top of the car feels like they'll scratch the paint or break.

Scourge:

Much more massive as being also a Voyager. At least that's nice, but he's still quite smaller than Kingdom Cyclonus (which ends up being the comparison figure).

The plastic is ok-ish but you can feel in hand that
it's reminiscent of the Combiner wars as it's the hard and no very flexible type.

The transformation is both single and hard as some parts are simply a pain to align easily (mostly the parts that end up covering the hands).

He does look good in spaceship mode except for the weird approach they did with the underbelly that doesn't close up the figure at all. It's very similar to the Titans Return version for that.

The robot is pretty decent, moves well, articulation is good except for the feet that are a bit limited, and he is backpack heavy.

The feet only tilt when they should be able to bend forward/backwards too, the legs don't transform at all so there's not reason that they couldn't have added that articulation. And because of that, he does suffer from a lot of tipping over due to being very back heavy. Some can argue that he has toes and hell that do bend, and those do help, but it's not all that great.

I will repeat a warning about the hands that I had thankfully read forehand: they do swivel but are very stiff... you need to grab them in a way that will not break them, especially the open hand on, that some people have reported breaking the thumb by trying to force it in a bad way (and some using a weapon in hand as a lever).

Annoyance: there's no storage for the weapon in alt mode aside pinning it to the side (which looks bad).

Final words:

I'm stuck between liking them quite a bit for what they are, and hating that these are overpriced for what they are, especially with the faults and limitations. With Cyclonus as a reference (as his biggest negative is that he should have come with two guns to balance them on the wings in spacejet mode), they do come up very short.

Do I regret getting them? Not really as I do like them in general, but I really wish that they would be better. I would almost say that Scourge ends up being the better of the two but Hot Rod has some things that makes him stand out too.

If you get them, I hope that you'll enjoy them, and if you don't, I don't really see these as a "must-have" unless you really want them.

Re: SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

I'm a geek for HotRod figures so I will def be getting this

But it's good to see some review on him in advance, I appreciate the review

Re: SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

I do know that I did sound quite negative, I do have to say that there are much worst figures, and they do look really good overall. I don't want to discourage anyone from getting them at all, but to have an idea of how they feel in hand and what to expect. Other people have reported the same in passing while others consider Hot Rod the second coming.

Scourge can be in stances that makes him look amazing! And their face sculpts are absolutely fantastic.

A note: For Hot Rod's issues for his arms, I did do a few things to help fix how "tight" they are against his body.

There's two very small areas that can be shaved a tiny bit which allows for them to be in a much more natural stance.

One was a suggestion from another TF2005 member:
https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threa...#post-18720674

And I posted the second one that I did here:
https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threa...#post-18722715

Re: SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

So if you rate these 3 (including Kingdom Cyclonus), which is the best, which is the worst?

Re: SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

Though my reply doesn't relate to the two figures relevant to the review, I'd like to know how tall Cyclonus is in robot mode. While the official product copy says he's a 7-inch figure, I suspect he looks a little taller.

Re: SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

Kingdom Cyclonus is 7.5 inches tall from foot to top of crown or 7 inches to top of forehead.

Re: SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

Cyclonus is easily the best.. he's better plastic, huge compared, and looks near perfect. The only gap is required (behind the legs) due to transformation. His worst "con" is his gun feels a bit cheap and he should have a second one to balance him out (under both wings in jet mode, instead of on top that looks terrible and takes away from him) That's one detail that the Generation does have that he should have had: some sort of weapons molded in, as the jet mode is bare of weapons.

Considering that he could be found at 29$ makes him a huge bargain.

Between the other two it's close to being a tie.

They both do look really incredible, spot on in so many ways.

The plastic is passable, but reminds me of the older cheaper lines... Scourge is solid in hand, so he gets a pass for that, but Hot Rod is scary as the plastic is thin, and mine is already wobbly loose after just a day or two of playing/posing/testing/transforming, and I feel that his arms are going to be the weak point and could eventually break... I really believe that when people report breakage, that'll be it.

The articulation as mentioned is where they lose out the most.

Scourge feet are his main issue as being back-heavy, the lack of feet pivots makes him hard to stand up without him tipping over.

And Hot Rod is the arms big time... those are his down-fall.

The accessories really aren't enough to make him a voyager as even as a deluxe, he's small. Sure, he's very detailed and all that, lots of parts, but that's the thing, they should have simplified him and could have avoided these issues.

Transformation, Scourge is much easier, but ends up with the underneath kibble in alt mode. Hot Rod is fairly complex and a pain to tab (even after close to a dozen times doing it) but once done, the car does look great and no kibble and actual acceptable clearance, nothing drags on the ground! (God that's been a stupid issue for the WFC cars)

For Hot Rod, the issues for the arms completely screws him over, it's like he'd lose 5 points just for that.

So for price and overall feel to them, Scourge wins out.. I just have to give it to him.

Re: SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

He's 7.5 inch / 19 cm at the tip/top of his rabbit ears.

I made sure to show him well in my pictures to compare with the other sized figures (and why I used Arcee as an example of Deluxe sized).

Re: SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

Thank you! I already have Cyclonus,I guess now I can less my expectation for the other 2.

Re: SS86 Hot Rod and Scourge
 

Getting great reviews elsewhere. Detailed writeup is appreciated.