Toy Review
Transformers: Commemorative Series 1

By Daniel Lipkowitz

It's difficult to review these toys because the molds were originally released in the mid-1980's. The Transformers line has evolved and changed so much that to try to grade these toys using the standards we have today would not be fair. Also, since these are reissues, most people know what the molds are like. Therefore, we are just going to hit some main points about each toy and show some pictures. If there's interest, we may do full reviews at a later date.

• Rodimus Major appears to be identical to the Japanese reissue of Hot Rod (aka "Hot Rodimus"), which is a converted Targetmaster Hot Rod mold. Differences from the original Hot Rod toy include thicker rings around the holes in the fists and engine, indented sections on the upper legs and modified (and generally considered to be improved) factory-applied stickers. As in the original release, Rodimus Major has die-cast metal toes and rubber wheels.


• Rodimus Major, Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime all include the sticker sheets produced for the Japanese reissues released by Takara over the last couple of years, Japanese text and all. Rodimus Major's decals appear to have been recreated for the Takara reissue and have slightly different colors and shapes than those of the original Hot Rod toy.


• Unlike the Japanese instructions, the English ones instruct the reader to apply the upper leg stickers, which are notorious for wearing off when the toy's legs are compressed during transformation. Like the earlier reissue, there are indentations sculpted in the legs to give the stickers extra clearance, but as they are sized for the Targetmaster version's smaller decals, the stickers may still be damaged if applied.


• Why the name change? If a company does not make periodic use of its product names, it may lose the rights to them. The name "Hot Rod" is currently owned by Mattel, so the character has received a promotion to "Rodimus Major". Partially inspired by Optimus Minor from the Beast Wars line, Rodimus Major's name change is addressed in his revised and expanded tech spec.

• Sure to assuage fan concerns, this is essentially a reissue of the original version of Ultra Magnus, complete with plastic windows, painted small and super robot faces, vac-metal chrome elements, a die-cast chest and feet and rubber tires.

• Several alterations have been made to the original mold. Most obviously, the silver "smokestacks" on the small robot's shoulders have been shortened, and the missiles have been lengthened (with a corresponding change to the box art, although not to the instruction illustrations). These changes were necessary due to updated child safety laws; launchable projectiles must now exceed a certain length to avoid being a choking hazard, and the longer stacks were fragile and could have posed a sharp-edge or choking hazard.

• Less obvious mold changes include T-shaped grooves in the launchers to align the new missiles, rounding of the originally pointed missile tips, and what appears to be a slight alteration to the clips that hold the shins in place in super-robot mode, making them less susceptible to stress and breaking.

• Like Ultra Magnus, Optimus has longer missiles than the original toy, T-shaped launcher holes and shortened "stacks" on his shoulders. It was mentioned by the Hasbro team at Botcon 2002 that full-sized but non-metallic stacks made from softer plastic were considered as an alternative, but they preferred to retain the vac-metal chrome look.

• Although the Optimus Prime displayed at Wizard World Chicago had blue eyes to match the character's appearance in the original cartoon and comic (like the recent "New Year's Special Convoy" edition of the toy in Japan), the reissue retains the yellow eyes of the original Optimus Prime toy.

• Like the first Japanese reissue, Roller is molded in purple/blue plastic and painted silver. Unlike that version, however, Roller's "hubcaps" have been left unpainted.

• Presumably for the same safety reasons that required the changes to Optimus and Magnus' stacks and missiles, Roller's launch mechanism has been disabled. The trigger is still present and the launcher can be moved by hand, but it no longer fires Roller down the trailer's ramp, nor is the original feature mentioned in the instructions.

View these pictures and more in the new (currently in beta-testing) ASM Gallery! Click here!