Armada Wave 1
Hot Shot

By Daniel Lipkowitz, Assistant Editor

Mini-Con

Hot Shot comes with Jolt, a red Mini-Con helicopter with a free-spinning propeller and two Powerlinx sockets (one beneath the main body and one beneath the tail). Jolt can attach to Hot Shot’s removable engine for transport or extra armament. To transform Jolt to robot mode, unfold and separate his legs, swing down his arms and fold the helicopter tail down over the robot chest. In robot mode, the Mini-Con has swivel points at the shoulders, hips (although these are blocked by the copter tail) and knees and can also carry Hot Shot’s engine as a hand-held weapon. Jolt’s faction symbol appears on the left side of his cockpit.

Vehicle Mode

In vehicle mode, Hot Shot is a bright yellow sportscar with metallic blue windows and red, black and silver-blue details. Due to his disguised missile launcher, he has three large red hubcaps and one small one. His Autobot symbol is molded onto the left side of his rear spoiler.

Vehicle Mode Features

• Attack Mode: Plug Hot Shot’s engine onto his hood, pushing down on the front, and his front bumper splits and swings open as a pair of "driving claws". The gimmick is rather cleverly designed -- if you just press down on the back of the engine when you lock it in place, it attaches without activating the claws. You can even open just one claw or the other by rocking the engine toward the appropriate corner.


• Transport Mode: From Attack Mode, attach Jolt in helicopter form to the top of the engine for... a sportscar with a tiny helicopter on its hood.


• Turbo Mode: From Attack Mode, attach Jolt in vehicle mode to the Powerlinx peg in the center of Hot Shot's rear spoiler. Fold down the Mini-Con’s tail and midsection for turbo-charged, propeller-powered speed.

Transformation to Robot Mode

Unfold the bumper halves/driving claws as feet (this can be done with or without the engine). Fold the car doors forward and swing the hood down to free the legs. Fold the back of the car up and forward onto the roof, revealing the robot chest and head. Split and swing out the sides of the car, then rotate them around to form arms. Separate the legs and rotate the feet to the front. Swing up the visor to reveal Hot Shot’s face.

Robot Mode

In robot mode, Hot Shot retains the colors of his vehicle mode, with the addition of dark navy blue for his lower arms. Cheerful and kid-friendly, he features bright primary colors, a simple design, cartoonish proportions and a jolly expression. His black visor is engraved with a targeting display and gives Hot Shot the appearance of wearing a racing helmet.

Articulation

Hot Shot’s articulation definitely suffers due to the space taken up by his mechanical gimmicks. His shoulders can swing out to the sides, but due to the space taken up by one of his Powerlinx features, they cannot rotate forward. He has swivel points at the biceps, but turning them more than a small amount makes his arms look odd, and although the joint is more than tight enough to hold a pose, the arm sections don’t lock into place. He has hinges at his elbows and ball joints at the hip and knee.

Robot Mode Features

• Hot Shot’s engine can be plugged into his chest as armor. This doesn’t activate anything, but it does look pretty nifty.


• A Mini-Con can be attached to a Powerlinx peg on Hot Shot’s, er, backside. Plugging the Mini-Con in causes Hot Shot’s entire rear wheel and axle section to flip up over his head. Pushing up on the attached Mini-Con makes the axle whip around 90 degrees and automatically fire a missile. By pushing up as you attach the Mini-Con, you can make the launcher raise, rotate and fire in a single motion.

Impressions

Star of the first-wave mini-comic, Hot Shot is definitely the Hot Rod or Cheetor of the line and tailor-made to appeal to younger audiences who won’t mind that he can’t be posed very much. If you can get past that issue -- and if you don’t hate the 1-2-3 and Big Adventures Transformers, that won’t be a problem -- Hot Shot’s actually not a bad little toy. The deadly Axlezooka^TM is especially fun.

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