Phil's
Energon Rodimus & Checkpoint
and
Superlink Rodimus Convoy
Review

Rodimus

The Energon version of Rodimus is a 6 wheeled long nosed truck, more of the monster truck racing variety with a spoiler and jet engines out the back. Traditional Rodimus dark red, with gold flame detail and black parts. Spoiler would have matched the original more in yellow I suppose but...... 2 jet boosters between the spoiler and truck bed, some nice detail on these. There's a minicon port to one side of the spoiler on which can be mounted his gun. If it's pointing backwards it's central to the spoiler, and without the missile resembles the rocket booster. Now to me this form looks a better evolved Hot Rod than the camper van. I never liked the long nosed trucks on Optimus, much prefer the flat ones, and it never occurred to me that a long nosed truck would work for Rodimus

TF will not start unfamiliar to Combat Hero Op/Destructicon Scourge owners - open flaps at the front of the truck and bend the cab forward 180 degrees. Then it changes..... fold the grey portion on the roof fwd to form his feet, the heel spurs back and fold the side panels underneath the feet. Stand, and fold the back of the truck back an extra 90 degrees. Split the back of the truck in 2 and fold fwd to form the shoulders. Drop the booster jets to form the arms. Do the Depth Charge flip thing with boosters to form the hands. Fold the lower chest, and the head up onto his shoulder blades.

Robot Mode: Again, you look at Rodimus as a robot and it's clear who he is. Head is dead on. TF has exposed some Rodimus orange limb colour in all the right places including the hands. The wheels from the back of the truck are now on the shoulders, and he's got nice broad lower limbs which will contribute later. The arms have some spoiler kibble hanging off the back, but you can reverse the hand flip to give him a flame thrower in his wrist. He's e ven got the collar thing built into his chest. Buckets of articulation: Knees, hips both ways, backwards, up and down and a little side to side at the shoulders + elbows. No waist due to gimmick. Gun can be held in either hand or mounted on minicon port or a couple of other pegs. It's worth noting that when tried with SL SM Hotshot the gun lit up best off all the lightup weapons so far.

Leg Mode: fold the arms up and bend the upper body back. Good solid pair of legs with a bit of jet kibble. Looks excellent with Inferno and Hotshot, OK with Prowl

Body Mode: as above, fold legs out to the side, open feet base, fold down so knees become hands. Fold head into position and flip small robot arms the other way up. Position small robot forearms/boosters as cannons for taste. Very limited arm articulation. OK with Hotshot and Prowl, poor with Inferno, Inferno makes him look pregnant

Overall: lovely G1 homage and a big improvement on the original Hot Rod upgrade formwise. Good vehicle, good robot, good legs. Get it, best Energon Autobot dlx yet imo.

Rodimus was available in Japan as Superlink toy SC-10 Rodimus Convoy.

SWAT Team Ceckpoint

Checkpoint however is E Rodimus, but in a White (for Red) and Black (for Grey) colours scheme with extra Autobot symbols and warning chevrons. Strangely Checkpoint's head is now a perfect G1 Prowl ! Looks fabby, and reminiscent of the Brave Police J-Decker truck.

Both toys in the SWAT team maintain weapons in their original Energon colours.

I've never been a huge fan of PL Prowl as the arms feel too long, but Rodimus as feet is as ever very good. Powerlinx Checkpoint emphasises the G1 Prowl Look by adding the guns to either side of Prowl's head, though the rest of Checkpoint's half of the form is somewhat lacking in details. Prowl's legs look too spindly again.... Overall quite a nice set with a theme to the repaints ad some G1/Brave hommage thrown in.

Checkpoint was one half of the K-Mart exclusive SWAT Team set with Prowl.

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