Functionally Hotspot beats Inferno: Hotspot's ladder turntable rotates and his ladder extends into 3 sections unlike Inferno's two. The ladder is made of white plastic while the windows and the moulded fire hose on the side of the vehicle are black. The Fire Engine has six rubber wheels: two at the front, two about a third of the way along the vehicle and two towards the rear.
Hotspot has a second vehicle mode described as an Emergency Car Carrier. Turn the ladder turntable round,fold the ladder forward and then pull the turntable forwards initially bringing it up and then pushing down so it ends up behind the driver's compartment with the ladder folded over the top. Pull back on the rear of the vehicle to extend it. Peg the blast shield into the sides of the rear section - they also fit the sides of the front section. Peg the two guns - the instructions call them Fireball Cannons - into the side of the front section. Place a Protectobot on the back of the vehicle. It's a nice bonus mode, and one I didn't know about until I dug the instructions out online to check something else! It's also a good counterpart to Onslaught's vehicle mode which is also a vehicle transporter.
Like all the other 1986 Scramble City/Special Team leaders Hotspot has a base mode. Hotspot forms a repair bay. Like Emergency Car Carrier start by moving the ladder turntable forward, folding the ladder over the cab and extending the rear of the vehicle. Split the rear of the vehicle in two then stand the vehicle on the exposed inner halves of the rear with the underside facing you. Split the cab in two down the middle and fold out to the sides so the front of each half is pointing outwards. Rotate each section of the cab back 90 degrees so the wheels face up upwards. Fold the cab halves forward and lock onto the middle of the vehicle via a peg on the cab half and a hole on the body. Peg the blast shields into the base of the middle of the body so they point out. Fold the ladder forward so it extends out over the middle of the toy. Attach the mechanical arms to the small peg holes on the black sides of the cab halves. Peg the fireball cannons into the outer halves of the base of the repair bay. Hotspot's instructions describe this mode as able to "give maintainance" to mini vehicles, and that has to be a euphanism for something if I ever hear it! What Hotspots instructions *DON'T* tell you is that the repair bay can combine with Metroplex's City mode. Look on the back of the back of the centre setcion of the repair bay: There's two small tabs projeting downwards from the base. These slot into the holes on the side of the parts of the city formed from Metroplex's legs as shown here - Motormaster's base mode attaches in the same way while Silverbolt and Onslaught attach to the front of the City's leg sections. Hotspot's base mode is the only one of the four original Scramble City/Special Team leaders not to have a released launcher mechanism in Japan - see the Scrambled City website for details all the other launcher mechanisms. Some conjecture as to what a Hotspot launcher might have involved can be found here.
To Transform Hotspot into his robot mode take the Fire Engine and pull down on the rear of the vehicle to extend it, forming the legs. Stand with the underside facing forward. Split the cab in two and fold down to the sides to form the arms, then pull the front grill out to reveal the hands. If the head hasn't already popped up then press it down or wiggle it about to get it to come up. Fold the red plate on his stomach up to cover the chest. Place a gun in each of his hands.
Hotspots robot mode reveals a black head with a face plate, crested forehead and aerial ears on each side. Black plastic is also used for the outer halves of the arms and the upper legs, while the chest panel is red, moulded in either plastic or metal depending on which version of the toy you own. The rest of the toy uses the same light blue plastic as the vehicle mode. The articulation is limited to shoulders that turn and raise up at the body. The legs do fold to the sides at the knee & hip but these are more Transformation joints than meaningful articulation.
Now remember that we think that the fire engine would look better if it was red? That would make the robot into a predominantly red one and a toy that strongly resembles Optimus Prime. If you look closely at the chest plate you'll see there's two window like rectangles (covered by stickers on the TFU pictures that if they were painted or stickered black would look just like Prime cab windows. I've also seen a picture of one of Hotspot's repaints in Transformers Generations that has the repair pay arms attached in robot mode and pointing upwards which makes them look like Optimus Prime's exhaust pipes. So did Takara originally intend this toy to be Convoy/Optimus Prime? All four of the Scramble City leaders combining with Metroplex points to them all being on the same side and probably a left over design from the Diaclone line when that was cancelled. Optimus Prime's origins are also in Diaclone, in this case as Battle Convoy. Battle Convoy gets one upgrade in Diaclone becoming Powered Convoy who becomes the Transformer Ultra Magnus, so it's not out of the question that he'd get a second becoming Hotspot. Even if it's not meant to be Optimus Prime, a red repaint would make a decent Optimus Prime fire engine especially as Optimus as a fire engine is now accepted after Super Fire Convoy. The thought also comes to me that if Hotspot is Optimus, could the other Protectobots be any of the other original Autobots? We'll explore that theme in their reviews.
Hotspot does, of course, also form the torso for Defensor. From robot mode, remove the weapons, retract the fists, swing the arms down to the side of the chest and peg into the sides. Swing the legs out to the sides at the hips and then back in at the knees. Lower the robot's head, fold the ladder turntable up and flip up the combined robot's head from the turntable base with the ladder going down the robot's back. Fold the chest plate down pegging the two blast shields onto the exposed holes on his chest. Cover the black robot upper legs with a black waist piece. He's now ready for you to attach the Protectobot limbs after which you peg in the fists and feet which are supplied with Hotspot.
I like Hotspot. I've had one for years, weaponless and devoid of team mates, floating around in one of my toy boxes. At the start of 2009 I decided to complete him and Defensor and though it's taken a little longer than I thought the complete version now stands on my bookcase eying down the Piranacon reissues. Yes, he's the wrong colour but he's effectively a FIVE changer with a very good fire engine mode, a variant of which forms the car transporter mode. The base mode is unfortunately probably the worst of the four 1986 Scramble City leaders, the robot's OK for the time and the torso mode is nice and solid. I like that Defensor's head is integrated into the Hotspot toy rather than being a helmet for the standrad robot head and that the blast shields for Defensor's chest are used on some of the other modes a well making them feel part of the rest of the toy rather than just add-ons for the combined mode. Well worth a look.
Hotshot was sold in the west in 2986 & 1987 where he Protectobot P5. He was also in the Defensor giftset. He was sold as Japanese Transformer toy C-71 and also as part of the C-76 Guardian giftset.
Hotspots only reissue to date is as part of the European Classics line in 1991.
Hot Spot has recently has two new versions, both now entitled Hot Zone and sadly non combining, as a Universe Legend, itself a repaint of the Legends of Cybertron Optimus, and a Titanium toy, again a Prime repaint, this time of Titanium Robots in Disguise Prime. I await the favour being returned with a red fire engine version of the Hot Spot mould named Optimus Prime.
On the face of it Fire Chief is a lot more like it with the majority of the light blue becoming red and the chest plate becoming orange. Unfortunately certain parts remain the pale blue of original Hotspot including the fists & front grill, the top decking of the fire engine, the turntable base, the hub cap and the hinge for the chest plate. This results in an odd mismatched design with the pale blue parts sticking out like a sore thumb. I look at this and think it can't possibly be the way the toy was chosen to be and can only conclude that it's a factory error that Takara were then stuck with !
TFU is at the moment very deficient when it comes to Guard City and it's components. The best photos of this rare toy can be found in Maz's Guard City Article
