Armada Series Hot Shot with Jolt

Height: 13.5cm; 11cm (vehicle mode length)

Articulation: 21 total points - Ball joint neck; 5 points each arm: universal shoulders, upper arm swivel, double joint elbow; 5 points each leg: universal hip, mid-thigh swivel, hinge knee, hinge ankle.

Colors: Molded yellow, red, dark blue, clear blue, black; Painted silver, yellow, light blue, slate blue, dark blue, black, red.

Accessories: Jolt

Release Data: Released as part of Universe Deluxe Wave 6, first quarter 2009 at a suggested retail price of US$11.99.

Author: ExVee

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Impatient, impulsive, and actually sometimes kind of annoying, Hot Shot is young, but full of potential. Optimus Prime sees in him the qualities of a great leader, and has taken it upon himself to mentor the young warrior in the ways of command. His Mini-Con partner Jolt tries his best to keep his erratic behavior under control, but Hot Shot is quite skilled in ignoring the voice of reason. He's also obsessed with something called JaAm, which most Autobots think is some obscure fuel source, but no one knows for sure.

Hot Shot's original toy quickly garnered the undying hatred of a really loud portion of the fandom. But the people who actually gave the toy any kind of chance and got past the initial shock over the basic appearance and comparatively lacking articulation found something really fun, and a good demonstration of the Mini-Con gimmickry that would play out through the rest of Armada. And then said loud fans turned their hostility toward people who enjoyed Hot Shot, because apparently it was a major sin to like a toy that was fun as opposed to just a really well articulated statue.

Have I ever mentioned that I really hate fandom?



Vehicle Mode

Y'know, I'm sure I've mentioned at least seven times that I don't care for clear plastic windows on Transformers. Now, it's one thing if you've got good interior detailing to show off. But if I'm going to be looking through clear plastic for no purpose but to see robot parts crammed together, I can readily do without. Paint all the window surfaces so they look like tinted windows and I'm good to go. But, no, Hot Shot still has clear blue windows (which is another thing that bugs me, but is probably a rant for a different occasion). The windshield is its own pieces of plastic, but the rear window's clear plastic also has to form some of the body shell, and is painted over in yellow which is a poor match to the surrounding yellow plastic. Plus the blueness of the window plastic underneath gives it the ever so slight yet still noticeable green tint. Conversely, the windows on the doors are painted on in extremely badly-matching blue. Le sigh. 

Though designed to represent Armada Hot Shot, to my eye at least the toy seems to combine elements from the vehicle modes of the Armada and Energon designs. Or it might be wishful thinking since I positively adored Energon Hot Shot's toy. Regardless of what inspiration came from where, Hot Shot is typically a yellow sportscar of indeterminate make (though the wiki suggests he's patterned after an Audi) and questionable street-legality. We are deeply saddened by the fact that Hot Shot has no driving claws in this mode that even he was previously unaware of. Oh, the days of Armada, how you are missed... 

In fact, Hot Shot doesn't have a whole heck of a lot going on in vehicle mode. The biggest area of interest is that a special slot is carved out in back for Jolt to slide into. ...y'know, that sounded a lot less dirty before I actually typed it. But, no, see, Hot Shot's only Mini-Con hardpoint points out straight behind him in vehicle mode, and Jolt's Powerlinx connector is placed badly to make use of it (leaving aside any creativity - see Jolt's section for details), so they engineered a spot where Jolt can fit in vehicle mode anyway. Because it's so effective to have a helicopter grab a ride from a sportscar. The comparatively simple design of Universe Jolt versus Armada Jolt means that it's not possible in this configuration to get the propeller-driven car thing from Armada happening. Also worth a note is that during Armada, only Decepticons were designed to integrate partner Mini-Cons into their bodies without Powerlinx connections coming into play.

And yes, his license plate says "JAAM". Thanks for ruining the damn joke, Hasbro.


Transformation

I'm sure fans of Star Trek (original, not movie) will remember one of Scotty's more famous lines about not being able to change the laws of physics. I think Hasbro may have missed the memo. I'm led to believe that this is at least slightly less of a problem on the Henkei version since some pieces of majorly offending panels are removed, but in this Universe, you very literally have large panels that need to intersect with each other to get from their vehicle mode positions to robot mode. In a situation that reminds me of Universe Prowl, there is theoretically a correct way to move each panel to minimize the effect, but damn if I can figure out what it is. No wonder his shoulders hurt...


Robot Mode

First off, let's deal with the car quarters that are attached to Hot Shot's back. There is no good way to deal with them. Period. You can position them so that they look decent, or so they minimally interfere with the arms. Whatever you do with them, ultimately you're going to have to accept that no matter what, you're going to have an undesired side effect. It's really sad, since the pieces are multi-jointed to be able to move about during transformation. Possibly a little more flexibility could have changed things considerably, but bumping against the budget seems to have been a recurring problem for this toy.

Complicating the car junk problems is that the spoiler halves from the vehicle mode are set firmly and immovably atop the shoulders, and the body panels have to pass these for any change of position. Except that the world is not a low quality CGI construct where pieces can clip through each other. Serious wrangling is needed to get around these bits, and this more than any other factor is what will likely lead to pieces getting popped off.

For I believe the first time ever, Hot Shot has a usefully ball jointed neck. Quite a step up, since the first Hot Shot has its head molded into the torso block. The helmet shape of the head does restrict the articulation somewhat, but it retains range to tilt in every direction as well as unlimited swivel. Hot Shot's visor makes a comeback here, but instead of being opaque black, it's now the same clear blue as his clear windows. Though difficult to see, some of the same sort of molded details are present in this visor as on the original Hot Shot. A nice touch, but I wish this heads up display had been more clearly visible. Hot Shot hasn't got his JaAmy grin, instead going for a more neutral expression. While not spot on, the head and face sculpts are a pretty good match to the Armada animated version. At least, on the good animation days.

The shoulders happen to be attached to the same piece as the car junk from before. Unsurprisingly, the arms demonstrate some problems. I can't exactly nail down the structure of the shoulders as far as what directly causes this, but the shoulders are in such a way that the arms are forced to be angled away from the body to a small but noticeable degree. I guess no Hot Shot toy can have completely normal shoulder construction. Aside from that quirk with the shoulders, the arms have a pretty effective range of motion, though how much you get to use will of course depend on how you arrange the back kibble. One thing to watch out for is that the upper arm swivel may be a bit stiff. I've had several times now the entire arm unit pop off while trying to turn that swivel. Hot Shot continues a frustrating trend of non-standard fist holes. Hot Shot's manage to be just slightly too small for 5mm pegs. Given that use of the Star Saber was an important part of the character's early development, it's an extremely poor design choice. There are 5mm compatible sockets - one on each forearm. These are holdovers from when Universe Hot Shot was planned to come with a set of missile launchers. ...which apparently wouldn't have fit in his hands?

The only really noteworthy landmarks on Hot Shot's torso are the rear quarters of the car mode so unfortunately appended to his back. Hot Shot's Powerlinx hardpoint is on one of those pieces, and while it'll always be somewhere on the figure's left, its exact position will depend on how you arrange his burden. In any case, it's usually a goofy place to have a helicopter pinned on for no good reason. Oh, Axlezooka, I miss you so.

My Hot Shot seems to have a left leg problem. The "soft" ratchet in the universal hip is extremely soft, the mid-thigh swivel is quite loose, and the toe is very floppy. I found it really bizarre that all of this turned up in only one leg. Setting these issues to the side, though, the legs are really well articulated. Not immediately obvious during transformation is that the windshield pieces are articulated, allowing them to rotate down and mostly out of the way for robot mode. The ankles are the least articulated part on the legs, having only a forward/backward hinge, but this is generally made up for with the design of the feet. A pretty wide footprint aided by long, straight edges gives a good platform for many poses. At least as long as you don't have one or both toes inexplicably loose.


Accessories

Well, that depends entirely which version you buy. Henkei! Henkei! Hot Rod comes with two missile launchers that fit as dual-exhaust pipes in vehicle mode. For cost reasons those were eliminated from the Universe release of Hot Shot which only comes with Jolt as an accessory.

Jolt transforms into something of a deformed Eurocopter Dauphin, the same helicopter that Cybertron Evac, Universe Blades, Universe Springer, and probably a couple recolors from the first movie line are based on. While it does have fairly screwed up proportions and imaginary details, it's worth noting that it's much closer to the real thing than Armada Jolt was. One major flaw with the vehicle mode is that the tail fin is pointing down. Maybe he's supposed to be a sea copter and that's really his rudder? This isn't an assembly error, either, it was specifically sculpted this way.

The main rotor spins freely, but seems to be poorly balanced, as it will wobble itself to a stop within a couple of seconds. The robot arms hang along the sides in vehicle mode. In theory they have little pegs to attach to on the sides of the body to hold them in place, but the fit is very poor. Making the poor fit even more sad is that small wings on the sides of the helicopter are molded half on the main body and half on the arms, and they should line up to present the whole wing. Because of how everything fits together, there's very clear misalignment and open gaps between sections. Jolt's only Mini-Con connector is underneath the cockpit.

Though not at all intended, you can reasonably Powerlinx Jolt to Hot Shot's vehicle mode in a way similar to the original toys. Plugging Jolt into Hot Shot's single Powerlinx hardpoint, open out the legs and fold the back half of the helicopter down until the tail fin touches the rear window, then line up the legs over top of Hot Shot's spoiler. The worst problem doing this is that Jolt's face becomes visible.

Jolt's transformation results in a very similar robot mode, but gets all the details a little different. The transformation majorly streamlines the robot mode, but heavy sacrifices were made to get there.

The entire forward section of the vehicle mode including the main rotor now become a large backpack which accounts for a large portion of the toy's mass. The legs come from the underbody of the vehicle mode, and so are rather small and have nothing remotely like a heel. I find that even hunching the robot mode forward won't help much with the balance problems the backpack creates. I don't know if you'll find a way to make Jolt stand in a reasonable looking way, but you shouldn't count on it.

In robot mode, Jolt has some interesting articulation. The hips are actually universal joints. Except that the first swivel runs through the pelvis and is connected to both hips, so the legs cannot move independently. In truth this seems to be a transformation joint first and foremost which just happens to work as potential articulation for the robot mode. The arms have an elbow hinge, but when the arms are bent the joint looks closer to the wrist. The shoulder are simple swivels, and have an annoying habit of popping out of the body during posing, or sometimes transformation.

The high point is the few areas of paint Jolt has, which are applied very precisely and cleanly. Even the tiny spaces and details of the face seem to be done quite well, at least to normal inspection. We'll see what super-magnification during photography turns up for us, though.


Closing Remarks

While things like the high degree of articulation lead me to think this is intended as a way to make up for the shortcomings of Armada Hot Shot, some of the engineering choices really make me question what was going on. Perhaps the name Hot Shot just carries some sort of curse. Some aspects I can almost understand due to the trouble Hasbro is said to have had keeping the toy within the development budget. But then there's things like the odd restriction in the shoulders, or the non-standard fist holes preventing use of any existing Armada accessories. I have real trouble figuring out what to make of all of these seemingly disparate elements. The design of the toy is so conflicted that it feels like two completely different groups were working on parts of it without ever consulting with each other.

I certainly applaud the intent and the effort to deliver an updated version of Armada Hot Shot that is more in keeping the current norms of design and articulation. But the way it's been carried out just leaves a lot to be desired. This Could Have Been (so much) Better. What's maybe worse is that with a little retooling, I'd still like to get this back in blue as Nightbeat.

-ExVee