Fansproject Protector AKA Rodimus Prime

Recently I've been delving into the world of third party Transformers, ever since my discovery of the Maketoys Battle Tanker set. (Something I plan to review later). I never had much love for the original G1 figures (gasp... the man is a heretic!!! Burn him!!!). Personally I found the the toys to be blocky, poorly articulated, badly proportioned, and all around poor representations of their animated counterparts.

Derp!!!

This was a general opinion that I had held for almost 3 decades.

Similarly I had ABSOLUTELY no interest in Rodimus Prime or Hot Rod. I HATED the character, felt he was a poor replacement for Optimus, couldn't stand the look of his design (it always looked derpy to me) and felt like he was just a shoddy toy shoe horned into the movie as cheap product placement.

Now some 30 years later I have both a Transformer toy and it happens to be one of my least favourite characters. WTF? Had I gone mad? Did the years soften my my opinions? Did I stop taking my medication? Where's my hat at???

...to continue...

My first encounter with third party toys came when I stumbled upon a Youtube video from Internet Personality Vangelus. The video was a review of the Maketoys Battle Tanker (yes you've mentioned that before), and after watching one video... I think you know where this is going. I was obsessed, the amount of videos and the new engineering of third party companies gave me a new resurgence in  Transformer collectables.

One of the features on his channel had showcased something called the Fansproject Protector Armour, and addon for the Henkei Rodimus Prime. Bored and with low expectations, I decided to watch the video to kill some time. What's the worse that could happen?

After watching the feature suddenly my opinions of Rodimus became more like this...

Cool!!!

There was no doubt about it Fansproject had managed to take one of characters and a toy I had absolutely no interest in and had managed to turn it into an aesthetically pleasing piece of merchandise that I actually wanted to have. That being said I immediately... did absolutely nothing.

I knew that the chances of finding a Rodimus toy AND the protector armour were slim to none, and slim had left town. Not to mention the costs were prohibitively well beyond my reach. This was how things went on for several years. Over time I even forgot about it and regulated it to the back of my mind as wanting but never having.

The funny thing about life is that sometimes when you least expect it you happen to stumble upon unexpected treasure completely by accident.

Hot Rod: Alt mode

I had managed to find the Hot Rod figure on sale at Aces Toy Store and upon further examining the wares I also found the Armour for the Rodimus conversion.

Hot Rod: Robot mode

At this point I would like to stress that this is the KO (knockoff) version of the Fansproject armour. I know some people have strong feelings about KO's, but then again some fans also have strong feelings about third party Transformers. The bottom line for me is price point, 'nuff said 'bout that.

What can I say? Prime is still first place for me but Rodimus now has a place on my shelf.