He’ll run you over.

Now I’ve said before that people hated Energon. But I still have a soft spot for the line. Rodimus here was the first figure I got from the line all the way back in 2004. Or was it 2005? My memory is hazy.

Let’s take a look at this throwback of a figure and see if he’s worth hunting down.

Vehicle mode

As a kid, I chose Rodimus in Toys R Us because his vehicle mode looked cooler than all the other ones on the shelf. Keep in mind that back then Energon and Alternators shared shelf space. Was I a stupid kid to pick Rodimus?
Maybe but I still completely love this vehicle mode. It’s like a truck, race car and freight train all combined together to form this brick of a vehicle. He feels really dense and heavy like a brick too. Also, it’s very impressive that he has so little robot mode kibble visible. Even from the undercarriage of the truck.
Oh yeah, he rolls really well on all 6 wheels and can store his gun on his spoiler.

Transformation

The transformation between all 4 modes is suitably intuitive. It’s not hard at all going between truck, robot, pants and shirt mode. But it won’t put you to sleep either. Nice!

Robot mode

Now it’s starting to look a bit shaky. Rodimus is really showing his age after more than a decade. He still looks cool but his proportions definitely look off. The tiny torso is what bugs me. But he still has that thicc, robust feel that I like about older modern figures. So it’s fine.

What is annoying is his lack of posability. To me, he actually looks better than the POTP Leader Rodimus. But he certainly doesn’t have as much posability. Rodimus wiggles at the head. You get negligible up and down/side to side movement. He rotates at the shoulders, wiggles in and out a bit at the shoulders as well as bends at the elbows. He also rotates at the elbows. Oh that’s the problem. Because the proportions are weird, the posability is off as well. He doesn’t rotate at the biceps, he rotates at the elbows. Legs go in/out as well as forward/back at the hips. They bend at the knee. Also, you can position his toes and heels a bit, but it’s kinda useless.

Powerlinx (Legs) mode

Rodimus forms a decent set of pants. This mode has all the leg articulation that robot mode had but it’s hampered by the kibble now hanging at the back. This mode is also why Rodimus has such big, stompy feet to begin with.

Mmm, stability.

Powerlinx (Torso) mode

Rodimus has one of the best looking torso modes of all the Energon figures. This is for a couple of reasons. First, while some of them just had the extra limbs and kibble do nothing but be obnoxious kibble, Rodimus makes use of it. Specifically, his robot mode arms become over shoulder cannons.

The second reason is that his arms don’t look too weird. They look beefy, strong and punchy. They have almost no posability though. The arms rotate as well as go in and out. That’s it. Also, the in and out movement is jointed weirdly.

Gimmicks

The Powerlinx modes are his gimmick! Rodimus has four different modes. All of them except the truck mode are compromised because of it but it’s still impressive he has four modes.

Oh yeah, his gun has a launching missile. Yay. And the missile as well as gun are both translucent plastic. Yes.

Toy or collectible?

Rodimus is very much a toy for kids. Well, older kids. He’s not a one-step or three-step changer but he’s still simple and quick to transform between all modes. He’s also a brick of a figure and can take a beating. I’m not too sure how much he costs nowadays though. Haven’t seen one up for sale in awhile.

As a collectible, I think he’ll only appeal to people who have a soft spot for the Unicron Trilogy or Energon in general. So that’s kinda niche.

Closing

I consider Rodimus to be a good toy and Transformer. That said I don’t think most people need him in their collection.

However, if you’re interested in the Unicron Trilogy then Rodimus is one of the better figures Energon has to offer. Especially among the Autobots.