Hot Spot was bought in a local shop by my mother. I remember being really happy with him, but I don't remember exactly why. He did have a fairly important role in the comics but I'm pretty sure I hadn't gotten that far in the storyline yet.

In any case, Hot Spot has been a loner for 20 years. Unlike Onslaught, Scattershot and Hun-Grrr, I've never gotten around to collecting his entire team yet. So I figured he deserved the best of upgrades, using one of the best Transformers molds ever created: Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime.

I didn't spend too much time on the basic form. Unlike the prototyped Hot Spot shown by Hasbro, I wanted the complete form to be Hot Spot, not just the smaller bot. So I just rushed through this guy and didn't give him much detailing.

Now THIS is what I'm talking about. This mold is completely awesome and, in my opinion, is a much better fit for Hot Spot than Optimus. Of course, I doubt they would ever have created a leader class figure for a relatively obscure character, but still.

The figure is basically just a straight repaint with added weapons. These were custom built from a model set of the space station Mir. The solar panels made for good handles for his big hands and the different modules worked nicely for the rounded fire-throwers Hot Spot is supposed to have.

Boy does this one have lots of parts. It seems everything is spring loaded or ratcheted somehow and there's all kinds of neat stuff hidden inside him. Even still he's extremely easy to take apart and most of the pins could be easily pushed out without even using a hammer. I decided not to take apart the ladder system though, fearing the millions of tiny springs in there.

I'm especially happy with how the eyes turned out. They're a separate chromed piece inside Optimus' head and with a touch of red they became perfect, almost glowing eyes for Hot Spot. Hey, who said Autobots must have blue eyes?

Some of the pictures were taken before I rediscovered my Autobot decal set. I tried to use them sparingly and only cover up the originals.

I just can't get enough of this guy. Even though Smokescreen is a lot more unique, this is my favourite of my repaints. He just oozes calm, confidence and plain badassery.

And here we have him with the original. I've managed to keep most of the accessories around and I'm only missing a chest piece at the moment. One day I'll have Defensor completed...

While I'm hesitant to transform him because of all the minor panels clipping into each other and most likely ruining the paint job, he still has a few tricks up his sleeve... or, more accurately, hanging off his back.

© 2008 SmokescreenSWE (TFW2005) / Smokescreen (NTFA)

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