Hot Spot's usual vehicle mode of a fire truck is used for his Combiner Wars version, but it's a VERY different sort of fire truck compared to the usual blocky kind you see (or at least, I see) on the streets anywhere locally. This is a much more aerodynamic, curved fire truck, with a sleeker and smaller body compared to the ladder up top. As far as the core proportions go, though, this mode looks pretty solid. The issues here come with the robot (or gestalt) extras. For one, the middle is a bit too skinny and hollow-- if those "gaps" in the top middle of the body weren't there it wouldn't be as bad, but as is you can see Hot Spot's robot head inside those slots, and the robot hips are pretty obvious poking out from behind the front section, as well. The big black pieces on the sides of the lower part of the ladder are pretty obviously for another mode, not blending in all that well in fire truck mode, and even the top of the ladder has part of the Defensor head fairly obviously hidden in between the two black pieces on the sides (though at least for Defensor, the head splits in half to make it look like there's a bucket up there for a to-scale firefighter to stand in). There's some more instances of kibble or unsightly bits, but these other ones aren't as obvious or annoying-- the bits of the robot hands poking out below the rear of this mode, the noticeable gap in between the halves of the front third or so of this mode, and the hips being at an ever-so-slight angle to the rest of this mode, making it hard to roll all eight tires at once on a level surface. Going back to the pluses, Hot Spot's traditional color scheme is replicated quite nicely here, with a nice pastel blue and black being his main colors-- both of them contrasting quite well with each other, with the former also being a rather unusual (but still fitting) color for a fire truck. The ladder is appropriately white, and there is a BIT of red and silver paint on this mode, though most of it is saved for the other modes. The silver is on the front headlights and bumper, while the sirens and a thin line along the sides are red. There's also a nifty "Fire Rescue" flaming Autobot emblem logo on each side, though it overlaps the door details in an unpleasant way. As for the mold detailing itself, though, it's good when it needs to be-- vents, doors, railings, and the like are detailed in wherever they're needed, and the detailing on the ladder railings is also quite good, as well. Hot Spot comes with two (water?) cannon accessories, which can be pegged into the sides either on the black pieces at the bottom of the ladder or on the sides slightly above and in front of the rear tires. For articulation in this mode, Hot Spot's ladder can rotate at its base and move up-and-down at three points (technically four, but one of them is only supposed to be used for transformation).
    Hot Spot's robot mode is definitely where the main emphasis of his construction was. Simply put, he looks amazing in this mode-- the fairly lengthy legs with the halves of the front of the fire truck mode look nice, along with tbe arms made from the back third or so of the fire truck mode, while predictably the middle section is Hot Spot's chest, waist, and head. The only real extra is the fire truck ladder, which just sort of sits on Hot Spot's back-- but given the budget and construction, I can't imagine what else they could've done with such a large part of the vehicle mode, particularly given what it does in torso mode. The ladder portion does stay out of the way, even if it is a big piece of vehicle kibble. There's also chunks of the rear of the vehicle mode on the back of Hot Spot's lower arms, which can look a bit bad from certain angles but for the most part are just another minor downside. As for the rest of the mode, it's hard to come up with any negatives. The red makes more of an appearance here to help contrast against all the pastel blue, and the red-and-silver stripes on the shoulders and chest look really darned nice, making Hot Spot look both unique and giving him a bit of an "emergency" vibe even in this mode. There's also some excellent little details on these red-and-silver parts, like pipes and pistons, and even a large "spring" detail on the inside of his lower arms. Best of all is the headsculpt, which just looks darned awesome, with a stern look to his red eyes accentuating the darker blue faceplate and the lighter blue head. He looks ready to kick some Decepticon butt, that's for sure. The square, proportional shoulders fit in quite well with the rather square look of the body and legs, and the sirens make for good kneecaps and the fire truck windows make good toes. Because of the fire ladder, he can be a bit back-heavy, but given how much said truck ladder extends down, this only means he leans back a little. For articulation in this mode, Hot Spot can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows (at three points), hips (at three points), and knees. I do wish the knees could tab into the lower legs-- they can come undone a little easily-- but otherwise, he's pretty much got articulation covered, waist rotation aside. As expected, the little "water cannons" from Hot Spot's vehicle mode can detach and be held in his fist holes in this mode.
    To get Hot Spot into his "Defensor" torso mode, the legs pretty much just fold up on themselves and rotate to the sides-- nothing impressive there, and it's easily the weakest part of the torso mode, given A. how much the upper combiner legs still look obviously like robot feet themselves, B. They're rather two dimensional-- being rather wide from a front view but skinny from a side view, and C. The hips are just little squares above the combiner upper leg pieces themselves, really clashing with the shape of the surrounding parts. Defensor's waist is quite skinny. That said, the collapsed legs do peg in place pretty well, and the rest of the torso mode is done pretty well-- the fists curl up, while-- quite ingeniously-- the ladder rotates and folds around below the entire lower torso, the chestplate unfolding from the bottom of the ladder while the top of the ladder unfolds from behind the upper back and connects to unveil Defensor's head. The wide black chestplate panels really help the look of this mode, giving Defensor a more proportional chest while also hiding from a frontal view many of the Hot Spot robot mode pieces. The chestplate panels also tab together quite well, so they stay pretty solidly in place, as do the curled up robot arms. I do wish that the panels that flip out from the sides of Defensor's head could've pegged in somewhere, but that's a small beef. The Defensor head itself is very well-sculpted, with a rather G1-esque face sculpt with rather large eyes, but with the helmet having more little mechanical details everywhere. This is also the case on the rather nicely-painted silver and red-striped panels on the chest and upper legs, which help to unite this mode aesthetically (in addition to the black being considerably more prevalent in this mode). All the little mold details-- pistons, "screws", and circuitry lines-- really help make Defensor look interesting against some relatively sparse patches of detail. The addition of large pistons on the sides of the chest also help give off the impression that said chest is made of a fire truck ladder, since-- well-- it is. For articulation in this mode, Defensor can move at the neck, as well as at the hips (at two points)-- pretty standard for a torso.
    Combiner Wars Hot Spot is my favorite voyager-class mold from Combiner Wars. Sure, his vehicle mode may have a few noticeable flaws like some kibble and a rather weak-looking middle section, but he's got great colors and mold detailing, utterly fantastic proportions and a great look in robot mode, and a pretty good, solid torso mode with an inventive transformation for the ladder, in particular. Highly recommended, even if you don't plan on getting all of the other CW Protectobots.

Review by Beastbot

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