Dark Hot Rod

The name or term "Black Rodimus" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Black Rodimus (disambiguation).

Dark Hot Rod is an Autobot clone turned Decepticon turned Autobot turned... wha? from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Be still, my kidneys.

A dark clone of Hot Rod built by Megatron, Dark Hot Rod was convinced from his creation that he was the real Hot Rod. He is physically Hot Rod's equal, but lacked the Autobot's honor, respect for life and reverence for Optimus Prime. He was driven to destroy what he thought was the fake Hot Rod, and forcibly take the Matrix from Optimus.

An encounter with the original Hot Rod in a crystal-lined cave changed all that. Through a burst of energy, Dark Hot Rod became aware of the truth of his creation. To atone for his actions, he has joined the Autobots, and fights against the Decepticons who made him!

Games

The Transformers (PS2)

Voice actor: Peter von Gomm

When the Decepticons returned to stop the Autobots from reaching the UFO, they faced an army of Megatron clones. Afterwards, Dark Hot Rod joined the Decepticons.

Dark Hot Rod was available as a playable character in the Decepticon campaign during the second playthrough.

The Transformers

Toys

Generation 1

File:BlackRodimus.jpg

Yeah, not much to see here.

• Black Rodimus (Autobot, 2001)
  • Japanese ID number: C-78B

A redeco of the Autobot Hot Rod toy in blacks and grays sold only at the 2001 Tokyo Toy Festival, Black Rodimus transforms into a futuristic/Cybertronic race car. Though his plastics and paint colors changed, his decals were the same as the normal Rodimus release. It is noteworthy that the hood and door stickers, factory-applied on other versions of the Hot Rod mold, were not preapplied to Black Rodimus, instead being included on a separate sticker sheet. Limited to 1500 pieces and packaged in a monochrome black version of Hot Rod's normal packaging, Black Rodimus was only available with the joint purchase of the "Crystal Rodimus" version of Hot Rod.

• More information on Black Rodimus at TFU.info

Unreleased toys

• The final Titanium Series catalog listed a number of figures which were never released. One of the 3" Micro Figures appearing only as a name (with no image) was the oddly cased "Black RODIMUS". This would presumably have been a redeco of the 3" Rodimus figure, but details about its faction or characterization are unknown.

Notes

File:BlackRodimusStickered.jpg

So that's what that looks like.

• This character's English name, "Dark Hot Rod", actually comes from the Japanese-exclusive video game The Transformers.
• Someone actually put stickers on their Black Rodimus for the all-Rodimus pictorial feature in the Japanese Transformers Generations 2010 guidebook. They didn't apply the ones for his thighs, though.
• A second evil clone of Hot Rod, Black Rodimus Convoy, would later be introduced in the e-HOBBY comic "Destron Doppelgänger Black Rodimus Convoy". This story made a point to note that Hot Rod had encountered the clone synthesizer used to create Black Rodimus Convoy before, apparently intended to indicate that it was also used to create Dark Hot Rod.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Black Rodimus (ブラックロディマス Burakku Rodimasu)