Mastermind Creations Calidus - Hot Rod

The Reformatted series of figures has been one of my favorite lines ever since I picked up Azalea and Hexatron seemingly so long ago. Mastermind Creations Calidus is a great addition to this line.

I like his vehicle mode. It's a little shorter in length than I would have liked, but the overall design looks wonderful. I like it a lot more than Masterpiece Hot Rod's vehicle mode, both versions. Unlike Masterpiece Hot Rod 2.0, his tires are nice and large. He rolls very smoothly, but I do worry about scraping the metallic paint on his knees. The underside is fairly clean, but robot hands and legs are recognizable. 

Transformation to robot mode is easier than going to vehicle mode since you are essentially unfolding him. Going to vehicle mode, I simply could not get the exhausts on his chest to peg to the exhausts on his legs.

I love how Calidus looks in robot mode. Now I don't feel so bad about missing out on the Hot Rodimus mold from HasTak. His few paint applications are cleanly applied, but he's a very red figure. There are several shades of red, even if it is hard to notice at a quick glance. I like the metallic silver on his knees and wish more metallic paint had been applied elsewhere. As expected, he has plenty of interesting line work.

His head is on a ball joint. Be careful about scraping his chin though. He can look up a little bit, but not down. His shoulders are on hinges and double swivels. He can raise his arms out to his sides, but not quite to 90 degrees and only if you extend his shoulder hinges. His arm rotation is hindered by his wings. He has swivels both above and below his elbows and at his wrists. His double-jointed elbows can perform full curls. He has fixed thumbs and single-pinned fingers. His pointing fingers articulate separately from the rest. He has waist and thigh swivels. His hips are on universal joints that have ratchets along the frontal axis. He can perform a full front splits and a decent but not full side splits. His single-jointed knees can curl a little past 90 degrees. He has ankle tilts and rockers with separate hinges for his heel spurs.

His accessories include a rifle, a bow, and a spare head. His rifle is gray plastic with some line work. It resembles the rifle we usually get with Hot Rod figures. It uses a rectangular peg that sits well in his hands and the port on his back in vehicle mode. His bow is similar in style to Eupatorium's bow, but larger. It has some orange and silver paint. The ends are hinged for storage in vehicle mode. He can hold the bow easily in either hand. It can also peg onto his back, but the result looks rather ridiculous. The two heads have only the very slightest of differences - a neutral expression in one and a smirk in the other. I'll be using the smirk face.

Calidus will stand on my Reformatted shelf. I definitely like him more than the Boreas, Jaegertron, and Anubis mold. I'm still loving these Reformatted figures and look forward to collecting many more.