Rescue Bot Heatwave Preschool Enhanced Transformers Age of the Primes Voyager Class Item No.: Asst. G0473 No. G1018 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: Blaster, axe, ladder Action Feature: Converts from robot to fire truck... sort of Retail: $34.99 Availability: June 2025 Other: Bulkhead/Brakedown Retool
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I'm really curious how the market will react to Rescue Bot Heatwave. It's a fan/collector figure of a mishmash of preschool toys. You can see bits and pieces of the Rescue Bots cartoon, the Hook & Ladder Heatwave toy, the "Energize Heatwave" blaster accessory, and of course Legacy Bulkhead [FOTD #2,424] who you haven't thought of much lately. It is not wholly uncommon to see Fisher-Price toys influence other collector lines, but it's been rarer in Hasbro action brands.

While the mold was also used for Prime Brakedown, you'll find tons of new elements here. You'll find a new chest cab, head, forearms, and thighs plus new accessories. It retains the same annoying transformation. It could be simple, but for some reason, Hasbro decided against that.

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While posing the big red guy, I'm finding the joints are quite stiff like they were on Armada Red Alert. Well, maybe not that bad - but nothing here is loose. The wrists, shoulders, elbows, hips, ankles, and everything you've come to expect can move. There's not a ton of amazing or new detail here, as it looks more or less like a standard Transformers toy with the armored bits, vents, and greeblies plus hard plastic tires.

Thanks to his big feet, he has no problems standing up. The toy's head looks a lot like the cartoons and includes light-up eye ports plus the underbite you may recognize from the cartoons. The head looks like he has a hat, and he has an Autobot logo - but not the Rescue Bots-style one - on his chest. I'm kind of surprised they went with a clear blue chest since most of the toys were opaque, but maybe they'll do another version later.

The colors seem to mostly match the kiddo toys, with bright reds and clear blue accessories that fit in his hands. You can pop the ladder off his back too, but it's more ornamental than a useful or interesting piece. For those seeking to leave the toy as a big robot figure, I think they'll be quite happy.

Rescue Bots are largely very good toys with simple transformations anybody can do. This is not that. There's a connection in the waist you have to unhook and it requires a little extra force, and it feels like you're going to break something. As such, I recommend consulting the instructions if you aren't intimately familiar with the toy from Breakdown/Bulkhead releases.

It's the size of a modern Voyager vehicle, and it looks sort of like a flatbed truck with a ladder on it. It's not far off from most of the Rescue Bots Heatwave vehicles, especially from the front. They really put together a nice cab with fist-like lights and big bright colors that's sure to make people generally happy with what we got, and it makes sense given what they were working from. If they were doing a mold from the ground up, I'd prefer something similar to Energon Inferno - basically the same transformation but much simpler. I know some people like extra twists and turns, but I'd prefer something that changes shape in under a minute without and bits that seem forced. The vehicle itself rolls... sort of well. It's not great. Let's be honest, most of these toys are about the robot mode and Hasbro gave us a very nice robot mode.

Along with Chase, we're slowly building out this team. I assume we'll eventually get to them all, and it's clever seeing Hasbro retool existing toys to these other very specific characters. I wouldn't say it's essential to most collectors, but if you grew up on Rescue Bots - which I believe is still the Transformers cartoon with the most episodes - you might find this more fun to pose than the old $7 toys you got as a kid. I don't think I've got a reason to buy another Heatwave toy, unless it's the Shattered Glass Combiner, who for some reason made it into Hero Mashers in 2014 instead of this guy. So enjoy, fans in I assume your early 20s, this one's for you.

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