Creation
Hot Shot was first seen in the Japanese Robots in Disguise Cartoon. He was originally going to be named Ricochet but was later changed to be his Targetmaster partner Artfire. In an early Armada series bible, Hot Shot was originally going to be Bumblebee. The reason he was ultimately not named Bumblebee was because the name was unavailable as a trademark for Hasbro. In Transformers Animated, Hot Shot was to take the place of Bumblebee, but because Hasbro had Bumblebee trademarked for the 2007 Film, he became a separate character in Season 3. Hot Shot was later used in the Prime universe, he identified by Hasbro artist Marcelo Matere as Rodimus. According to Aaron Archer, the character was named Hot Shot due to Hot Rod being an unprotectable name. Hasbro later revealed that they wanted fans to see how Hot Shot became Rodimus.
Major Story Arcs
Transformers: Armada
Hot Shot is a member of Optimus Prime‘s team, Hot Shot evolved to Powerlinx Hot Shot on the his way to Cybertron when Optimus Prime was injured. Once Hot Shot and Wheel Jack was friends but after Wheel Jacks injuries against the War, Hot Shot left making Wheel Jack think he had betryed him. Hot Shot traveled to Earth to find the Mini-Cons. What Hot Shot didnt know is that Wheel Jack arrived on Earth, They then battled with rage and anger. Hot Shot survived as one of the autobots helped.
Transformers: Energon
Ten years after the end of Armada, Hot Shot matured and became an officer in the inner circle. Still a yellow sports car. He was then transformed into a red and yellow aston martin. After having an upgrade he was given the privelage to combine mini-cons to his body.
Hot Shot had various battles surrounding Unicron, battling both Decepticons and Terrorcons multiple times, once again being reformatted after being nearly destroyed in an attack by Unicron. He also spent much time mentoring Ironhide into a more responsible and mature Autobot. He eventually combined his Spark with those of all other Autobots to empower Optimus Supreme to battle a Unicron possessed Galvatron.