Over the past 10+ years, Hasbro has made it a point to try and cross-brand their various franchises and subsidiaries in an effort to appeal to as wide a total market as possible. As their (at present) most recent attempt to expand the age bracket for Transformers fans (and, perhaps, as a junior alternative to the rather dark and mature Prime series), we have the Rescue Bots line.

            The premise for the line is simple: six Transformers have each been partnered with a human rescue worker; the rescue workers themselves are packed with an accessory or small vehicle that the Autobot partner – sold separately in most cases - can use as a weapon.

            This leads us to the titular set.

            The Rescue Hose is a self-propelled three-wheeled vehicle that transports a water cannon for use in putting out fires. Cody Burns stands on the running skids (there’s a peg for his left foot), uses his right hand to steer the unit (there are dual handlebars, though), and is supposed to use his left hand to work the pumper. Yes, pumper. Pulling down on a lever results in the translucent blue "water gush" rotating around, giving the impression that it’s actually being sprayed. Conversion to weapon mode consists of merely collapsing the cannon assembly, which results in a yellow peg extending from the bottom of the chassis.

            Cody Burns himself is a fairly generic fire fighter, with a red overcoat, a red hat, black boots, black gloves, and black pants. He has a decent degree of articulation, with points at his neck, shoulders (two points), wrists, and hips. His proportions are reasonable enough (he’s supposed to be a chibi, and as such his four-digit hands and his feet are entirely too large), but his torso juts out a little too much to just be his protective gear; perhaps someone at Hasbro made an error when calculating the proportions at scale.

            By itself, this is a fairly mundane Playskool set. But it was meant to be used in conjunction with the basic-sized Heatwave figure, and so most of its play value is wrapped up in him. I’ll leave you to read the Heatwave review and decide on him.