Welcome back Autobots, Decepticons and everything in between to another Transformers theory. Today's is going to cover where Hot Rod was during Transformers 2007, all the way to Transformers age of extinction. But before we jump into that, a quick word from today's sponsor, Ray Chattel Legends. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, Ray Chattel Legends is a turn-based RPG where you collect these guys called champions and use them to battle other players from around the world. The game is available on mobile and PC, and it gets constantly updated. Recently, a new champion named Simple was added into the game, who is based off of the esports legend of the same namesake. Even more exciting, Ray's bringing the latest addition to its huge boss roster. That folks would be the Hydra. It's got multiple different heads that each have unique mechanics that will pose a threat to you and your champions. This is definitely one of the toughest fights in the entire game, but it's absolutely worth it in the end because you can get some spectacular loot. My favorite part about the game must be the champions. Since each of them have unique designs and abilities, leaving for endless combinations between them depending on who you assemble. Right now new players for a limited time only can get a huge head start and raid. All you have to do is click the link in the description or scan the QR code right here. And you will get an Epic Hero Vergeez, 200,000 Silver, 1 XP Boost, 1 Energy Refill, and the 1H in Sarge so you can summon an awesome champion as soon as you get into the game. You will find extra rewards in your inbox for the next 30 days so don't miss out. Now Hot Rod was a new addition to the Autobot cast when he appeared in the 5 Transformers movie, Transformers of the last night. Though little is known about him, we do know that he has been on Earth for a long time. Since we see him and Bumblebee assisting the allies in a World War 2 flashback. This has made many fans question why Hot Rod did not appear in any of the previous films, despite being on Earth during the time they took place. So to get to the bottom of this, I'll be constructing a timeline of events for Hot Rod so we can finally understand why he decided not to join up with the bots until the events of the last night. So with that said, let's begin. Our timeline begins sometime before the year 1901. After arriving on Earth in the hopes of tracking down the Allsparks location, Hot Rod somehow picked up a French accent that he did not know how to get rid of. After an unspissed amount of time he would eventually join the Order of the Wood Wikens. And in 1901 the group would take a photograph to document his addition to the Order. Now the Order of the Wood Wikens for those of you who may not know, was a secret society whose sole aim is to protect the secret history of Transformers. The roots of the Order can be traced back to the year 484. After the Guardian Knights had saved England from an invasion by the Saxons, they pledged their brotherhood to the human Knights of Camelot. The two species agreed to work together to protect the innocent. When the Wizard Merlin died however, the Knights entombed him within their ship to protect Quintessa's staff. The humans above decided that it was best to conceal any knowledge of the Transformers from the rest of mankind. Throughout the years the organization considerably grew in scope, recruiting many famous individuals throughout history, and four centuries would monitor, document and cover up any cyber chony and activity around the globe. But moving back onto the timeline, eventually Hot Rod would meet up with his brother in arm's bumblebee, and the two of them would go on to assist the Allies during World War 2 by joining the Devil's Brigade. A commando unit that formed in 1942 and disbanded two years later in 1944. A fun fact to keep in mind when watching the World War 2 flashback is that bumblebee and Hot Rod's robot mode parts do not match what they turn into in vehicle mode. Bumblebee in vehicle mode is a 1937 Mercedes Benz 320 Cabrioli. But in robot mode his vehicle mode Kibble is from a Humber Scout car. Hot Rod on the other hand transforms into a 1941 Stair 1500A, but his robot mode parts are from a 1943 Ford M8 Greyhound. Now there's no concrete answer to why this happened. But I do have a good guess. The photo that we see of bumblebee's robot mode design is from Josh Nizzi's concept art. So maybe it was too late into the game to give bumblebee the correct robot mode Kibble in this scene, due to the footage of the poster already being shot. Though they intentionally left this air in there, strangely unlike the case I proposed for bumblebee, this does not apply to Hot Rod. Since Nizzi's original concept art for him depicts Hot Rod as a M4 Sherman tank, so why his parts in robot mode were changed to resemble a Greyhound is beyond me. But moving back onto the timeline, at an unknown day being Hot Rod eventually would get a chance to meet a young Sir Edmund Byrdon. For further more during this time, Hot Rod had became the primary confidant of the surviving with Wikens, with him working closely with Mr. Wembley, who is the father of Vivian Wembley. And as we know, Hot Rod swore an oath to Mr. Wembley that he would protect his daughter. With his new duty being Vivian's guardian, Hot Rod searched for the cube would consequently grind to a halt, leaving bumblebee to be on his own. However, this wouldn't be that big of an issue in retrospect since it would overall help in their goal of finding the all spark. For example, if bumblebee was spotted by a random human or if that a Subdacons made a mess somewhere when trying to find the cube, the order would be able to easily cover it up. Now from this point on, in 1973, it's likely that Hot Rod would take the form of a 1973 Saturn DS20, as for when Vivian would get the car that unbeknownst to her would be Hot Rod is unclear. And with the Bavars being officially over, with the rebooted continuity taking its place, we will sadly never get an official explanation to this. So it's up to your own headcanon to decide how Hot Rod became her car. I like to think that the car was a hand me down from Mr. Wembley, or alternatively, Rod showed up in a car dealership similar to bumblebee when Vivian was looking for a vehicle, and pulled a stunt like Bees to make sure that she would buy him. Now the next step on the timeline takes us to the events of Dark of the Moon, which in movie continuity takes place in 2013. During this time, Hot Rod would be off-screen fighting some Decepticons at that invaded England. How do I know this? Well, if we take a look at Edmund's castle, inside we can clearly see one of Centrelprime's pillars. And as we know from Dark of the Moon, thousands of Decepticons went around the globe to place these pillars in order for Cybertron to be transported to Earth. And logically, the only way for Edmund to get his hands on a pillar is if Hot Rod was able to battle some cons for it. If you were wondering what the other items on his desk were, I was only able to make out too, which to my surprise turned out to be the KSI Transforming Balls from Age of Extinction. And the feel-self from Dark of the Moon. And I'll be covering how these items got there in my next video. Now the last point on the timeline takes us to the events of the last night, which in movie continuity takes place around the year 2022. And after all this time, Hot Rod finally reveals himself to Vivian, and updates his vehicle to a 2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP770-4. But most importantly of all, he joins back up with his brother and arms Bumblebee to save the world once again. Now before I end off the video, did you know that concept art for Hot Rod was created during Dark of the Moon's production? These are on record the earliest official live-action renditions of him. And though for the longest time, the image on the left was the best quality floating around the internet. I actually got in contact with the creator of this concept, Sam Brown, to see if he could possibly hook me up with a better quality one. And to my surprise, he replied back to me with the original source file, which is over a decade old. And here we can make out all the little details that we couldn't before, such as us now knowing that he transformed into a Nissan, possibly a 2010 GTR GT1. Now based upon these early concepts, they both depict him being able to transform into sports cars, which did actually end up happening. What I do find interesting is in both of these concepts he has handheld weapons, which as we know would not make it into the film. However, the idea of handheld weapons would carry over into one of the concept arts for him made by Josh Nizzy during the last night's production. And though not confirmed, it seems like Nizzy took inspiration from both of Hot Rod's original concepts and combined them into one. But don't you think it's odd how the design that we did end up getting looks and nothing like the concept art? Well I guess that's just a bayformer's for ya. And just like that, that explains where Hot Rod was during the previous films. I hope you guys enjoyed this video, and if you have not already, check out the Fixing Transformers playlist for some more awesome theories. But before I go, I want to say thank you to all my Patreons and Channel members for supporting the channel. Thanks to you guys, Trans theories is where it is today. So thank you. And as always, if you enjoyed the video, consider dropping a like rating because it does help the channel a lot. With that said, keep on theorizing.