In Japan, the Beast lines did not spark the same level of success as it did in the US, prompting Takara to return to basics in 2000 with Car Robots, a toy and animated series. History repeated itself as Hasbro imported the Takara line to the US as Robots in Disguise in 2001. As such, each Robots in Disguise toy is likely to have a Japanese incarnation with some differences, but not enough to warrant a separate illustration.
The Robots in Disguise line had a sub-series of Spychanger cars, which were redecoed version of the Generation 2 GoBots -- small cars in scale with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars with free-rolling wheels that gave them excellent speed when pushed. Hot Shot is an Autobot that turns into a Porsche 959 sports car with distinct flame paint job. In Japan, he was released as Artfire. Several versions of Hot Shot/Artfire were released from 2000 to 2002, but all based on the same design that had first debuted in 1995 as Blowout.
