Code Red

Code Red is an Autobot from Stranger Things (via Collaborative).

I ordered "Mountain Dew Code Red", not "Autobot Code Red"!

If you need your pizza—or firepower—delivered in 30 minutes or less, you can count on Code Red to deliver it HOT to your door!^[1]

Toys

Collaborative

• Code Red (2023)

• Accessories: Axe, bat, Surfer Boy Pizza roof light/blaster, pizza box, Fire Blast effect
• Known designers: Brian Parrish (Hasbro)^[2], Emiliano Santalucia (concept artist)^[3], Mario Carreiro and Christina Murphy (packaging)^[4]

Transformers Collaborative Code Red transforms from robot to an officially-licensed Volkswagen Vanagon, specifically the customized "Pizzamobile" used by Surfer Boy Pizza delivery drivers in the Netflix-produced science-fiction/horror series Stranger Things. Despite his compact vehicle mode, he unfurls into a Voyager Class-sized robot.

Code Red includes an axe and spiked bat to wield in robot mode, which can store on the sides of his backpack and peg onto either side of his vehicle mode. The axe and bat can also be joined together at the handle ends to make a larger two-ended weapon. The detachable decorative roof light of Code Red's vehicle mode can be converted into a blaster, capable of either being wielded by hand or mounted on the side of either shoulder when in robot mode, with a 5 mm port included on the barrel intended to be used with the included blast effect part; the blast effect can also peg onto the handle ends of Code Red's axe and bat to turn them into side-mounted guns while in vehicle mode. Finally, Code Red also includes a small Surfer Boy Pizza pizza box, which can peg onto either of his melee weapons or slot into the top of his blaster.

Code Red's packaging, modeled after a Surfer Boy Pizza pizza box, features a number of interesting details. The outer slipcover has a fake sticker printed on the front featuring the (fake) address and phone number for Surfer Boy's Lenora Hills location. If Hasbro were really going for source accuracy, they could've used the phone number actually used in Stranger Things ((805) 457-4992), which is a real phone number that you can call to receive a pre-recorded message from Argyle, one of the show's characters. Also printed on said "sticker", underneath Code Red's name, is a phrase written in Ancient Autobot that reads "DELIVERED HOT TO YOUR DOOR", which is Surfer Boy Pizza's tagline. There's another fake sticker printed on the back of the slipcover with another Ancient Autobot phrase, which simply reads "CODE RED". Inside the box, printed on the cardboard insert, are a partially-eaten pizza and the makeshift sunglasses featured in Stranger Things' Season 4 finale, "The Piggyback", while the actual interior has leftover crust and (thankfully fake) pizza grease printed on it. Faintly visible through the grease under the lid are images of an Autobot faction symbol, a Demogorgon, a grandfather clock, and the symbol of the Hellfire Club. Inside the box's inner tray, Code Red comes wrapped up in what appears to be (but doesn't feel like) a wadded-up napkin covered in packing tape; carefully removing the tape from the glossy paper and unraveling the "napkin" reveals a crude map with cute sketches of additional plot details from the TV show.

Code Red was unveiled during San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2023. On October 27, that year's 1027 Hasbro Pulse Premium Event video properly revealed him as a Target exclusive (with limited quantities on Hasbro Pulse), with pre-orders starting later that day for a ship date of November 26.

Notes

• Based on the topping indicators on the front of the box, Code Red prefers pineapple and jalapeño on his pizza, the same topping combination featured in the show. As Argyle would say himself, "try before you deny".
• As a series heavily inspired by '80s pop culture, it's only natural that Stranger Things tips its hat to Transformers. In the first episode of Season 3, "Suzie, Do You Copy?", one of Dustin's toys brought to life is a Generation 1 Ultra Magnus figure, which has been slightly modified (by way of tape) to add a set of motorized wheels underneath his robot feet... however, as Season 3 is set in 1985, this means that Dustin somehow got ahold of a Generation 1 Ultra Magnus a year before he was actually released. Oops.

References