Zobovor
2024-10-09 03:09:12 UTC
So, I had pre-ordered this toy way back in July, figuring that if I did
so, I would a) be able to skip having to try to hunt him down at retail,
and b) presumably be one of the first people to get him. But, a few
days ago I was reading on Twitter that people were just waltzing into
Target stores and finding him on the shelf. I checked the Target web
site and, sure enough, I could have him delivered to my house in two
days' time. (Meanwhile, BBTS still says they're not expecting to ship
him until November!)
The last mainline Optimus Prime toy we got was from Earthrise back in
2020. While it was pretty decent for a Leader-class toy, it had some
failings (chief among them being that the trailer being way too small,
and the fact that he didn't come with Roller). I've been looking
forward to an updated version for a while now, and though he's quite
expensive, he does not disappoint. However, the toy has already become
infamous for production defects, one of which seems to plague just about
every known sample.
He comes packaged in robot mode, so let's start there. Now, Siege has
been very good about maintaining a correct and accurate Sunbow-inspired
scale, eschewing the old "everybody's a Deluxe" days for a more accurate
scale with respect to the cartoon. Toys since 2019 have been properly
scaled to each other, and the Siege and Earthrise versions of Optimus
Prime would stand head-to-head with contemporary Megatron toys as well
as Rodimus Prime. Now, this has kind of been thrown out the window.
The new Optimus stands at about 7.25" tall, about a half-inch taller
than Earthrise. It's a difference, but it's not an absurd difference.
But it means that Optimus is now visibly taller than Megatron. I hope
the Studio Series '86 Megatron also gets a slight height boost.
But, it's such an amazing robot design. Not just loosely-inspired by
the cartoon, but ripped right from your TV screen. Bright red body,
deep blue boots and helmet and fists, bright white pelvis and upper
legs. The chest windows are made of translent plastic that's painted
blue on the reverse, so they have a reflective glass-like sheen. The
fog lights on the top of his body have little yellow paint hits. So
much attention to detail. I love the way his boots are tapered so that
they are skinny at the top but wide at the base. (There are also little
spots of red peeking out from inside the panels in his legs, a sure sign
of some transformation trickery.)
He does have a bit of a backpack, but it's certainly not as bad as early
amateur photography made it appear. My toy has a date stamp of 41911,
which indicates he was manufactured on the 191st day of 2024, in this
case July 9th.
He's a very well-articulated toy. Aside from the ability to rotate and
pivot out to the sides, the shoulders will angle back slightly (as
required by the transformation) but on another, separate joint will also
come forwards towards the front, so he can do things like grasp his
rifle with both hands. He's got Masterpiece-style hands where the index
fingers can move at the base or a mid-section joint, and the other three
fingers can do the same thing in tandem. The hips are on universal
joints, with skirt flaps on the front and back that can swing out for
dynamic poses. He even has articulated antena, which rotate on the
sides of his head. The smokestacks on his shoulders have a breakaway
feature and will pop loose before they ever break, which is how, I
imagine, he passed drop testing. He doesn't have any ratcheting joints,
but all the joints are satisfyingly tight, and they don't feel loose or
floppy.
His laser rifle is made of black plastic but is painted gunmetal. His
thumb has enough curvature to act as a five-millimeter peg hole. Either
of his hands can tuck into his wrist and be replaced with the included
energon axe, made from translucent orange plastic. The rifle will clip
to his back for storage, but it doesn't fold up as it does on some other
toys.
The trailer module unfolds as you might expect, revealing Roller and the
artillery robot. Roller is light grey plastic, but the top half of him
is painted metallic silver. He is specifically designed to seat four
Titan Master mini-figures (sold separately!) and he has two peg holes on
the top of the vehicle. If you don't like him rattling around inside
the trailer, you can park him backwards and plug him into the artillery
robot so he'll stay put.
The artillery robot is really small, considering that the trailer is
about the same size as it was during G1, and yet the robot is fully half
the size of the G1 version. It does have the sensor dish and claw that
unfold, and it even has a little opening cockpit (much too small for a
Titan Master, or even a Diaclone pilot). The robot can detach from the
trailer and plug into the top of Roller, similar in concept to what they
Takara did with the Missing Link toy. The unfolded trailer has storage
spots for pretty much all his accessories. (There is also a lot of
beautiful molded detail on the trailer. The inside panels are sculpted
to resemble the stickers and Diaclone seats from the G1 version. A
spare tire is visible on the undercarriage.)
His chest doors swing outwards to reveal a Matrix chamber, and swinging
up a small grey panel reveals the Matrix of Leadership. It's the same
mold used during Earthrise, so it's compatible with other versions. (At
least one fan reported his Matrix being missing altogether!)
Even if you don't collect Masterpiece toys, if you bought this toy, then
you're now the proud owner of a Masterpice toy. He's insanely complex,
with lots of tiny little moving pieces that are the signature of the
Masterpiece line.
The robot chest windows double as the truck front windows, but pretty
much everything else gets replaced. The entire truck cab facade is
folded up into the backpack, including the front wheels, the side
windows, the headlights, and the replacement front bumper and grill.
The robot arms fold back as you might expect, but the elbows bend
backwards. I had a LOT of trouble getting the robot head to fold up
correctly, and I had to use a lot of force before it would finally go.
I really thought I was going to break the toy. The legs have many, many
unfolding panels, including a couple that swing around and reveal
red-painted vanity panels. The hidden rear wheels flip around on
sections kind of like Masterpiece Ultra Magnus. (One person reported
his Prime having two left body panels instead of a left and a right, so
it was impossible to get him into truck mode.)
The cab section does not quite fit together perfectly in truck mode.
There are two blue tabs on the legs that are meant to plug into the
robot elbows, ostensibly as locking clips to help hold everything
together. But, I feel like the tabs are slightly too long to fit into
the rectangular holes they're made for, and as a result, the tabs push
the elbows and the legs apart from each other slightly. I can squeeze
the toy together and make everything align together, but it won't stay
that way on its own.
Regardless, his truck mode is satisfyingly big. The cab section by
itself is about six inches in length, while the overall length of the
assembled cab-and-trailer is around 13.25" inches. Significantly larger
than the Earthrise toy, and the trailer actually seems reasonably
proportionate to the cab this time. The cab includes a five-millimeter
peg hole and the four-millimeter pin on the trailer fits loosely into
it. (Roller is designed to tow the trailer as well, incidentally.
Later I want to see if other toys like Huffer or Motormaster are
properly equipped to pull it, but that will require digging around in
some boxes first.)
The bright red cab is decorated in silver paint for the grill and
headlights and bumper and hubcaps, and the side windows match the sheen
and color of the chest windows. The trailer is a dark grey color with
light grey stripes, which is an attempt to capture the animation look
more than the styling of the G1 toy. Naturally, large Autobot symbols
are emblazoned on either side.
Almost every known copy of Optimus Prime so far has been misassembled at
the factory. The pieces of his feet which become the tail lights for
truck mode were accidentally transposed, and as a result, the outer
"lip" that covers the tail lights is on the underside instead of on top.
People have had a degree of success knocking out the pins and swapping
the parts, but it's strictly cosmetic and doesn't significantly affect
the look of the toy. I don't have a lot of experience knocking out
pins, and I don't want to risk breaking mine, so I'm leaving him alone.
As of this writing, I've seen only one report of a consumer receiving a
correctly-assembled Prime.
There are a set of four translucent orange blast effects, two explody
parts and two more serving as a base, to reenact the scene from The
Transformers: the Movie when truck-mode Prime rockets into the air
before transforming and taking out the Decepticon troopers attacking
Autobot City. They're very cool, and it's awesome to be able to realize
this iconic scene in three dimensions, but I wonder how many people are
actually going to display this toy in truck mode. Their application
seems limited aside from this specific function.
He comes with two more blast effects designed to fit on the end of his
laser rifle, or to attach to the guns of the artillery robot. They are
supposed to match each other, but I ended up with a weird one that
points at an angle with respect to the gun it's attached to, instead of
straight ahead. (See what I mean? This toy has, unfortunately, had a
LOT of production defects.)
The toy retailed for $89.99 at most shops, but I took advantage of a
Target online offer that gave you $20 back on toy purchases over $75. I
would have paid full price, though. The small defects are annoying, but
for me, personally, are not a dealbreaker. People have been calling
this the best Optimus Prime toy we've ever gotten, and I find it hard to
disagree.
Zob (also finally got a couple of acrylic shelves for my Detolf
cabinets, so now I just need to decide where to put them)
so, I would a) be able to skip having to try to hunt him down at retail,
and b) presumably be one of the first people to get him. But, a few
days ago I was reading on Twitter that people were just waltzing into
Target stores and finding him on the shelf. I checked the Target web
site and, sure enough, I could have him delivered to my house in two
days' time. (Meanwhile, BBTS still says they're not expecting to ship
him until November!)
The last mainline Optimus Prime toy we got was from Earthrise back in
2020. While it was pretty decent for a Leader-class toy, it had some
failings (chief among them being that the trailer being way too small,
and the fact that he didn't come with Roller). I've been looking
forward to an updated version for a while now, and though he's quite
expensive, he does not disappoint. However, the toy has already become
infamous for production defects, one of which seems to plague just about
every known sample.
He comes packaged in robot mode, so let's start there. Now, Siege has
been very good about maintaining a correct and accurate Sunbow-inspired
scale, eschewing the old "everybody's a Deluxe" days for a more accurate
scale with respect to the cartoon. Toys since 2019 have been properly
scaled to each other, and the Siege and Earthrise versions of Optimus
Prime would stand head-to-head with contemporary Megatron toys as well
as Rodimus Prime. Now, this has kind of been thrown out the window.
The new Optimus stands at about 7.25" tall, about a half-inch taller
than Earthrise. It's a difference, but it's not an absurd difference.
But it means that Optimus is now visibly taller than Megatron. I hope
the Studio Series '86 Megatron also gets a slight height boost.
But, it's such an amazing robot design. Not just loosely-inspired by
the cartoon, but ripped right from your TV screen. Bright red body,
deep blue boots and helmet and fists, bright white pelvis and upper
legs. The chest windows are made of translent plastic that's painted
blue on the reverse, so they have a reflective glass-like sheen. The
fog lights on the top of his body have little yellow paint hits. So
much attention to detail. I love the way his boots are tapered so that
they are skinny at the top but wide at the base. (There are also little
spots of red peeking out from inside the panels in his legs, a sure sign
of some transformation trickery.)
He does have a bit of a backpack, but it's certainly not as bad as early
amateur photography made it appear. My toy has a date stamp of 41911,
which indicates he was manufactured on the 191st day of 2024, in this
case July 9th.
He's a very well-articulated toy. Aside from the ability to rotate and
pivot out to the sides, the shoulders will angle back slightly (as
required by the transformation) but on another, separate joint will also
come forwards towards the front, so he can do things like grasp his
rifle with both hands. He's got Masterpiece-style hands where the index
fingers can move at the base or a mid-section joint, and the other three
fingers can do the same thing in tandem. The hips are on universal
joints, with skirt flaps on the front and back that can swing out for
dynamic poses. He even has articulated antena, which rotate on the
sides of his head. The smokestacks on his shoulders have a breakaway
feature and will pop loose before they ever break, which is how, I
imagine, he passed drop testing. He doesn't have any ratcheting joints,
but all the joints are satisfyingly tight, and they don't feel loose or
floppy.
His laser rifle is made of black plastic but is painted gunmetal. His
thumb has enough curvature to act as a five-millimeter peg hole. Either
of his hands can tuck into his wrist and be replaced with the included
energon axe, made from translucent orange plastic. The rifle will clip
to his back for storage, but it doesn't fold up as it does on some other
toys.
The trailer module unfolds as you might expect, revealing Roller and the
artillery robot. Roller is light grey plastic, but the top half of him
is painted metallic silver. He is specifically designed to seat four
Titan Master mini-figures (sold separately!) and he has two peg holes on
the top of the vehicle. If you don't like him rattling around inside
the trailer, you can park him backwards and plug him into the artillery
robot so he'll stay put.
The artillery robot is really small, considering that the trailer is
about the same size as it was during G1, and yet the robot is fully half
the size of the G1 version. It does have the sensor dish and claw that
unfold, and it even has a little opening cockpit (much too small for a
Titan Master, or even a Diaclone pilot). The robot can detach from the
trailer and plug into the top of Roller, similar in concept to what they
Takara did with the Missing Link toy. The unfolded trailer has storage
spots for pretty much all his accessories. (There is also a lot of
beautiful molded detail on the trailer. The inside panels are sculpted
to resemble the stickers and Diaclone seats from the G1 version. A
spare tire is visible on the undercarriage.)
His chest doors swing outwards to reveal a Matrix chamber, and swinging
up a small grey panel reveals the Matrix of Leadership. It's the same
mold used during Earthrise, so it's compatible with other versions. (At
least one fan reported his Matrix being missing altogether!)
Even if you don't collect Masterpiece toys, if you bought this toy, then
you're now the proud owner of a Masterpice toy. He's insanely complex,
with lots of tiny little moving pieces that are the signature of the
Masterpiece line.
The robot chest windows double as the truck front windows, but pretty
much everything else gets replaced. The entire truck cab facade is
folded up into the backpack, including the front wheels, the side
windows, the headlights, and the replacement front bumper and grill.
The robot arms fold back as you might expect, but the elbows bend
backwards. I had a LOT of trouble getting the robot head to fold up
correctly, and I had to use a lot of force before it would finally go.
I really thought I was going to break the toy. The legs have many, many
unfolding panels, including a couple that swing around and reveal
red-painted vanity panels. The hidden rear wheels flip around on
sections kind of like Masterpiece Ultra Magnus. (One person reported
his Prime having two left body panels instead of a left and a right, so
it was impossible to get him into truck mode.)
The cab section does not quite fit together perfectly in truck mode.
There are two blue tabs on the legs that are meant to plug into the
robot elbows, ostensibly as locking clips to help hold everything
together. But, I feel like the tabs are slightly too long to fit into
the rectangular holes they're made for, and as a result, the tabs push
the elbows and the legs apart from each other slightly. I can squeeze
the toy together and make everything align together, but it won't stay
that way on its own.
Regardless, his truck mode is satisfyingly big. The cab section by
itself is about six inches in length, while the overall length of the
assembled cab-and-trailer is around 13.25" inches. Significantly larger
than the Earthrise toy, and the trailer actually seems reasonably
proportionate to the cab this time. The cab includes a five-millimeter
peg hole and the four-millimeter pin on the trailer fits loosely into
it. (Roller is designed to tow the trailer as well, incidentally.
Later I want to see if other toys like Huffer or Motormaster are
properly equipped to pull it, but that will require digging around in
some boxes first.)
The bright red cab is decorated in silver paint for the grill and
headlights and bumper and hubcaps, and the side windows match the sheen
and color of the chest windows. The trailer is a dark grey color with
light grey stripes, which is an attempt to capture the animation look
more than the styling of the G1 toy. Naturally, large Autobot symbols
are emblazoned on either side.
Almost every known copy of Optimus Prime so far has been misassembled at
the factory. The pieces of his feet which become the tail lights for
truck mode were accidentally transposed, and as a result, the outer
"lip" that covers the tail lights is on the underside instead of on top.
People have had a degree of success knocking out the pins and swapping
the parts, but it's strictly cosmetic and doesn't significantly affect
the look of the toy. I don't have a lot of experience knocking out
pins, and I don't want to risk breaking mine, so I'm leaving him alone.
As of this writing, I've seen only one report of a consumer receiving a
correctly-assembled Prime.
There are a set of four translucent orange blast effects, two explody
parts and two more serving as a base, to reenact the scene from The
Transformers: the Movie when truck-mode Prime rockets into the air
before transforming and taking out the Decepticon troopers attacking
Autobot City. They're very cool, and it's awesome to be able to realize
this iconic scene in three dimensions, but I wonder how many people are
actually going to display this toy in truck mode. Their application
seems limited aside from this specific function.
He comes with two more blast effects designed to fit on the end of his
laser rifle, or to attach to the guns of the artillery robot. They are
supposed to match each other, but I ended up with a weird one that
points at an angle with respect to the gun it's attached to, instead of
straight ahead. (See what I mean? This toy has, unfortunately, had a
LOT of production defects.)
The toy retailed for $89.99 at most shops, but I took advantage of a
Target online offer that gave you $20 back on toy purchases over $75. I
would have paid full price, though. The small defects are annoying, but
for me, personally, are not a dealbreaker. People have been calling
this the best Optimus Prime toy we've ever gotten, and I find it hard to
disagree.
Zob (also finally got a couple of acrylic shelves for my Detolf
cabinets, so now I just need to decide where to put them)