Zobovor
2024-09-30 02:07:43 UTC
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Permalinksent me a link to the Walmart web site on Friday. The toy shipped super
fast, and he was in my hands by this afternoon. He must have sold out
quickly, because Walmart has already taken down the link to the toy's
page! (Needless to say, the toy is a Walmart exclusive.)
So, some of you may recall that many years ago, I would often take some
of my old, beat-up G1 toys and strip the stickers, dismantle them, and
try to paint them up into colors matching their cartoon appearances. At
one point I had painted up Optimus Prime (around the year 2001, if I
recall correctly), and I was struck by how very much improved the toy's
appearance was since it brought him so much closer in synch with his
cartoon design. His toy actually matched his media appearance, for
once. This new version of Prime reminds me so strongly of that project
I did all those years ago. But, once I customize a toy, it's pretty
much hands-off. I can't play with it or transform it or really enjoy it
without risking the model paints chipping off and undoing all my hard
work. I love that Hasbro has finally given us a mass-produced version
that I won't completely ruin just from casual handling.
Hasbro has already sold us a number of retro reissues in cartoon colors
(I think I have something like 15 of them now) but what more fitting toy
to include in the collection (especially during this, the 40th
anniversary of the brand) than Optimus Prime himself?
The window box showcases the toy in all its glory, and the original box
art has been modified (which almost seems blasphemous!) to reflect some
of the color changes made. It's worth pointing out that all of the box
photos show a version of Prime with short smokestacks (similar to the
2002 reissue, about which fans complained a LOT) but the final release
has the longer smokestacks. This is consistent with the 2019 reissue of
the truck cab section, which also has the longer stacks.
There also appears to be a printing mistake on the box, as the familiar
START -> CHANGE -> CHANGE -> FINISH photography includes, in tiny text,
"see instructions info for full conversion steps" five times in a row,
all in English. Surely the intent was to print it in multiple
languages?
Hasbro was reportedly required to recreate the molds for the trailer
section for this version of Optimus Prime, as the original molds had
finally been lost or destroyed or damaged beyond repair. We know that
Takara had previously been required to recreate the molds for the
die-cast elements for the first G1 reissue in 2002, so in some ways
Prime is quickly becoming a ship of Theseus.
He's so beautiful that I almost don't want to open him. Almost.
He comes in a plastic insert tray, with stretchy plastic ties holding
the cab and trailer in place. Roller and his rifle and his fists and
the parts tree are inside the plastic tray above the truck, with the
parts tree actually strapped physically to the top of his trailer. He
does not come with stickers.
The cab section is familiar and yet different. The red plastic is
vibrant, with the painted die-cast front of the cab not quite managing
to match the plastic. The blue rear section is brightly colored, far
more vibrant than the dark almost purple plastic used during G1 (it's
closer to the blue used for Transformers: Generation 2). The windshield
plastic is tinted a light blue color, but is still translucent. He
retains the rub symbol indent but has no rub symbol. The screw that
used to hold the robot head in place has been replaced with a rivet.
His tires still have the original "Desert Dog" logos on them.
The headlights, front grill, smokestacks, and hubcaps are all painted a
metallic silver, not vac-metal chrome, while the the front bumper is a
glossy white. The stripe under the windshield is painted a neutral
grey, but only on the die-cast piece. The place where the stripes would
normally continue, on the sides of the body and the arms, are red. This
is, I guess, Hasbro's way of reconciling how the stripe is there for
robot mode but it disappears for truck mode. There was no real way to
get it right without one mode or the other looking off.
Since the trailer is missing the factory stickers on either side, there
are two obvious screws visible on the left side and one more on the
right. This is how the Diaclone seats were attached to the inside
panels of the trailer, so there was probably no practical way around
this. The trailer itself is a dark grey color, with the stripes on the
sides painted a lighter grey, and including a large tampographed Autobot
insignia on either side. The undercarriage wheel base has been painted
a glossy blue,and the blue extends under the trailer all the way to the
trailer hitch for the cab. It's definitely the closest to the cartoon
that this mold has ever looked, and it's quite striking when compared to
previous releases.
Robot mode really strongly evokes the cartoon look. He's got light blue
eyes, grey painted toes, and tampographs on the wrists that include the
black outline of those triangle shapes he's drawn with in the show.
(The great thing about no arm stickers is that you don't have to worry
about them getting "eaten" if you open the Diaclone cockpit.) He has
one Autobot symbol on his left shoulder, which is a tampographed white
outline. (This is the way the Autobot symbol was always drawn on
red-colored characters in the cartoon, with a white pen outline.) He
even has some paint underneath the front bumper that recreates the look
of that blue codpiece whatever it was that he wore. (A strict reading
of the cartoon model would have resulted in smokestacks and gas cans
that were white as well, not metallic silver, so I'm not sure why they
deviated here when they were so slavishly accurate elsewhere.)
I've been writing this with the assumption that you have at least a
basic familiarity with the G1 Optimus Prime toy, but I suppose there are
people out there for whom this will be their first G1 Prime. His
articulation is above standard for the time period, with rotating
shoulders, elbows that both bend and swivel, wrists that "swivel" (by
merit of being detachable accessories), knees that bend, toes that bend,
and legs that can move in a backwards direction only (as required for
the transformation). The head does not swivel, and there is no pelvis
joint to speak of. He's no Studio Series toy, certainly, but he's not a
statue like so many other contemporary robots from 1984-85 tended to be.
This version of the toy has the redesigned shoulder joints, so his arms
will pop off if too much force is applied. It's annoying, but it's
better than breaking the arms off entirely.
He's still got the slot in his back that was added during G2, which was
intended so that he could wear his sound-and-lights pack as an oversized
backpack.
His fists are the newer design with the raised lip around the peg-holes,
which allows him to better hold his weapon. They included the "bloated"
gun for this release, a fatter, thicker version of his laser rifle that
we have not seen since the 1984 release. Every subsequent Prime reissue
has included the skinny rifle, so this is a fun treat since I've never
owned the bloated version.
He doesn't come with some of the signature accessories we tend to
associate wih the character, like an orange energon axe or a Matrix of
Leadership for his chest compartment. We tend to expect that with Prime
toys now, but it was never the case during G1. There are a lot of
different add-on kits you can buy that are compatible with G1 Prime and
subsequent versions. I bought one a while ago that came with new fists
with hinged fingers, a Matrix compartment and Matrix, an energy axe, and
a rocket pack he could wear (and it also opened up for storage so you
could stuff the extra fists and things inside it).
Man, does the Combat Deck look sparsely-decorated compared to previous
releases. Without stickers of any kind to decorate it (factory- or
consumer-applied), the inside of it is completely barren, except for the
artillery robot and the Diaclone control stations. The artillery robot
also has a blue cockpit, which is cartoon accurate, and its claw and
sensor dish are a lighter grey plastic than the rest of the trailer.
Roller is made of dark grey plastic but is painted metallic silver, and
his wheels come already attached. The launcher mechanism for Roller is
the un-neutered version, so the launch mechanism extends a lot farther
than it did during G1 or G2.
The gas pump, gas nozzle, and missiles for the artillery robot are a
dark charcoal grey, not black as with previous releases, though the nose
for the gas nozzle is still jet black. Roller's wheels are the slightly
lighter color as well. The missiles will fit into the artillery robot's
launchers, but the launchers have been completely gutted (the triggers
are gone completely). Technically, you don't even need them because a
cartoon-accurate artillery robot doesn't equip the missiles anyway.
My toy has a date stamp of 41864, which means he was manufactured on the
186th day of 2024, which was the 4th of July. That makes about a
twelve-week turnaround from the factory assembly stage to the hands of
consumers. (It used to be closer to eight.)
So, I paid $74.99 for this toy on walmart.com, which seems outrageous.
The toy retailed for $19.99 in 1984, which is closer to something like
$60 in buying power today. But, I know die-cast metal is expensive, and
there were also new costs associated with recreating the trailer molds.
So, that's the price of admission. If you wanna play, you gotta pay.
I know Hasbro has been talking about recreating additional G1 molds that
have been lost or broken so that they can continue selling the retro
reissues, which they say have been performing very well. I certainly
wouldn't mind seeing a Jazz toy decorated in the cartoon color scheme,
or Kup (the fact that we never got a cartoon version, even while the
mold was available, is an utter tragedy), or Red Alert (red helmet for
the win, baby) or Bluestreak, or Galvatron.
But, those are just toys that have already been reissued in the past.
I'm especially interested by the idea of resurrecting toys that have
never gotten any official reissues in the modern age, like the Dinobots
or Blurr or Cyclonus or Scourge or Wreck-Gar... especially if they could
finally paint up the movie characters like their cartoon counterparts.
That really would be incredible. I would love to see it happen.
Zob (every time I buy an Optimus Prime toy, his trailer becomes storage
for all the various accessories and weapons from that toy line, and this
one will be no exception)