Dave Van Domelen
2007-06-15 02:38:38 UTC
Dave's Target Exclusive Transformers Rant
RoboVision Optimus Prime
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/VoyagerT1
This is a Target Exclusive, packaged in robot mode in hexagonal prism
packaging, at a slightly higher price point. It came out slightly ahead of
the regular Voyager-class Prime.
CAPSULE
RoboVision Optimus Prime: A solid Voyager design, save for a couple of
small stability issues and a backpack that you could carry a Robot Heroes toy
or two in (if it were hollow). Recommended. $24.99 at Target (on sale for
$19.99 for the first week or so).
RANT
Packaging: Distinctive! It's a hexagonal prism of cleat plastic with
some cardstock tray inside for reinforcement and trade dress. It's 10"
(25.5cm) tall and 6.5" (16.5cm) across from one side to another parallel
one. It's an equilateral hexagon, with each facet being 3.75" (9.5cm) wide.
The top piece has a couple of trapezoidal indentations to give the impression
of a handle, but they're not deep enough to actually get a good grip. All
the other sides are smooth. The top and bottom pieces are taped on, but the
wrap-around side piece is glued together.
The top panel is red around the border and has the gunmetal movie logo
across the "handle" and a white Autobot symbol at the front edge. The bottom
has co-sells for Ratchet and Blackout, plus the ownership statement, UPC and
legal symbols.
The front panel is mostly clear, with "ROBO-VISION OPTIMUS PRIME" at the
top in white, the logo and "Ages 5+" at the bottom. A Target exclusive
sticker is on the outside of the plastic above the logo. The right front
(viewer's right, I mean) panel has "AUTOBOT" at the top and "Limited Edition
Supermetal Finish" (against the blue flames on red motif) at the bottom. The
left front panel has "AUTOMORPH TECHNOLOGY" at the top and "Includes ROBO-
VISION DECODER! See Back" at the bottom. All three front panels are mostly
clear.
The three back panels form a tryptych with most of the stuff usually on
a package back...techspecs, bio note, photos of both modes with call-outs,
licensing stuff (no licensing for Peterbilt). In addition there's text for
Automorphing and for the RoboVision gimmick that will cross all Target
exclusives.
---
AUTOMORPH Technology - Moving one part of the robot or vehicle causes
other parts to move, making armor plates and weapons shift automatically.
Easier, faster conversion can mean the difference between victory and defeat
in the battle for the AllSpark!
---
Oh, and he's listed as Conversion Difficulty 3.
At the center bottom of the back is a red and white image of Prime's
helmet with faint blue letters overlaid. Using the enclosed decoder (red gel
sheet) reveals the blue text, and going to Target.com/transformers lets you
enter these codes for various features. Prime's RoboVision code is...
Robovision. All three of the first wave Scout repaints have the code
Bullseye.
RoboVision codes snurched from http://www.tfw2005.com/
*Robovision - .pdf of profile, Toy pics, test shots, color charts, blueprints
of Robovision Optimus Prime
*Bullseye - .pdf of profiles, Toy pics, test shots, color charts, blueprints
of Scout Arcee, Hardtop & Signal Flare
*Rollout - Animated CG video of target Transformer Giftcard
*Gen1 - .pdf of Codes to unlock G1 skins for Optimus, Jazz & Starscream in
Activision Game
*Sentient - codeword "Sentient" can be used to unlock new level in the game
that has yet to be released at the Target Transformer site
*Freedom - Animated video of RoboVision Optimus Prime being transformed back
and forth
*Sector 7 - downloadable RoboVision Screensaver
*Energon - .pdf with pics of g1 repaints of movie Jazz & Starscream
*Activision - .zip of IM icons of Arcee, Hardtop & Signal Flare
*Allspark - Trailer for the Transformers Game, Narrated by Cullen's Prime
Sadly, the videos are embedded flash, so you can't download them to
watch later. And, if your bandwidth isn't high enough, they're choppy as
all get-out. Anyway, the above are all ten of the possible codes.
Here's the RoboVision Story from the package:
---
Blazing down to Earth's surface from outer space comes OPTIMUS PRIME.
His protoform mode is ideal for covering the vast distances between stars,
and armored to survive the catastrophic descent through a planetary
atmosphere. When he arrives, however, his first task is to find an
appropriate disguise in which to conduct his search for the AllSpark. As his
scanning beam sweeps over nearby objects, he sees the world in the deep red
that tells him his targeting and scanning systems are active. Then, his gaze
settles upon the coolest thing he has ever seen. Yes, this will be his
disguise on Earth.
---
Four pieces of tape hold the top panel on. The cardstock underneath is
merely tab-and-slotted in, no tape. One piece of tape holds the cardstock
tray into the plastic tube. It is possible, if tricky, to open up the bottom
section of the tray without cutting anything, and inside is taped a bag with
instructions, catalog, decoder and missiles. A second plastic tray holding
the main figure in robot mode is taped to the sides of the cardstock tray.
Getting the cardboard insert back into the tube is non-trivial.
The RoboVision decoder (made in America, according to a sticker on the
carstock tray, not to mention stickers on the other Target exclusives) is two
thin pieces of cardstock glued together around a piece of clear red plastic,
so it's printed glossy on both sides. The window is circular and 1.5"
(3.5cm) in diameter, and on the front side the robotic iris pattern from most
of the packaging surrounds the window. The overall shape is an octagon about
3" (7.5cm) across with rectangular tabs emerging from and bottom sides (a
little longer at bottom than top) for a total height of 5" (12cm). The top
tab has the logo on front, Target and Autobot symbols on back. The bottom
tab has the two symbols, "ROBO-VISION DECODER" and the Target webpage on
front, logo and instructions on back.
The instructions are two-sided, have "Robo-Vision Optimus Prime" on
them, and start in robot mode, so they're definitely unique to this version,
not just the regular Voyager instructions stuck in.
One of the shoulderpad bits on mine was popped off in package, but the
rubber band holding it down kept it from going far. 7 twist-ties hold Prime
to the inner plastic tray. There's also a bewildering array of rubber bands,
plus some plastic platform shoes held on by bands to keep his toes from
drooping in package. Oddly, the platforms are different shapes, I suppose to
show the feet at different angles or something. There's also subsidiary
blister bits behind each arm. The smokestack cannons are also positioned
differently from each other, so you can see them from different angles, nice
touch. All told, nine rubber bands wrapped around various parts, and some of
them really need it.
AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME
Function: Autobot Leader
Altmode: Modified Peterbilt 379 (more or less)
Licensor: None
Previous Name Use: Yes
Package Call-Outs: "Limited Edition Supermetal finish!" "Double missile
firing rifles!" "Smokestacks convert to cannons!"
Motto: "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."
He has no bio note, instead we get the RoboVision Story.
STR 10 INT 10 SPD 7 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRB 10 SKL 9 Avg 9.5
Robot Mode: 7.5" (19cm) tall. He's a bit leggy, but not at the Deluxe
Jazz level. In addition, most of his vehicular front end is on his back,
forming a huge backpack. Fortunately, he has long enough and well-supported
enough heelspurs that he doesn't fall over. His hands are in an open and
somewhat relaxed pose, and don't really hold his rifles. Instead, the rifles
attach to pegs on his wrists, with false handles extending down into his
hands. The only seriously floppy bits, though, are the folded up fenders by
his heels. A little peg keeps them from unfolding completely, but it's clear
why they needed rubber bands. The blue panels on the sides of the legs
rattle around a bit as well.
The RoboVision selling point is that he has extensive use of silver
plastic, which I'm given to believe will be replaced by light gray plastic
for regular Voyager Prime. This silver plastic is used on the thighs,
shoulders, upper arms, rifles, backs of the boots and various vehicle bits
described down in Vehicle Mode. Light gray plastic is used on the hands,
pelvis, hip joints, feet and some of the internal jointing used for
transformation. It also comes up the center of the chest, due to the strut
there for transformation. There seem to be two different kinds of red
plastic of very slightly different hues, but I won't bother disentangling
them here. Red is used on the shoulderpads, neck area, front torso,
forearms, forearm armor, ankle fenders, backpack bits and the core piece of
each lower leg (but those pieces are painted almost entirely blue). The
head, connectors between shoulder and torso, and much of the lower legs are
blue plastic. The eyes are lightpiped light blue, the wheels on his thighs
and backpack are black.
I've heard tell of some problems with sloppy paint applications around
the torso/abdomen, fortunately that's something you can check easily enough
before buying. Mine's fine except for some silver paint splash on the inside
of one wheel, and that was easily enough scraped off with a knife. The chest
has metallic light blue on the windows and extensive silver on the
movie-style tech greeblings on the abdomen...with what looks like red paint
over the silver paint over the red plastic. Weird. There's also a lot of
silver detailing on the faceplate, and silver rims around the eyes. A little
bit of blue paint is on each forearm, and some gold on the insides of his
knees. All other paint is vehicle mode stuff.
The firing part of each rifle is silver plastic, with the non-firing
smokestack part over the launcher barrel made of light gray plastic. The
triggers and a joint piece are bright blue plastic. The missile's shaft is
light gray plastic, and the tips are silver plastic and look kinda like a
bicycle bell. The springs are kinda weak, and the missiles barely fire up a
foot.
The head turns, but the waist doesn't. The shoulders are universal
joints, there's upper arm swivels, the elbows are hinged and the wrists are
somewht restricted ball joints. The upper arm swivel is stiffer than the
transformation joint that keeps the blue flank panels in place, so they tend
to swing out when trying to pose the arms. The hips are universal,
ratcheting forward and back but smooth side to side. A thigh swivel is
nicely camoflaged by armor plates of the lower piece rising higher up the leg
than the joint. The knees are hinged, but there's not a lot of meaningful
ankle articulation, just some wiggle room. The hinges on the ankles are too
loose to support any weight in more-bent positions anyway. I managed to get
some pretty dynamic yet stable standing poses out of the combination.
Undocumented features: The smokestacks can fold around to point as
shoulder cannons when the rifles are mounted on the backpack and pointed up.
The pegs that hold the rifles to the backpack are short Mini-Con hardpoints.
Transformation: Pretty intuitive, really. I figured it out first time
without the instructions and without serious part-pop-off. The only tricky
bit about going to truck mode, really, is getting the sleeper section snapped
onto the cab front, which takes a fair amount of force. Transforming the
rifles into truck mode may result in the stacks popping off until you figure
out which way the joints are meant to go, though.
In rough terms, the front end of the truck forms from the torso and
backpack, the arms go under the cab, the thighs become the rear wheel section
and the boots become the sleeper compartment of the truck.
Automorph: On each foot, there's two linked bits. Lifting or folding
down the rear roof part makes the side panel fold up or down as well. The
side panel can be manually put down in robot mode, but will pop back up
easily. Pushing the foot up makes a little side panel-let emerge and fold
into place. Going to robot mode, tapping in this panel-let makes the foot
spring out.
As far as I can tell, there's no other automorph, although there's an
automatic feature in vehicle mode that works in a similar way.
Vehicle Mode: 7.5" (19cm) long, 2.5" (6.5cm) wide, 3.5" (9cm) tall at
the smokestacks. Six freely rolling wheels, plus the driver's side door
opens. Near as I can tell, it's almost exactly 1:48 scale, half as big as an
Alternator of the same vehicle mode would be. I don't recall seeing any 1:48
scale toy trailers out there, but if they exist, it wouldn't be too hard to
modify the fifth wheel on this toy to accept a trailer.
The following pieces are made from slightly metallic silver plastic:
grille and front bumper, strange tank things ahead of each door, under-step
piece on each side, fuel tanks, rear bed section (or whatever you call the
flat part between the rear wheels), cab and driver. The tires are black
plastic, and the smokestacks are a light gray plastic. The bulk of the nose
section, the door steps and the rear fenders (see below) are bright red
plastic. The sleeper section and cab doors are bright blue plastic, as is
the rear bumper-ish area. The windows are clear light blue plastic, and the
headlights are clear blue lightpiped. The pegs on the rear for securing the
lower legs together look reasonably like taillights, but their role makes it
understandable that they lack paint.
The cab is mostly painted blue with red flames, and there's red flames
on the sleeper section as well. The nose has blue flames, as do the rear
fenders. Red paint is on the borders of the windows. The bed is painted
matte black. The wheel hubs are painted silver, a very good match for the
silver plastic. An Autobot symbol is molded into the hood ornament part of
the grille, and the intended parts filled with red paint.
Report on Prime's unlicensed vehicle mode courtesy of David Hingtgen:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know if you know already, but Movie Prime is a Peterbilt 379.
Has a very unusual configuration, but that's what it is. So unusual
appearance-wise, I couldn't tell what exact model it was until I really
looked at it - ended up going by the door on the bunk. Has tons of options,
both "uncommon factory" and "flat-out custom-made and very illegal for an
over-the-road semi" ones.
Wheelbase looks odd to me (short) and "Peterbilt-style but illegally-
colored" running lights. Custom full rear fenders (the ones over the drive
axles) - normally you only see them covering the front axle, and are called
half-fenders, and they're much thinner and not so conformal - these are the
relatively rare full-fender style, and very thick/ conformal, almost
"hot-rod" like IMHO. There are also quarter and 3/4 fenders for the rear,
and should be self-explanatory. Forward fenders also seem to be custom,
which is unheard of AFAIK, since the fenders are integral to the hood.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documented feature: opening the door makes the "holographic" driver
figure fold away. This might count as Automorph technology. It requires a
fair amount of force to get the door open, at least the first few times, and
the figure moves quickly. The only flaw in the illusion is that the seatback
that replaces the driver is red, rather than silver like the rest of the
interior.
Attack Mode has the cannons folded forward, exposing the robot arms
along the sides. Feels like something the designers discovered after the
fact and decided to toss into the instructions.
Reasonably stable in this mode. The smokestacks don't stay in place
very firmly, and the rear fenders are kinda loose, but everything else holds
together very well.
Overall: Has a few stability issues in both modes, mainly involving
those custom full fenders, and the backpack is way too big for my tastes.
But it's otherwise a very good toy for its class.
Dave Van Domelen, wonders if this one will feel inferior standing next
to Leader Prime once I unpack that....
RoboVision Optimus Prime
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/VoyagerT1
This is a Target Exclusive, packaged in robot mode in hexagonal prism
packaging, at a slightly higher price point. It came out slightly ahead of
the regular Voyager-class Prime.
CAPSULE
RoboVision Optimus Prime: A solid Voyager design, save for a couple of
small stability issues and a backpack that you could carry a Robot Heroes toy
or two in (if it were hollow). Recommended. $24.99 at Target (on sale for
$19.99 for the first week or so).
RANT
Packaging: Distinctive! It's a hexagonal prism of cleat plastic with
some cardstock tray inside for reinforcement and trade dress. It's 10"
(25.5cm) tall and 6.5" (16.5cm) across from one side to another parallel
one. It's an equilateral hexagon, with each facet being 3.75" (9.5cm) wide.
The top piece has a couple of trapezoidal indentations to give the impression
of a handle, but they're not deep enough to actually get a good grip. All
the other sides are smooth. The top and bottom pieces are taped on, but the
wrap-around side piece is glued together.
The top panel is red around the border and has the gunmetal movie logo
across the "handle" and a white Autobot symbol at the front edge. The bottom
has co-sells for Ratchet and Blackout, plus the ownership statement, UPC and
legal symbols.
The front panel is mostly clear, with "ROBO-VISION OPTIMUS PRIME" at the
top in white, the logo and "Ages 5+" at the bottom. A Target exclusive
sticker is on the outside of the plastic above the logo. The right front
(viewer's right, I mean) panel has "AUTOBOT" at the top and "Limited Edition
Supermetal Finish" (against the blue flames on red motif) at the bottom. The
left front panel has "AUTOMORPH TECHNOLOGY" at the top and "Includes ROBO-
VISION DECODER! See Back" at the bottom. All three front panels are mostly
clear.
The three back panels form a tryptych with most of the stuff usually on
a package back...techspecs, bio note, photos of both modes with call-outs,
licensing stuff (no licensing for Peterbilt). In addition there's text for
Automorphing and for the RoboVision gimmick that will cross all Target
exclusives.
---
AUTOMORPH Technology - Moving one part of the robot or vehicle causes
other parts to move, making armor plates and weapons shift automatically.
Easier, faster conversion can mean the difference between victory and defeat
in the battle for the AllSpark!
---
Oh, and he's listed as Conversion Difficulty 3.
At the center bottom of the back is a red and white image of Prime's
helmet with faint blue letters overlaid. Using the enclosed decoder (red gel
sheet) reveals the blue text, and going to Target.com/transformers lets you
enter these codes for various features. Prime's RoboVision code is...
Robovision. All three of the first wave Scout repaints have the code
Bullseye.
RoboVision codes snurched from http://www.tfw2005.com/
*Robovision - .pdf of profile, Toy pics, test shots, color charts, blueprints
of Robovision Optimus Prime
*Bullseye - .pdf of profiles, Toy pics, test shots, color charts, blueprints
of Scout Arcee, Hardtop & Signal Flare
*Rollout - Animated CG video of target Transformer Giftcard
*Gen1 - .pdf of Codes to unlock G1 skins for Optimus, Jazz & Starscream in
Activision Game
*Sentient - codeword "Sentient" can be used to unlock new level in the game
that has yet to be released at the Target Transformer site
*Freedom - Animated video of RoboVision Optimus Prime being transformed back
and forth
*Sector 7 - downloadable RoboVision Screensaver
*Energon - .pdf with pics of g1 repaints of movie Jazz & Starscream
*Activision - .zip of IM icons of Arcee, Hardtop & Signal Flare
*Allspark - Trailer for the Transformers Game, Narrated by Cullen's Prime
Sadly, the videos are embedded flash, so you can't download them to
watch later. And, if your bandwidth isn't high enough, they're choppy as
all get-out. Anyway, the above are all ten of the possible codes.
Here's the RoboVision Story from the package:
---
Blazing down to Earth's surface from outer space comes OPTIMUS PRIME.
His protoform mode is ideal for covering the vast distances between stars,
and armored to survive the catastrophic descent through a planetary
atmosphere. When he arrives, however, his first task is to find an
appropriate disguise in which to conduct his search for the AllSpark. As his
scanning beam sweeps over nearby objects, he sees the world in the deep red
that tells him his targeting and scanning systems are active. Then, his gaze
settles upon the coolest thing he has ever seen. Yes, this will be his
disguise on Earth.
---
Four pieces of tape hold the top panel on. The cardstock underneath is
merely tab-and-slotted in, no tape. One piece of tape holds the cardstock
tray into the plastic tube. It is possible, if tricky, to open up the bottom
section of the tray without cutting anything, and inside is taped a bag with
instructions, catalog, decoder and missiles. A second plastic tray holding
the main figure in robot mode is taped to the sides of the cardstock tray.
Getting the cardboard insert back into the tube is non-trivial.
The RoboVision decoder (made in America, according to a sticker on the
carstock tray, not to mention stickers on the other Target exclusives) is two
thin pieces of cardstock glued together around a piece of clear red plastic,
so it's printed glossy on both sides. The window is circular and 1.5"
(3.5cm) in diameter, and on the front side the robotic iris pattern from most
of the packaging surrounds the window. The overall shape is an octagon about
3" (7.5cm) across with rectangular tabs emerging from and bottom sides (a
little longer at bottom than top) for a total height of 5" (12cm). The top
tab has the logo on front, Target and Autobot symbols on back. The bottom
tab has the two symbols, "ROBO-VISION DECODER" and the Target webpage on
front, logo and instructions on back.
The instructions are two-sided, have "Robo-Vision Optimus Prime" on
them, and start in robot mode, so they're definitely unique to this version,
not just the regular Voyager instructions stuck in.
One of the shoulderpad bits on mine was popped off in package, but the
rubber band holding it down kept it from going far. 7 twist-ties hold Prime
to the inner plastic tray. There's also a bewildering array of rubber bands,
plus some plastic platform shoes held on by bands to keep his toes from
drooping in package. Oddly, the platforms are different shapes, I suppose to
show the feet at different angles or something. There's also subsidiary
blister bits behind each arm. The smokestack cannons are also positioned
differently from each other, so you can see them from different angles, nice
touch. All told, nine rubber bands wrapped around various parts, and some of
them really need it.
AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME
Function: Autobot Leader
Altmode: Modified Peterbilt 379 (more or less)
Licensor: None
Previous Name Use: Yes
Package Call-Outs: "Limited Edition Supermetal finish!" "Double missile
firing rifles!" "Smokestacks convert to cannons!"
Motto: "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."
He has no bio note, instead we get the RoboVision Story.
STR 10 INT 10 SPD 7 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRB 10 SKL 9 Avg 9.5
Robot Mode: 7.5" (19cm) tall. He's a bit leggy, but not at the Deluxe
Jazz level. In addition, most of his vehicular front end is on his back,
forming a huge backpack. Fortunately, he has long enough and well-supported
enough heelspurs that he doesn't fall over. His hands are in an open and
somewhat relaxed pose, and don't really hold his rifles. Instead, the rifles
attach to pegs on his wrists, with false handles extending down into his
hands. The only seriously floppy bits, though, are the folded up fenders by
his heels. A little peg keeps them from unfolding completely, but it's clear
why they needed rubber bands. The blue panels on the sides of the legs
rattle around a bit as well.
The RoboVision selling point is that he has extensive use of silver
plastic, which I'm given to believe will be replaced by light gray plastic
for regular Voyager Prime. This silver plastic is used on the thighs,
shoulders, upper arms, rifles, backs of the boots and various vehicle bits
described down in Vehicle Mode. Light gray plastic is used on the hands,
pelvis, hip joints, feet and some of the internal jointing used for
transformation. It also comes up the center of the chest, due to the strut
there for transformation. There seem to be two different kinds of red
plastic of very slightly different hues, but I won't bother disentangling
them here. Red is used on the shoulderpads, neck area, front torso,
forearms, forearm armor, ankle fenders, backpack bits and the core piece of
each lower leg (but those pieces are painted almost entirely blue). The
head, connectors between shoulder and torso, and much of the lower legs are
blue plastic. The eyes are lightpiped light blue, the wheels on his thighs
and backpack are black.
I've heard tell of some problems with sloppy paint applications around
the torso/abdomen, fortunately that's something you can check easily enough
before buying. Mine's fine except for some silver paint splash on the inside
of one wheel, and that was easily enough scraped off with a knife. The chest
has metallic light blue on the windows and extensive silver on the
movie-style tech greeblings on the abdomen...with what looks like red paint
over the silver paint over the red plastic. Weird. There's also a lot of
silver detailing on the faceplate, and silver rims around the eyes. A little
bit of blue paint is on each forearm, and some gold on the insides of his
knees. All other paint is vehicle mode stuff.
The firing part of each rifle is silver plastic, with the non-firing
smokestack part over the launcher barrel made of light gray plastic. The
triggers and a joint piece are bright blue plastic. The missile's shaft is
light gray plastic, and the tips are silver plastic and look kinda like a
bicycle bell. The springs are kinda weak, and the missiles barely fire up a
foot.
The head turns, but the waist doesn't. The shoulders are universal
joints, there's upper arm swivels, the elbows are hinged and the wrists are
somewht restricted ball joints. The upper arm swivel is stiffer than the
transformation joint that keeps the blue flank panels in place, so they tend
to swing out when trying to pose the arms. The hips are universal,
ratcheting forward and back but smooth side to side. A thigh swivel is
nicely camoflaged by armor plates of the lower piece rising higher up the leg
than the joint. The knees are hinged, but there's not a lot of meaningful
ankle articulation, just some wiggle room. The hinges on the ankles are too
loose to support any weight in more-bent positions anyway. I managed to get
some pretty dynamic yet stable standing poses out of the combination.
Undocumented features: The smokestacks can fold around to point as
shoulder cannons when the rifles are mounted on the backpack and pointed up.
The pegs that hold the rifles to the backpack are short Mini-Con hardpoints.
Transformation: Pretty intuitive, really. I figured it out first time
without the instructions and without serious part-pop-off. The only tricky
bit about going to truck mode, really, is getting the sleeper section snapped
onto the cab front, which takes a fair amount of force. Transforming the
rifles into truck mode may result in the stacks popping off until you figure
out which way the joints are meant to go, though.
In rough terms, the front end of the truck forms from the torso and
backpack, the arms go under the cab, the thighs become the rear wheel section
and the boots become the sleeper compartment of the truck.
Automorph: On each foot, there's two linked bits. Lifting or folding
down the rear roof part makes the side panel fold up or down as well. The
side panel can be manually put down in robot mode, but will pop back up
easily. Pushing the foot up makes a little side panel-let emerge and fold
into place. Going to robot mode, tapping in this panel-let makes the foot
spring out.
As far as I can tell, there's no other automorph, although there's an
automatic feature in vehicle mode that works in a similar way.
Vehicle Mode: 7.5" (19cm) long, 2.5" (6.5cm) wide, 3.5" (9cm) tall at
the smokestacks. Six freely rolling wheels, plus the driver's side door
opens. Near as I can tell, it's almost exactly 1:48 scale, half as big as an
Alternator of the same vehicle mode would be. I don't recall seeing any 1:48
scale toy trailers out there, but if they exist, it wouldn't be too hard to
modify the fifth wheel on this toy to accept a trailer.
The following pieces are made from slightly metallic silver plastic:
grille and front bumper, strange tank things ahead of each door, under-step
piece on each side, fuel tanks, rear bed section (or whatever you call the
flat part between the rear wheels), cab and driver. The tires are black
plastic, and the smokestacks are a light gray plastic. The bulk of the nose
section, the door steps and the rear fenders (see below) are bright red
plastic. The sleeper section and cab doors are bright blue plastic, as is
the rear bumper-ish area. The windows are clear light blue plastic, and the
headlights are clear blue lightpiped. The pegs on the rear for securing the
lower legs together look reasonably like taillights, but their role makes it
understandable that they lack paint.
The cab is mostly painted blue with red flames, and there's red flames
on the sleeper section as well. The nose has blue flames, as do the rear
fenders. Red paint is on the borders of the windows. The bed is painted
matte black. The wheel hubs are painted silver, a very good match for the
silver plastic. An Autobot symbol is molded into the hood ornament part of
the grille, and the intended parts filled with red paint.
Report on Prime's unlicensed vehicle mode courtesy of David Hingtgen:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know if you know already, but Movie Prime is a Peterbilt 379.
Has a very unusual configuration, but that's what it is. So unusual
appearance-wise, I couldn't tell what exact model it was until I really
looked at it - ended up going by the door on the bunk. Has tons of options,
both "uncommon factory" and "flat-out custom-made and very illegal for an
over-the-road semi" ones.
Wheelbase looks odd to me (short) and "Peterbilt-style but illegally-
colored" running lights. Custom full rear fenders (the ones over the drive
axles) - normally you only see them covering the front axle, and are called
half-fenders, and they're much thinner and not so conformal - these are the
relatively rare full-fender style, and very thick/ conformal, almost
"hot-rod" like IMHO. There are also quarter and 3/4 fenders for the rear,
and should be self-explanatory. Forward fenders also seem to be custom,
which is unheard of AFAIK, since the fenders are integral to the hood.
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Documented feature: opening the door makes the "holographic" driver
figure fold away. This might count as Automorph technology. It requires a
fair amount of force to get the door open, at least the first few times, and
the figure moves quickly. The only flaw in the illusion is that the seatback
that replaces the driver is red, rather than silver like the rest of the
interior.
Attack Mode has the cannons folded forward, exposing the robot arms
along the sides. Feels like something the designers discovered after the
fact and decided to toss into the instructions.
Reasonably stable in this mode. The smokestacks don't stay in place
very firmly, and the rear fenders are kinda loose, but everything else holds
together very well.
Overall: Has a few stability issues in both modes, mainly involving
those custom full fenders, and the backpack is way too big for my tastes.
But it's otherwise a very good toy for its class.
Dave Van Domelen, wonders if this one will feel inferior standing next
to Leader Prime once I unpack that....