Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime

Height: 15.5cm to top of head (robot mode); approx. 13cm (vehicle length)

Articulation: 14 points total- ball-jointed neck; 3 points each arm: ball-jointed shoulders, hinge and ball-joint at elbow; swivel waist; 3 points each leg: ball-jointed hips, hinge and swivel at knees.

Colors: Molded red, blue, silvery gray, and transparent blue. Painted yellow, silver, and light blue (face).

Accessories: Shield, Axe.

Release Data: Released early June, 2008 in the United States at a retail price of US$9.99

Gallery: 12 images.

Author: RAC

Despite having washed out of the AUTOBOT academy, OPTIMUS PRIME is a natural leader. Trained to lead the bravest of the brave into battle against overwhelming odds, he eagerly looked forward to his first assignment. It’s just too bad the DECEPTICONS were defeated ages ago, and the only crews left to lead are the maintenance squads that keep the Space Bridge network running. Since his assignment, he’s lost track of his ambitions. The last thing he expects is the chance to test his leadership abilities in a battle to defend his home and fight for freedom.

The Autobot command structure is weird. Optimus Prime, supposedly having washed out of the academy, is the same rank as Sentinel Prime, a member of the Autobot Elite Guard? (I'm pretty sure nobody on Earth puts a person who washes out of officers' school in charge of anything, not even a maintenance ship. Nor yet give them a rank.) Of course, the animation seems to specify that Optimus was expelled from the Elite Guard, which makes more sense. Optimus has a lot to prove, both to the Autobots above him and those who serve under him, and today's review captures him at his greenest, in a pre-Earth form.

Of the six or seven Optimus Prime molds planned for Animated, this is the only version of him in this body. It's also the heir to a proud tradition of medium-sized Optimus Prime action figures. Beginning with "Hero" Prime at the tail end of G2, Primes this size are more often than not superb, with articulation surpassing any other version of the character. The Deluxe (or "Supercon," as was the style at the time) Optimus Prime made for Transformers Armada is a wonderfully flexible figure, which is probably why it's been recolored four times in the US alone. So I had a certain amount of hope for this figure's engineering, and it's mostly lived up to those hopes nicely.

(We just... won't talk about the Deluxe-sized Energon Prime, okay?)

Vehicle Mode

Concept cars are neat, and do stuff visually that ordinary cars can't do for reasons of regulations, cost and marketability. Inevitably they all get watered down and end up looking like pretty much every other car on the road once they hit the dealership. Auto execs are a superstitious, cowardly lot. But those initial show cars really are compelling, which is why so many of them seem to work their way into Transformers as Cybertronian vehicle modes. In this case, Cybertron Optimus is extrapolated from a Mitsubishi Fuso Hybrid concept made to look more angular and alien. He's also a half-track, with rear treads instead of rear wheels. It's mildly disappointing that the treads are the same color as his legs, though I can understand why they might do that: it's a fairly large area to paint to no great effect. Less surprising still is the fact that the treads, like most toy treads, are decorative; there are tiny wheels underneath to do their job instead. No sin there- working treads are far more complex than your average $10 toy can pull off. And it rolls nicely too.

While the truck looks good at most angles, it's the back view from which it looks the most like a bunch of folded-up robot parts. (Well, that and underneath, where you can see Optimus' midsection very clearly.) And that trailer hitch? It's a trick. Get an axe. ...oh wait, it is an axe. It's a cute approximation of a conection point for a trailer of some sort, but there's no trailer to connect, so it just makes a handy way of storing Optimus' battle axe for truck mode. I can get behind that- not enough Animated toys have weapon storage.

Transformation

The lower body is easy- extend the legs, twist them 180 degrees at the knee, fold up the feet, and you're done. The torso, on the other hand, is complex, but not in the super-frustrating "Mini-Alternator" way that many of the new Universe Classics Deluxes tend towards. Once the roof of the truck is removed Optimus' upper body unfolds, refolds, and locks onto the midsection. Once you're used to transforming him, you can do it without even removing the axe from his right hand. Swing the roof mount to the side and reattach the roof as a shield, and Optimus Prime is ready to go, fully armed right out of the gate.

Robot Mode

The anatomy here is surprisingly sharp, too. Cybertron Optimus has pretty defined humanlike musculature, particularly on his back. He has shoulder blades! Proportionally he's similar to the original Masters of the Universe, and he's just about as "muscular." I'm also particularly fond of how the wheels are now inside the torso- it's not like they appear there by magic, but it looks really neat. Also, Optimus' face is pretty show accurate- while Voyager Optimus is a fair match as well, the faceplate gimmick means that more of the chin is taken up with silver in faceplate-down mode, giving this figure an edge.

Articulation is up there with the best of the Deluxe Primes as well. The ball-jointed shoulders have a good range, and coupled with the double-joints in the elbows- a fortunate necessity of the transformation -Optimus can manage some fair two-handed axe poses. His neck wants to rest all the way back, but to get it to move you have to pull it forward a bit. Once you do, the swivel isn't restricted and there's a bit of front-to-back tilt as well. The waist has absolutely unrestricted swivel. The legs are standard with their ball-hip and knee hinge and swivel, but they do reasonably well thanks to Optimus' big blocky feet. I do miss Armada Prime's ankle jointing, but there's just no room here. While some have speculated that the curve of the legs implies that the Primes were designed to be displayed with knees bent, this is not exactly true. The angle of the feet and shape of the leg are designed to match the angle of the legs in the lineart, which favors a sway-backed heroic pose. You know, the default Revoltech pose. As with many other figures sculpted in this stance, this limits the figure's capacity for more ordinary posing, but it looks really good standing straight up. My only concern is that in the long run, the ball joints in the shoulders will wear down. The sockets seem tighter than average, and my Prime, purchased over the summer, is already suffering from loosened arms. You can see light pink powder gather in the socket as the ball and socket erode little by little. So far, it's still doing relatively well, but in the long term it could be a problem.

Paint and Deco

The paint is clean with no major errors; there's a bit of greening around the edges of the yellow-on-blue parts, but speaking as someone who has dealt with yellow paint? This is all but unavoidable. The fact that the yellow is as good as it is on dark blue plastic is a plus, believe me. One stylistic quibble, though, is that I wish they'd have skipped the clear plastic and just gone with a lighter blue opaque. It'd match the style of the animation much better, and as it is poor Optimus' eyes disappear under his helmet without extremely strong backlighting.

Accessories

-Shield

The roof of Optimus' truck mode becomes a shield which pegs into a hardpoint on his left forearm. The same hardpoint it uses for its roof mode, in fact- it swings to the side to be at the correct angle for robot mode. It's a decent-looking shield, actually, more of a buckler than a full-sized shield. Which is good- it doesn't get in the way of two-handed axing. The shield also has another purpose which I'll get to below.

-Axe

I regret that the Transformers Wiki beat me to the Lumberjack song reference, but it's to be expected, innit? Prime's weapon of choice is an axe, referencing the energy axe that G1 Optimus Prime famously used to fight Megatron. Here, it's mostly solid, though the actual blade may be made of energy. It bears a striking resemblence to the Mobile Suit Zaku's Heat Hawk weapon, too, in its default configuration. The axe haft is jointed in the middle so that you can fold it up and store it (mostly) out of sight for Optimus' Vehicle Mode, and when unfolded it doesn't stay as precisely straight as I'd like. The head also pops off easily and is mounted on an extremely shallow peg. On the upside, if you want to get some more realistic two-handed axe poses, you can pop the axe head off and put one of Optimus' hands above the hinged piece in the center. This is much closer to how people handle axes of this type in real life. But overall the wobbly handle and pop-off head make the weapon feel a bit more fragile than I'd like, and also more fragile than it actually is.

The axe has three modes: besides the single-blade version, you can fold down the peg in back and swing out the two halves of the blade so that he has a more battleaxe-like double bladed weapon. This looks okay, but not great. Finally, and least convincingly, you can take the shield, slide the two halves out, and mount it on the battleaxe for... a big protest sign? An asian-styled fan? An axe with its own Axe Cozy? Beats me, but it sure as hell doesn't look like a giant battleaxe like it was probably supposed to. Far as I'm concerned, the default "hatchet" blade looks just fine. I can safely ignore the third mode as a half-axed "Extra" that doesn't particularly compromise the existing axe (or shield) in any way.

Closing Remarks

I really like Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime a lot. He's the most geared towards articulation of the two Animated Optimii I've bought so far, and while his main accessory has some less-than-great features it's not broken. And since I am an articulation nut, the major flaws in the piece being restricted to optional accessory functions that I can ignore is my preferred method.

He's everything I want out of a Deluxe Prime, and as long as his arms hold out I'll be pretty pleased with him. He's definitely a figure I recommend getting earlier rather than later, however- used figures off eBay and even packaged figures from later runs are in danger of suffering from floppy arms.

That warning aside, Cybertron Optimus rates a Very Good.

-RAC, 12/4/2008