Cybertronian Optimus Prime

Height: 14cm tall in Robot Mode, 14cm long in Vehicle Mode.

Articulation: 23 points in all- ball-joint head; 4 points each arm: universal joint shoulder, upper arm swivel, hinge elbow; 7 points each leg: universal joint hips, thigh swivel, double-joint knee, ball-joint ankle, mid-foot hinge.

Colors: Molded red, blue, silver and black. Painted silver and bright red.

Release Data: Released the final week of June 2010 at an MSRP of $11.99.

Author: RAC

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When he first became leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime was not certain he wanted the responsibility. The war with the Decepticons was going badly, and it looked like there was no end in sight. He vowed to himself and to the warriors under his command that he would never surrender, never retreat, and never stop fighting until the Decepticons were defeated.

Odd as it is to say, I don't remember the last time I bought an Optimus Prime figure. It must have been for Animated, and that was a while ago now. This new Optimus hails from the War for Cybertron game, which outside of a really poorly-chosen demo I haven't played. What it was when I got it, however, was the first even semi-interesting new Transformer on shelves since Arcee, so I grabbed it.


Robot Mode

As usual, Optimus looks like himself, with a largely G1-inspired body. (I ought to see how many reviews I can start with this sentence.) At the same time, the torso's shape reminds me of the Protoform Optimus Prime that served as a preview figure for the 2007 movie. There are bits of the styling I really do like here- the wheels on the back just look nice, for some reason. And the shoulder armor works surprisingly well for something made out of three separate panels. And most importantly, while there is a lot of surface detail on the figure as you might see on a Movie figure, it's definitely a more traditional school of Transformers design where the body is basically a series of large blocks. I like large blocks. Though long-"eared," his head is kind of small- which I guess helps him look more powerful, but it's probably also one of the reasons people were certain from the initial photos that this figure would be a Voyager. Where the in-game model has glowing red Tron-like highlights, the toy chooses to represent these different ways: on the lower torso and the legs, as well as the Autobot symbols, we have a bright, almost pinkish red paint. For the lines in the torso they merely left gaps in the paint so the red plastic underneath would show through. And for the face they didn't even bother. I suspect it has to do with the size of the highlight involved- screwed-up paint apps on the face-stripes would look far worse than no red paint at all. Some blue paint on the optics would have been nice though, since Optimus has what look more like eye-shaped shadows in his helmet.

As often happens, all the Vehicle parts not needed for this mode are on his back- most noticably, the hood of the Vehicle. Which is oddly designed to tab into the back of Prime's head. I appreciate the added stability, but not at the cost of all head mobility, so I leave it unplugged.

The head's swivel is unrestricted when not tabbed in place, and the front-to-back tilt is great; he can look up or down pretty effectively. There's a bit of side-to-side tilt but not as much as forward tilt. The head tends to pop off during transformation, and it's far too loose on the neck in general, resulting in the "bobble-head" effect. The shoulder joints also move downward for transformation, and I find myself regularly having to raise Optimus' shoulders back up after ordinary adjusting. In terms of the intended axes of movement they do well; the swivel is unrestricted and you can swing the arm all the way out to the side, assuming you move that curved piece of shoulder armor out of the way.

No waist joint- the way the midsection transforms prevents that. The shape of the lower torso keeps the hips from moving more than 45 degrees forward, but they move pretty far back, and fairly far out to the sides as well. Though the armor plates on the sides of the torso do eventually block them there as well. Moving the leg too far in any of those directions can pop the front of Optimus' lower torso loose, which is irritating. The hips are also significantly loose, which interferes with posing. Technically the knees can fold into a tight U, but functionally there's a lot of parts you have to manuver around to make that happen. The range is still respectable in most practical applications. The ankles don't allow for much more than a swivel, but the mid-foot transformation joint is pretty useful for posing as well. With all his back-mounted kibble and a fairly small heel, I have had trouble balancing him. Combine that with the hips and you can have some frustrating experiences posing the toy.


Transformation

It's a complex transformation, but most of it doesn't rely on the carefully interlocking panels that make figures like Alternators, the bulk of Universe 2.0, and WFC Bumblebee such a joy to work with. There's some of that, but the bigger issue is the sheer number of folding and swiveling parts to arrange, and in what order. I often end up resorting to instructions on the first transformation of a new figure, but I had to read WFC Prime's on a couple occasions to remind me of what I was supposed to be doing. There are some neat bits: I like how Prime's skirt armor swings up to become a sort-of cowcatcher for the Vehicle Mode. Also, dumb as it is, I like how his kneecaps flip around to become the rear bumper of the Vehicle. It's such a small detail it's practically unnecessary, but they did it anyway- nice!


Vehicle Mode

It's a sort-of truckish thing, a very stocky and tough-looking vehicle with a hardpoint on top for mounting Prime's gun. It reminds me of the concept art for the never-produced TransTech Optimus Prime, since it shares the two qualities of 1) looking like a very slick, swept-back futuristic truck 2) that wasn't meant to carry anything since it's Cybertron and there's nobody to carry. For some reason the blue panels on the sides remind me of Animated Cybertron Optimus as well- which since Megatron is very much Animated-inspired, doesn't surprise me much. The red highlights are back here as various running lights, and around the rims of the tires. I bet when actually lit in-game that looks pretty spiffy! The only complaint I can really level against it is that the side-panels remind me of Universe 2.0 Ironhide and Ratchet with so many seams. There are even some seams that aren't actually used on the toy molded into the sides, which I could maybe have done without.


Accessory

Just one, Optimus' rifle. It's a fairly plain-looking gun, but it does have a neat collapsing feature. The magazine on the opposite side acts as a latch when it's folded; move it slightly and the gun unfolds. There's a small peg on the side used to stow the gun on one of the wheels jutting off of Optimus' back. You can also use either peg to stick the gun into the socket on either of Optimus' forearms- no idea if he uses it that way in the game, however.


Closing Remarks

It's a resonably solid figure with no glaring flaws- given that Hasbro says that it was made in half the usual production time for a Transformer, I'm impressed. And in a way I'm not sure being an Optimus Prime figure is an advantage or disadvantage to the figure: there are a lot of great Optimus figures out there, and since I haven't played the game this one doesn't really mean much to me at present. But at the same time, if it hadn't been a character I already knew would I have even bothered? I honestly don't know. All in all, Cybertronian Optimus is Good, but on a sheerly non-objective personal level it's, well... meh. Just kind of there.

-RAC