A good toy is the right of all seintient beings.

There are characters that have been revisited, retooled, repainted, repackaged, reinvisioned and multiple other words that begin with the prefix 're' but no other character embodies that more than Optimus Prime. For the last 30 plus years I cannot recall a toy line, TV series or movie franchise that does not include an Optimus Prime. OK yes you have an argument for the Beast Wars/Machine era but your argument does not have much to stand on. Outside of being a Gorilla of some sorts, Optimus has always been a truck of some kind. Be it a big rig, fire engine or pick up truck but there always seems to be one constant and that is the paint scheme being primarily blue and red.

Even with all the various forms Optimus has appeared in over the years, there one design that has set most fans off the most! That design would be the movie version of Prime. We have heard all the complaints over the years. Why is he not a cab over? Why does he have flames? This is not the original Prime I remember! I am not here to add fuel to those fires and that is not my goal. All I want to say is to have patience. In the last 7 years we have seen 4 live action movies, and if you have been waiting patiently I have some good news, it only took those 7 years to get the Optimus Prime you wanted all those years ago.

With Invasion Mode Optimus Prime from the latest release of figures for Transformers 4 Age of Extinction you get, a cab over design, red and blue deco (without flames) and windows in his chest. Are you happy now? Well you can leave your opinion in the comments section below. You will receive my answers as you continue to read. I will toss in the criticism that I have heard over the last few years with previous movieverse Prime's and since this figure has been officially available since May, or if you were lucky early April, but I feel this is the Optimus Prime people have been calling for and waiting for.

We are going to start with Prime in truck mode. The loudest voices against with the movie version of Prime have now been made silent. There have been cab over designs of Optimus released since 2007 in other toy lines. Have we forgotten about the much talked about MP-10 Optimus Prime? The paint application is a closer match to that of MP-10 versus G1 Prime and I think that is the feel the designers at Hasbro were going for. Yeah fine, but he only has one smoke stack! Are you really going to nitpick on that one detail? Did you even look at the stack? Did you not notice it is a dual stack and that is just routed to one side of the cab? I guess not since you are stuck on only seeing the one. Anyways there are some flaws in this mode, the first being the lack of paint on the rear section. A great job was done to hide the majority of feet and legs, but a little bit of paint for bumper, tail lights or even to bring out the details in the trailer hitch. Looking at the instruction sheet you can see they intended to also paint the hub caps of the wheels but that idea did not make the production floor.

Still looking to the back of the figure you come to the one major flaw I have with this mode. That is the open rear of the cab. You can see the faux chest exposed but no cover. That choice was made to eliminate the majority of alt mode kibble the in latest line of movie figures seem to suffer from. The front of the cab screams G1 Optimus Prime but there is a flaw that I have spent quite a bit of my time trying to solve and that is the way the front windows line up. The easiest way I have come to resolving this issue is when transforming into truck mode, turn Prime's head 180 before fitting it into the cab. The neck joint when turned around allows for the head to fit easier in the spaces provided.


Doing so allows the inner lines of the windows to line up just a little bit nicer albeit still not perfect. Overall the cab over design has not been done all that much in a Voyager class scale, but it is nice to see the original G1 and Masterpiece touches.


Moving onto transforming Optimus, this can be a bit of a chore but at
the same time enjoyable. Like many of the newer figures it comes package in one mode while the instructions go in the opposite direction. In Prime's case he is packaged in Robot mode but the instructions start in Truck mode. I have included scans of those instructions. A few steps I added while playing with this toy. The first I spoke of is turning the head 180 degrees to help with the alignment of the front windows. Next will be the arms as they can be tricky. It is best to form the sides and top of the cab first as the other pieces will slip in nicely once everything is flipped into position. The legs can be left for last but why not have some fun and make yourself a Gerwalk or AT-ST Prime? 

Robot mode this is where Optimus shines. He is a complete mix of G1 aesthetics with the movieverse look. The G1 look comes via the blue legs, feet and hands, add to that the grey thighs, red chest and clear windows. Out for the box Optimus is a victim of gorilla arms, but this to can be easily solved. The hands are painted blue so you will need to take his gun to turn them 90 degrees as they are tight on the pivot joint due to the coat of blue paint. Once done you can keep the hands in this better position as it does not affect transformation in the least. Oh look Prime doesn't have a faceplate! This argument is growing old for me as I can point out multiple other primes in the cartoon universe that did not have faceplates. I say this to you, why "hide" the impeccable voice acting of Peter Cullen behind a mask? Even as a child I wondered why his voice did not sound muffled behind the plate? Oh well here I am going on a rant when I should be talking about the head sculpt. The details are amazing and brought out with the blue and silver paint applications as well the nice lightpiping for the eyes. There are some paint details that were planned like the hubcaps did not make it to the production floor. Looking at the box art you see the upper arms were meant to be a mix of grey and red but instead they choose to go with a solid blue plastic. This is easily solved with some paint and patience but it is always interesting to see the design choices that change from a final prototype to production.

A small little addition that is completely by chance due to the transformation is you could (and this is a bit of a stretch) open the chest to give the impression of a Matrix of Leadership chamber. Now there is a planned detail is located on the back of the figure. Just above the waist you see a moulded in trailer hitch. This added detail that was not required but is a very welcomed addition.


Much like the cab over design there is an addition that some collectors have been waiting nearly 4 years for. The box calls it an Ion Cannon for Optimus but we know it as something else. This is Megatron's shotgun from the Dark of the Moon. If you look at the handle you can see the square pegs that will fit this gun into Megatron's hand. Now if you do not happen to have Dark of the Moon Megatron, I guess you can say that Prime took his weapon in the spoils of war.If you disagree I will have a spring loaded missile pointed your way.

I personally am not a fan of this weapon for Prime. I feel he should have more of a traditional blaster to go with the G1 look and feel of this figure. For that reason I display mine with the gun that comes with Generations Deluxe Orion Pax.

Overall this is a good figure. The poseibilty for a Hasbro figure is there with the addition of both a waist swivel and ankle tilts, two features that are rarely seen in  Hasbro figure. The paint applications are sparse and more details in robot mode would have been a nice touch, especially on the shoulder pylons and the upper arms. Is he worth full retail price? Well being a movie figure the market can be flooded with them so that choice is yours but if you are looking my opinion I would say yes. Out of the 6 Age of Extinction figures I have picked up, Optimus Prime is by far the best one of the lot. This design will serve both Hasbro and Takara well for years to come with the inevitable repaints and retools to come. We know that Rusty Prime for the movie will be released and I am almost certain a Nemesis Prime repaint is around the corner. Looking at the figure through the eyes of a model builder I see an almost unlimited potential for customization and one wonders what an Ultra Magnus repaint would look like?  Now how would I attach or hide the shoulder missiles? I have not heard much on a possible trailer release for this figure but that is something in which you should not to get your hopes up on. The trailer hitch is there for looks and there appears to be no future use for it. I personally will only have Optimus displayed in Robot mode, so if by chance a trailer is designed I would hope it has a base mode adding further to the G1 feel and playability.

TheRealRonin
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