Optimus Prime's vehicle mode is a bit unlike his other Animated toys. It's not "just" a truck cab, but it doesn't have a full-blown trailer, either. It sort of has a trailer-connector gun-platform thingie. (Honestly, I don't know what the gray thing behind the front of his vehicle mode is supposed to be.) With the exception of the various obvious robot feet sticking out the back end, Optimus Prime has no extras in this mode, and in general has slightly better proportions. His front bumper now sticks out from his front slight, and the overall front of the cab is a bit more swept back and angular than the other toys of him. I particularly like the circuitry mold detailing on his windows. He's also got his fair share of paint apps, including more black than on other versions of Optimus Prime, due to the elongated black stripe on his light gray... thing... behind the front of the cab. Many of the minor details, such as the headlights, are painted as well. That said, I don't like how the rear half looks at all-- as I said before, that gray thing behind the front just looks weird (though it can be removed), and the blue part of the rear is a bit too high and mis-proportioned. That said, the rotating gun in the middle of the gray assembly is pretty cool-- it can rotate 360 degrees without interference, and you can fill it with a little water to spray it out like a "fire hose".
    Optimus Prime's robot mode is pretty much the epitome of the Animated heroic aesthetic. His core robot mode proportions are 95% perfect, with no real vehicle mode extras whatsoever that don't fold out of the way completely. It's quite impressive. As you'd expect for a 'bot with such proportions, he's also got tons of articulation-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at four points!), elbows (at two points), wrists, waist, hips (at two points) and knees (at two points). He's one of the most posable figures in the entire line. Unfortunately, due to a badly-implemented gimmick that involves his torso automatically spinning down during transformation (it doesn't work well), his waist can turn a little too easily, but that's a small quibble. Optimus can hold the aforementioned water-squirt gun in one of his hands, while the rest of the light gray assembly from vehicle mode becomes a giant axe to hold in his other hand. The axe itself has a bit hole in the center, however, and doesn't look very much like his axe on the show (or on his other toys). On the other hand, both the axe and gun can be combined on his back to form a sort of "jetpack", which looks really cool and is rather inventive to boot. This is also the only Optimus Prime toy that can have his faceplate both up and down-- pressing on a small blue lever on the back of his head accomplishes this. He looks fine with his faceplate up, but when it's down, it doesn't look like it's retracted so much as it's sagging off his face, sadly enough. Another small quibble I have with this mode is that the gray sides of the bumper on his feet contrast and stick out a bit from the rest of his otherwise blue lower legs-- honestly, though, I think this is a small price to pay for the ingenious way they got all four of his wheels into his lower feet via the transformation.
    Voyager class Optimus Prime is an excellent toy in robot mode, even if some of his gimmicks aren't the best. I'd wholeheartedly recommend him if it wasn't for the rather odd-looking gray weapons platform he has on his vehicle mode, and the fact that the smaller, cheaper deluxe versions of him have better weapons and still look very good. Still, if you want an Optimus Prime that's more in scale with the other Autobots, or just HAVE to have the sliding faceplate gimmick, than this toy's your 'bot.

Review by Beastbot

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