Roll Out & Command Optimus Prime's vehicle mode is a bit "kiddy" looking, even taking the Animated aesthetic into account. The lack of mold detailing really shows through on a toy this large, and Hasbro didn't take advantage of the large scale by giving him doors or a more complex transformation. In fact, surprisingly, his transformation is considerably SIMPLER than most of his other toys-- more on that later. The color scheme is definitely Optimus, with gray, dark blue, black, and red being the main colors, so no complaints there. However, the rear section of the vehicle mode is way too short proportionally, and the feet are way too obvious sticking out the rear end-- honestly, you're telling me that at this scale they couldn't have figured out a better way to hide the feet? The huge axe is a bit of an eyesore in this mode as well, since it's just RIGHT THERE behind the truck cab. The main body of the truck is pretty good proportionally, however, with the windows and headlights molded particularly well. The front bumper sticks out a tad more than it does on most of the other toys, but that's a minor beef. His arms also don't peg into the sides of the truck mode well, either-- a side effect of Optimus Prime's "Roll Out" gimmick. As for electronics, if you roll Prime forward on a flat surface, you're hear a "truck moving" noise, and the headlights will blink yellow. Press the Autobot symbol in the center of the front of this mode, and you'll hear in Optimus' voice say either "Let's go!" or "Roll out!" (yes, the actor from the show has done the voice clips for this toy). As far as Optimus Prime's MAIN gimmick, there's a tab on the front of the bumper. Switched into one place, the vehicle mode is "locked", and you can roll it along without anything happening. Switch the tab to its other position, and as you move the truck forward, the cab part of the toy will transform itself into robot mode by spinning around several times and slowly revealing itself, though you'll still have to transform the legs (though it's little more than lengthening the legs, rotating them down, and then fiddling with the wheels a bit). The gimmick also works in reverse-- by moving the vehicle backwards, it'll transform its robot upper half back into the truck cab. It's a neat idea, but honestly it loses its novelty after a few times, simply because the cab part has to spin MANY times before it's full transformed-- just two or three spins would've worked much better, me thinks. When he reaches his fully revealed robot pose as far as the cab is concerned, he'll say "Roll out!" to let you know he's done transforming. (If it starts clicking, that's another sign it's done.)
    Optimus Prime's robot mode is definitely better than his vehicle mode, but it still has enough problems where it's questionable whether this toy is really worht $50. For one, there's a huge bumper hanging off of Optimus' butt, and the sirens just hang behind his head without folding away neatly. His arms are also extremely limited in articulation due to the gimmicks-- you can move his left arm forward as a whole to hear a "punch" sword, followed occasionally by a "ha HA!", but that seems an awful lot to sacrifice for a lame sound gimmick. His right arm you can lift up and then let it go for an "axe slicing" sound, but otherwise there's no shoulder articulation in that arm. The elbow can move at one point on that arm, but the axe Prime carries is heavy enough to cause the ratcheting joint to not support the weight fairly easily. Prime also can't turn his head-- inexcusable at this scale-- though the head sculpt is done fairly well, and it houses my favorite gimmick of the entire toy. Press in on the Autobot symbol on his chest in this mode, and he'll say either "My name is Optimus Prime" or "Bring it on!" The cool bit about this, though, is that his faceplate moves not just as he talks, but in the exact motions that fit with what he's saying. That's just awesome. Prime's lower half doesn't suffer from the gimmicks in this mode, though-- the proportions are pretty spot-on, and he can move at the waist, hips (at two points, and knees (at two points). As far as Prime's axe goes, when you press in on a small grey tab on the handle, a translucent orange flame piece will pop out the back and two transparent blue pieces will slide out and "extend" the axe, which is admittedly pretty cool, though the handle for the axe is MUCH too short.
    Roll Out & Command Optimus Prime is a fairly decent-looking toy in robot mode, but most of his gimmicks are overly obtrusive, he has a severely overly simplistic transformation and look for the high price point, and his vehicle mode is one of the weakest out of any of his toys. Only recommended for small kids who play really hard with their toys and prefer gimmicks over posablility (and who aren't low on money), or completists. Otherwise, get one of the smaller Animated Primes, they're much better.

Review by Beastbot

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