Optimus Prime's alternate
mode is still a truck, but it's a truck that should look mighty
familiar. Proportions-wise, this mode is utterly fantastic; it looks
small for a voyager in this mode, but Optimus is actually very compressed
in this mode. The bottom of the robot feet are fairly obvious on the back
end, and from a rear view you can see the fake robot chest windows on the
back end of the truck, as well as a bit of a gap in between the two halves
of his rear section (which separate into legs in robot mode). There's also
more "crease lines" on the front and top of the front section due to Optimus'
transformation. Minor annoyances, yes, but none of these are deal-breakers
compared to what is otherwise a solid mode. The mold detailing is done
quite well, with little fake "rivets" all over the place, as well as a
nice detailed grill and the like. Color-wise he's very much traditional
Prime, with dark blue and red with some gray being his main colors. Both
the red and dark blue look nice enough, though his gray is of that super-boring
milky shade; thankfully, it being slightly darker than most milky gray
plastic on TFs helps it a little bit. The red paint is of a SLIGHTLY lighter
shade than the red plastic, but it's not super-noticeable. There's several
silver paint apps on the front-- the G1-esque stripe across the middle,
the bumper and headlights, and the side windows. (The front windows are
clear plastic, however, so it's a bit of a mismatch there-- I would've
preferred all-painted windows.) Although the feet pieces on the back end
are painted dark blue, the entire back section is dark blue, so it could've
used a bit more paint and/or color variance. All this said, I'm not sure
why Hasbro went with such a movie-inaccurate color scheme. In the movie,
Optimus is very faded and rusty-looking, with some faded flames on the
front, like he's traditionally had in the movies. I understand wanting
a "G1 homage" paint job, but this should have been saved for a store-exclusive
redeco, not the first mass release. As it is, going for a G1 homage over
movie accuracy for this release is rather frustrating. Optimus' weapon
is a shotgun with a spring-loaded missile launcher, which can be stored
either in a port on the top of the roof or in one of two ports on top of
the rear section. Obviously Optimus can hold the shotgun firmly in either
of his hands in robot mode, but even better-- this is Dark
of the Moon voyager Megatron's shotgun, a weapon that said toy never
had! With the slot-handle in the back, this weapon can also be held by
that toy, a VERY nice, clever, and unexpected touch.
Optimus' leg transformation
is simple enough, but his main body does some DARNED impressive folding
up and around of his various sections to make a robot mode that is very
close to his appearances in the first three movies, even with a different
alt mode-- a feat I would have considered near-impossible. The way everything
lines up with the fake down-scaled windows and grill on the front, the
protrusions around his shoulders, the fake smokestacks next to his head--
it's all incredibly well-done, and it all fits together well, too. That
said, transforming the body can be tricky, especially the first few times,
as there's not much room for all those parts to maneuver around in there.
Some people have also reported the faux chest piece cracking with some
first-run releases, though mine doesn't have that issue. Proportionally,
the robot mode is pretty much a masterpiece-- his arms are a tad small
propotionally, but just enough to be noticeable. The lower arms are merely
molded onto the insides of the truck mode roof, but said lower arms are
so close to being rectangular anyways that this is a pretty minor downside.
The legs are very well-proportoned and have all the big mold details Optimus
had from his design for the first three movies, and his headscupt is spot-on,
with an appropriately bitter look on his faceplate-less mouth. Optimus'
only real weakness in this mode is a lack of robot-specific paint apps.
His head is well-painted, with well-done clear plastic light piping for
the eyes. He's also got a few silver paint apps lining his chest windows
and headlights, and his fists are painted blue; the rest of his robot mode
bits are unpainted. His dark blue legs in particular could use some paint,
but also some important details like the smokestacks are left red, which
is a bit off-putting. For articulation, Optimus can move at the neck (at
two points), shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), slight
rotation at the wrists, rotation at the waist, and movement at the hips
(at three points; four if you include the sections the hip-tires are on),
knees, and ankles (at two points, including tilts). This makes for an incredibly
well-balanced, well-articulated robot that can pull off a lot of very nifty
poses, with one notable exception-- the elbows. Due to the transformation,
the upper part of the lower arms is at an angle to the lower part of the
lower arms, so unless you have Optimus' lower arms curled a bit at the
elbows, they're going to look a bit odd, particularly if his arms are straight.
"Evasion Mode" Optimus
Prime is one of the surprise hits from the Age of Extinction line,
as he's definitely my favorite voyager mold from the line and quite possibly
my favorite mold from the entire line, period. Both of his modes
are rock solid with little kibble, an incredible transformation, and excellent
proportions and articulation. His odd elbows and lack of movie-accurate
coloring and paint apps are this version's only notable downsides; the
only people I wouldn't recommend this toy to are young 'uns who want simple
transformations, as I could easily see them breaking him during transformation
what with all the tight cab panel-flipping.
*An online retailer-exclusive "Platinum Edition" 2-pack of this and voyager Grimlock was also released; however, Evasion Optimus is barely different from his mass-release, the only real differences being chrome silver used on the knees, upper arms, fists, waist, and part of the chest-grill, while the gray plastic is a shade or two lighter. Overall I think the chrome looks gaudy and out-of-place on a figure that's supposed to be "run down" like this, and the light gray looks worse as well, so I consider the mass release better than the Platinum version.
Review by Beastbot