Optimus Prime (Evasion Mode) [AoE]
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Autobot
Size: Voyager
Difficulty of Transformation: Hard
Color Scheme: Dark blue, red, milky moderately light gray, and some black, silver, and clear plastic
Rating: 9.5 (mass release); 9.3 (Platinum Edition 2-pack)*

    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.



Optimus Prime (Evasion Mode) Bio:
Optimus Prime and the Autobots are faced with a new kind of war. Alliances that once were strong now stand in doubt. Nonetheless, Earth needs their protection more than ever. Optimus Prime adapts, redesigning his alternate mode so he can move unrecognized. If he cannot fight the battle with firepower on the front lines, he can fight it with covert maneuvers from the edge.

*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

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