Optimus Prime here is
in a bit of "squat" form of his truck vehicle mode to make even more kid-friendly.
Based on the details, like the gun on the back, it's based on his Voyager
class toy and not the other Animated Optimus toys that have a flat
truck bed. The front wheels are a bit further back than they should be
as a side effect of the whole "push bumper to convert" gimmick, but other
than that the proportions seem fair enough on the toy for a kiddie-fied
Animated toy. If there's one thing that Bumper Battlers are good at, it's
having a good amount of paint detailing, and Prime here is no exception--
there's no spot of red or blue on him in this mode that's too large and
unbroken by paint. His name is printed in a stylized manner between his
tires on each side of his tires, and other nice touches-- such as the painted
dynamic stripes on the sides, the light blue sirens, the silver gun, and
the painted headlights and tail-lights, really make this color scheme more
visually interesting than it otherwise would have been. The only paint
app I would have added is to the chunk of red plastic under his silver
gun-- painting the windows black would've helped, as there's some pretty
noticeable mold detailing there without any paint (and it's painted on
the Voyager class toy, as well). Also like all Bumper Battlers, pressing
down on the Autobot symbol on his truck hood-- or, in robot mode, the unpainted
blue Autobot symbol near the front of the vehicle mode-- will activate
anywhere from 1-4 sequential sound effects which are played out in a semi-randomized
manner. There's a ton of different ordered sound effects you can get out
of the toy, and they're never played in a manner that doesn't make any
sense-- and yes, the show voice actor does Optimus Prime's voice on the
toy. Pressing in on the front bumper of his vehicle mode will automatically
transform him to robot mode and also play some of these random sound effects.
Here's a list of all the different sound effects I got out of Bumper Battler
Optimus Prime after a couple dozen button presses (though again, with the
vast number of different random ordering of sound effects he has, I may
have missed a few):
-"Transforming" noise
-"Tires screeching" noise
-"Exertion/grunting" noise
-"Axe swiping/clanging" noises
-"Axe throw" noise
-"Fire truck honk" noise
-"Engine revving up" noises
-"Crashing" noise
-"They'll never see us coming!"
-"Battle mode!"
-"Bring it on, Decepticons!"
-"My name is Optimus Prime."
-"Transform and roll out!"
-"Vehicle mode!"
-"Go, go, go!"
-"Autobots" (followed by some appropriate
command listed above)
As with any Bumper Battler,
the top half of the vehicle mode springs up to become Optimus Prime's "robot
mode". Weak, yes, until you realize how young the target audience is. As
with most Bumper Battlers, the exposed part of the vehicle mode below the
robot "knees" is ignored, so it's a large unpainted bit of blue plastic,
but Optimus' robot parts squeezed inside the upper part of the truck mode
have plenty of paint-- heck, he's more painted than some of his mainline
toys! No part of his robot mode is lacking paint where there should be
any. He can also move his neck right-to-left, and his wrists can rotate
around. Granted, it's not much movement, but it's more than any other Bumper
Battler in robot mode. His robot mode does look a little more "smushed
up" in the upper part of the vehicle mode because of its odd shape, however,
when compared to most of the other Bumper Battlers.
Bumper Battler Optimus
Prime is a great toy for kiddies who are too young yet to transform "real"
Transformers, and the myriad sound effects on a $10 toy are cool. Even
by Bumper Battler standards, however, his proportions are a little squeezed
in robot mode and he's got a big unsightly hollow chunk of his vehicle
mode sitting below his knees in robot mode-- larger than most other Bumper
Battlers, which is why he's honestly one of my least favorites of the subline.
Review by Beastbot