(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Generations voyager Roadbuster. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Generations voyager Roadbuster here.)

    "General" Optimus Prime is an homage to a cancelled toy from late in the Generation 2 line-- it was never actually produced, but a painted sample was found in an image in a '95 Sears catalog. Talk about obscure! As with multiple Optimus Primes in G2, this version of Optimus doesn't really look like Optimus at all, and was actually a redeco of a G2 Decepticon dump truck toy, originally. Obviously he's not a dump truck this time, though the mold's nearly square outline in vehicle mode makes for a semi-decent replacement. In robot mode he looks slightly more like the unreleased General Optimus toy, with a somewhat similar headsculpt (by coincidence, as it's unchanged from Roadbuster's), albeit one that's more square than the rounder version of the original. The chest is also fairly broad, and the legs share some similar details, but this is definitely more of a stretch mold-wise than Sgt. Hound, even if you ignore the lack of a new headsculpt on Prime. General Optimus' color scheme is mostly a fairly dark dull military green, which actually works much better on a military-esque vehicle than the dump truck alt mode of the original. There's also a lot of light milky sparkly gray-- I'm not all that fond of this color, but the copious amounts of glitter in the plastic does make it catch the eye at least slightly, and I can't deny it contrasts well with what is otherwise a fairly dark color scheme. In keeping with the gray, there's also a pretty decent amount of silver paint-- on the lower legs, as well as the front bumper and winch in vehicle mode and on the arms and shoulder launchers in robot mode. To serve as a dark "neutral" color, there's a fair amount of black on General Optimus Prime as well, from obvious places like the wheels and missile launcher to the feet, knees, and some other small parts like the hips and other minor details. To fit in with his whole "military" theme, he's also got a good number of "camoflauge" brown paint apps in vehicle mode-- however, this brown is a bit too pale, to the point where it doesn't really contrast against the dark green as well as it should have-- it reflects light too easily, and should have been either considerably lighter or a bit darker to really work, in my opinion. In fitting with Sergeant Hound, his transparent plastic is a rather nice shade of light orange, and he has a bit of yellowish orange paint on the rear side windows. He also has the G2 Autobot symbol along with the word "AUTOBOT" on the rear sides of the vehicle mode/lower robot legs in this color, which looks kind of weird by today's criteria but was pretty standard back in the G2 days. There's also an army star and "ARMY" script in the middle of the vehicle front hood/robot chest, partially copying that same detail from the original cancelled toy (though "U.S." prefaced "ARMY" on the original, and is not the case on this exclusive). With the various color and paint apps, there isn't one large section of General Prime that is too one-tone, but I do really wish his face had gotten some paint apps-- it looks too plain as-is.
    No mold changes have been made to General Optimus Prime.
    General Optimus Prime is a neat nod to an obscure unreleased toy, and I'm always happy to get something like this in my collection-- particularly since, given its appearance, it's anything but "another Optimus Prime". I also don't mind the changing of the alt mode to something more military, as it suits the character and color scheme much better. All this said, I think a few minor balls were dropped, such as the shade of brown used for the camo paint apps and the amount of light milky gray on the toy. He also could've really used a new headsculpt, since as-is he looks too much like Military Camo Roadbuster in robot mode. Whether I'd recommend this to you depends pretty much solely on whether getting a "modern" version of a previously unreleased obscure toy/character variant appeals to you at BotCon exclusive prices.

Review by Beastbot

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