Optimus Prime's "Cyber Battalion" toy is very much a straight "update" of his G1 toy and traditional look. He's got the rather square, flat-nose truck look (though with a bit of a windvane this time), and it's pretty obvious that the truck bed in the back are his robot legs-- I really wish the feet could have folded down or something. Other than that, this mold is pretty extra-free and looks quite good. I like the additional mold detailing beyond simply "the basics" such as all the little lines on the wheels, four sets of headlights on the roof, and a few other "panel-y" details on the sides of the cab that aren't the doors. The color scheme is very much your classic Prime-- he's red, dark blue, and a bit of gray (a more "regular" shade of gray as opposed to the usual awful light milky shade-- thank goodness). Some of the red plastic used for his cab is just a tad off, though, and noticeably duller than the other red plastic for some odd reason. As far as paint apps, they're mostly adequate, though a few odd choices were made. The front windows are painted a nice light blue that contrasts excellently with the red, and the front four headlights are painted yellow; there's also some silver on the wheel hubs and on what becomes his lower robot legs on the back. However-- painting the hubcaps instead of stuff like side windows, or the silver tanks on the side that are kept blue, or ignoring all the taillight details on the back end and the eight (!) headlights on the roof of the truck? That's a bit of a bummer. Another issue I have with this mode is that the joints holding up the legs/rear section aren't strong enough-- if you pick the toy up by the front as you normally would, the legs droop down a fair bit-- however, there are little slots for the upper legs to tab into to keep them "pegged in" in this mode.
    Optimus Prime's transformation to robot mode is pretty much taken straight from the Autobot Alliance "G1" Legends figure, with the arms folding out from the sides with the wheels attached to the bottom of them and the truck grill and bumper section rotating around to show a more compact faux truck "abdomen" in its place. At this size, I'm really not a fan of big chunks like the wheels just hanging off the bottom of the arms, or a big square block behind the robot head, but other than that this mode looks pretty good, proportional, and quite accurate to Prime's traditional G1 form. The headsculpt is quite well-done, with well-sculpted antennae and face mask, along with a painted center head "vent", face, and faceplate. The abs are also done nicely, looking pretty well-proportioned while carrying over the necessary details from the grill and front bumper. However, the lower arms are a little weak, merely being molded into the sides of the truck mode. Additionally, beyond the face, there isn't much paint on Prime's robot-mode-only parts; just a bit of red on his midsection, and the silver vents near the bottom of his feet. His arms and upper legs in particular could have used some paint. As for articulation, Prime can move at the shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), and the hips (at two points, though as mentioned earlier, one of the points-- the front-to-back direction-- is rather loose). I see no reason why the neck couldn't move side-to-side, and there's absolutely no reason for a lack of knee articulation at this scale, even given the younger-than-usual age bracket that this subline is aimed at. Additionally, Prime could really use his trademark gun, or SOME kind of weapon-- he's got the holes in his fists for one.
    Cyber Battalion Optimus Prime is a pretty nice representation of his iconic G1 design at a level of complexity appropriate for younger fans that aren't quite "ready" for more complex Generations toys, though it does have some noticeable drawbacks, like the robot arms, a lack of any kind of weaponry, overly loose legs, no knee articulation, and a lack of paint in some areas. Still, proportionally he looks nice in both modes and is simple to transform without feeling overly "cheap" or soft-- which is good, given his price at Walgreens and especially his more-expensive price at Universal Studios' "Transformers: The Ride" stores.

Review by Beastbot

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