(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 deluxe Armada Optimus Prime. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of deluxe Armada Optimus Prime here.)

    In one of the most bizarre and non-sensical repaints Hasbro has done in recent years-- especially of the non-exclusive variety-- the deluxe-sized version of Armada Optimus Prime has been repainted into CYBERTRON Optimus Prime, with no real explanation given for why he's suddenly back in his Armada form. Armada Prime's new deco job is made to resemble the repaint of the Super-sized Cybertron Prime mold, called Galaxy Force Optimus Prime. And, oddness of the reuse of the mold aside, the color scheme is pulled off extremely well. The red used for this toy is of a quite attractive, eye-catching color, and this is one of the few times that bluish black on the legs, head, and lower arms looks better than a plain black, as it both gives Prime a different look while still retaining some of that "blue-ness" that has always been a staple color of Prime's. The light gray is generally where it's always been on the toy, but that doesn't mean it still isn't a good contrast color. This version of Optimus Prime also has more paint apps than the previous versions of this mold have had, which is appreciated considering that this is the first time the mold's been released without its partner Minicon. The white outline on the windows is a tad tacky, even if it does draw its placement from the larger Galaxy Force Optimus Prime toy. The blue paint apps on the shoulders, legs, and arms look the best, in my opinion, and really blend in nicely with the surrounding colors. The white apps on the shoulders also add a nice contrast to the figure, as does the silver apps-- heck, all of the paint apps are excellently placed and work very well with the figure. On some of the later-released versions of this toy, the Cybertron planet symbols, painted in silver, have been added to the top of the truck mode to spice things up even more.
    Although no mold changes have been made to the core Optimus Prime toy, his Minicon has been removed and instead replaced with a modified Cybertron Cyber Key with a painted-on Autobot symbol and a Minicon port. This allows the Cyber Key to do the work of a Minicon on the toy-- quite creative, really, but still a bit of a cheapo way out considering the earlier Armada remolds in the line got their gimmicks remolded to actually fit Cyber Keys. Also, some of the earliest versions of this toy released has the same annoying backwards-arm problem that Universe Ultra Magnus had, ugh. This has been fixed in all releases after the first few sightings, however.
    Deluxe Optimus Prime is a great repaint of one of the best Armada molds-- however, this mold has been used four times now, the repaint is pretty nonsensical, and he's traded in his Minicon for a less-playable Cyber Key. Still, overall I'd say he's the best paint job this mold has ever had, so if you don't own any of this mold's previous versions, pick it up by all means, you won't regret it.

Review by Beastbot

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