(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 the original RotF Leader class Optimus Prime toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original RotF Leader class Optimus Prime toy here.)

    The "core" Optimus Prime toy for this exclusive is completely unchanged in terms of its colors and paint apps from the original RotF Leader class Prime toy-- what you're buying here is, in addition to this awesome but complex mold, some pretty huge extra pieces, consisting of a quadruple-turbine jetpack and two enormous cannons. Both can fit on Optimus in both modes, but they're primarily made for the robot mode, where they're made to emulate Optimus Prime with his "trailer backpack" on, like in this movie. Unfortunately these extra pieces can't form a trailer for vehicle mode, and thus look out-of-place and overly large in vehicle mode, but still in an oddly cool way. Each of Optimus' four wings-- which have white and blue stripes on them emulating his "classic" trailer paint apps, a nice touch-- can move up and down (or back and forth if you're talking about vehicle mode). His oversized cannons can be held solidly either attached to his turbines or to his robot mode fists. They're really cool, ridiculously large weapons, but don't fire missiles or have electronics, in case you're wondering. The gold-to-red fade on the main body of the cannons looks quite nice and fits in well thematically with his vehicle mode nose. The "charged up" feel of the electric blue used on the interior parts of the cannons also gives them a real "energetic" feel, and the orange "red hot" fade on the tips of the cannons is another nice touch that really makes Optimus look like he's in the middle of combat. Finally, for his "normal" robot mode, he's got an additional cannon accessory that's identical to that he used in Revenge of the Fallen. Of additional note is that a few minor mold changes have been made to the "core" Optimus figure, such as clips to help attach his cannons and backpack. His flip-out swords from his arms have also been removed because they'd get in the way-- which is fine by me, I thought they were mildly annoying accessories anyway when they weren't flipped out.
    If you don't have the original RotF Leader version of Optimus Prime and don't mind complex transformations, this is absolutely a must-buy of a toy, given that it does a pretty good job of emulating Prime's jetpack from DotM in robot mode without messing with his proportions and articulation like the "Ultimate" version does. (The price of this, though, is no vehicle mode trailer.) In my mind, this is the definitive version of movieverse Optimus (at least that you don't have to import)-- an awesome, accurate toy with great, huge accessories. If you already have the RotF Leader Prime, though, despite how awesome it is I'd only recommend picking up this mold again if you're a completist, given the price and how the main toy is 99% identical to the original.

Review by Beastbot

(Images from Hasbro.)

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