Optimus
Prime (Masterpiece; "Year of the Horse" Edition) [Toys "R Us/Bigbadtoystore.com
Exclusive]
(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 Masterpiece Optimus Prime v2.0. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Masterpiece Optimus Prime v2.0 here.)
For this special "Year
of the Horse" edition of Optimus Prime, the "core robot" has colors that
are largely unchanged. His red is still red, and his dark blue still dark
blue; both colors are simply darker, duller shades. His prominent silver
stripes are still there, and his waist is still silver while his wheels
are still chrome silver and black. Some internal parts are now a medium
brown instead of gray, which works better with his overall duller color
scheme. The gray of his upper legs has been replaced with a more eye-catching,
semi-metallic version of the color, however, and the pelvis "lights" in
robot mode are now dark red instead of yellow, along with some minor changes
like the lights on top of his roof now being painted silver instead of
yellow. The biggest change to the core robot, though, is clearly the replacement
of most of his chrome silver with chrome gold; I quite like this change,
as it gives this piece a bit more of a "special" feel and adds to color
diversity as well. As for Prime's trailer, most of it is oddly a clear
plastic this time around, which may not be practical but looks pretty neat,
especially given all the parts and mold detailing you can see inside it.
What especially makes this eye-catching is the icy transparent blue plastic
used for most of the repair drone station, part of his trailer stand pieces,
and his "energy axe' hand attachment. All really combine with the trailer
to give it a semi-arctic feel. On the back of the trailer is a rather prominent
red-and-gold "Year of the Horse" Autobot symbol, mixing the Autobot symbol
with a horse's features on one half. It looks pretty cool, and definitely
calls this set out as something special.
No mold changes have
been made to "Year of the Horse" Optimus Prime, but his little human minifigure
and Roller drone have been removed on this version.
"Year of the Horse"
Optimus Prime is a pretty neat redeco of one of the best Transformers molds
of all time. The duller colors don't look quite as good as Optimus' traditional
red and blue, but the metallic gold, icy blue transparent plastic on some
of his trailer bits, and a few other minor differences like the addition
of brown make his color scheme slightly better overall, in my opinion.
However, that said, this set is $30 more than the original MP Optimus Prime
2.0, and it lacks its human minifigure and-- more importantly-- Roller
drone, the latter of which is pretty integral to Optimus' base. As such,
I'd have to recommend the original version of this mold over this redeco;
this is more for variant collectors or those who absolutely cannot find
the original release of this mold for a reasonable price.
Review by Beastbot