The vehicle mode for this "Evolution" toy-- where the vehicle forms both an "original" form and an "upgraded" form with the Matrix, depending on whether you use part or all of the vehicle mode-- is divided up pretty simply; the cab forms Orion Pax, whereas the cab + the trailer forms Optimus Prime. (Unfortunately the trailer doesn't form anything else-- no base mode for this version of Optimus, friends.) The cab, put bluntly, is pretty horrible. The front section looks okay-- it's got a solid square section up there on the front, with lots of details molded in like the grill, headlights, side windows, "rivets" on the paneling, and the like. Fron the front it's a LITTLE wide, but not by much. The back portion of the cab, though... oof. It's Energon Optimus all over again, with the robot arms lazily just kinda stuck behind there without any real attempt to hide them. On a lesser note, there's a definite gap in between the front and rear wheels on the sides, and when separated from the trailer, the bottom of Orion Pax's head (which forms a little "hitch" to connect the two parts of the vehicle mode together) sticks out pretty obviously. So do the heels from Orion's robot mode, coming out at odd angles right behind the rear wheels. The trailer is definitely stronger than the truck cab, with a pretty solid rectangular shape, though it's got its own problems as well. The top of the combined mode chest is pretty obvious on the front end of the trailer, even if it fits into the overall silhouette of the trailer. The robot shoulders and lower arms are also fairly obvious on the top (though again, they still fit into the trailer silouhette). There's a gap in between the arms, though this can thankfully be mostly "filled" by plugging in Optimus' gun in there, which can separate into two smaller guns if you so desire. The rear portion of the trailer is more solid overall. It's a bit panel-y (like the rest of the sides of the trailer), and the back end is blue because of the plastic breakup, but otherwise it's pretty solid. There's two little pegs near the back top end of the trailer that you can stick a Prime/Titan Master on in their own little robot modes. The mold detailing on the trailer is fairly good for the most part, with lines and "rivet" details down most of the sides, giving it a "metal box" appearance. That said, the front fourth or so doesn't have this kind of detailing (at least the lines, the rivets are still present). This looks a bit odd. You've also got foil stickers used for Optimus' usual angled stripes along the sides, and these foil stickers look HORRIBLE, as segmented up as they are. Given the transformation the edges of them can peel off fairly easily too. Why u no use paint apps here, Hasbro? Ick. As you'd expect, the vast majority of the trailer is a milky gray plastic, though it's not the light milky gray plastic, so it doesn't look that dull. There's a bit of red on the portions that form Optimus' arms, and dark blue on the back and bottom, as well as the obvious black on the wheels and gun. Regarding the cab coloration, of course the front section is red while the back portion is dark blue, with a bit of milky gray here and there. The front section of said cab is where nearly all of the paint in this mode has gone-- the entire front grill and bumper is painted silver, as well as plating on the sides below the windows, silver on the rear-view mirrors, and silver on the windshield wiper details and around the headlights. It's quite impressive, really, and it's all backed up with solid mold detailing, including rivets on his various panels. (The robot kibble sections on the back aren't that well-detailed though, because... well, probably because they don't want you to focus on those parts in this mode.) There's also pale yellow paint on the headlights and some light blue on the side windows, while the front windows are transparent light blue. While the transparent light blue plastic isn't a bad shade, I wish it was just painted, both to match the side windows in coloration and because as-is you can very obviously see the Matrix right there behind said front windows.
    As opposed to Orion Pax's "Thrilling 30th" form, in which he looked a lot more like a young Optimus Prime, this version goes a lot more cartoon-accurate with a head and body that only hearkens to Optimus Prime in the color scheme and a few minor details, such as the faux transparent blue chest window and some yellow and silver details on said chest. The color scheme is also pretty familiar, with red on the upper body and most of the arms, dark blue on the lower legs, fists, head, and hips, and milky gray on most of his upper legs and a few other minor connector parts. To keep him as truck-kibble-free as possible--at least from the front-- the wheels from the truck mode are on the back of his legs here. That said, Orion does have a definite backpack, with a few panels folded over each other in front of the truck front (which is on his back because of the transformation-- basically you kinda "open up" the back end of the truck cab and unfold it all to transform the toy into Orion Pax's robot mode). Other than that backpack, though, the proportions in this mode are pretty good, being a bit slimmer than Optimus Prime's. The headsculpt is spot-on to the original cartoon, with a fairly neutral, "normal" silver face with light blue eyes with a dark blue "helmet" on that is rounded, with small vents on the sides and a two-pronged design that comes down the top of the head. Beyond the relatively simple shapes on his chest and a few circular details on his shoulders and legs, though, Orion Pax is rather sparsely detailed mold-wise-- which I suppose does fit in with his cartoon model, overall. (The sole exception to this is his faux window-chest, which has some pretty cool "bubble" details in it.) He does have some of those foil stickers on his lower legs, which mimic some G1 Optimus sticker details down there. For articulation in this mode, Orion Pax can move at the neck, shoulders, elbows (at three points), hips (at three points), knees, and slightly up-and-down at the ankles, so he's fairly poseable.
    The combined form of both the truck cab and the trailer to make Optimus Prime is definitely the best form of this toy-- it makes a pretty solid Optimus Prime toy by itself, but even moreso when you consider the gimmicks gone into making this toy. Basically the cab is folded into mostly a cube and shoved into the main body of this mode, only really contributing the robot head and chest to this mode while the trailer is unfolded and forms the rest of Optimus's body. It's a pretty faithful recreation of Optimus's iconic G1 robot form, all things considered, right down to the folded-up smokestack pieces on his shoulders. Now, there are a few panels folded up that are fairly obvious-- specifically on his lower arms and behind his lower legs, as well as a bit on the sides of his chest-- but these are minimal issues. For one, the panels behind his legs actually give much-needed mass to those parts and help them look "beefier" than just the front section would have otherwise. The panels on the sides of the chest are kind of required, as there needs be some sort of "skeleton" of the chest there for you to shove the cab portion into. The panels on the lower arms are admittedly a bit less needed, but at least they fold up properly and don't get in the way of articulation much. No, the real "kibble" in this mode are Orion Pax's legs just kind hanging out behind Optimus' body. Granted, they fold up and tab into Orion's chest, so they don't move much nor get in the way much, but they're definitely noticeably there, peeking out behind Optimus' head. All of the necessary Optimus Prime mold details are here, from the faux grill and headlights on his abs and waist to the faux truck windows on his chest, to the vent details on his lower legs and faux taillight parts on his feet. Honestly, the coloration is the only thing that makes it particularly obvious this isn't just some slight variation of Optimus Prime's G1 form-- due to the fact that so much of this mode forms the trailer, more of him is gray than usual. That said, he's still got enough coloration in this mode overall-- most of his arms and main body are painted red, while his lower legs and feet are dark blue. He's got some pale yellow for the faux headlights on his waist, some silver on his vents on his lower legs, and his head is painted nicely with a silver faceplate and forehead vent, with moderately light blue eyes. The details on his faux truck cab windows are also quite intricate, and if you open them up you'll find... well, his ACTUAL cab windows under them, but if you open THOSE up as well there's Optimus's Matrix inside there, which you can pull out. It has a nice moderately light orange paint applied to it and looks good against the transparent light blue-- and of course, like with the other Matrices in this line, you can take out the center portion and replace it with a Prime Master to "power up" Optimus with a particular Prime Master power. Unfortunately Optimus does have those awful foil stickers, though they aren't as prevalent on him as on some other PotP toys. He has foil Autobot stickers on his shoulders, some minor robotic detail stickers on his lower arms, and more robotic detail stickers on his knees. For articulation in this mode, Optimus can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), hips (at three points), knees, and ankles (at three points). Thus, waist rotation would have been appreciated, but otherwise he's very articulated in this mode and well-balanced to boot, so he can pull off some pretty cool poses. (Of one final minor note, there is a small lever you can push down on on Optimus' butt to allow you to "eject" the cab portion from the trailer more easily than just yanking it out.)
    "Evolution" Orion Pax/Optimus Prime is an excellent idea in concept, and both Orion Pax and Optimus Prime have excellent, articulated, proportional robot modes with few downsides (mostly only some minor kibble). That truck mode, though... oof. The cab looks absolutely horrible, with TONS of extras, and the trailer definitely has some obvious robot bits in it, as well as not forming a "complete"-looking box and having obnoxious foil stickers for his stripe details. Because of the severe weakness of the alt mode, this is my least recommended of the (non-Fan Vote) Leader-class "Evolution" PotP toys.

Review by Beastbot

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