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

    "Premium" Optimus Prime hardly differs from the original Leader class Movie Prime at all in terms of color scheme. Usually the Premium toys have more metallic color schemes, but only about a third of Optimus Prime's light gray plastic is now coated in a nice-looking silver, unfortunately. (The parts that ARE silver are the small bits on top of his shuolders, the inside of his tires, his upper legs, and his truck grille.) Now, I can understand why very small parts like the hands aren't painted silver, but really, this is the mold's third use-- Hasbro should have made enough money off of this mold to coat more of the plastic in silver than it did, especially when you look at some of the other Premium toys. The other colors and paint apps on Premium Optimus are almost exactly the same as they were on the original toy.
    What's probably going to attract most buyers to Premium Prime, though, is that he's the only Premium toy to get a mold change. More specifically, his head has been remolded to be even more movie-accurate, with longer, more curved side antennae. It looks good, better than the previous one, in my opinion. However, the downside to this is that because the antennae are longer, there's little holes in the top of the truck mode for them to poke through-- it's small, but it's still a bit of an eyesore, admittedly. Also, Optimus Prime's hand-gun has been replaced with a hand-sword, now. It folds out onto his hand like the original's gun, though Prime's hand has to be retracted into his lower arm this time around. Press the button on the top of the blade, and it extends about another inch, with a rusty tip (Ouch, that's gotta hurt)! There's also some neat "Allspark language" symbols engraved on the blade, as well. As a whole, the new weapon's pretty cool, though it tends to fall off its peg a bit too easily. Premium Optimus Prime has also had his "final step transformation" sound replaced with the classic G1 transformation sound effect.
    Premium Optimus Prime doesn't have nearly as much metallic paint as I'd like, and his paint apps are otherwise almost the exact same as the original's, so I can't recommend him if you already have the original Leader class toy. However, if you don't, I'd recommend this slightly over the original-- the added bit of metallic silver, where it is added, looks very nice, and the new head and sword are pretty cool, as well.

Review by Beastbot

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