Optimus' Beast Hunters upgrade-- unlike most Autobots' and Decepticons' in the line-- is a brand new mold. He's a big honkin' heavy-duty truck just brimming with weapons and edges, and thus isn't much of a "robot in disguise" in this mode-- but honestly, when you're this loaded out, who needs disguise? Optimus' truck proportions are-- more or less-- a box on wheels in this mode, with no real steamlined look to it much at all. He looks pretty good from the front, with an awesome "spike bumper" and some hard angles to his design-- and I love the angular design of his folded up wings on the back two-thirds of this mode, as well. However, there are some fairly obvious robot mode extras in this mode. For one, Prime doesn't have a real back end-- it's just the bottom of his robot feet. No rear bumper in sight. His robot fists also poke out the back end. On the top, slightly behind the front, you can also quite obviously see the back of his head (which doesn't fold all the way in), and his shoulders are a bit obvious behind that section as well. On the sides, in the gap between the front wheels and the back wheels, his upper legs poke out a little too. Still, most of the REALLY blatant stuff is covered up by his folded wings, so despite all his faults here, he has the least obvious robot extras out of all the molds made for this design. There's plenty of mold detailing on him, but in that stylized Prime way, where there's areas of relatively little mold detailing (like the top front) and areas of what looks like curved metal bits on his gray parts next to occasional areas of quite intricate mold detailing, like his heavy-duty wheels (which are clip-on, but this is barely noticeable) and all the armor panels and little headlights on his front side. His color scheme is more or less classic Optimus Prime, with red, dark blue, and light gray being his primary colors. Unfortunately, his light gray is of the awful, boring "light milky gray" variety, and there's quite a lot of it in this mode (the dark blue comes more into play in robot mode)-- I really wish they had used a more metallic shade of the color, like that used on just the missile launchers on this toy. By now, you should now whether you like this general color scheme or not. The one new addition is transparent green on his weapon and a few other bits like his windows. It's a nice addition, particularly against the gray, and works nicely as an accent color. That said, almost all of Prime's paint apps-- most of them silver and yellow-- are on the front of this mode, with some nice silver grill and window-lining detailing, along with some yellow paint along the headlights and side windows. (The yellow paint apps on the side windows are a bit odd, given how his front windows are green-- but otherwise they're fine.) Not many paint apps are visible on the rest of him, and this is particularly an issue with all that light milky gray on his back end-- a few paint apps back there really would've livened things up more, and his wheels also could've used some paint on the hubs as well. For weaponry, Optimus has got two side-mounted missile launchers in this mode that have little "claws" that can open up, and each fires a spring-loaded missile to boot-- they're spiffy little extra weapons. He's also got a nifty green Star Saber sword with some nice gunmetal gray paint on the handle, but it just sorta sticks there on top and doesn't really try to blend in with the silouhette of this mode at all.
    Optimus Prime's robot mode transformation is a tad more complicated than you'd expect, involving folding in the sides and turning the whole upper section around at the chest before doing the conventional folding out of his limbs. The end result looks mighty fine, and is definitely what the primary focus of this design was all about. Optimus' proportions are beefed up in this mode, even compared to his previous Prime toys; yes, his head is small proportionally, but it's meant to be. He's got large, mostly curvy lower arms and legs, with a couple of nice edges on his shoulders. His chest and waist are particularly well-done, with the fake spiked bumper and grill/ab detailing looking mighty cool while his chest is the actual front/top of the truck mode proper. There's details of fake wheels on the inside of his lower legs, but without paint on those dark blue pieces, I'm not sure why they bothered. His head no longer has its signature faceplate deployed, and the smirk/grin looks a little... off for Optimus, though otherwise his headsculpt is pretty well-done, with excellent light piping for the eyes. All of this said, however, his hips and waist do seem a TAD too far up on the toy, but that's about my only proportional complaint. He's got a bit of a backpack made up of the front sides of his vehicle mode, but they stay pegged together and out of the way, so they're a minor issue at best. These little backpack pieces also serve a purpose-- they've got holes in them perfectly sized for Optimus' two side-mounted vehicle claw-guns, which can peg into the lower section of this backpack to look like jet boosters! I LOVE weapons with dual purposes like that. Obviously, Optimus also has spread-out wings on his upper back in this mode, though they do stick out from behind his upper back a tad further than I'd consider ideal. All four wings can splay out quite well, and they can rotate forward and backwards a bit as well-- in general they're just a nice little add-on to both the toy in general and Optimus' silhouette in this mode, and they're probably the biggest selling point of this version of Beast Hunters Optimus over the other molds of this design. For articulation, Optimus can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), wrist rotation, hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and slightly forwards and back at the ankles. (His waist looks like it can rotate, but unfortunately it can't.) Given his large feet and good stability, this means Optimus is fairly poseable, particularly when you take into account how beefy he is. Obviously, Optimus can also hold his Star Saber or either of his engine-guns in his fist holes in this mode.
    Beast Hunters voyager Optimus (the 2013 version) is the best all-around toy of his new upgraded design, with a stellar robot mode that only has a few very minor issues, nice articulation, and some pretty cool weaponry and wings. His transformation is also slightly more involved than the usual "fold out and rotate my appendages and head into place around my front section" Optimus transformation, which this Transfan appreciates. His vehicle mode certainly has some obvious robot mode bits showing, but it's still the mold that has the vehicle mode looking most obviously like a vehicle in spite of all this. If you're looking for a Beast Hunters Optimus toy, this guy's your 'bot.
 

(Continued from Chapter 4, Deluxe Wheeljack)
The moment the distress call sent by Wheeljack crackles to an abrupt stop, Optimus Prime springs into action. He orders Autobot Ratchet to overload the ground bridge enough to send him-- alone-- deep into space to join the fight against Megatron and Predaking. Ignoring the Autobot scientist's warnings that doing so will fry the bridge, leaving the Autobots without fast transport on Earth, and Optimus Prime no way home from space, he leaps into the glowing ring. Instantly, he finds himself in the swirling chaos of combat, fire lashing the air and smoke obscuring his optics. In the space of a moment, his warrior's mind grasps the situation, and he leaps into action, firing every weapon at his command at Predaking, hoping to give Bumblebee and Wheeljack the time they need to escape.
(Continued in Chapter 6, Voyager Predaking)

Eaglefire Missile Launcher:
-Compact size masks devastating power.
-Missile impact powerful enough to create earthquakes.
-Double as rocket engines for limited flight.

Strength: 10.0
Intelligence: 8.0
Speed: 7.0
Endurance: 10.0
Rank: 10.0
Courage: 10.0
Fireblast: 9.0
Skill: 8.0

Review by Beastbot

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