Optimus Prime's first larger foray into the Prime toyline-- which, of course, makes it a bit hard to classify him, being a "Prime Prime" and all-- ends up with a truck mode with elements of both his G1 and movie designs in it. It's a long-nosed truck cab, like his movie versions, but it forgoes the flashy flame paint job in favor of a more by-the-book "Optimus" color scheme of simply being mostly a dull red in the front and a dark blue in the back, with various shades of gray/silver and black making up his secondary colors. It's not the most exciting of color schemes, but of course, it IS classic Optimus Prime, so it's hard to fault the designers there. What I'm not fond of, though, is just how blah and dull the light milky gray plastic is, particularly on his smokestacks (which are made of bendy plastic, by the way, but still peg into place in both modes) and on his front grill. It just doesn't look remotely metallic; I would've preferred silver paint at least on the grill. Some of the black plastic, however, does have quite a lot of silvery "glitter" to it, so that looks pretty nice. I do wish there were more varied paint apps for a bit more visual interest, however. Proportionally, for the most part this mode is good, but on the sides of it, something's just... off. I think it's the midsection; it looks a little squashed before it comes to the truck nose, not being quite as wide and slightly taller than you'd think the truck cab would be. You can also make out the upper robot legs somewhat obviously in between the midsection and the back blue area of the cab, though it's fairly minor compared to how often Optimus toys have really obvious feet back there (this one certainly doesn't). I also appreciate the addition of a fold-out "trailer hitch" piece-- it totally wasn't needed, but it helps the back end look less like his two robot legs compressed together, and that's appreciated. Prime's two weapons can store in the peg holes on the top of the back end, making them fairly obvious but also relatively out-of-the-way. (Since his sword is made of soft, malleable plastic, though, it doesn't stay in its hole as easily as the gun does.)
    The transformation to get Optimus into robot mode is a bit tricky, particularly for a toy from the Prime toyline-- especially when it comes to how to configure his arms when getting him into vehicle mode. Once you get it down though, it's totally worth it, and some of his transformation steps are just wonderfully done (such as the back half of his midsection separating off and combining with his blue pieces to form his legs, or his arms and back pieces all coming together to peg into his shoulder-wheels, which are, in fact, the actual wheels from his truck mode). Optimus' proportions in this mode are nothing short of extraordinary, mimicking his show CGI model almost exactly (with some minor extra kibble on the back, though this kibble also fragments in a diagonal manner just like his front mold detailing, and thus I actually sorta like it that way). He's a tad leg-gy as Optimuses often are, and he's broad-shouldered with arms that are strong-looking but not too buff, as well as a wide chest with an excellent, spot-on headsculpt that captures Prime's personality in the show perfectly. The rest of the mold detailing is fantastic, as well-- in vehicle mode it's a little on the low end due to the style of the show and the CGI model (with rivets being the only notable details in many cases), but here you can see all sorts of pipes and tubes around Optimus' neck, and a good amount of angular robotic detailing on his chest and waist, including fake "truck bumper halves" for pecs. I do find it odd that-- despite his real truck windows being on his robot chest-- his transformation involves folding fake, larger truck windows over those windows, though. His colors are also broken up a bit more here, particularly with the use of a dark dull brown. I feel a dull silver or gunmetal would've worked better and been more show-accurate, but this still doesn't look all that bad as a secondary color. (His arms really could've used some of that silver, though-- the're pretty much entirely lacking paint apps). For articulation, Optimus can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points, though his "shoulder flaps" also move to get out of the way of articulation), and at the elbows (at two points), rotational movement at the wrists and waist (though if you rotate the latter much, it looks weird, given that the center of rotation is off-center for his transformation), and movement at the hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and ankles (at two points). Given his balanced stance, this means Optimus is VERY poseable, and has all the articulation you could reasonably want on a toy of this size, other than the ability for his head to look up much. Prime's weapons, though simple, are quite well-done; when he holds either his gun or his sword in one of his hands, it looks similar to in the show when he "converts" a hand into one of these weapons; alternatively, you can combine the two weapons to form a bayonet-like weapon, though the sword peg-- because it's that bendy type of plastic, held in up-side down into the gun peg hole-- doesn't stay in all that well.
    The First Edition voyager version of "Prime Prime" is excellent nearly all around. His robot mode is practically flawless and excellently replicates his show model in a manner you wouldn't have thought possible, his articulation is excellent, he's got some fairly nifty (if simple weapons), and for the most part his vehicle mode gets the job done with no kibble, either. I'm not a fan of the "squished" middle version of his truck mode, but if you don't mind that and also don't mind more complex transformations, this is a must-get. This is definitely the "definitive" toy of Optimus Prime in the Prime TV show for Seasons 1 & 2, especially when it comes to the robot mode.

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Review by Beastbot

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