Optimus' vehicle mode, in terms of actual general look and silhouette, is quite accurate to the show, with a rectangular trailer and a very stylized cab section, with "stretched" and angular doors, as well as stylized front windows, an angular grill and little "divots" along the front hood and along the sides of the trailer, near the rear. One thing that will become quickly recognizable if you have the Age of Extinction 1-step version of this character is that Optimus shares the same exact 1-step transformation as AoE Optimus, and thus has some of the same weaknesses in vehicle mode, such as a lack of a real "back" to the truck, with the feet obviously sticking out on the back, along with the backside of the faux chest plate piece from robot mode-- however, parts don't actually lock together or do anything to look solid back there, it's just some pieces stacked on top of each other, more or less. From a side view, the bottom portion-- that forms the legs and the back of the main body in robot mode-- definitely looks distinct from the top half of the trailer. There's also a tiny gap in between the bottom and the top half of the trailer if looked straight-on from the side, but from the vast majority of angles this isn't visible, so this is a minor downside. Also, even though it's not accurate to the show, though, it still looks decent enough, so I really don't mind it (I guess I'm just used to Optimus' legs being obvious on the back end of the truck mode, I dunno). On the plus side, because this Optimus has a full trailer, the arms aren't blatantly obvious like on AoE Optimus' vehicle mode, which is a HUGE plus. The top part of the trailer is generally quite solid. The color scheme is a little darker than your usual Optimus toy, with the red being a bit darker and milkier than normal. Honestly, though, show-accurate or not it's a great shade of the color, and looks great against the dark blue plastic and especially the dark metallic blue paint near the front sides of the trailer. However, the toy definitely isn't show-accurate in that most of the trailer is not blue, but rather red-- some more metallic blue on the top really would've looked nice and added a bit more variety. For a light color, there's some light grayish brown plastic on a bit of the sides and some connector pieces, but it's not very prevalent in this mode. It does contrast well against the darker colors, but it's a kind of boring, bland color itself. There is some silver on the front grill and front of the roof, though, along with black on the front window and wheels.
    Again, just like with the 1-step AoE Optimus toy, you press down on the front hood piece of the vehicle mode and the top pieces fold down and out and the chest and cab fold back to reveal the robot mode. (To get him back to vehicle mode, you have to pull the cab section back and "reset" everything into place.) The end result is a quite solid robot mode, with relatively little downsides for being a 1-step changer. Yes, there are some kibble issues, with "half boxes" of the trailer behind his arms, and the cab behind his back. There's also the sides of the truck mode on the sides of the main body. However, the trailer boxes on the back of the arms are really the only parts that bug me, as they partially ruin his silhouette and prevent backwards arm movement. The cab sits behind his back and out of the way pretty well, and only from a straight-on side view do the truck sides on the body really get in the way visually, so I don't mind those extras. Optimus' core robot mode proportions are quite good, though compared to the show, the legs aren't quite as long nor the shoulders as large; his main body is also a bit larger with a flatter chest than the show model. However, it's still easily recognizable as RID2015 Optimus, and only the inaccuracy of the chest details bugs me a little (especially since so much of the chest is that bland grayish brown plastic, which is totally inaccurate and also just not a great color). The colors are broken up a bit better overall, though-- partially thanks to the grayish brown, but also some red on the shoulders, silver on the lower arms, and some black on the knees and the faux window on his chest. The facesculpt is quite accurate, with silver on the faceplate and light blue eyes as well. For articulation, Optimus can move at the neck and back-and-forth at the shoulders. His legs can splay to the sides SLIGHTLY at the hips due to his transformation, but this doesn't really add much. So, overall, this is roughly average articulation for a 1-stepper.
    It's a shame that the first 1-step version of RID2015 Optimus Prime is a Target exclusive that only comes in a $50 U.S. pack with Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Grimlock, Steeljaw, and Underbite, with him being the only new mold (all the others are straight re-packs of the linked toys), since he's the best 1-step changer version of the character. Sure, he has some issues-- not much of a back end in vehicle mode and some inaccurate coloration, "half-boxes" behind his arms in robot mode, some slightly inaccurate proportions-- but overall he looks fairly good in both modes, taking the AoE 1-step transformation and improving upon it with the much better vehicle mode. If you like 1-step changers and can get him for a reasonable price, I'd mildly recommend him.
 

Review by Beastbot

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