Titanium Optimal Optimus
is technically a triple changer, with a jet mode and a ground vehicle mode.
Both modes are barely different from each other, however, and the original
Optimal Optimus' ape mode is MIA on this toy, so both vehicle modes
are going to be discussed as one for this review. Generally speaking, Optimal
Optimus' vehicle modes are incredibly lame, though at the very least you
can't really fault the Titanium people for that-- that's how they were
on the original toy, too. It's entirely too obvious he's just basically
on his stomach with his hands splayed in front of them (and connected to
the main front tire if you're talking about the ground mode), while his
legs are tucked up into themselves and serve as the rear-- no effort is
made to conceal the appendages at all, and neither vehicle mode really
looks like much. In fact, Titanium Optimal Optimus' alt modes are every
WORSE than the original toy's-- his arms stick out more awkwardly, the
back of his robot head is painfully obvious on the top of this mode, and
the cockpit section sticks out a bit below where it should to look "right".
The only difference between his two vehicle modes is the position of the
hands and the wheel and the splaying (or lack thereof) of the arm-wings.
Even as weak as the original Optimal's vehicle modes were, they were at
least a little more different than THAT. Not to mention that the wheels
are still all rather visible in jet mode, which is pretty lame. What's
also pretty lame is that, on both the toy itself and on the display stand,
Optimal Optimus is classified as an Autobot-- and he's a Maximal! Ugh.
The color scheme of dull purple, dark blue, orange, and silver is still
original and fairly good-looking, however, and Optimal has a fair number
of paint apps and mold detailing, so that's always good. Plus, he no longer
has those super-annoying "arm shields" that the original toy had.
Optimal Optimus' robot
mode is where the toy excels-- as was true on the original toy, as well.
In fact, this version actually looks a little better in robot mode than
the original-- although the proportions are still rather ape-like (it wouldn't
be Optimal Optimus without the ape proportions, after all), the arms don't
stick out too awfully far to the sides and, with the exception of the tiny
upper legs, it's just altogether more pleasing to look at. I do hate those
big pegs on his palms, though (they're used to peg into the front wheel
in vehicle mode), I wish there was someway to fold them into the hands
or something. Unlike on the original toy, the guns can be flipped into
the chest very easily, though a side effect of this is that when they're
deployed they're less massive. On the plus side, Optimal's head sculpt
is pretty good, being very faithful to the original yet a bit more expressive
as well. Optimal Optimus also has great articulation-- he can move at the
head, shoulders (at two points), elbows, wrists, hips (at two points),
knees, and he also can move a little at the ankles, too. And, given his
big feet, that means you can get a pretty good number of poses out of him.
Optimal's diecast is in his lower feet, upper arms, the front half of his
main body, and the little glossy blue bits connecting his main body to
his arms.
Titanium Optimal Optimus
has a fairly neat robot mode, but his vehicle modes are beyond awful, and
he's completely missing his ape mode. As such, he's one of the worst 6"
Titaniums released that I know of so far. If you really want to get the
character, save up a little can get the original Optimal Optimus toy instead.
Review by Beastbot