In what is a pretty common occurrence for simple Optimus Prime toys, Prime's truck mode for his Knight Armor Turbo Changer is pretty good- for the front cab section, at least. The back end section is VERY weak, as is often the case, but MAN is it obvious here. Like, the legs are just THERE. Even pointed out, actually, due to the fact there's actually blue paint on the outside of those back portions that, by their absence, highlight the gray robotic portions that make up said legs. Plus, I mean, the feet are just right there as well, sticking up out of the back end, with not even some of the details in the back like some taillights or a trailer hitch that even the Titan Changer managed to include. The front section is pretty proportional to the custom Western Star truck cab overall, and all of the mold details you'd expect from the vehicle mode are present here. You've got treaded wheels with heavily-bolted centers, a slitted front grill, gas tanks on the sides, a large visor over the main window, etc. The main two colors used on the toy are a light milky gray (yuck, blah) and a rather nice shade of dark blue. Since the shade is a bit milky with some glitter in it, it shimmers in a semi-metallic manner and looks good. Unfortunately, it needs more to contrast against than just that ugly light milky gray and black tires, and this mode is pretty sparse on paint apps. There is some blue paint on the sides, but it just gives the toy more of the same shade of blue plastic used on much of the front section. As far as DIFFERENT paint colors, there's just some dull red flames on the front and sides-- so dull, in fact, it doesn't stand out against the dark blue nearly enough, especially if the light isn't shining directly on it. There is some silver on the smokestacks, the front window-visor, and the upper portion of the front grill, but that's it. The windows aren't painted, which at a $20 large toy, is a significant oversight-- it makes the whole thing look rather unfinished.
    Prime's transformation is kinda cool in its simplicity. Raise up the entire cab section and pivot it forward and around the toy, slotting into the upper legs of Optimus' robot mode. The rest of the toy auto-converts, with the legs and arms splaying out. The end result, at least proportionally, is pretty decent for a simplistic toy. The legs are just a titch short (for a Prime), but otherwise pretty good, the arms are nice and beefy, head is fairly proportional. The chest is a bit too wide, but otherwise decent. The kibble, though, is definitely something. Since the legs are just sticking out the vehicle mode, here they look better, but have the gas cans on the sides of the upper legs in a rather nasty reverse of the vehicle mode problem. The arms are just molded into the inside of the front cab/side pieces, though at least the halves of the front portion of the cab make for decent shoulders. This toy is DEFINITELY not meant to be looked at from the side, as that entire cab section is now just on his back-- and not just on his back, but hanging down all the way to his knees! It at least slots into place, but that is one HUGE extra. The smokestacks, also, bizarrely, fold back to reveal really long, fake smokestacks that are waaay too far behind his body. The mold detailing in this mode is at least pretty nice, with the curved, compact details of Optimus' robot mode nicely represented where they appear. The arm details are a bit small, but all present. The leg details aren't quite as crisp, but more proportional to the toy. His skirt piece is a bit small but adequately layered here, and his chest detailing is quite impressive, though the "pecs" are definitely too small. The head detailing is also pretty movie-accurate, complete with his collar. The color breakup is where this mode gets particularly painful, as his robot mode is almost all that incredibly bland light milky gray. There's some blue-and-red on his pecs, and some blue on his skirt piece, but every other piece is almost entirely gray-- even his head, which only has two strips of blue on the forehead and metallic teal on the eyes. With all of this great mold detailing, it's a crying shame so much of it is in this extremely boring color. By pressing on a button near the center of Optimus' chest, you can activate his Knight Armor helmet, which is a spring-loaded piece that slaps in front of his existing headsculpt. It definitely makes for a meaner-looking Optimus, with large teeth-like details on his faceplate, side antennae bolted on, and large samurai-like horns around his existing central forehead piece. Most of it's painted red (except for his teal eyes), making him look even meaner. It's a pretty spiffy addition. For articulation, Optimus can move forward at the elbows-- that's it, though it's also pretty average for this size class.
    Knight Armor Turbo Changer Optimus Prime has a rather interesting, unique, and simple transformation, but it definitely comes at a steep cost-- very blatant legs on the back end of the vehicle mode and some huge pieces of kibble in robot mode. He's also very lacking in paint, particularly in robot mode, which has entirely too much bland light milky gray plastic on it. The Knight Armor gimmick is cool, though. I'd still recommend this the most out of the simpler TLK Optimus toys, but that more speaks to just how bad/meh the other attempts are than how good this one is.
 

Review by Beastbot

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