Review #1: Classics Voyager Class Optimus Prime
with Fansproject G3 Trailer
I'll buy any Transformer I really like. (And have the budget for, of course!) But two areas that I tend to specialize in would be "Classics" style Transformers (including any of the later lines such as, "Universe 2.0," "Generations," or "Reveal the Shield" that were obvious successors to "Classics") and the character of Optimus Prime. So, I thought, what better place to start with my first review for this site then with the Classics Voyager Class Optimus Prime?
Now for a bit of a disclaimer. Obviously, this isn't entirely an off the shelf Hasbro prouduct. The basic Optimus Prime toy here is an official Hasbro Transformer, and I wouldn't have it any other way. He has, however, been added to and augmented.
The most obvious thing, of course, is the big, huge, grey plastic box attached to the back end of the truck. I am of the opinion that no G1 (or G1 inspired, in this case) Optimus Prime really looks complete without his trailer. Sadly, but predictably, Hasbro declined to offer a trailer for the Classics Optimus Prime. Fortunately, a third-party company by the name of Fansproject stepped in and provided the necessary accessory to complete Classics Optimus Prime with what they called the, "G3 Trailer."
Also, this has been augmented by stickers from a website called Reprolabels who produce reproductons of G1 sticker sets to help refurbish your older Transformers, or original sticker sets to help augment some newer Transformers. In this case, there are stickers from two sets being used: a set for the G3 Trailer, and a "Classics Autobots" set that included stickers for Optimus Prime's cab as well as, as the name implies, some other Classics style Autobots. (More on them, of course, in their eventual reviews.)
Finally, Optimus has what may be some more subtle customization in the form of the removal of a wee bit of yellow paint with some careful use of rubbing alcohol, and some slight additional silver detailing thanks to the use of a metalic silver Sharpie marker. (It does match perfectly with the silver paint that was already used on the figure.)
So... On with the review!
The most obvious thing, of course, is the big, huge, grey plastic box attached to the back end of the truck. I am of the opinion that no G1 (or G1 inspired, in this case) Optimus Prime really looks complete without his trailer. Sadly, but predictably, Hasbro declined to offer a trailer for the Classics Optimus Prime. Fortunately, a third-party company by the name of Fansproject stepped in and provided the necessary accessory to complete Classics Optimus Prime with what they called the, "G3 Trailer."
Also, this has been augmented by stickers from a website called Reprolabels who produce reproductons of G1 sticker sets to help refurbish your older Transformers, or original sticker sets to help augment some newer Transformers. In this case, there are stickers from two sets being used: a set for the G3 Trailer, and a "Classics Autobots" set that included stickers for Optimus Prime's cab as well as, as the name implies, some other Classics style Autobots. (More on them, of course, in their eventual reviews.)
Finally, Optimus has what may be some more subtle customization in the form of the removal of a wee bit of yellow paint with some careful use of rubbing alcohol, and some slight additional silver detailing thanks to the use of a metalic silver Sharpie marker. (It does match perfectly with the silver paint that was already used on the figure.)
So... On with the review!
Most toys in the original Classics line did not feature Autobot or Decepticon faction symbols. Instead they featured the heat sensitive "rub symbols" popular on G1 toys starting in 1985 that, when rubbed, would display the apropriate symbol. In the days of G1 these were mainly included as a way of saying, "This is an official toy, not a knock-off," and were usually on figures in addition to standard faction symbols. As stated, however, in the Classics line they were often used by themselves in place of a faction symbol. This is something which I, myself, did not care for. Thus, even for figures that did not have their own dedicated Reprolabels set, I would often put a faction sticker somewhere on them.
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Here you can see the faction symbol was added to the side of the cab. (The rub symbol is on the opposite side of the cab in aproximately the same place, but foolishly, I neglected to get a good photo to show that. You should be able to get the idea, however.) Other additions notable in this mode are the stickers giving the bumper, the grill, and the smoke stacks a cromed look; stickers that provide better headlights; and some of the silver Sharpie work mainly to either side of the grill on the front end of the cab.
So, what are my opinions of the figure in this mode? I rather like it. It is strongly evocotive of the original G1 Optimus Prime's flat-nosed truck while updating it to a more modern design asthetic, something that is a common theme with the "Classics" figures. Also, something else that is common with these figures is that any weapons and accessories are integrated into the vehicle mode. This is a featute of more modern Transformers that I always apreciate.
As seen here on the left, the smoke stacks and the wind vain both seperate from the cab and convert into weapons for Optimus to wield in his Robot mode. |
Moving on to the G3 Trailer for a moment, here we see it on its own in its trailer mode. It features a fold down stand towards its front end to keep it upright when not attached to the cab. The detailing is quite nice with lots of texture on the sides and other molded detail on the front and back ends. A concern with third party products sometimes can be, do they feel like they are as good a quality as an official product? This, like other Fansproject products I have experienced, definitely does measure up. The plastic used feels nice and strong, and I never worry about breaking it in the course of normal use.
It is worth pointing out that, as a third party product, it did not come with any faction symbols. Fansproject is already in a bit of a grey area, and does not want to directly infringe on Hasbro copyrights by putting an Autobot symbol on the side of this thing! They were, however, nice enough to leave an obvious place for one to go, and the Reprolabels set for the trailer provided it. Also, the wheels on this set were subtly different from the ones on Classics Prime. While on Prime the wheels have six open spaces on them, the ones on this trailer had only three open spaces alternating with three recessed grey plastic areas. Reprolables provided little black stickers to fill those areas in and, as you can tell from the above photos, they now seem identical to the wheels on the cab. Finally, while the G3 Trailer did include a licence place sticker that said, "G3 Trailer," the set from Reprolabels provided some other options such as the one seen above.
It is worth pointing out that, as a third party product, it did not come with any faction symbols. Fansproject is already in a bit of a grey area, and does not want to directly infringe on Hasbro copyrights by putting an Autobot symbol on the side of this thing! They were, however, nice enough to leave an obvious place for one to go, and the Reprolabels set for the trailer provided it. Also, the wheels on this set were subtly different from the ones on Classics Prime. While on Prime the wheels have six open spaces on them, the ones on this trailer had only three open spaces alternating with three recessed grey plastic areas. Reprolables provided little black stickers to fill those areas in and, as you can tell from the above photos, they now seem identical to the wheels on the cab. Finally, while the G3 Trailer did include a licence place sticker that said, "G3 Trailer," the set from Reprolabels provided some other options such as the one seen above.
The back of the trailer does open. No huge surprise, it would have been a monumental let down otherwise. It does open in a rather nice way, however. Unlike the G1 trailer which just had the back wall of the trailer open straight down to form a ramp, this one has twin doors much like an actual trailer. Once you open those, then another panel not only folds down, but also extends to form a long ramp. Inside the trailer you can find what the G3 set called, "Carrier," but the Reprolabels give back the proper name of "Roller." (Pictured left.)
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The trailer is quite roomy inside and in addition to Roller, you can fit up to two (depending on their size) deluxe class cars! Above on the right you can see Tracks peaking out from inside... But I'm sure he'll get his on review someday, (note: he has!) so enough about him for now.
The trailer has two more tricks up its sleeve in this mode. The first provides added functionality with another Fansproject product, which alas I don't have. It is an additional pair of wheels and a second trailer hitch that folds out from under the trailer to provide at attachment point for Prime to tow either the DIA Commander or Powered Commander trailers, both of which were Optimus-intended repaints of Fansproject's City Commander trailer for Optimus's repaint-buddy Ultra Magnus. I do have City Commander, however, so to the right is a photo of Optimus helping Ultra Magnus out just to give you an idea what it might look like.
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So what might the last feature of the trailer in this mode be? Well, Fansproject decided to try and anwer that age old question from the original cartoon, "What the smeg happens to Optimus's trailer when he transforms? It was there... and now it's gone! Then he transforms, and it's back again like magic! I can wrap my head around alien robotic life forms who come to Earth and take on the forms of common Earth items and try to steal rubies for the glorious energy they contain, but this I cannot wrap my head around! Seriously, WTF?!?!?!"
Well, unfold a few panels, and maybe this will tell you WTF is up:
Well, unfold a few panels, and maybe this will tell you WTF is up:
There is nothing in the photo to the left. Nothing at all. Just an empty table. I must have forgotten to put the trailer on it before I took the photo. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Just kidding, obviously. Open up a few little panels on the top and those free up some bigger panels... unfold it all, and suddenly you have a shiny, rather reflective box. An interesting concept, and I apreciate it's inclusion. But not something I suspect most people (myself included) will use very often. It is more one of those things that is cool because you know it is there, even if you never feel the need to see it more then once or twice. |
Well, that about wraps it up, finally, for vehicle mode. My, goodness, this is going on a bit longer then I'd intended! And we're only done with one mode! Well, especially once you figure in the trailer, I suppose this is a figure with a lot of features. So, onto robot mode!
Transformation is rather intuitive. Everything goes where you think it should and extra bits fold up nicely leaving almost no kibble... except, ot course for the to rather large pieces hanging off of each forarm. This has always been the one thing that is bothersome about this figure, keeping it from being a complete "home run," but it doesn't overly detract from enjoyment of the figure.
The alterations I've made to it in this mode include the following: I removed some yellow paint from both the thin raised grey area below the yellow box that I did leave on his croch, and the raised areas in the middle of each forarm. (There is a bit I couldn't quite get on the forarms, but it is more noticable on camera then it is to the naked eye.) I added (with the aid of the infamous Sharpie) the silver to the sides of the forarms, a bit that was inspired by the Takara (Japanese) release of this figure. And, of course, the Reprolabels which added chrome to the faux grill below the chest, gave him some G1 inspired detail on the kneecaps, and gave him faction symbols on his shoulders. The faction symbols are not the ones from the "Classics Autobots" set, however. That set included ones that were on a red sticker that would cover up the entire blue section on the shoulders. Even though it isn't strictly G1 accurate I kind of liked the blue, though. Especially the contrast it gave to the faction symbols. So I left it. While I do like making my Classics figures more "G1ish" when I can, I am not always a complete slave to G1 accuracy. |
Here we see him weilding his weapons, and also displaying his posability. He has joints in the following areas: His neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, two in his waist (one below the grill and one above it -- the one above is from the transformation, but as you can see it does add a bit to making for a nice fluid turned pose), the hips, the upper legs, and the knees. I suppose, technically, the ankles can also be said to have a bit (from the joint for the transformation) but not really anything I have found useful in posing. The joints are all swivles and ratchets, none of the ever popular ball joints, but they get the job done and the figure is generally able to pull off some nice poses. The only thing that might have been a nice addition is some wrist posability, but it is not the end of the world. (Although we shall see one instance below where it could have helped considerably.)
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The weapons both work well. They are both slightly altered from stock, with the smaller gun featuring the chrome detailing I'd mentioned earlier that Reprolabels added to the smokestacks. The larger gun features some of the silver Sharpy work to what would have been the back of the wind vain, here becoming the raised flat portion in the middle of the gun. If you don't want your Optimus to be duel wielding, you can leave the larger gun as a wind vain and it attaches nicely to Prime's back using the same peg hole it would have used in vehicle mode. I've not noticed a convienient place to store the smaller gun other then his hand, however. Unless you count combining the guns to form an over the shoulder duel cannon thingy, which I personally always found to be a bit silly to the extent that I didn't even think of it when I was taking photos, I fear. Aparently I am not the only one to not bother with this option, it took me a while to find a photo of it elsewhere online. But if you really wish to see it (as well as see a comparison shot of what he would look like without my Sharpie work and sticker adding) you can click here.
The trailer!
The trailer opens up into Prime's Combat Deck, and recreates it pretty faithfully. Here the Reprolabels do their best work for this set, taking what would have been a rather flat silver interior and adding the finishing touches such as the displays all along the sides or the famous, "Go!" pointing to the ramp. Some of the stickers are also ones provided by Fansproject with the trailer, but these are limited to the dark grey stickers that break up the silver along the floor. The chromed pieces along the outer edges of the floor originally contained some extra weapons. These included shoulder cannons for Sideswipe and Mirage, guns for Hound and Bumblebee, and a new sword for Grimlock. (More detail about those weapons when I do each figure's individual review.) They can theoretically store inside the trailer when they're not in use by other figures, but I don't personally take advantage of that functionality. I do have to say, though, that this is the one time I can think of that the left over plastic trees that you remove the weapons from are also given a good use, giving the floor of the trailer some nice textured chrome detail. |
Roller can fit in the compartment underneith the artillery robot, and pulling on the trailer's connection point to cab will cause him to spring out and shoot down the ramp, an excellent call back to the original G1 prime. As for the artillery robot itself, rather then one claw arm and a radar dish, it features two claw arms. (Although, as you can see, I do sometimes like to stick one straight up behind it to try and emulate the radar dish. It works... sort of...) The claw arms are both very posable and would probably bring lots and lots of joy to any Toy Story aliens.
Also, rather then the firing missles of G1 days, the artillery robot features twin cannons. The cannons extend automatically when you raise the robot up from the base of the combat deck. There's also a blast shield you can raise, and you can put Optimus behind the whole thing and have him hand-operaiting the cannon. This does look a bit awkward, though, and is where wrist swivles would have been nice. When you have to twist his entire forarms to get him to hold the cannon, it raises his arm kibble into a rather ugly position.
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One last thing this rather versitile trailer does is emulate the original Optimus Prime's "Repair Bay" mode. Yes, it isn't exactly a difficult mode to replicate, as it basically consists of standing the trailer up and sticking Optimus in front of it. But this trailer does it well. It features storage for both of Optimus's weapons, and it is in this mode that an advantage can be seen to having two claws rather then just one claw and the radar dish, as the extra claw does make for a more dynamic looking repair scene. Much like the mirrored "stelth mode" of the closed trailer, not a functionality I shall likely imploy often, but it is nice to know it is there.
Overall, the trailer is an excellent addition to the figure that adds a lot of play value to an already great base figure, and is much more then the "box on wheels" that a lot of people who dislike trailers claim they all are. (Not to say that criticism isn't ever true. I'm looking at you, Takara Dark of the Moon Voyager Class Optimus Prime with Mechtech Trailer!) In this case, though, great figure. Great trailer. For adult collectors, if you're into Prime and have a Classics collection, this combination is a must have. For people looking to give a figure to their children... Optimus is a good figure and can probably stand up to the play. Of course, as an older and sought after figure, not likely you will presently find one in stores, and online expect to pay more for him then what you'd want to pay for something you're giving to a kid. And the trailer? As I said, it is well built, so it could likely stand up to some child's play. But as a third party product, it is intended to adult collectors. So don't expect that it went through any child safty testing, and again I expect the cost would be beyond the range of what one should pay for a childs toy, leaving it firmly in the realm of an adult collectable. |
A few final photos. Above, a photo of everything all together, including poor Roller. I'd realized that, other then the shot of him coming out of the back of the trailer, I'd forgotten to photograph him! I did already have a photo on my computer, though, that featured him. Although it is an older photo, and thus Prime doesn't have all of his Reprolabels yet. I haven't commented much on Roller, so allow me to do so now. He's rather sturdily built (much like the rest of the G3 trailer.) He can hold one of Optimus's guns. He can also open up to hold the briefcase full of energon cubes that came with the Powered Commander set mentioned above. That set was, if memory serves, a convention exclusive with a low production run, so good luck getting it! For those that do have it, though, it is nice that this feature was included.
Finally, to the left we have a photo of Prime checking out a DVD case. This is included as a handy size comparison, as I am sure most everyone out there should know how big a DVD case is. |
In closing, an excellent Optimus Prime figure that helped get the "Classics" Transformers line off to a good start which is made even better by the addition of the Fansproject G3 Trailer accessory. Highly recomended for adult collectors, less recomended for children if only because as a somewhat older toy it will be harder to come by for anything close to a reasonable child's toy cost.
Review added 3 January 2012 by Yotsuya. Please comment!
Review added 3 January 2012 by Yotsuya. Please comment!