Review #16: Transformers Prime Robots
in Disguise Voyager Class Optimus Prime
Sigh. Remember a few reviews ago, in my Classics Huffer review, when I mentioned that I had started writing a different review first but ran into writers block? Well, I decided to finally take a stab at finishing that one. Much like Transformers Animated, I haven't gotten into the show Transformers Prime. (Although I shall admit to not having watched any of it, unlike Animated where I at least saw the first few episodes. Perhaps I should give it a try one of these days?) Anyway, since I'm not invested in the show, I don't have any interest in getting any of the toys from it... except, of course, that I am a massive Optimus Prime fan. So when I saw an Optimus from Transformers Prime in the store, I had to pick it up...
This is actually the second Voyager Class representation of Optimus in this toyline. The first, part of the aptly named First Edition subline, fell victim to Hasbro aparently forgetting that they should actually try and sell toys that they make. (Hasbro said they're looking into what they might do to solve that problem, overlooking the obvious answer of, oh, I don't know, selling the toy... if I ever do get one of them, I'll review it for y'all. But for now, let us look at this one, shall we?) |
As stated, I have not watched the show this toy comes from. This does mean that I am perhaps not quite as familiar with the character this toy represents as I am with with many of the others I've reviewed. From some images I have seen, he does a decent job representating this version of Optimus Prime. But for the most part, all I have to judge this toy by is... well... this toy.
So, truck mode. The Prime toyline seems to take some of it's asthetic from... well, my impression is that it is the bastard love child that would be produced from a drunken one night stand between the Animated asthetic and that of the Michael Bay films. This Optimus is a long nosed truck with a fairly plain deco. I certainly don't mind the absence of, say, flames... but a little more colour could have been nice. Perhaps a grey horizontal stripe down his sides? I know, it wouldn't have been show accurate... but who says he couldn't have used a bit more colour in the show, too? That being said, there is some grey on the truck mode that is a bit out of place. The plastic around the passanger side windows would have looked a lot better in a matching red.
But overall, not a bad looking truck. I will say that when I first started writing this review I did seem to have a slight problem getting everything to stay together in this mode just right, sometimes leading to some minor noticable gaps between panels. Fiddling with the figure since my innitial writing efforts, I seem to have become a bit better at it however. One slightly less... well... slight problem is aparent when viewing the vehicle mode from the rear... which is just a gaping hole full of visible robot bits in the back of the cab! Much like with the Dark of the Moon Optimus Prime, this is highly disapointing on a Voyager class figure.
So, truck mode. The Prime toyline seems to take some of it's asthetic from... well, my impression is that it is the bastard love child that would be produced from a drunken one night stand between the Animated asthetic and that of the Michael Bay films. This Optimus is a long nosed truck with a fairly plain deco. I certainly don't mind the absence of, say, flames... but a little more colour could have been nice. Perhaps a grey horizontal stripe down his sides? I know, it wouldn't have been show accurate... but who says he couldn't have used a bit more colour in the show, too? That being said, there is some grey on the truck mode that is a bit out of place. The plastic around the passanger side windows would have looked a lot better in a matching red.
But overall, not a bad looking truck. I will say that when I first started writing this review I did seem to have a slight problem getting everything to stay together in this mode just right, sometimes leading to some minor noticable gaps between panels. Fiddling with the figure since my innitial writing efforts, I seem to have become a bit better at it however. One slightly less... well... slight problem is aparent when viewing the vehicle mode from the rear... which is just a gaping hole full of visible robot bits in the back of the cab! Much like with the Dark of the Moon Optimus Prime, this is highly disapointing on a Voyager class figure.
His weapons do have some minor interactivity with this mode. However, as I wish to first examine his weapons with his robot mode, we'll look at that mode now and backtack when it seems apropriate. So, robot mode.
So I'm kind of of mixed feelings about this figure. I want to feel I am giving it a fair shot, but I hope I'm not judging it too harshly due to a lack of nostalgic attachment to this version of Optimus Prime. But then again, a similar experience could be atributed to Animated toys for Optimus Prime. In those cases, while I didn't necessarially like the asthetic as much, I at least thought they were pretty solid toys.
This toy just leaves me feeling a little... what's a good word? "Eh." It just seems... well, not terribly exciting to me. The obsessive Prime collecter in me is still glad I picked it up, don't get me wrong, but I am just left feeling underwhelmed by it. Well, let us get into some of the spicifics, starting with posability. The head is on a ball joint. Shoulders are on ball joints, and can theoretically rotate all the way around but hit a few odd angles. There is a swivel above the elbow that rotates 360 degrees. The elbow itself bends a paltry 90 degrees, which in what is supposed to be a Voyager class figure seems a bit limited. The wrists can bend in one direction 90 degrees because of transformation, but this is pretty useless for any posing. There is no articulation in the waist, which in a figure of this scale or above, unless something about the transformation would prevent it, is always disapointing. I feel this is a figure that they could have put some waist movement into if they want to. Such articulation may have been hampered a bit by the back kibble, but not completely. Standard ball joints at the hips, swivels just below them, a 90 degree bend at the knees, then balljointed feet. |
The toy makes a decent looking robot from the front, although his mighty chest above his tiny waist looks a bit odd to my eyes... but that is how this character looks, so I cannot fault the toy for that. From any angle other then the front, however... I'm not one to usually knock a Transformers toy for having kibble on it's back. It is such a common thing that I usually don't think about it unless a toy lacks such kibble, which just leads me to being extra impressed with that toy. But for one to have back kibble? Usually no big deal. Usually. But in this case, my god.
Look at that thing! I admit this is strictly a matter of opinion (although a lot of what goes into a review could be said to be just that: opinion) but this really bugs me for some reason. And what bugs me is the angle it sits at, where the kibble is quite thin towards the bottom but juts outwards at the top. It just looks really ugly to me!
Anyway, I said I wanted to address the weapons when we got to robot mode, and now I shall do so.
Anyway, I said I wanted to address the weapons when we got to robot mode, and now I shall do so.
Optimus comes with two weapons. The first is a slightly diminuitive, but not bad looking, sword. It is made of a slightly soft but not floppy plastic. It isn't, from what I understand, terribly show accurate, but it doesn't bother me.
The second... Sigh... The second is a folded up chunk of grey and clear blue plastic that just sits on Optimus's arm looking like a piece of crap. This is supposed to be his gun. It can be extended to look like a gun, but it doesn't stay extended unless you hold it in place. And if it isn't extended, it doesn't look like anything other then a huge piece of crap. Crap! I'd actually like to use a stronger word, but I am trying to be polite about this arm mounted excrement. |
Weapons have a few places they can be mounted. There's the obvious of the hands. The hands hold the sword quite well, but don't seem to hold the gun quite as well. There's also a peg hole on the forarm. This one is not so good for the sword, but holds the gun snuggly. Also, the clear plastic on the forarm is supposed to interact with the light-up feature of the gun, but in my experience this doesn't work so well and the gun barely lights itself up never mind bleeding light into the forarm. Finally, if you really want to, you could give him a shoulder mounted gun. Of course, given how this thing looks it seems even stupider there then it does on his forarm.
This gun would be much less horrible if the designers had done one of two things... or, ideally, both. The first is they could have made it so that it could lock into place extended. The second, of course, is that they could have designed something (like many of the DOTM MechTech weapons) that at least looked like something functional in both retracted and extended formats, rather then something that had only one functional mode. If it isn't going to lock in place, at least have it look good in the default form as well. Or, as I said, in an ideal world they could have done both... but that is probably asking for a lot, huh?
This gun would be much less horrible if the designers had done one of two things... or, ideally, both. The first is they could have made it so that it could lock into place extended. The second, of course, is that they could have designed something (like many of the DOTM MechTech weapons) that at least looked like something functional in both retracted and extended formats, rather then something that had only one functional mode. If it isn't going to lock in place, at least have it look good in the default form as well. Or, as I said, in an ideal world they could have done both... but that is probably asking for a lot, huh?
For vehicle mode, you can make an "attack mode" by popping back the roof of the truck and attaching the gun to a peg hole underneath. This is a poorly executed mode, I think. It doesn't look good having to push back the truck's roof so much, and of course there is my previously stated feelings on the gun being a piece of crap. Either one of these factors individually, I think I could get past. But combined they make me dislike this mode. I strongly feel my having used it for the purpose of taking the above photo is likely the only time I shall ever have the figure in this configuration.
As far as just plain old weapons storage on the vehicle mode, this is somewhere else I feel this figure fails utterly. You are supposed to peg the gun into a hole on the sword, and then attach the sword to a hole in the truck's rear. The problem is that it isn't a very tight connection, and the weight of the gun makes it floppy. Thus, it would still be floppy if you omitted the sword and just attached the gun directly. I'd probably be more likely to recomend just omitting the gun. The sword by itself works nicely tucked in back there.
As far as just plain old weapons storage on the vehicle mode, this is somewhere else I feel this figure fails utterly. You are supposed to peg the gun into a hole on the sword, and then attach the sword to a hole in the truck's rear. The problem is that it isn't a very tight connection, and the weight of the gun makes it floppy. Thus, it would still be floppy if you omitted the sword and just attached the gun directly. I'd probably be more likely to recomend just omitting the gun. The sword by itself works nicely tucked in back there.
I know this review has been a bit more negative then my usual review, but to be clear, I don't hate this figure. Not to say it is a great figure, but it has grown on me a bit since I got it. Yet it just feels somewhat simplistic, more like a slightly large Deluxe class then the Voyager class figure it is supposed to be. The articulation is lacking, the vehicle mode has a wide open rear to the cab, and it just looks a bit plain. In a Deluxe class figure, I'd likely be fine with all of this. But I have higher standards when it comes to a Voyager class figure, standards that this figure falls a bit short of. But, as I said, I don't hate this figure. I really wish I could get my hands on a First Edition Voyager Prime for a reasonable price, but until that becomes possible I can be satisfied with this figure. If you want a Prime Prime, I wouldn't necessarially shy away from this one.
So, I don't hate the figure. But damn, do I hate this gun. Bad gun! Hate the gun! Review added by Yotsuya, 15 March 2012. Please comment! |