Review #77: Sports Label Convoy featuring Nike Free 7.0
Ah, Optimus Prime. He may be my favorite Transformer, but even he has his flaws. His biggest (outside of agreeing to appear in films directed by Michael Bay) is that has been known to sell out from time to time. Previous examples seen on this website include him gaining Pepsi branding and a custom trailer, or a strange hybridization of Optimus with a certain mousy corporate overlord. But these are by far not the only times he has sold out, and today we will be looking at one of the more bizarre examples. We will be looking at the time that the mighty Optimus Prime became... a shoe!
So, what in the heck are we looking at here? Apparently this is the result of some unholy marketing deal between Takara and Nike, Inc. that in 2007 saw three Transformers released who all had the alt mode of Nike Free 7.0 sneakers. This is one of the three, Covoy. (Or, as he is known outside of Japan, Optimus Prime.) The other two were "Marine Convoy" (a straight up repaint that was basically Ultra Magnus in every way other then officially) and a repaint with a new head that was Megatron. But, of course, if I was going to have one in my collection, it would have to be the good ol' red and blue... er, red and white Optimus Prime!
I've actually been keeping half an eye out for this toy for a number of years. I'm not a sneaker otaku or anything, but given my love for Optimus and what a strange example of the character this was, I couldn't help but be intrigued. But he frequently ran close to (if not over) $100 on the secondary market, and I wasn't that intrigued! |
Fortunately, much like my recent acquisition of Runabout and Runamuck, not long ago I came across an eBay listing for this toy at a low price that almost seemed almost too good to be true! I was a bit weary, since this toy has been knocked off, but the knock-offs seem to typically remove the Nike branding which this toy clearly has. So, I took a shot, and now I have my Nike Optimus Prime! Shall we see if he lives up to the anticipation that I've had for all of these years?
Well, in sneaker mode, he's a pretty damn good sneaker. If not for the fact that there are a few obvious seams in him for transformation, you could be forgiven for thinking these are actually just photographs of a shoe! The illusion is spoiled a bit more in real life, though, unless you just assume it to be a shoe for a really tiny person. Also, if you look inside the shoe, you can spot Optimus's head trying to hide in the heel. But aside from those things, a very convincing shoe!
The figure boasts a ton of molded detail giving texture to the sneaker's material, the stitching, and the sole on the underside. All of the necessary details are picked out in paint, and the paint used even seems to do a good job of replicating the look of the expected materials.
Of special note is the laces. The portions of the laces that are laced through the sneaker are just molded plastic. But then for the tied portion of the laces, the material seamlessly transitions to actual cloth laces! This leads to the slightly amusing bit of trivia that this is the one Transformers mold I know of that, to transform it, includes the step that you have to tie or untie a knot!
The figure boasts a ton of molded detail giving texture to the sneaker's material, the stitching, and the sole on the underside. All of the necessary details are picked out in paint, and the paint used even seems to do a good job of replicating the look of the expected materials.
Of special note is the laces. The portions of the laces that are laced through the sneaker are just molded plastic. But then for the tied portion of the laces, the material seamlessly transitions to actual cloth laces! This leads to the slightly amusing bit of trivia that this is the one Transformers mold I know of that, to transform it, includes the step that you have to tie or untie a knot!
So, overall, in sneaker mode, he is quite convincing and rather impressive. But, shall this continue into robot mode?
Sadly, on this figure I have to say no. When it comes to robot mode, things seem to fall apart rather spectacularly. Not literally, mind you. Structurally, the figure is well constructed. But beyond that, it is kind of a mess.
This Optimus Prime is something of a shellformer, which doesn't automatically a bad figure make. For example, I love my Classics Megatron. But this figure is definitely an example of a shellformer in the worst possible way. On his upper arms and protruding up over his shoulders are large, solid chunks of shoe. And while these chunks are attached on ball joints, so you might think you could move them around well to get them out of the way, there is just no position they are capable of taking in which they do not become obtrusive in some way. Perhaps if the connecting rods that these shell chunks attach to had had a second point of articulation at their base, where they connect to Optimus's upper arms, things wouldn't have been quite so bad. But as it is, these large chunks of sneaker just hang above him and refuse to get out of the way.
If we do our Herculean best to ignore this for a moment though, and focus on the core robot himself, we have a pretty stylized but good looking Optimus Prime. Transformation revealed a bit more of the traditional blue you would expect, thanks to his head and legs. His chest is not a traditional Optimus Prime chest, but it really looks good for what one might logically expect from an Optimus who became a sneaker rather than a truck. And special note must be given to the fact that, amusingly, Optimus seems to be wearing a pair of the same sneakers he transforms into. If one ignored all of the shell kibble (which, alas, is really hard to do) he is actually quite a fun looking Optimus Prime!
He does come with a gun, which stores away when not in use by splitting into two halves and hiding away inside of the offending kibble. The two halves of the gun can actually peg together in two different ways, and also has multiple pegs for when Optimus holds it, giving this gun a surprising number of options for how it is used.
This Optimus Prime is something of a shellformer, which doesn't automatically a bad figure make. For example, I love my Classics Megatron. But this figure is definitely an example of a shellformer in the worst possible way. On his upper arms and protruding up over his shoulders are large, solid chunks of shoe. And while these chunks are attached on ball joints, so you might think you could move them around well to get them out of the way, there is just no position they are capable of taking in which they do not become obtrusive in some way. Perhaps if the connecting rods that these shell chunks attach to had had a second point of articulation at their base, where they connect to Optimus's upper arms, things wouldn't have been quite so bad. But as it is, these large chunks of sneaker just hang above him and refuse to get out of the way.
If we do our Herculean best to ignore this for a moment though, and focus on the core robot himself, we have a pretty stylized but good looking Optimus Prime. Transformation revealed a bit more of the traditional blue you would expect, thanks to his head and legs. His chest is not a traditional Optimus Prime chest, but it really looks good for what one might logically expect from an Optimus who became a sneaker rather than a truck. And special note must be given to the fact that, amusingly, Optimus seems to be wearing a pair of the same sneakers he transforms into. If one ignored all of the shell kibble (which, alas, is really hard to do) he is actually quite a fun looking Optimus Prime!
He does come with a gun, which stores away when not in use by splitting into two halves and hiding away inside of the offending kibble. The two halves of the gun can actually peg together in two different ways, and also has multiple pegs for when Optimus holds it, giving this gun a surprising number of options for how it is used.
The articulation on the figure is, alas, not that great. And a lot of this comes down to the kibble from his shell getting in the way. Most of the joints you might want are there, you just can't utilize many of them in a way you might wish to. His head is on a really nice ball joint, so no complaints there.
His shoulders can, in theory, rotate 360 degrees forward and backwards, and have a second joint in them for outward motion. There is no upper arm swivel, but below the elbow (which can bend 90 degrees) there is a lower arm swivel... but the effect of this is little more then to give him a wrist swivel that is positioned far above the actual wrist. Without the massive kibble on his arms, the articulation in them would be, if not great, at least sufficient. But with all of that kibble, it is just really hard to make good use of much of it.
Optimus has no waist joint. Moving onto his legs, alas we have more kibble indued problems. His hips have joints that, if unobstructed, could provide excellent motion forwards, backwards, and outwards. Alas, the kibble formed by the sole of the shoe, which covers the majority of the figure's backside, almost completely prevents any backwards motion. There are upper leg swivels which do actually work quite well, and then his knees which fortunately are not completely obstructed, but you do only get a shallow 45-ish degrees out of them.
There are no ankle joints beyond what is needed for transformation, but on a figure this size (roughly Deluxe sized, if I had to -- pardon the pun -- shoehorn him into a size class that more varied Transformers toy lines would use) even on more modern figures I'd see an ankle tilt as a bonus rather then a given. To stay on his feet for a moment, though, I will say that they feature the one good use of kibble on this figure! Each foot has a large chunk of the sole of the shoe that becomes a heel for the figure, giving him a large and stable foot print. So he should be nice and stable standing in many poses... provided you can get him into any good poses in the first place!
His shoulders can, in theory, rotate 360 degrees forward and backwards, and have a second joint in them for outward motion. There is no upper arm swivel, but below the elbow (which can bend 90 degrees) there is a lower arm swivel... but the effect of this is little more then to give him a wrist swivel that is positioned far above the actual wrist. Without the massive kibble on his arms, the articulation in them would be, if not great, at least sufficient. But with all of that kibble, it is just really hard to make good use of much of it.
Optimus has no waist joint. Moving onto his legs, alas we have more kibble indued problems. His hips have joints that, if unobstructed, could provide excellent motion forwards, backwards, and outwards. Alas, the kibble formed by the sole of the shoe, which covers the majority of the figure's backside, almost completely prevents any backwards motion. There are upper leg swivels which do actually work quite well, and then his knees which fortunately are not completely obstructed, but you do only get a shallow 45-ish degrees out of them.
There are no ankle joints beyond what is needed for transformation, but on a figure this size (roughly Deluxe sized, if I had to -- pardon the pun -- shoehorn him into a size class that more varied Transformers toy lines would use) even on more modern figures I'd see an ankle tilt as a bonus rather then a given. To stay on his feet for a moment, though, I will say that they feature the one good use of kibble on this figure! Each foot has a large chunk of the sole of the shoe that becomes a heel for the figure, giving him a large and stable foot print. So he should be nice and stable standing in many poses... provided you can get him into any good poses in the first place!
I don't often talk much about the packaging, but much like my other recent eBay acquisitions (the aforementioned Runabout and Runamuck) this toy did arrive with his box, and it seems a box worth touching on.
Sports Label Convoy, being an Optimus Prime who transforms into a shoe, comes in -- what else? -- a shoebox! It is a nice looking one with some subtle artwork on it, and from images I have seen online it seems to emulate the coloring of the box that an actual pair of these sneakers would have come in. The box I received isn't in the best of shape (not quite able to close properly, even with Optimus trying to help by standing on it) and is missing whatever interior tray it would have had (so that, if placed inside, Optimus will just flop around loosely), but what I have should be sufficient to show off what it looks like.
The box flips open, revealing a window through which (if he was still inside) you could view shoe-mode Optimus, as well as an image of Optimus in robot mode (cleverly posed in what is likely the one half-way decent pose he can stand in) and finally a lot of Japanese text, the content of which I, being mostly mono-lingual, cannot decipher for you.
Sports Label Convoy, being an Optimus Prime who transforms into a shoe, comes in -- what else? -- a shoebox! It is a nice looking one with some subtle artwork on it, and from images I have seen online it seems to emulate the coloring of the box that an actual pair of these sneakers would have come in. The box I received isn't in the best of shape (not quite able to close properly, even with Optimus trying to help by standing on it) and is missing whatever interior tray it would have had (so that, if placed inside, Optimus will just flop around loosely), but what I have should be sufficient to show off what it looks like.
The box flips open, revealing a window through which (if he was still inside) you could view shoe-mode Optimus, as well as an image of Optimus in robot mode (cleverly posed in what is likely the one half-way decent pose he can stand in) and finally a lot of Japanese text, the content of which I, being mostly mono-lingual, cannot decipher for you.
And now, two whole comparison images for you! The first is one offering a size comparison with a standard sized DVD case. (I think I chose an appropriate DVD set for an Optimus of this nature.) The second image is one I found elsewhere online, but I thought you might like to see how he compares (in size and detail) to the actual shoe he is supposed to be emulating.
So, time then for my final thoughts. As a shoe, this figure succeeds admirably. As a robot... not so much. And I am the sort of person who really likes to be able to enjoy both modes of a Transformers toy.
If you are a huge Nike (or just sneaker in general) collector, or better yet someone into both Nikes and Transformers, then perhaps this would be a really cool toy to own. But, looking at it from the perspective I come from, which is purely that of a Transformers fan, this is just not a good figure. Maybe if you are a huge fan of Optimus Prime who owns most of the usual examples of him and you are looking for something a bit more unique to throw in your collection, he could be worth it. (And, since I suppose that could describe me, I don't have any huge regrets in owning this guy... especially since, as I said, I got him for a much better price then he'd usually go for!) But for Transformers fans, outside of the most hardcore of Optimus Prime collectors, I'd say there is really no point in owning this figure. If you're at all curious about him, just find some photos online to enjoy and consider your curiosity satiated. (You're welcome!)
Review added 18 October 2015 by Yotsuya. Comments are welcome!
If you are a huge Nike (or just sneaker in general) collector, or better yet someone into both Nikes and Transformers, then perhaps this would be a really cool toy to own. But, looking at it from the perspective I come from, which is purely that of a Transformers fan, this is just not a good figure. Maybe if you are a huge fan of Optimus Prime who owns most of the usual examples of him and you are looking for something a bit more unique to throw in your collection, he could be worth it. (And, since I suppose that could describe me, I don't have any huge regrets in owning this guy... especially since, as I said, I got him for a much better price then he'd usually go for!) But for Transformers fans, outside of the most hardcore of Optimus Prime collectors, I'd say there is really no point in owning this figure. If you're at all curious about him, just find some photos online to enjoy and consider your curiosity satiated. (You're welcome!)
Review added 18 October 2015 by Yotsuya. Comments are welcome!