*Sounds of frantic running footsteps. Door slamms*
[Out of breath] Whooo, sorry I'm late folks. It was quite a busy end of month, snuck up on me to boot! [/Out of breath]
Ok, this month has been kinda slow for transformers. There have been a few new Energon out, but nothing spectacular. I will say that Divebomb is much nicer than I expected. Aggiecon was also abnormally void of Transformers. One comic dealer had a Jetfire and a complete G1 Megatron but both were out of my price range. My frantic search for new Alternators continues. Hopefully one day when I have more than two, I'll go around to various dealerships and take pictures of me with my Alternators while sitting in the matching car. One day . . .
Well so 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime has been out since mid January now, and I have yet to review him for you yet I guess now's a good as time as any. The short, short version: Go buy him now, you'll be happy. There done… Hrm what? Oh you want details, eh? Picky, picky . . .
The basis of Alternators is to take a production car model and make it transform into a G1 robot. Well Optimus is the exact opposite in all the best ways. They took the G1 cartoon figure, built it into a super poseable model and then made it transform into a truck. He is proudly displayed in bot mode on the shelf. Honestly I can't tell you exactly what was on the box (He didn't stay in it long enough), but I do remember seeing really cool translucent Autobot symbols on the top and bottom of the box. First thing I noticed about Ops is his weight. He's primarily die-cast with high quality plastic filling in the gaps. Standing over a foot tall this guy is packed with details: everything from the cartoon and then some. Let's just start at the top and work our way down. First we have a well sculpted head complete with metallic blue eyes and an actuated face plate (button in the back of his head). The ear antennae also rotate, while this is primarily just for transformation, it still is a cool feature. Next is the chest plate, the panels open left and right with a third panel folding upwards (anybody remember Transformers: The Movie?) to reveal the matrix. The matrix can be removed and slid open just as in the movie. Skipping over to the shoulders we have the target of many an online debate: the "short stacks." Due to toy safety laws Optimus' smokestacks must be shorter than the original proportions, and shorter than the Japanese (Takara) release. Personally it doesn't matter much to me and I fail to understand the argument specifically for the long ones. For some reason they are spring hinged, maybe just to keep them from breaking but I'm not certain. Moving down the body then we see his finely sculpted grill abs. The toy slims down in the waist area exactly like the cartoon, and very much unlike the original G1 toy. Each forearm contains a flip up communicator, one with Bumblebee and the other with Starscream. The hands slide out from the forearms and each finger contains a single point of articulation and the thumb is mounted on a ball joint. This means that Optimus' gun isn't pegged at all, you have to form the hand to the gun. The wrist also contains a full range of motion similar to a real wrist. Below the waist we have the classic armored skirt hiding the hips. This is nice because it is disguised as his real hips, but sections fold out of the way for full range of motion with the legs. It's a quick shuffle down to the oversize calves that house a set of flip open vents. In truck mode these vents are manually closed, but in bot mode a quick press down on the leg (while standing) flips these vents open. His ankles are even articulated along with the foot having a center point. The articulation is detailed enough to allow Prime to be balanced in a high side kick which not all of my plastic, high poseability, gundams have.
His transformation to truck mode is complex but not overly difficult once learned. The truck is a downside to the whole thing though. Generally it looks much more like a real rig than the G1 toy, but it is crisscrossed with obvious transformation lines that sometimes don't quite match up. Also unlike the Alternators I've seen so far his front wheels don't turn. They compensate for this by giving him a suspension. The best thing I can say for the truck mode is that it is properly proportioned unlike other Primes. Also 20th Prime lacks a trailer, but at $64+ that's not surprising.
What really compensates for the poor alt mode is the overall detail provided for the bot mode. There is a level of detail here that's not been seen in a transformer yet. Nearly all the joints have fake hydraulics including, but not limited to the knees, wrists, elbows and head. Some of these such as the knees are not readily visible either. Amongst the little details are the accessories included with Prime. He comes standard with his gun; either grey or black depending on which version you pick up. He also comes with Megatron in gun mode. You can even take off the silencer, stock, and scope from Megatron. Last but not least is the weapon that appears only in one episode: Energon Axe. Slide either hand in and the axe snaps in. I personally have a hard time displaying him without the axe.
Overall A+
Minuses: Mediocre alt mode, no trailer
Plusses: Insane detail, G1 toon accurate bot mode, Die-Cast
One of my MUST BUY toys.
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