OPTIMUS PRIME

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: SIEGE (HASBRO)

Oh wow, what’s this?  Another Transformers review?  On this little old site?  But it’s only been a day since the last one!  Is that enough of a waiting period?  I wouldn’t want people to think I might be some sort of *shudder* Transformers fan…

Well, if I’m gonna commit to this potential Transformers fan thing, I’ve got one pretty big hurdle I’m gonna need to overcome.  You see, in my over two decades of collecting, I have never once owned a single figure of the most definitive Transformer of all time, Optimus Prime.  Yeah, I don’t know how that happened either.  Well, I mean, I might; it could possibly be related to me exclusively buying figures of Soudwave.  That might have done it.  Whatever the case, I’m striving to make up for this horrible gaping hole in my collection.  So, without further ado, here’s Optimus Prime!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Optimus is part of the first wave of Voyager Class releases for Hasbro’s new War For Cybertron: Siege line, where he was paired off with his Decepticon equivalent Megatron.  In his robot mode, Optimus stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 26 practical points of articulation.  This figure is sporting a brand new sculpt, patterned on the original G1 Optimus, or at least a very idealized version of it.  This Optimus aims to be the figure Transformers fans *remember* playing with, rather than the one the actually did…unless your me, and this figure actually *is* the figure you were playing with.  That’s not the point, though.  I was quite impressed by the implementation of the articulation on this figure; it’s easily on par with Legends and the like, at least in terms of range.  All of the joints are free and clear to do as they please, and a lot of them are very cleverly hidden on this guy.  His sculpt is boxy, and very full of small detail work, but not so much that it ruins that nice clean-lined feel of the classic Optimus design.  I particularly dig the rivets on the upper arms, as well as the transparent windows of the cab.  And, though there is no separate Matrix of Leadership included with this figure (thought he shape of one is hinted behind the windows when he’s in vehicle mode), the torso is clearly designed with the possibility of housing one in mind. Part of the slickness of this particular figure’s robot mode comes from how it handles the kibble on the back.  The remnants of his truck cab fold up into a rather compact and manageable back pack piece, and the headlights on the arms, though a bit more noticeable, still can be passed off as forearm guards.  Optimus’s alt-mode is a smoke-stack-sporting truck reminiscent of his original incarnation’s freight truck.  It’s been slightly Cybertron-ized, since I guess these figures are technically supposed to be pre-Earth, but it’s still very clear where the influence lies.  I find the cab of the truck in particular to be the most convincing piece.  The back looks a little more like it’s just his legs flipped around, since that’s kinda what it is and all.  I will say, that although there are technically more steps to the process of transforming this guy, I did find it as a whole a much easier experience, and am much more willing to swap Prime back and forth on a frequent basis.  He’s still going to be staying a robot most of the time, of course, but I see this one being a figure I pick up and fiddle with more frequently.  Optimus is packed with two accessories: a blaster and an axe.  The blaster is pretty straight-forward piece, and can be held in his hand in robot mode, or mounted in one of the handful of 5mm ports when in truck mode.  The axe is slightly more complex, with a transformation of its own.  Out of the the package, it’s an axe, but you can also fold it up into a shield, which, like the blaster, can be mounted in one of the 5mm ports.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I blame Max.  No, really, it’s all Max’s fault.  I wasn’t into Transformers, I swear.  Okay, so, it’s a little bit Max’s fault, and a little bit Bumblebee‘s fault.  Max was really up-selling this figure to me, and I was trying to hold out.  And then I saw Bumblebee, with it’s classically-styled Optimus in all his classically-styled glory, and I thought “man, I need an Optimus.”  I was at All Time, I’d just traded in a bunch of stuff for store credit, they only had one of this guy in stock, and I was sort of having a bad day, so I just sort of grabbed him.  I don’t regret that choice for a second, because man is this a cool toy.  Like, even overlooking the transforming feature, he’s just a strong base figure, and a ton of fun to mess around with.  The only downside is that now I really want a bunch more.

As mentioned above, I picked this guy up from my friends at All Time Toys.  The first wave of Voyager Class Siege figures have sold out, but the Deluxe figures are still in-stock, and they’ll be carrying all of the new releases as they come.  If you’re looking for Transformers, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.