BOB SHARE

When I first started watching the Transformers Animated series, I wasnt too taken in by the style of the art. After all, they gave my favourite Optimus Prime a face, and made him flunk out of Autobot Academy!

But slowly, upon realizing that the story and plot was like nothing Id ever seen in a Transformers series, Animated started to grow on me. The characters were rich and diverse, and the universe made sense. And Opimus Prime also did have a mouth guard like in the original series from the 80s--but only in combat mode. How cool was that?

So now I had to get a toy of Animated Prime. And since I wanted the earth mode version, my choices were between The Battle Begins 2-pack (with DVD and Megatron), the Voyager Class, and the Supreme Rollout Command too-big-and-clunky-but-with-too-cool-features Optimus Primes.
So Supreme was out, and Voyager was too large and had too big of a chest to be show accurate (Hes much slimmer in Animated). And if I were to buy some Voyager Class Decepti-baddies, theyd be in-scale with my deluxe sized Prime. So Battle Begins it was. I found a 2-pack for a good deal at OG, where they had a huge stock.

I was thrilled at the amount of effort put into the engineering of the toy, and the tightness of its vehicle mode. In short, It was better than the G1 Optimus Prime that looked too square in robot mode. The truck looked like a truck, and the robot mode, well, was just too awesome and poseasble!

And then my wonderful gal, seeing how much I love Transformers Animated and especially Prime, goes out and gets me a Cybertron Mode deluxe Prime! Now I could re-enact scenes on Earth and do flashbacks on Cybertron! Woot!
Now despite being from the same mould mostly, there were so many tiny details on them that made them distinct.

In robot mode:

Cybertron Prime is a lighter red and blue and has a clear blue chest.

Earth mode is darker red with a dark blue and has a "truck wind shields" chest

Earth mode has battle armour mouth piece on and has smoke-stacks, while the Cybertron mode doesnt. And of course the battle damage and the little detail paint apps.





In vehicle mode:
Here they differ slightly in their transformation. Cybertron mode uses the shield as a roof (while giving him a taller, more angular vehicle mode), while Earth mode uses the little backpack flap to cover up.

Both roll wonderfully, and have great eye light piping. (Double click on pics for better view! :] )















So while these two figures were the 3rd and 4th Primes I had acquired over the past few months, they were also the beginning of my Transformers Animated collection, which will appear here in later posts (hopefully, I might add, lol.)

Well, I highly recommend these guys. Cybertron mode can be found for S$17 dollars in nice new cylindrical packaging at Toys R Us (Along with Bumblebee and Ratchet, sold separately--I sound like an ad).

Heres how I rate them.















Earth Mode Prime

Show Accuaracy: 8/10 - Hes more a tribute to 80s G1 Prime with smoke stacks and colour. Axe is too big (more suited for Voyager Prime. But its all good. :)

Poseability: 9/10 - these deluxes bend like no Transformers should have a right to bend! :P

Aesthetic: 8/10 - A very great looking truck mode, but robot modes wheels are a bit prominent on shoulders, while his chest almost falls to his belly! :P

Overall: 8.33/10















Cybertron Mode Prime

Show Accuaracy: 10/10 - Slim, sharp, colour is spot on. So is his face and paint apps. Axe is the right size, but what up with the shield?? Ah well, it makes for one more accesory. :)

Poseability: 9/10 - these deluxes bend like no Transformers should have a right to bend! :P

Aesthetic: 8/10 - A very great looking robot mode with great lines and overall form. But vehicle mode is an acquired taste--its Cybertronian, after all. ;)

Overall: 9/10

**State of the Toy Union: My display rooms a mess!  Its made me really not want to open up any of my recent purchases until I get it cleaned up.  Im making progress with the packing/tidying up though.  So in the meantime, Im very sorry for the long pause between reviews.  Enjoy this one though--he couldnt wait! ;)**

Call him an SDCC, a Botcon or a (insert your preferred)Con Exclusive, but for us here in Singapore, hes our Transformers Con 2012 Exclusive Kre-On! (Thats what they call a Kre-O figure btw).

Messy room--enter at own peril!

Thats right, in a months time from March 11th to 14th, the bi-annual event is hitting our tiny island nation.  So the awesome people in charge sent over this little fella just to whet my appetite!

Now the idea of building a Transformer out of Legos or any other building blocks is hardly a new one because anyone whos ever laid hands on such toys will have at one point or another tried to do it.  But never has there been an official toy company whos gone out a produced a whole range of them--until now.

And while I have to admit that I was pleasantly when I saw Kre-Os on the shelves in stores, I was less than impressed by the sets.  First up, the robot modes arent all that accurate to the G1 TF forms they were trying to mimic (and neither are their vehicles modes for that matter).  Second, they came with Kre-On (minifig) versions of themselves.  And that doesnt really make sense, if you catch my drift.  Third: the price. At US$30 a pop for the bigger sets, it was kinda hard to go out on a limb and trust the quality of a new building lock brand.

Still, those Kre-Ons looked pretty darn cute.  And they do have a whole range of them out right now--Optimus, Bumblebee, Mirage, Sideswipe, Megatron, Shockwave, and Prowl, just to name a few off the top of my head.  I had even told the Rangerlord what many have expressed online--if they sold the Kre-Ons separately, Id grab em.  He agreed too.

So you can imagine my delight when the organizers of Transformers Con 2012 sent me this little package.  Now I cant wait for the Con to come.   So I guess Ill just have to settle for filling the time with a review of Kre-On Optimus Prime! ;)


Like: Improved articulation from your "standard minifig."  First up theres an added waist joint, then theres the limbs, which are all ball joints!  Because of the way the figure is though, the joints are restricted, which is just as well since I hear the joints get lose after some play--but so far so good for lil Prime here.

Like: Customizable parts.  Smokestacks, helmet, legs, torso.  If you get more Kre-Ons you can swap out the parts for sure.

Dislike: That the right leg joint and the right smokestack are a tad looser than the left sides


Like: That the parts are compatible with Legos!  Prime stands well on Lego pieces but cant quite sit because of the wheels on the side of his legs.  I the wheels werent in the way hed fit perfectly.  Accessories clip well into his hands and his gun does the same with Lego minfigs.  But while his helmet fits snugly on a minifig head, the headgear from Legos tends to be a little loose on Primes bare head.

Unfortunately, thats where the minifig/Kre-On compatibility ends.  Their legs are not interchangeable, nor are their hands.  And though I didnt pop them off for a try, I suspect their are wont fit on each others torsos either. :(

Dislike: Any Transformer worth anything can transform--this Kre-On obviously cant.  But I can forgive this because hes quite the cute lil fella.  However the bigger counterparts of Prime and the other characters are quite another matter--sure, they come apart and you can build the vehicle form, but thats cheating. ;P

Thats about as close as it gets...

Like: Really sharp tampography.  And what makes Exclusive Prime special is the sweetly rendered Autobot Matrix of Leadership on his chest.


Like: That his ion cannon is customized to look like the one from the cartoon series.  This is probably a more important detail than most care to admit.  I know one of the first few things I look for in any good Optimus figure is his gun and this one does a greatly satisfying job of providing a great likeness.

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 9/10 - Theres no mistaking it, this is definitely Optimus Prime--except in Kre-On form.  And when you can recognize a character instantly without having to have a closer look then you know the toy-makers have done a decent job.  But when you dont even have to look closely to realize that its the matrix in his chest then theyve done an excellent job.  From the classic look of the helmet, to the ion cannon, to the wheels on his legs and the tampographed designs, this Kre-On is done superbly!

Poseability: 8/10 - Simply delightful!  Even though I thought the ball joints were severely limited, upon playing around with the fig I realized what a big difference even the smallest range of motion can make, especially in this scale.  Optimus can twist at the waist, stand with his feet wide, pose looking like hes in mid stride, point his gun somewhat sideways, and have his arms look like theyre really swinging.  Id say Primes poseability is the one feature of his that surprised me the most!

Fun: 7/10 - Even with just 8 points of articulation, I really enjoyed what I could get out of this guy.  The customizability of the figure will also prove to be lots of fun once you can get your hands on more accessories. (Im thinking a gold ax-hand at least...)  Itll also be more fun if you could get your hands on just the Kre-Ons instead of buying whole sets.  Thats in the works, I hear.  But for now this is a 7 because you cant.


What saves Kre-Ons and Kre-Os right now is their compatibility with other "leading brick-building brands," as they claim on the packaging of this here figure.  I can gather all my loose Lego and start building a Teletran-1 or an Ark or even an Omega Supreme for all my TF Kre-Ons.  But eventually, Id like to see an Omega Supreme set, or a Metroplex Set, or the awesomeness that would be a Unicron set.  Better yet if these and any new sets can transform without first coming apart.  Aw yeah.

Value: 7/10 - Its okay if you like the large Kre-O "figure" that comes with the Kre-Ons (or is that vice versa? ;P) But until they offer the little guys without the sets or with a set that is the Ark or Metroplex or Unicron, I wont be spending too much money on these guys.  But once they get the sets right and start to release the individual Kre-Ons, then it should be worth your while.

Overall: 7.75/10 - Kre-O sets dont look that appetizing for now but Kre-Ons like Optimus look so good I cant wait for Hasbro to sell them individually.  Heck, I would even get them if they were sold blind-bagged.  Thats how good the Kre-Ons are--just like a minifig but with better articulation and about as pretty to look at. Sure, they might have some problems like loose joints, weird set selection, and the not-so-pretty-as-yet big-block characters, but Im sure things can only get better, especially if theyve done so great with the mini Kre-Ons right out of the blocks. (Ooh, a pun! :P)

Owned by (the) Force!

Youd think a Legend class would be HUGE, bigger than a Voyager and a Deluxe for sure, and beating out the Supreme Class for size.  But in actual fact, a Legends class figure is smaller! How much smaller?  Try the whole way!

Yes, that was one of the things that really appealed to me when I spotted this single Optimus Prime in a sea of Legend Class Megatrons.  Hes so tiny, he just had to be full of surprises!  The other thing was that Id never seen this class of Prime (nor knew that they produced this G1 version) and Im an Optimus addict--I just gotta catch em all! (That phrase is eerily familiar...;P)

But from the get go, this figure turned out to be full of surprises, the biggest one of which wasnt at all good.  Hit it to find out more!
Dislike: That my lil Prime broke apart when I first swiveled his waist to tray and transform him.  The first rotation loosened the ribbed metal "screw," and the second created a separation between the chest and the lower torso. Try as I might, I couldnt press it back in.  So I thought instead of forcing it and breaking itty bitty Optimus, Id slowly remove the top half from the bottom half and re-screw it in.  Alas, this wasnt to be because:


1) The metal screw that I thought was a screw was actually a ribbed metal "nail" that had been hammered into the plastic of the lower torso.

2) The "screw" hadnt been hammered in straight.  That meant that while I could fit it back in the hole, the upper body wouldnt swivel correctly, instead rotating at an angle that would cause the top half of the figure to spill over itself.

What I dislike about this the most is that its gonna take a helluva lot of work to fix this! How, you ask me?  Well, Im clueless too! :(

Like: That its a really tiny Prime that can transform and has some itty bitty articulation.  The upper body is actually pretty decent, with Shoulder hinges, a ball joint, and elbow balls. These facilitate the transformation, but they also really give this tiny guy some serious motion.

The gap you see is due to the screw.  Argh!

Like: That his vehicle mode is pretty tight!  Yeah, his legs clip together well, his arms and forearms tuck into and under his chest well.  Its good enough that you wouldnt be able to tell it could transform (If you didnt know about Transformers and couldnt identify with Primes iconic red and blue coloring.)

Dislike: That he doesnt have leg articulation below the hip/leg joints.  while I know it had to be cheaper to mold the whole leg with no joint, couldnt they have included just a basic knee hinge? It doesnt have to be a fantastically flexible joint, but as long as it bend, Ill take it.  As a result, his straight-leg syndrome severely restricts his stances and takes away from the potential of his great arm PoAs.

Also, his leg joints are limited.  This quite a waste because theyre actually balls but have been severely blocked by the leg sculpt.  You get about 45 degrees out to the side, which isnt too bad.  You get about 30 degrees backwards, but only about half of that out front.  Yup, this means no sitting or front kicking.  Even stepping forward is tough because Prime just looks like hes strolling in the park when you put one leg forward and another back.  Better to leave him in a heroic wide stance. Heh.

Like: The sculpt is very well detailed for a figure only 3 inches high.  Hes got great detail on his face, legs and abs, although the paint is pretty basic.  I guess its ideal if youre up for some paint customizing!

I also love the Reveal the Shield sticker on his left forearm.  Its tinnier than any Ive seen before and works just as well--you dont even have to rub/press it--just breathe on it. ;)

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 7/10 - Great sculpt for its size and aside from his "missing back" and the forearm kibble, he could rival some of the newer Optimus Primes out there.  Hes surely better looking than the G1 release of Prime from way back.

His painted parts are: the red head panel, the blue helmet and silver eyes and mouth.  The smokestacks are also painted silver, while the lower front half of the truck mode below the window is cast in silver and painted red.  His thighs and fuel tanks are silver over a dark blue cast plastic and his chest windows are stickers.  All in all its a decent amount of paint on the smallest class of Hasbro TF, so good effort.
Poseability: 5/10 - Its just tough to get lil Prime here in any decent action poses because of his
straight leg problem.  Besides wide-legged and normal stances, the only other thing he can do is a walking stance.  Hm.  Mores the pity that hes got good upper body articulation that cant be fully exploited because of the stiff legs.
Fun: 8/10 (5/10 if it breaks like mine) - Hey its Prime! (Hey he broke right out of the package!)

But in all seriousness, theres something fun about these pocket-sized Transformers.  Its just more than cool that they are so small and yet can transform better than those G1 figures we used to play with in the 80s.  Or at least this lil Prime is better than his 80s counterpart.  This is a toy thats simple enough that I would transform him again and again.

But in order for that to work the toy has got to be sturdier than what it was.  And Im not even a rough little rug rat who tore apart his Prime because he was too eager to read the instructions (though I feel like it.) Some quality control is in order here, especially for a figure as rare as this.  How rare?  Well, hes the only one Ive ever seen in the wild, the wild which is flooded with Megatrons and Starscreams.

 Value: 6/10 - I paid S$11.90 ($US 9.15) and breakages aside, it has no accessories.  Primes clearly got two hands to hold stuff with so wheres his iconic laser cannon?  What is Optimus without that sweet armament that always seems so full of Decepticon decimation potential but never seems to injure them that much?  Kinda naked, thats what.  Oh well, at least hes got some paint on him and a good sculpt.  Add to that a tight vehicle mode and Prime is more or less satisfactory.

Overall: 6.5/10 - I really never thought this fella would turn out to the be-all-and-end-all of Optimus Primes.  I did indeed expect him to fall far short of Deluxe and Voyager figures.  He did surprise me in many good ways but there was one major nasty surprise that just really ruined the enjoyment for me.  Hed probably get bumped to a full 7/10 if he didnt break and if I took that fully into account, hed be less than a 5.

But I have to stay objective--Prime is as good as any Legends you can find.  The fact that hes our old fave G1 Autobot leader just makes him worth having.  I cant say that youll have to be careful when selecting your Primes, because in this instance, its impossible--you cant just bust open the package to check all his joints.  I guess its just my luck.  Heres hoping that you have better if you find him! :)

You just gotta love re-boots. And in this case, the re-booting and re-adaptation of G1 Transformers (and most of the Transformers continuity) into Transformers Animated.

So here he is, the 7th Optimus Prime I own: TFA Voyager Class Prime!


I wasnt initially planning on getting this guy, let alone any other of the Animated line. I had my 2 Deluxe Class Prime figures (from Part 3 below) and I was more than happy. But I had to turn 30 and whaddaya know? My girlfriend, Melissa, surprises me with everyones favourite Autobot leader.

Ok, so I kinda guessed shed gotten it for me--shes not very good at hiding her surprise when I guess her gifts correctly. :P But tell me Im not the luckiest guy on the planet. First the Henkei Prime, now the TFA Voyager! Woohoo!

I have to confess, I didnt think Id like Voyager Prime as much as Deluxe Cybertron mode. But heres the thing: the Voyager Class TFA figures have nice tight alt modes and pretty show accurate robot modes, on top of being pretty darn poseable.

Granted, this guy maybe a little chunkier (in the chest) than how he appears in the show, but we like our Primes buff!

Hes got great paint apps all over, especially the red, and light piping for his eyes. Now he doesnt come with the axe in the pic. That weapon belongs to Battle Begins Deluxe Prime. But it fits his hands perfectly and makes him show accurate.

One of the simple but most fun features he has is his sliding chin guard--Slide up for battle mode, slide down for his face in regular mode. Hes the only TFA Prime so far that can do this. :)





The other feature involves his transformation:



Ok I lied, nothing there but fancy pictures :P However, when he transforms back from truck mode, theres a little switch located on his back that lets Primes legs and waist spin down into place under his upper torso. Thats quite a feature--you sorta get to see your Prime transform at least partly by himself. Awesome. :)

Now the axe that comes with him may seem a little big. It also seems a weird colour for an axe, and completely not show accurate. Also if you remove the water cannon from it, theres a big hole in the weapon.







But the beauty of it is that it transforms to Primes "trailer" and fits nicely on the back in truck mode. And it can also double up as Optimus backpack/jetpack when hes in robot mode--it fits snugly on his back.






His final feature is sort of an Easter Egg. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered it. Its not on the back of the box or in the instructions.

Primes cannon that can also be held in his hand can shoot water by depressing the nozzle. Just fill er up via the rubber stopper at the bottom of the cannon and then fire away!



And size-wise, this guy fits perfectly with the other TFA Voyagers. Check it out:


So heres how I rate TFA Optimus Prime:

Show Accuaracy: 9/10 - Spot on in robot mode, right down to the moveable chin guard. Less sleek than in the show, but Prime can be as buff as he wants as leader of the Autobots. ;) His axe is way too big, but swapping in with the Battle Begins Primes axe works.

Poseability: 9/10 - His waist and head rotate 360 degrees as do his knees. His shoulders too, but they have 2 more hinge joints there (primarily for transformation) that give him even more flexibility with the arms. Elbows can bend up to 90 degrees but wrists are fixed. His lower body, though, is a little disappointing. Legs bend less than 90 deg at the knees, but hyper extend. His feet can point and "flex." The upper thigh can move forward and back less than 180 deg but they move out to the side pretty much all the way.

But I was still surprised how poseable he was! :)

Aesthetic: 9.5/10 - Great looking robot mode. Nice clear blue windows with circuitry. Vehicle mode is nice and seamless, and pieces snap together to make the truck mode tight. Paint apps are applied realy well, and his red is a smooth matte. He doesnt have an Autobot sign in any mode though!

Overall: 9.2/10 - Its a must have for any TFA or Optimus Prime fan! :) (You can now get him for $29.90 at any of the major department stores--if you can find him. ;])