Cliffbee.com Cybertron Legends Optimus Prime Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Optimus Prime
Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Flatbed Truck

Thanks to Tiby for loaning me Optimus Prime for this review



TRUCK MODE
Height: 11cm Length: 2.5cm Width: 2.5cm

   A long red and blue flatbed truck, Prime is more blue than red but the upper section of his cab is red, making it the more prominent colour. The grille area is white while his windows are blue and there's some silver and yellow kibble in the middle. The colours are archetypical Optimus Prime colours which broadly match those of the leader sized version of the character, although the strobes on the roof are unpainted here and there's no yellow on the larger truck. The colours are really nothing special here - the yellow in the middle is distracting but they do firmly anchor this as a Prime toy. There's a stamped Autobot logo on the right door.

   The back of the truck is quite long, and really just hangs out the back looking like it's designed to hold something. Which it is - the larger toy was designer as a truck with a detachable rear section, and this version lacks that rear section. Prime really does need that trailer, too. It's not really a realistic truck, looking somewhat futuristic, but is quite obviously a transport truck, at least.

   There's not much to this truck mode, and while it's a passable truck, the mould doesn't offer much. The wheels roll and the colours are instantly recognisable as Optimus Prime, but that's about all there is in a fairly poor vehicle mode.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Fold the tail end underneath, swing the long rear section down to form legs, fold down the groinplate, spread the legs a little. Split the cab, swing down the bumper halves to form the forearms, rotate them to reveal fists, swing the arms out to the sides, lift up his shoulderpads and pull the head out of the torso.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 8cm Width: 6.5cm

   Prime is again red on top with blue at the bottom - the boots, forearms, head and groin are blue while his chest and upper arms are red. The thighs and face are silver while there's yellow on his knees and groin. That Autobot symbol is now on the left shoulderpad, and looks good there. The colours line up to the larger toy fairly well, aside from the overuse of yellow. While there's almost no yellow on the larger toy's robot mode, I'm happy to report that it looks good here, and his colour scheme works well from an aesthetic point of view.

   This robot mode is a nice little statue - he looks quite impressive despite the size. I mean that in a display value sense, not an imposing kind of way. There's some poseability here, allowing for natural posing and not much else. The elbows swing and the hips are ball jointed, allowing the default at ease stance of his legs, and allowing a straight-legged walking pose if you want to use it. There are rectangular holes in his hands - Prime can potentially hold weaponry although nothing in recent times has come with a weapon that would fit his hands.

   Simple but solid. The colours work well, the layout works and shoulderpads look very nice. While the truck mode looks unfinished, the robot mode comes off looking pretty good. It's not the best legends robot mode, but Prime does work well here.

VARIATIONS

   There is a later variant which substituted blue for black. Classic Legends Menasor is a repaint of this toy.

OVERALL

   A pretty forgettable legends toy despite a decent robot mode - the truck mode looks unfinished and sports an awkward colour scheme. It's not so much that it's terrible, but with so many other toys out there representing Optimus Prime, there's just not enough going for this powerup-less version to make it interesting. The robot mode does display well, so it's not all bad news - but I'd recommend Menasor over this toy, simply because the colours here remind us that this is Optimus Prime and that hurts the vehicle mode - 6/10

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