Cliffbee.com Omega Spreem Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Omega Spreem
Series: "European" Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Ground Assault
Alternate Mode: Tank

Thanks to Griffin for loaning me Omega Spreem, making this review possible.



TANK MODE
Height: 8cm Length: 11cm Width: 6.5cm

   A yellow and magenta tank with black treads at the rear, three sky blue cannons and some red highlights. Omega Spreem is meant to be Omega Supreme, although these bright colours don't really match those of the original toy. The name was obviously lost in translation, but the semblance is still here - in robot mode anyway. These are pretty awful colours, I'm not sure why this toy needed four bright colours, two would have worked well.

   Omega Spreem is pretty much a robot hunched over to form a tank. The two side cannons are quite obviously on the ends of his arms and the centre one is on the back of his head - which _is_ taken from Omega Supreme. The rear treads are painted black while the front treads are magenta. There are no wheels. The robot thighs connect the upper half of the toy with the treads at the back (his knees, basically).

   As lame as the shape of this toy is, the gimmick works quite well. There's a yellow button on top of the back end, pressing it causes the front half to spin around rapidly - the joint is actually his robot waist. If you keep pressing the button the front spins quite nicely, the cannons on the arms work well here. There are joints on his thighs - extra leg joints in effect - which allow the tank to lift up and down, giving Omega Spreem anti-aircraft capabilities.

   The colours are shocking, the tribute in this mode is somewhat weak, but the gimmick is fun. I can't say this is a good tank mode, but there's hint he's trying for realism, and at this size the gimmick is actually well executed.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Pretty trivial. Remove the front treads and set aside - it'll become the robot's handgun shortly. Lift up the top part of the tank to form the upper robot, swing up the rear treads to form his boots. Swing the arms down, fold away the side cannons, revealing the hands. Give Omega Spreem his gun and you're done.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 11cm Width: 7cm

   A yellow and magenta robot with blue head and hands. His torso, arms and feet are yellow, the boots and groin are magenta. The red is now limited to the wrists and simple face, and with the red and blue elements tied together the four colours actually work fairly well together now. Sure, Omega Spreem's still very bright and the colours aren't a great tribute to Omega Supreme. This is easily his more attractive mode, mind you - since the colours seem designed to line up here.

   Omega Spreem looks more like his almost namesake now. The head might be blue but it's a simple face with a barrel hanging off the back. The black treads on his boots remind of the bulky boots of Omega Supreme. There's a magenta strip on the chest reminds of Supreme's red chestplate. While the rocket base had no hands, this toy has two hands. While it's not the most focused revisiting of a character, the tribute is still quite obvious here.

   The play value is okay, but not at all spectacular. The shoulders and hips swing, the knees can bend and the waist turns right around (thanks to the spinning gimmick). The gimmick still works here although it doesn't make all that much sense. Mind you, the arms can lift to the sides and spinning the upper body around is kinda fun. The leg poseability is somewhat limited, since the upper body is quite heavy. Stepping poses where both feet are on the table are possible but that's all the legs can really do.

   A fun robot mode, even if the colours are still kinda ugly. The poseability is pretty good for a transforming toy - not quite up to the level of regular Actionmasters - but the gimmick is a nice addition to this mode.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of. As with all of the Actionmaster Elites, Omega Spreem was sold only in Australasia and continental Europe - making him a hard to find figure.

OVERALL

   A fun toy with a silly but fun gimmick. The colours are pretty bad, although not as bad as some of the colour schemes G2 or TFU managed to dish up. The tank mode is fairly lame, but as a transforming Actionmaster Omega Spreem is nice. Whether he's worth the price you're likely to pay is another matter. If the price seems fair to you, then this toy is an interesting piece - 6/10

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