Cliffbee.com Omega Supreme Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Omega Supreme
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Defence Base
Alternate Mode: Rocket Base, Rocket and Tank



ROCKET BASE MODE
Height: 24cm Length: 35cm Width: 66cm

   A playset all on his own, Omega Supreme is a brown rocket base, complete with brown rocket with an oval shaped track on which a brown and red tank rolls. There's some yellow in the mix, and there are orange flame-like legs at the base of the rocket. The outside loops of the track are beige, while there is also beige on the tank, along with yellow and black. This mode is actually four separate pieces - the track, the rocket tower, the rocket and the tank. I'll cover each separately.

   The tower is more or less made of the bits left over after everything else has gone into the other pieces, yet works quite well as a tower. It's a fairly nondescript brown apparatus with some yellow here and there. It does what it has to do, which is support the rocket - even now, on the bed, it's allowing the rocket to stand upright despite the uneven surface. It serves as a good link between the rocket and track, although neither firmly attach to it.

   The track is also fairly nondescript it itself, but this is the part that takes up a good two square feet of floorspace. It's the shape of a running track, being more or less straight at the sides with beige semi circles at the ends.

   While the track provides the width, half the height of this toy is the rocket itself - which is a lot higher than the rest of the toy. The rocket is the simplest of the four elements - it's made up of two pieces only and is essentially a big brown cylinder with a tapered top and three orange flames on the bottom. If the flames are closed, the rocket will not stand up on it's own - the rocket base will support it. If you want to stand the rocket by itself you can open the flames up and they form a tripod for it to stand on. They're meant to stay closed in this mode, but it doesn't really matter if you open them, and it works out as a nice option.

   The tank is really where all the action is. It's easily the most complex component of Omega Supreme's rocket base mode and is where the electronics live. There's a red switch at the back, if you turn it on there are rubber wheels underneath designed to fit the track - it'll happily go around and around, until you stop it (or drain the AA batteries). At the same time the turret will rotate, the cannon will lift up and down and a red lamp at the back of the turret will flash. While I'm usually fairly unimpressed by electronic gimmicks, none of this really holds Omega Supreme back and it's well thought out.

   Play value aside, it's a fairly decent tank. The treads are solid moulded, of course, and are largely covered by the brown sides. It's clearly not a real tank - we'll call it a Cybertronian tank, even though this design actually predates the Transformers. On the front he sports both a rubsign and an Autobot symbol, while there are clear plastic decals in various locations on the tank. There are also decals on the other three components, but the bulk are on the tank.

   While clear plastic decals are unusual for the Transformers, there were common in Japan amongst a lot of toy companies - and Hasbro went with this sticker style for quite a few of it's non-Takara Transformers - the Deluxe Insecticons are another example of this.

   As I've already mentioned, this rocket base is a playset all in itself. The electronic gimmicks work well and are confined to the tank, which means there's to Omega Supreme than just electronics. The earthy colours work together quite well and the sheer size of this mode is impressive. It's as portrayed in the cartoon - although the rocket got most of the airtime there.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Basically you disassemble the base and put him back together as a robot. The tank itself does transform to form the core of the robot, however. The shoulders fold down to the sides and the elbows extend. The treads extend to form the thighs, the turret flips back and rotates to form the head and the front of the tank (the battery cover) slides up to form his sternum (well, that part of the torso).

   The rest attaches to this core - the sides of the track become his legs, while the feet are the base of the tower. The tower itself forms his back (you'll actually have to attach this before you fold the turret back). There are six yellow connectors (four on the tower, two on the track) that attack to his legs - the largest ones become shins. The rocket splits and becomes his forearms, and the beige track loops become wings.

   The wings actually clip into the backpack, which has a plate that lifts up, with the wings attaching underneath. This makes the wings very secure, since you've got two connecting posts _and_ the backplate keeping them on. The standard transformation uses only two of the six beige track sections as smaller wings, but if you like you can actually use all six, since each semi circle has three places it can connect (one on each piece). I'll cover these options in more detail later.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 35cm Width: 21cm standard - max is 38cm and 56cm

   A big brown robot with beige wings and elbows, yellow shins and shoulders, a red central stripe down his torso and transparent orange cockpit like face, Omega Supreme has a big Autobot logo on his chest as well as a smaller one on his waist, along with the rubsign. It's a fairly good colour scheme, since the earthy colours again work well together, and the brown and red form big chunks with yellow, beige and orange used as supporting colours.

   Omega Supreme looks like a lumbering giant, since he hasn't got thighs (well, in a sense he does, but they're totally covered by his giant boots) and the torso is a big solid block. He has no facial detail as such, - the transparent orange face has a red flashing light inside it and what looks like a breathing apparatus forming his mouth, complete with twin hoses wrapping around the sides. The cartoon expanded to put a face inside this orange mask, but the simple face of the toy works well for this toy's simple design.

   One hand will be a big three pronged orange claw and the other a cannon formed from the tip of the rocket. While the standard is a right claw and left cannon, it doesn't really make any difference, you can attach either on either side. The claw prongs are hinged, and have three positions - open, half open and closed. Combining with this are hinged elbows with swivels in them, shoulders that rotate and another set of hinges just above the elbows that give his arms very good articulation for a 1985 Transformer.

   The head also rotates, and along with the arms gives Omega Supreme some poseability. The legs don't really have any poseability, since they're mechanical, but the arm poseability is enough for me - it's more than Metroplex or Fortress Maximus can boast.

   The standard wing configuration uses only one third of his beige track loops, and means while his wings stick up, they don't really hang out to the sides. If you use all the track available you'll find he has giant wings which _really_ add some width. You actually have two options - attach the wings in the middle of the loops, giving him giant horseshoe wings sticking out to either side or at the end of the loops (which is essentially just attaching the extra bits to the standard config), giving him giant semi circular, "rainbow", wings - which are the widest option. I personally prefer the most compact option, even if it doesn't make full use of the track pieces, partly since this is how he appeared in the cartoon and partly since it's the least kibbly.

   The other important aspect of Omega Supreme is the walking mechanism. Thanks to a clever reconfiguration, the motor that makes the tank roll now allows him to walk. The head no longer turns mechanically (although you can still turn it around if you want his cannon to face forward), the lamp still flashes though.

   The big boots themselves don't move as he walks, instead they act as supports while the feet step forward - he kind of slides along the floor. The treads, inside the boots, actually move up and down, causing the feet to rise and fall, with the encasing boots forcing the feet to slide forward while at the bottom of their step (if you like, the feet move in small loops). The end result is a slow, lumbering gait, which works well, I'm impressed by just how stable this walk is - it's no chance of falling over thanks to the large footprints. It helps that the soles of his feet are always horizontal.

   On the back of the boots live the smaller yellow clips. A lot of Omega Supreme toys on the secondary markets are missing these clips, and without them his boots don't fit quite so tightly. These clips are quite easy to lose, I'm happy to say I have all four.

   All told this is a pretty good robot mode, with good play value. The articulation is better than a lot of Transformers of the same era that _don't_ have electronic gimmicks. What's more the walking feature is actually worthwhile. I'm impressed by the different wing options, also - it's nice the designer made the effort. The design aesthetic is clearly not Takara, which is really the main thing counting against this robot mode (assuming you aren't missing pieces).

VARIATIONS

   This toy, produced by a company called "Toybox" for Hasbro, was not released in the Japanese G1 line since Takara never owned the mould. TakaraTomy finally released him as part of their Encore series in 2008. This reissue features distinct facial features such as eyes beneath the orange "face". Gadep is a limited repaint of Omega Supreme.

OVERALL

   Two very nice modes, good colours and really well done electronics make Omega Supreme a good, fun, toy. The transformation is clever despite the Lego aspects. Easily better than Metroplex, he's a toy I really recommend. The only real negative to this toy is the sheer number of parts that can be lost - but then this isn't that different to a lot of other G1 Transformers - 7.5/10

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