The noble leader, the head honcho, the Big Kahuna himself, it's Optimus "I Once Killed Myself Over A Video Game(???)" Prime! And this time around, he's a fire truck--how cool is that? At one point in their lives, everyone wishes he or she could drive a fire truck. Who wouldn't want to drive a vehicle
that can run red lights, rescue kitties from trees, and spray water with enough pressure to knock someone out?
Vehicle Mode
As a fire truck, Optimus Prime measures 28 cm(11") long, is
8 cm(3.14") wide, and 13 cm(5") tall including his ladder. Main colours are bright red, metallic silver, and flat gray, with chrome wheels, black rubber tires, translucent red sirens, and translucent blue windows. The Autobot logo is painted on either side of him in white outline. The name "Fire Convoy" is on all six of his tires and the left side of the cab has "Cybertron" printed on it, along with "Fire Department" printed in Japanese. From the side or front, Optimus looks great, but from above you can easily see part of his super robot chest. The vehicle rolls quite nicely on bare floor and carpet and holds together fairly well for a big toy comprised
of eight components.
The most impressive feature on this toy is the ladder, which extends to a length of 53 cm(21") and can rotate a full 360 degrees. Neat features include a small step ladder and a control seat mounted on the sides of the rotator platform. Pressing the red button near the tip of the ladder causes two water cannons to flip out. Pressing the gray button at the other end of the ladder causes four launchers to flip out in unison, with spring-loaded missiles ready to fire! Annoyingly, the third launcher on mine has a very itchy trigger, causing it to fire its missile every time I hit the flip-out button. And no, changing the missiles around doesn't help any. Darn thing.
Depending on the angle of the ladder, the missiles have a range of up to a meter.
Pressing the button on the roof of the truck activates the light-up sirens and the voice box. Prior to his release, there was speculation that Hasbro would cut costs by not having Optimus speak any English phrases. Well, fear not, folks! He has a grand total of five sounds:
- A single siren sound
- same siren sound repeated over three times
- "Autobots, transform!"
- "Optimus Prime, maximize!"
- "Fire!" followed by machine gun blasts
Transformation
The front section of the truck converts to a roughly Ultra-sized robot, while the rear and mid section disassemble and reassemble to form a combination radar station/gun platform. Neither is all that difficult, though it can be frustrating trying to get him back into vehicle mode. Some pieces require more force than others in order to snap on, and they have to be attached to one another in a certain order.
Robot w/Base Mode
Optimus Prime's robot mode stands 20 cm(7.9") tall, as tall as Megatron but smaller-looking. Like most Convoy-type robots, he's mainly red with white and metallic blue. His head is blue and silver with vac metal gold eyes. While it bears a striking resemblance to the original
Optimus Prime head, it's smoother and more rounded. His chest is vac metal red with blue "windows" and a silver "grille," further signs of his Convoy heritage. His forearms and thighs are very rounded, kinda like the Michelin
Man's limbs. Good strong tires for good strong robots, guaranteed not to "pop a Firestone." He's also got massive shins and small feet.
Optimus is articulated at the head, antennae, shoulders, upper arms, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. He comes with a small, but powerful-looking laser gun topped with a red wheel. Go ahead Skir, take my gun away. As for the base, it's small compared to Optimus, but impressive-looking nonetheless, with pivoting laser cannons (including
finger guns) and a rotating armed radar tower. Now, will he actually be *using* this contraption on the show, or does it simply disappear and reappear at will whenever he transforms?
Mega Robot Mode
This mode simply involves attaching the super robot feet
to his shoulders as missile pads, and the forearm glove to whichever of his arms isn't brandishing the gun. Each missile pad has six big blue missiles sculpted into it, giving Optimus the necessary firepower to blow stuff up. The forearm glove also has a pivoting double-barrelled laser cannon attached
to it. Looks pretty badass, but not nearly as badass as his next mode .
Super Robot Mode
Attach on the ladder, feet, and all the rest of his parts,
and you get one bigass armoured robot that stands 25 cm(9.8") tall at the head, with the ladder adding a few centimetres to that height. He's taller than Optimal Optimus but far less bulky, with proportional arms and hands.
He has one spot of kibble, the ladder hanging off his back, reaching all the way down to the ground. His laser gun attaches via holes on either shoulder pad. Whereas his smaller robot mode had puny feet, he now has big ol'
stompers like a big robot should. He's mostly red with blue, silver, gray and orange highlights. His head is red and metallic silver with pivoting chrome antennae and vac metal gold eyes. Flipping up the orange panel on his chest reveals what is supposed to be a universal fuel converter, as pointed
to me by Doug Dlin. A chrome Autobot symbol is on top of the panel.
Optimus Prime's arsenal includes dual laser cannons on both forearms, his shoulder gun, his finger guns, and the water cannons and missile launchers in his ladder, which can swing up over his head to fire. The instructions say to position the ladder on the left side of his body, but I find that this inhibits poseability in his arm, so I leave it straight out behind him.
Looks better that way too. In this mode, Optimus has joints at the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, thumbs, hips, and knees. His massive feet allow for a wide range of action poses, more than you'd expect for such a big toy. Right now I have him standing on just one foot, delivering a crippling sidekick with the other, right to Megatron's chest region. He won't be
getting up from that one. Oh, and for frivolous fun, you can flip out the wheels on his feet so that he can go roller blading. Look out for that low bridge!
Overall, Suspsy Sez
It's no small surprise that this toy is flying off shelves everywhere. His transformation is more along the lines of assembling the pieces than converting the form, and the faulty missile launcher on mine is annoying, but these are minor things at best. RID Optimus Prime delivers everything you'd want in a TF: good colours, plenty of poseability, neat
gimmicks, multiple modes, and tons of play value. Plus light and sound. I really can't see anyone except the most puritanical, tight-assed G1 fan having a beef with this toy. Hell, this guy's waaaaaay more fun than the original Optimus Prime.
Suspsy
Reviewer | Suspsy |
Date | October 22nd 2001 |
Score | (10 out of 10) |
Reads | 11525 |
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