Thursday, April 9, 2009

7 Faces of Optimus Prime (Part 3)

When I first started watching the Transformers Animated series, I wasn't 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 I'd 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 (He's much slimmer in Animated). And if I were to buy some Voyager Class Decepti-baddies, they'd 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 doesn't. 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).

Here's how I rate them.















Earth Mode Prime


Show Accuaracy: 8/10 - He's more a tribute to '80s G1 Prime with smoke stacks and colour. Axe is too big (more suited for Voyager Prime. But it's 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 mode's 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--it's Cybertronian, after all. ;)

Overall: 9/10

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