When Hasbro launched the Rise of the Beasts toy line, one of the second wave Battle Masters was Optimus Primal. This super fun little toy featured Optimus Primal transforming from his beast mode as seen in the film to a cannon (that resembled Optimus Prime's blaster). This fun concept made for some of my favorite toys in the line even before I saw the film. Before I saw the movie, I could not help but think: "How fun would it be to have this Battle Master in classic Botcon Exclusive Apelinq colors?". Then life became very busy for a while (including me attending the New York City Premiere of the film and having a panel at Botcon 2023!). Eventually I recruited fellow fan Shawn Tessman (who previously worked on several customs for me including the amazing Mega Turtle I posted in 2021) and now the figure is a reality!
Of course, when I thought of this idea I did not know the film would already have an Apelinq in it, but color-wise that character did not differ much from Optimus Primal, so it would not have been a very distinctive custom. Instead, I asked Shawn to go with the classic Botcon Apelinq colors for this custom. For those wondering about this figure from a lore perspective, let's just say the whole concept of Primal or Rhinox only transforming into weapons with no robot modes is already a bit wacky, so this just fits into that hypothetical "alternate world" of Rise of the Beasts. For me, it was just a fun reality to realize.
The deco not only uses the wonderful red/brown color found on the original Apelinq, but the silver colors have green colors prayed over them, also calling back to the colors of the original Apelinq. I also love that the original Apelinq toy has 5mm ports in his fists so he can hold this weapon!
Enjoy the pics in the gallery below and thank you to Shawn for doing a bang up job!
