General Information:
Release Date: March 2018
Price Point: $29.99 (Varies by retailer)
Retailer: General Release (Toys R Us, K-Mart, Target etc.)
Accessories: Sword blades x 2
Official images and text in italics below from Amazon.com:
This Studio Series 05 Voyager Class Movie 2 Optimus Prime figure brings the movie action from the Forest Fight scene to new dimensions. The figure converts between robot and truck modes in 35 steps and comes with 2 detailed weapon accessories inspired by the movie. Remove the backdrop included in pack to showcase Optimus Prime in the Forest Fight scene.
In the Forest Fight from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Optimus Prime ignites his Energon blades and charges into a ferocious battle against his greatest nemesis, Megatron. Slashing at his foe with unyielding force, this legendary warrior risks everything to protect the Cybertronian secrets locked in the mind of his human ally, Sam Witwicky.
Reach past the big screen and build the ultimate Transformers collection with Studio Series figures, inspired by iconic movie scenes and designed with deco and figure scales that reflect the movie universe.
A fateful clash of ground-shattering strength erupts in the Forest Fight from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Optimus Prime ignites his Energon blades and pits himself against Megatron and the Decepticons, ready to take them all on. The legendary warrior risks everything to protect the Cybertronian secrets locked in the mind of his human ally.
This Studio Series 05 Voyager Class Movie 2 Optimus Prime figure converts between robot and truck modes in 35 steps and comes with 2 weapon accessories. Remove the backdrop from pack to showcase the legendary Autobot leader in the Forest Fight scene. 2017 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved. 2017 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Transformers and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro.
2017 was a milestone in Transformers history. The live action movie series was now ten years old meaning an entire generation of fans had grown up in an era where they had a live action Transformers theatrical film every other year to watch. In 2018 Hasbro launched the "Studio Series", a "Generations"-esque line of figured focused on the live action movies. The series boasted toys that were made in rough scale with each other using the CAD files from Paramount Pictures as the basis for the design. Part of the idea was also to fill in gaps in previous lines by making characters who had not appeared in the line previously.
The last two live action Transformers films featured Optimus Prime in a very humanoid looking form and a Western Star truck alt-mode. However, for the first three films Optimus Prime had a more boxy and traditional looking robot form with a Peterbilt truck as his alt-mode. The first Optimus Prime figure in the Studio Series is based on this version of Optimus Prime. Specifically this figure calls back to Optimus Prime's fight in the forest in "Revenge of the Fallen" where he deploys two blades when the Decepticons gang up on him.
Packaging:
The Voyager Class Studio Series figures are packaged in boxes similar in size to the boxes used for "The Last Knight". The boxes are vertical rectangles with a large window in the front. Instead of the lighter colors of "The Last Knight" boxes, this box takes a more "Generations" style approach, using a black background and a vertical "Transformers" logo to the right. Above that is the "Generations" logo. Reflecting the new, unified approach to the Transformers toy line both Hasbro and Takara Tomy's logos appear on the front of the packaging. Towards the lower part of the box is the logo for the specific film the character comes from (in this case it is "Revenge of the Fallen". To the left is new package art with blue borders. The packaging also has package art on the side and a large collector number designated to each figure. In Optimus Prime's case his number is 5. The idea is that you can line up all these figures on a shelf to show off the collection numbers. It's a neat idea and has kept me from tossing out the box so far.
The back of the packaging shows Optimus Prime in both modes along with the logo for "Revenge of the Fallen". It also describes his transformation as having thirty five steps. Towards the bottom it shows you how you can take the cardboard insert from the inside of the packaging and use it as a display base and background for the figure. In Optimus Prime's case, he comes with a background with a forest calling back to the scene in "Revenge" where Optimus takes on a group of Decepticons by himself. Next to that is the cosell for this figure: Starscream. Below that is all the requisite legal information for the figure.
Robot Mode:
I am a fan of the design used for Optimus Prime in "Age of Extinction" and "The Last Knight" but it is cool to go back in time a bit and see what modern day design techniques can do with the form Optimus had in the first three live action films. This form took some design cues from the classic G1 Optimus (most notably the head and chest) but the rest is very much unique to this interpretation of the character. This figure has many of these details including:
- The center of the torso has bits of a grille on it but in between are circle details and on either side are raised sections with mechanical details inside.
- The shoulders have distinct shoulder armor flaps on top.
- On either side of the head the vehicle mode's smokestacks stick up on the back.
- There are vertical panels sticking up next to each shoulder.
- The waist/hip area has two cylinders on either side with a circle in the center.
- The thighs have two of the vehicle mode wheels on the sides.
- Each foot is roughly "H" shaped, with two "toes" in the front and two heel pieces on the back.
Optimus Prime stands at almost 7 inches (about 17.7 centimeters) tall. This actually places him slightly under the "The Last Knight" Voyager Class Optimus Prime figure. Keep in mind that the Studio Series are roughly in scale with each other, but not necessarily other sub-lines of Transformers toys. This is why some figures like Blackout are Leader Class while some figures within the same class are different sizes (such as the upcoming Jazz and Lockdown). Truth be told this does not really bother me. In practical terms this means the figure is about a head shorter than "The Last Knight" Optimus, but he still looks like a "Voyager" in scale and the complexity of the figure overrides my other concerns.
Optimus Prime's battle with the Decepticons in the forest was a brutal one, and he took quite a bit of damage during the fight (to say the least). During that entire sequence it looked like Optimus Prime's color palette was a bit darker than normal (but lighting in movies, especially CG models can change the appearance of a Transformer from scene to scene pretty easily). To reflect this tone, this figure has a much darker color palette than many of the previous figures of this character. Optimus is cast in a dark metallic blue, dark metallic red, gunmetal and black plastic. The chest panels are clear plastic, representing his vehicle mode windows (even though they don't technically form them on this figure. Even before you take the paint applications into account he looks dark and gritty (appropriate given "Revenge of the Fallen" is the movie where he literally tears a Decepticon's head in half).
The paint colors used on this figure reflect the plastic colors. There is a dark metallic blue, a dark metallic red, gunmetal grey and silver. The colors are distributed very nicely. I particularly like the deco on his torso, which fills in the edges of the "chest windows" with red and fills in red and blue details on the mid-body area.
There are twenty four points of articulation on this figure. This includes five points in each arm and six in each leg. This figure also marks the return of the long-missing wrist swivel, allowing the wrist to turn in and out. Once upon a time this was a mainstay of Transformers figures but in recent years it has been sacrificed for cost savings. I was also happy to see that this articulation includes the waist and ankle tilts. Optimus comes with two sword accessories based on the ones he uses in the Forest Battle scene. Each of these is cast in orange with gunmetal grey paint on them. They each also have a Cybertronian glyph in the middle which looks fantastic. Each of these swords has a 5mm peg that fits into the fists from the bottom. This helps create the illusion that the swords are extending out from his forearms and it looks great! If you want to store the swords away, they tab into grooves on the back. This frees up the fists to hold weapons from other figures with a 5mm peg.
Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
- Straighten out the arms and legs.
- Detach the weapons if attached and set them aside for now.
- Push the middle of the lower legs in. This will rotate that section back and swing the robot feet up.
- Push the two legs together.
- Rotate the lower body around.
- Rotate the arms around so the back of the arms are facing forward.
- Swing the red panels on the forearms out, then rotate them outward.
- Swing the wrists/fists up, then swing the red panel over them.
- Swing the arms up at the elbow joint.
- Separate the shoulders from the main body and swing them forward (the chest "windows" will go with them).
- Connect the "chest windows" together.
- Swing the section with the chest windows and arms down.
- Make sure the back of the forearms are facing forward. Push them together.
- Swing the back panel up.
- Swing the panels on the back with the grille halves out, swing them down, then forward and connect them together to form the front of the vehicle.
- On the back swing out the panels with the vertical cylinders on them. This will also move two square panels out.
- Push the robot head back.
- Swing the hip area and legs up.
- Swing the rear half of the back panel down.
- Swing the panel with the cylinder on it forward, then rotate the cylinders so they are horizontal.
- Swing the shoulder connection piece from the robot mode back to form the side windows.
- Swing the waist/legs back.
- Flip the vehicle over and swing up the shoulder armor.
- Swing the cover panel up on each rear wheel well.
- Swing the middle wheel back to the rear wheel well on each side.
- Swing the wheel on the robot hips forward into the front wheel well on each side.
- Swing the cylinders on the sides down and tab them into the sides. This helps hold the vehicle together.
- The swords can be attached to the bottom of the robot feet on the back of the vehicle.
Vehicle Mode:
While Optimus Prime's current alt-mode in the live action universe is a sleek, customized Western Star truck he was a more boxy (but still sleek looking) Peterbilt in the first three films. This longnose truck has some distinct curves in the front, an angled cabin section, a curved section in the middle leading to more angled sections in the back. The various vertical and horizontal cylinders on the figure add a bit of real life detail to the vehicle along with the smoke stacks. There are some very nice details on this sculpt including the small raised patterns on the smokestacks, the row of lights above the windshield and the small Autobot symbol at the top of the grille. The back of the vehicle clearly shows the bottom of the robot feet but it also kind of looks like a generic bit of machinery to connect to a trailer so I don't mind it too much.
The only detail which sticks out (not in a good way) is just how short the smokestacks are. This was likely done for safety purposes. In the past if smokestacks were created with the appropriate height, they wound up being soft plastic that warped easily. These smokestacks are shorter and made of solid plastic (partly due to being involved in the transformation) so I get why they had to be shortened.
This mode lays out Optimus' colors in a way that really helps one appreciate them. The metallic blue and red plastic colors are heavily featured in the front. The gunmetal grey plastic adds a level of grittiness to Optimus' appearance. Metallic blue paint is used on the hood for the iconic flame details while red flames are painted onto the sides. The smokestacks are painted silver. A tiny bit of red is used for the Autobot symbol on the grille section. Gunmetal grey paint is used on the lights that go across the top of the cabin section. Of course, there is one important deco point that was left out. I bet you can guess it too. Yep, that's right - the rims. This used to be a detail that was painted in on most Transformers, but sadly even the heavily detailed "Studio Series" is not immune to this detail being left out.
There is a hole in the middle of the hitch section to attach a trailer. You may be able to connect the trailer from the "Dark of the Moon" Deluxe Class Optimus Prime, but I have not tried it. This same section has slots to attach the sword weapons for storage.
Final Thoughts:
"Studio Series" Optimus Prime did not particularly excite me when I first saw it at Toy Fair 2018. I mean, I thought "Okay cool, another Optimus" but after years of so many Optimus Prime figures from the movie it is hard to get excited about another. However once I had this figure out and transformed it I was amazed at how cool it was. Sure it is not as big as previous Voyager Optimus Primes, but it has a really fun and oddly intuitive transformation and the details are great. If you already own a pile of movie Optimus Primes I would not suggest paying full price for it, but if you can get it on sale I definitely recommend picking this up.
Pros:
- Excellent sculpt in both modes.
- Deco looks great (for the most part) thanks in part to the plastic colors chosen.
- Accessories are nicely detailed.
- The transformation is intuitive and unique.
Cons:
- The rims are unpainted and it looks unfinished.
- The figure is slightly smaller than previous Voyager Optimus Prime figures.
