Optimus Primal finally makes his cinematic debut in the live-action film series as a stone-cold Maximal badass. While he isn't voiced by Garry Chalk and has a different personality, it at least makes sense in a universe doing its own thing rather than what we got with Kingdom or POTP. Merchandise for the guy has been as plentiful as his Autobot counterpart, though he receives an ape face (not Apeface) while Prime gets a gun. However, two mainline figures are very hard for fans to obtain in the US, with the Voyager releases of the Optimus duo nearly impossible to get! I already reviewed Optimus Prime and commented that the figure is pretty good but not 100% perfect and likely needs to stop being scalped once we get the Studio Series version. Will we get a similar scenario with Optimus Primal or not?
Here is Optimus Primal in his gorilla mode. It's a mechanical gorilla that has a good mix of mechanical and organic elements sculpted into her design. The torso looms more robotic with the smoother and more segmented surface area in contrast to the more textures that represent fur on the arms and legs. So far, this toy resembles the CG model the closest (even if it's not entirely accurate due to the promo art not being 1:1 with the final movie model). I will comment that figure is as gray as the TLK release of Grimlock, and while there is some silver trimming as well as the blue eyes to break up the monotony, I won't lie that the figure could be better colored. At least using gunmetal gray or near black to better match the movie coloring or stock images. At the very least, anatomy is good on the toy, especially with this toy being based around the same primate proportions. The articulation in this mode consists of slight head movements left and right as well as up and down, shoulders moving front and back as well as in and out, the biceps swivel, the elbows bend, the wrists swivel, the waist rotates slightly, and the hips can move around front and back as well as in and out somewhat, while the knees require you to bend them in a chicken leg stance to make him more hunched while also compensating his lack of ankle pivots.
For a size comparison with a robot mode who he'd stand in front of in this mode, here he is next to Optimus Primal, telling him to stand down. I feel the size works well for both modes, and it makes me wonder how their Studio Series counterparts will look when stood next to each other.
For a beast-mode comparison, here he is sandwiched in-between his Kingdom counterpart and mainline Cheetor. You can see how similar the engineering seems between the two Voyagers, which is something that was seemingly used for the other Beasties apart from Airazor, who ironically feels more original compared to her Studio Series counterpart. As for Cheetor, he looks good next to his Maximal, though while the speedster has a more broken-up color scheme, Primal does feel drabber by comparison.
Transformation is similar to that of the Kingdom version, but with a different foot transformation as well as a different torso transformation as well as a different head transformation, with you pulling the assembly to rotate the head around while the torso uses panels that either open up or are on a sliding joint with a hinge to pull down, something that makes Primal a little more distinct by comparison. His robot mode is the closest to the CG model so far when it comes to the toys, as the other figures he has are more based on the older concept art that uses more inspiration from the Season 1 design than this guy does. We see the robot thighs better on this guy as well as a different torso to compliment the head, though I have to admit I wish the hands and feet were in a more fitting shade of plastic to go with the gray plastic, even if it would make him look drabber.
The head sculpt is a stylized design that feels reminiscent of the AOE design, which I find interesting how that's the design he mimics while Optimus's look starts to resemble how it'll appear in 2007. I once again wish that the head was in a darker shade of plastic so his noggin doesn't feel like it's washed out, even with the nice sculpt work added onto it. New to this articulation is the better range of the arms (somewhat due to the shoulder pads moving out), the knees properly bend, and the ankles pivot better. His swords can be held in both hands as per tradition.
Regarding the stock images I alluded to earlier, Optimus Primal's gray plastic was closer to a charcoal black while some of the silver was made gold. If this was the deco we got on the final toy, I would have loved it a whole lot more. I don't think we've had a case where a toy's deco mismatches the final toy in so long.
.jpg)
For a robot mode size comparison, here he is with the same characters we last covered. The scale with Cheetor goes well with the Season 1 approach that the Kingdom version goes for, and I do like that while the two designs are drastically different, they have some similar design traits like the transformation, the idea of a head/torso transformation, and the shoulder pads flipping up. I will say, however, that Primal had a few more tricks in the Kingdom line with his arm cannons, articulated fingers, shoulder cannons, and added paint.
And here he is charging into battle with Optimus Prime, and IDK if you can tell but Primal has his swords combined into a double-bladed sword So yeah, this guy is cool, but I don't think you should get this guy if you were struggling to obtain this figure in-person. Wait until it shows up in-stores, but do keep in mind that the price is going to be more-or-less the same as the regular Voyagers, which is odd since the Jungle Mission 3-packs are at a reasonably lower price compared to the Studio Series Deluxes if they're multiplied by 3. And even then, the mainline Voyagers are not worth the same price that normal Studio Series Voyagers go for.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment