Transformers Age of Extinction Rusty Optimus Prime review

The Age of Extinction line barely gets any of its molds reviewed compared to the other movies, mostly with Studio Series taking over as well as the AOE line itself being a huge step down from the prior movie toy lines. The scale decrease was already a factor, but the way engineering got held back as well as the heavy bias towards the Autobots and the push for a kid-friendly line getting more attention than the Generations-esque figures also soured fans who weren't happy with the way Hasbro mostly fell off back in the mid 2010s. As for the figures themselves, they ranged from pretty good with Hound to subpar with the Leaders to outright horrendous with Lockdown and First Edition Prime. Evasion Prime is said to be the best of the group, but the colors ranged from Geewun-friendly to movie accurate. Mine is on the latter side of the spectrum, and with a new AOE Prime based on his second design in the movie coming soon, let's review this figure!

Here we have Rusty Optimus Prime in vehicle mode, a beat-up flat nose that was a huge surprise for many Transformers fans back when it turned out this was a form Optimus took before having a complete redesign with the Western Star truck mode. All of the rusty paint apps are a mix of spray paint effects and digital transfers to match the truck more as accurately as possible. The truck itself, however, looks more like a Freightliner than the Marmon 97, with the Bumblebee movie version of Optimus Prime in the Studio Series line taking influence from that instead. Though the front section generally looks good apart from the windows not covering the forearms well enough and the slight misalignment with the middle pieces, the legs look very exposed, and it doesn't help that the creamy white beige used for them stands out more than something like blue or dark grey. At least the rims are painted. The single smokestacks will be ironic given how the robot mode will end up with two smaller ones that match the movie.

The gun can be attached on either the top of the truck or in the bottom of the feet. It's not the best weapon storage but at least some paint apps are added in the form of a wash.

For a live-action flat nose comparison, here he is with his ROTB counterpart, which is meant to better resemble the classic G1 altmode better but with the grille guard and sun visor added. Do you think Optimus remembered his old days of being a flat nose prior to the events of AOE?

Transformation is fairly complex compared to most other AOE figures, especially given how the cab basically turns inside out to accommodate the traditional Bayverse Prime proportions. The legs do less work than usual, with just the rotation of the shins in place. The resulting robot mode is, for its time, one of the best proportioned versions of Optimus from the original trilogy (albeit with the Evasion-specific details). Though the forearms are obscured somewhat by the panels below the hands and the wheels on the hips missing a lower pair (something Wei Jiang and later Hasbro added), this matches the CGI model pretty well. The aesthetics are carried over, with the same rusty paint apps applied onto the figure in a way reminiscent of how Hasbro does battle damaged paint apps. I do feel, however, that the creamy white beige doesn't work too great for the robot mode. It not only looks more like the toy was once a white Ultra Magnus that started to yellow, but the result isn't entirely screen-accurate to the actual colors Optimus had in the movie. So far, only the ThreeZero Evasion Prime captures the deco better than any HasTak toy. Setting that aside, the robot mode looks generally good, and given what his second design in the movie would have to deal with, toy-wise, this ends up being a walk in the park by comparison.

Head sculpt is well made but I kind of wish it didn't have the mouthplate. Ironically, two versions of the mold I have DO have the exposed face, which we'll get to in a moment. The eyes are painted blue, neutering the light-piping. With Megatron's shotgun held in the wrong handle to homage the G1 toy (and to let the DOTM Voyager Megatron hold the weapon), the articulation includes a double neck joint (ball at the top, hinge at the bottom), shoulder rotation, ratchets moving in and out, bicep rotation past 90 degree bends at the pseudo elbow joints, and tight wrist rotation. The waist rotates, the hips move front and back without issue while they require hinging the hip wheels outwards to move out. The thighs rotate, the knees bend, and the ankles can hinge and pivot. 

As far as reuses are concerned, this is the stock Hasbro Evasion Prime. This figure is the most common version of the mold, featuring a G1 accurate deco as well as a lack of color break-up. The truck mode is definitely favored, but would it hurt Hasbro to match the stock photos better?

The Takara version does look better thanks to the added silver used for the biceps, rims, shoulder spikes, and smokestacks; meanwhile, blue is used on the lower stomach area below the faux grille as well as the hips. The blue paint on the hands and feet are removed, and the shoulders have red flames.

The Evolution 2-pack is meant to look like the traditional movie version of Optimus Prime, but whether or not it accomplished that or is meant to look like the Western Star version is up for debate. The flames, yellow, and inconsistent faux chest are worth mentioning. He was meant to have a mouthplate but it wasn't included.

A Platinum version with chrome came out in a 2-pack with Grimlock, who also has chrome. Remember when the AOE line went crazy with random chrome placement not unlike the Henkei days?

This is the MILK Magazine prize version that was available in Asia, and it goes for its own take on a heavily weathered of the design. Not accurate but dope as hell.

The Lucky Draw version dips him in gold chrome. Not much else to say.

Another Platinum Edition version of the mold gives Optimus an even more accurate G1 deco, though the rims are still unpainted. At least he has the mouthplate. He was part of the Autobots United 5-pack that came with more movie-accurate versions of Bumblebee, Hound, Crosshairs, and Drift.

Hasbro's take on an accurate Evasion Prime consisted of making most of the robot mode darker for the legs and biceps, though the truck mode ends up looking lighter. If I could mash up elements of this with the Takara Rusty Prime, we may have the definitive toy.

The final use was for the Movie the Best line, which reused older toys and gave them more accurate decos. This is basically a more weathered take on Takara's Evasion Prime from 2014, but with some Rusty influences. Still not accurate 100% but they're getting close. Loosely reminds me of TFP Nemesis Prime.

And going from Optimus to Nemesis, this is the obligatory black repaint. I like how the gun is teal, and I'd love to see more repaints like this with the classic Bayverse design.

For some size comparisons, he slightly towers over his ROTB counterpart, which would make sense if it weren't for how small the Studio Series Voyagers somewhat felt with his trilogy design while also ignoring how much smaller Transformers overall were in the two prequel movies. 

And here we have Optimus with Lockdown again, just to showcase how the scale mostly remains accurate between the two. Lockdown could be taller, though maybe a new update would help fix that and his other issues. Idk how soon a new take on Evasion Prime would happen, but I am hopeful that we at least get some accuracy tweaks to make him better than he currently is. Rusty Prime is one of the stronger versions of the mold regardless, and he is more likely to hold up better than either or his larger scale Western Star design toys would in 2014.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐