Here we have Energon Optimus Prime in his vehicle mode. A lot of people have complained about the aesthetics of the altmode for the arms, not even hiding in plain sight, or the shape of the trailer; it's easy to see these flaws of these alternate modes, though it can be excused as "this is what big rigs and trailers would totally look like in the future". I wouldn't mind the arms being visible if it weren't for any proper spots to keep them securely in place, and the head being visible from the top isn't as annoying as how Energon Ironhide randomly leaves his facing forward on that rotary assembly. I get that the trailer isn't any more appealing, though it does make me wonder if they were able to figure out a way to tackle the issues involving strong gusts of wind against this untraditional parallelogram.
With the trailer removed, I kind of get a mishmash of truck designs from past cabs like this. Obviously, there is the G1 influence, but the white front section makes me think of the non-red seen in Machine Wars. In fact, with how much the color scheme deviates from the G1 palette, that may have been intentional (though the cartoon had the window frames red).
Transformation is very simple for a figure like him, with the legs flipping down, the arms moving forward, and the head flipping up. The rear wheels now go on the back and form his butt, resulting in a very shapely robot mode. While there is a reason or two why Optimus is this fat, it's been a point of contention for many who felt his design was a downgrade from Energon. I'd argue this is the weakest mode out of his arsenal, mainly because of how undynamic it is unless we were to tweak his proportions. The lack of a break-up for the front of the torso, combined with stubby arms and thighs that are larger than the shins, results in a physique that is somehow fat and stumpy. Even the rear wheels don't help much with how close to a bumper bubble butt it currently is! Of course, part of the reason why he looks like this is due to Hasbro prioritizing his combination gimmickry with not just his drones, but also characters such as Wing Saber and Omega Supreme. Had we been able to add some bulk to the legs with the thighs going down to the shins, extending the arms in addition to enlarging them, and breaking up the front end properly, Optimus would better match the build of his canceled Revoltech figure while maintaining his gimmicks. Speaking of gimmicks, his left side has a barely visible button that will work better for Super Mode.
Head sculpt is decent, but there is another issue I have with the Hasbro version specifically: the shade of blue is an inaccurate sand-blue rather than the rich shade of blue usually found on Optimus Prime. As a result, he simply feels half-alive with this Dreamwave blue while the reds and whites are normal. Also, for anyone wondering, this is not the first run of Energon Optimus, as we will further discuss. His articulation consists of a neck swivel and ratchets used for the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. It's worth mentioning that the hips not only have limited range, but they tend to get broken in some weird manner; they still move normally, but the ratchets don't work properly and leave them like loose swivel hips.
For anyone wondering how he looks next to his prior and eventual designs, it's easy to see him as the weak middle chapter in Optimus Prime's appearances for the Unicron Trilogy. He was appropriately buff in Armada with an almost monster truck-like vibe in his beefatude, while Cybertron was a cool reimagining of the G1 motif but with various new spins like the front being the whole arms and the windows being a separate part from the front of the truck. Energon Optimus could have been a cool G1 tribute with the whole 20th anniversary motif, but he ends up looking far too undercooked in comparison. Not helping is his blues are closer to grey, which always bothered me with the Hasbro version.
Going back to the trailer, you can tilt it forward, bring down a stabilizer, and flip up a radar as some sort of parallelogram tower. Not that exciting, but there are sliders that let three of the Prime Force drones roll out of the trailer. The helicopter, however, has a landing platform accessed by hinging one of the stabilizers down.
The Prime Force consists of Fire-1 (who can extend its ladder), Copter-2 (with a spinning propellor blade), Digger-3 (with a drill that spins everytime it rolls on a surface), and Submarine-4 (who sinks yet has a more appropriate shade of blue than Optimus).
There is a gimmick in the back of Prime where sliding the switch to a specific number activates sound effects corresponding to one of his drones. 1 = fire truck horn, 2 = slow helicopter noise, 3 = barely audible drill, and 4 = submarine sounds.
As for his super mode, it has this pre-Power Core Combiners motif where the four drones go over the limbs of Optimus making more proportionate arms and legs than what his regular mode is left with. I always appreciate how they slide over the limbs and have that satisfying connection that we wouldn't get as easily with Hasbro's current budget unless we go Commander or HasLab. Optimus's chest opens up while a helmet goes over his head to add an extra bit of completion to his super mode. As for the overall package, I'm moreso mixed on aspects of the engineering than I am the design. Many complained about how much he looked like a Megazord, but to be fair, so did a lot of combiners before and after him. It's probably a jab at how disconnected this Optimus was from their precious source material, but then again, Geewunners hated the idea of change plenty of times. With how samey Optimus designs have been since 2018, it's easier to go back and appreciate how creative Energon was with its general designs and G1 homages. That being said, this toy is still far from perfect. While the drones make the torso more proportionate, the only change being the opening chest windows, which makes for a weird way to expose the Matrix during battle, makes the arms bump into the pieces and possibly get them detached unless they're at certain angles. I also wish more was done to that bumper so we can look a bit more broken up than it currently is. Maybe some could comment on how annoying the flaps near the wrists are, though you could always keep them flush near the fingers if you really want. Finally, though most toys are normally not displayed from the back, his arms being exposed could probably have some wishing the rear wheels could shift up and cover those joints for a convincing illusion of density. This isn't the first toy to normally have inconsistent heels, but the legs as we have them, combined with the lack of ankle pivots, can make him difficult to balance at times.
The super mode helmet suffers an annoying flaw where they gave him a helmet like with the Thunder Megazord from MMPR, but while leaving the Red Dragon's Warrior Mode mouth visible was fine, but the result here is a downsized face for Optimus Prime under a larger version of his head. If he had an extra face plate to completely conceal his normal head that would have been better. Not like it matters because the neck is now as limited as the hips. The arms now move front and back at an angle due to the ratchet system and the arms point above 90 degrees (though the elbows still work and can now rotate).
The chest lights up and is accompanied by a blast sound effect. This is only accompanied by pressing the left chest plate a bit further back. One cool thing about Energon Prime is that you can swap the drones between various spots so you can have alternate combinations, including a reverse sequence where Submarine and Digger are now arms while Copter and Fire are now legs, both swapped in mirror placements. Submarine-4 at least has a claw though having it farther back than the front of the altmode isn't super useful. At least he has better stability than in his regular mode.
Did you know that the original Hasbro run of this figure had an inaccurate head sculpt with an exposed mouth a la Optimus Primal and no ridges in the chest pieces? I will never understand the idea behind the exposed mouth if it wasn't likely shown in any concept art (not to mention he had a retractable mouthplate starting with Cybertron).
The Takara version arguably looks better due to the richer colors, deeper shades of blue, chrome in the bumper, and painted interior window ridges. Most of his electronics are removed, yet little was done to modify his engineering to compensate just having the bulb blink.
The Lucky Draw gave us the yearly gold chrome Prime, which is everything we've come to expect from these pretty prizes...
..but the same cannot be said for the Custom Color version of Grand Convoy. It was repainted in a random hodge podge of colors comparable to a test shot. The purple chrome is nice, but it still looks bizarre.
A slightly less nonsensical repaint comes in the form of a canceled Target exclusive repaint nicknamed Santa Prime. It had a whole lot more red on the regular bot mode, but all of the drones are now black. Feels vaguely reminiscent of Optimus Minor the Transmetals II figure from Beast Wars.
And finally, this is the Platinum Edition repaint for the Year of the Snake. While Optimus himself is colored like the G1 version, the drones now color match the similarly-themed Omega Supreme (who was retooled to match his G1/FOC design). It's kind of an underrated recolor in the same way YOTH Prime was, and certainly better than the clear YOTG Laser Prime.
For a size comparison, here he is sandwiched and dwarfed between both of his other designs in the Unicron Trilogy. Kind of funny how he was second-tallest in regular mode yet can't surpass either in height this time. Makes me wonder how a Commander Class version would scale if we ever get one, lord knows how Hasbro is likely to put more G1 crap for Studio Series than they would give attention to Energon past Legacy United's Core Class Megatron & Galvatron.
Speaking of, here we have him with the large scale version of the eternal foe! While I was pretty positive with Megatron's toy, I feel kind of mixed on how Optimus turned out. Don't get me wrong, he's way better than a lot of junk from Earthspark and One, but I kind of see the design of this Super Mode and wish we could get a new and improved version of it. I know Fans Hobby is doing that, but imagine Hasbro having the balls to set aside the hate towards Energon and make a new version. I would rather have a Commander Class Fatimus Prime than I ever would anything from Dadjokemus Prime from Earthspark or NuMCU-fied Hemsworth Prime from One.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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