Here we have both jet modes in separate photos because of how much real estate they take up in the review setup. Optimus's jet mode remains fairly accurate to the cartoon model, though to be fair, when your flight mode is literally the Superman flying pose with a cockpit in place of a head, not much to change beyond the look of the back piece where the electronics once were on the old toy; now it instead represents the pre-Matrix Optimus Primal. While the chest and folded-up robot look is more prevalent, at least it doesn't look too out of place on this figure. I wish it could tab in place more securely, though; the tabs on the butt and the heels barely keep it from detaching easily.
As for the Throne version, the full Primal deco makes the whole thing closer to a stealth mode, though the light grey parts are far from ideal for stealth. On the bright side, Primal blends in better with the rest of the mode.
Both beast modes are pretty easy to get to, as you simply just bring the arms down and closer to the circular parts they're attached onto (which fills in the shoulders well enough) while rotating the head before flipping it up; the latter can be annoying with what little space there is, but you can at least fold 1/3rd of Optimus Primal so the cockpit can slide into the hollow space. With how often Optimal Optimus used his flight and ground vehicle modes, seeing the beast mode is a rarity in and of itself. However, I can at least say that it is nice this was included, unlike the Titanium version ditching the beast mode altogether (though it does at least fit in Beast Machines, where Megatron hated organic stuff as well as beast modes. While the regular Optimal colors work well enough in terms of representing the show (minus the Transmetal shine), the Throne version does feel closer to a beefed-up, fully mechanical version of his Season 1 design.
In place of a proper ground transport mode, the "Cybertronian cruiser mode" of Optimus Primal doubles as a surfboard that the beast modes can ride on. While far from what I would want in a proper update of the Optimal design, this is a decent callback to the Transmetal design we got between the Season 1 design and this. See, while Primal had both a regular beast mode and a robot mode, his gorilla mode had the option to deploy parts of the robot feet to turn into a surfboard. Makes me wish we could get Transmetal figures, but this is at least a reminder they haven't entirely forgotten about them...yet...
Transforming the surfboard into Optimus Primal is pretty simple: you're straightening out the limbs, flipping the shoulder pads up, and revealing the head. The front half of the board, where the Matrix goes, rests on his back, which unfortunately has the back of the Optimal head and Matrix exposed. Thankfully, the robot mode looks decent from the front; it represents the character before he got his organic beast mode, hence why it's somewhat blocky in comparison to the more rounded surface area of the classic look. He gets a lot of the details right from the Mainframe CG model, though the chest barely had any red, while the Maximal logo was never on the shoulder. Still, not a bad recreation of it, and we did see this design in the shitty Machinima Power of the Primes series with far worse animation than the dates yet better executed Beast Wars animation.
Head sculpt is spot on to how it appeared in the show, and I also like that the blue is metallic, unlike what we got with the Kingdom version. Even the silver is shinier! Articulation consists of a swivel at the neck as well as the shoulders for front and back motion, and the thighs, hinges for the arms going in and out as well as the knees, and ball joints for the elbows and hips.
Here we have a comparison with the Throne version. The main difference is that the silver on the chest is replaced with a flat grey, and there is more black on the waist. At least his guns have more paint than on the retail version.
And here we have Kingdom Optimus Primal for a 3-year gap in comparison. With how much of a tease Optimal Optimus felt for proper Beast Wars updates after Hasbro neglected the series that saved the franchise on its 20th anniversary in favor of celebrating the movie that traumatized 80s man babies, it is great seeing these two side by side. They even scale decently!
As for getting to the Optimal mode, you fold each third of Optimus Primal so he can tab onto the Optimal body, with the arms facing the proper way while the legs are extended, as well as the waist rotated the proper way. The head should be flipped up and facing forward. Now we finally have Optimal Optimus, and the overall design of the figure is fairly close to the CG model we got in the series. I should mention that the orange on him is a whole lot more saturated than it should be, which is mostly a mix between me experimenting with different lighting and the toy not entirely being a more honey shade of yellow like in the show. I'm guessing Hasbro tried to use orange to make the figure less awkward with the coloring from not having the blue and burgundy chrome. That being said, the cockpit, normally yellow in the show and old toy, is now grey to better accommodate Optimus Primal's robot mode. This figure is a little sleeker than the original toy, though it may be somewhat accurate with how odd the proportions are for the design. Honestly, between the wings on the shoulders, the cockpit in the chest, and the general bulk, this feels kind of comparable to an older super robot common in the 80s, albeit with a beastly twist in the feet and maybe the hand size. Overall, this robot mode carries over the unusual charm that the original had, even if some coloring differences aren't 1:1, and while the folded up Primal is still on the back, at least he is shaped like the backpack on the old toy.
Head sculpt is fairly close to how it appeared in the show, though the head shape is a little more narrow from where it is stored, as well as having the eyes green instead of red. While there is no green on the rest of the toy whatsoever, surely it wouldn't cost much to use two tiny paint apps, right? Now properly going over the articulation on this mode, the neck is on a swivel, the shoulders move front and back as well as in and out with assistance from the double joint, the forearms rotate above the elbow hinges, the wrists rotate while the thumb and fingers are on hinges, the waist rotates somewhat (hindered somewhat by the backpack yet better no waist joint like with Optimus and Rodimus), universal hips, thigh swivels, hinged knees, and feet that can hinge as well as pivot.
If you're not happy with the cannons turning into some awkwardly held gun in the pic above, then you can lower the cockpit like in the show and attach the twin cannons on there. Also, the forearm panels can attach to the shoulders if that is your preferred look.
Like all POTP Leaders, he stores the Matrix of Leadership within his chest, this time colored loosely to resemble his old chest and how it appeared in the show. It was lacking the gold in the center where the blue orb lies.
As for the light out darkest hour pose, he ironically can hold it somewhat with his articulated hands, but he never used it like this in the Optimal body (when he was a normal Transmetal, he only used it to save Prime's spark).
And to go over the Throne version, he is what I call a more uniform take of the Optimal design. I like this way more than I expected, what with it being more like an upgraded Season 1 design if he went straight to this form without the midway point of the Transmetal body. It also has the vibe of Primal wearing a mech suit, which is fitting since Quickstrike did wear a suit like this to control the dude with the help of a virus from Tarantulas. Thanks to the Power of the Primes, he should be immune to the Scepter of Primus as well as the Throne itself. This is themed after the fan poll that took place, where one out of nine Transformers can win the Matrix of Leadership and get a new toy in the Power of the Primes line, as well as an appearance in the Machinima cartoon. Other candidates included Hound, Arcee, Ultra Magnus, Star Saber, Megatron, Shockwave, Deathsaurus, and Thunderwing. While Magnus, Shockwave, Star Saber, and Deathsaurus did receive figures post-POTP with Siege for the former two and HasLab for the latter two, I would love to imagine how Thunderwing would have turned out, given that he did use the Matrix in the Marvel Comics. Hound and Arcee leave me wondering what their Prime forms would look like, especially when they are pretty small Autobots and not known entirely for being on the same tier of faction leaders as the other examples. I guess Megatron having the Matrix strapped onto his chest in the Netflix WFC cartoon is a vague callback. Anyways, the portraits of the failed candidates are printed onto the cardboard throne, with the Prime Masters able to stay in the Halo of Primus on the back, which is a rotating plastic tray. Kind of reminds me of when McFarlane Toys would later make a throne for Darkseid based on the Snyder Cut, only with a plastic chair, while the flames in the backdrop were of a lenticular variety like what you'd have in your school agendas sometimes. Also, Primal having a throne would totally go against his ancestors' belief that only Decepticons use them.
Speaking of which, the Scepter of the Primes can house up to four Prime Masters facing away, with their logos being prominent. He also features a crown symbolic of his rulership over Cybertron. Unlike Starscream, no one would ever dare disrupt his coronation.
To focus more on the Prime Masters, they, like all other ones included in mass retail Pretender shells, as well as the ones that came with the three Special Edition Deluxes and Predaking, are given Titans Return head modes with their symbols instead of faces. From left to right, we have Prima Prime (who also came with Punch/Counterpunch), Nexus Prime, Amalgamous Prime, and The Thirteenth (who is either meant to represent a mysterious character or an earlier incarnation of Optimus Prime as inspired by the Aligned continuity). These guys are so basic and nowhere worth the hype compared to the AOTP toys we got, but having four more of these, along with the Quintus Prime I have somewhere in my collection, I almost want to get more characters just to fill in the Halo of Primus.
And that brings us back with a look at both figures together; overall, Optimal Optimus is a pretty solid figure from the mediocre Power of the Primes line. While I wish he came with the ground mode as well and had more parts to make himself feel less incomplete, this is still a great representation of a character design that, yes, is weird yet pretty cool in its own right. I always had a soft spot for big, chunky action figures that could do a lot and still a good articulation. This mold isn't anywhere near as dense as the original, and it, of course, lacks the electronics, but for a POTP Leader, it's the best one we got out of the trio of molds. Even the Throne of the Primes version is so worth it just to have an extra bit of Beast Wars love after Hasbro only did the 1986 movie far too much justice (and moreso than in 2006, at least they had a dedicated reissue line at the time as well as balance out what gets to be represented in that year to make up for the delay of the 2007 movie). Fast forward to 2026, and all we get is Quickstrike and Razorclaw, with no other Beastie rep in sight, while Hasbro does a lame ass ApOlOgY tOuR that's long overdue from the "trauma" of the 1986 movie having the characters die after surviving too long in the cartoon. Still, I would love to see them go back and make a Primal Prime repaint with a retooled head, especially to go up against a Cryotek repaint. I'd buy both if there is any indication that the G2 Dinobot repaint 2-packs are doing well online.
Rant aside, here he is next to Legacy Transmetal II Megatron. The height difference mostly works between the two, as TM2 Megatron wasn't as tall as Optimal Optimus in the show, and thus made a height difference reversal after two seasons where Primal was shorter than his Megatron in their original and Transmetal designs. I'm surprised Hasbro hasn't tried to do a straight reissue of Optimal Optimus around the same time Transmetal 2 Megatron came out to encourage people to get both if they never had the chance in 2018 to buy OpOp, or if they initially felt unsure of just owning TM2 Megs.
And here are all the POTP Leader molds in a single group shot, with Optimus being generally stock and likely having the oldest signs of being with me for so long (I got him in 2018), while Rodimus Unicronus was a fairly recent purchase back in November. I'll admit that Optimus Prime and the Rodimus mode have their own strengths; Optimus looks better in his Prime mode while the Rodimus mode is better in his vehicle mode (especially in the Unicronus colors), but they always felt compromised in some ways that I'm sure left people in a dead end for their definitive CHUG displays unless they either used Optimus as an MP-stand in with Combiner Wars Megatron like I did, or pretending the Hot Rod mode was Rodimus Prime while Titans Return Hot Rod is his pre-Matrix self. Optimal Optimus manages to get away with his Evolution gimmick simply by having it work better in his design, more so than either character, and he ends up feeling seamless in comparison, beyond losing his ground vehicle mode.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Normally, that would have been the end of the review, but with everything at my disposal now, why wait and do a separate review for the DNA Design upgrade kits? Both DK-08 and DK-08+ complete this already neat figure and make it even better than its current state. While most upgrade kits of late have been pricier than what they offer, this was from a time when they put that ass to work and made their sets entirely worth it.
First difference: the longer wings on his shoulders. The original ones weren't that bad in robot mode, yet clearly undersized for his admittedly unusual flight mode, but these new wings are a whole lot more dynamic in comparison. They add a little more flair to this crazy design, and it complements it even better.
Up next, the rear wheels on the legs. These add some needed bulk to this character design, and they're not only able to further complete how his design appeared in the show, but they also attach and detach easily compared to the wings relying on the durability of the friction joints. Honestly, the difference in leaving the part on vs off reminds me of when G1 Optimus Prime is drawn either with or without the wheels on his legs.
While he never used a rifle in the cartoon, the upgrade kit gives him two (and why not), so we can further complete the set after it was not included in the original toy. The color match is pretty good, and I appreciate there being a bit of silver near the butt of the rifle. It even stays in his hand naturally.
In addition to a rifle, we now have the wheels that go on the back of the toy, giving us that one step needed to complete the look of the toy after it was removed from the stock toy. They split in half and slide into the crevices within the torso, but they do a good job regardless of being as integrated as they can be.
We can also store the weapons on the back, with the twin rifles using the tabs as well as the clever slits of the rifle butts to line up with the gray pieces on the wheels, and the swords slide into the wheels.
While the original chest cannons were fine, these new ones are not only longer for the robot mode, but they can also extend somewhat if you prefer to use that sliding joint for any of his modes. I use them for the vehicle modes since they already stick out more in his robot mode to begin with. And yes, you can still do the narrow gun thing and leave it in his thumb, but why would you?!
We also get larger, more detailed forearm/shoulder pieces that cannot only retain the same body part integration the stock ones did, but they are also on hinges to better attach them to the tops of his arms without needing to flex the pieces somewhat. They'll also have a different use new to this figure as we'll get to later down the line.
Common for a third-party set, Optimal Optimus comes with fully articulated hands that include an additional joint for the thumb's knuckle, while the fingers can bend at two points as well as splay outward somewhat (if a little unnaturally). They're also slightly bigger than the stock ones, and they still retain the small slits used to keep the Sceptor in hand, as we'll get to.
So much like Armada Unicron, he can do horns and bird, but unlike Armada Unicron, he can also do a peace sign and thumbs up.
If you want to have both the gorilla and regular robot mode displayed separately, now we can sandwich the wheels together and slide them into the crevice of the robot's back. Granted, Optimus's beast mode always had the cannons on the back, yet this is for anyone wanting to have both toys present without leaving a huge gap in the back. We also got new scimitars that look so badass in Primal's hands, but be warned that the tips of the blades are very sharp, and you're possibly going to get hurt if you even press your fingers hard onto them compared to a dulled out blade.
And look, the forearm guards can turn into a shield as I alluded to earlier! They don't have the split apart gimmick that the old toy had, but with how many loose copies never included the entire set of panels 9 times out of 10, it's for the best we have this instead.
Here's what the jet mode looks like with all the parts attached. The stability problems are still there, but the split wheels are now able to attach onto the backs of the shoulders, while the cannons can now use the most out of the ports on the shoulder joints. Best of all, the larger hands, forearm plates, and wings make this feel even more dynamic and closer to the show/old toy.
And now, we have the missing ground vehicle mode! While the wheel itself doesn't roll properly, it's cleverly kept in place with the two 5mm ports on the thumbs as well as the tabs under the cockpit to fully display this mode without compromise. The wheels on the back do roll, thankfully, but it's a cool thing to finally have.
Here is a comparison between the figure with and without the upgrades, showcasing how far these new pieces go in bulking up the Optimal Optimus design back into how it generally looked in the past. If they only gave him a slightly more accurate head with green eyes or an Optimal Megatron head like in Beast Machines, but still, we go from a figure that was ranked 7 out of 10 into one that's now an 8 or possibly 9 out of 10.
While we're at it, here we have the Throne version in his new flight mode with the better-painted guns, longer wings, gold wheels, and bulkier hands and forearm panels.
And now he gets to have his own ground vehicle mode as well, with all those parts and the wheels on the back, which are painted red this time.
Oh, look, even the regular bot mode Primal has his own pair of scimitars. That being said, they are still unchanged in terms of coloring from the original version, much like the wings. Would be nice if they were red or gold.
That being said, his twin rifles are actually ripped in gold paint! Thankfully, the tabs are unpainted so as to prevent paint chipping, which I always appreciate on an expensive upgrade kit like this.
Overall, these upgrade kits not only further complete two figures that were already pretty good on their own, but they feel like they have the perfect value for money one would expect, so as not to feel discouraged from buying them online. I love that we can give them more weapons and articulated features, but adding a missing mode further cements this as the best DNA Design upgrade kit I ever experienced. I'll always appreciate the ones used for MPM Barricade and Starscream, as well as the one for Ironhide, but this feels like the best demonstration of adding more to a figure that already did enough on its own without being needless or redundant. So the best way to describe the DK-08 sets is in a word: Prime. I recommend you get these sets if you already have the figures, or get them both at once like I did with the help of my longtime friend Ernie.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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