800th REVIEW - Transformers Age of the Primes Star Optimus Prime review

While the US and rest of the world had Optimus Prime turn into a Powermaster after his resurrection (and later an Action Master), Japan had no idea what they were doing with explaining Prime's death. Other than a cryptic ad for their version of Season 3 (labeled 2010) that featured North American actors likely living in Japan at the time, and a death scene from The Headmasters series was a cheaper way to explain his death, Takara's decision to not promote the 1986 movie until 3 years after its release made things all the more confusing. At least they had their own separate idea for continuity moving forward without any further influence from Sunbow or Marvel, though we have Prime die again in HM and later get a Transtector intended for him under the possession of a dude named Ginrai. Optimus Prime would later get resurrected as Star Convoy in the Return of Convoy series in 1991, also 3 years after Hasbro did something related to the brand (bringing back its main face in this case). This form was heavily Japanese mecha influenced with the stylized take on the old robot form he had, on top of his ability to turn into a base meant to interact with Micromasters as well as Grandus and Sky Garry. While it probably didn't do so hot in Japan given failing sales over there, it was apparently sold in some South American stores. Now in the Age of the Primes, he's traded in the motorized gimmicks in favor of modern engineering. With this being my 800th review, let's celebrate that fact by covering Star Optimus Prime, or as he shall henceforth be known, Star Convoy.

Here we have Star Convoy in his futuristic and almost non-descript truck mode. This thing is about as long as the length on Siege Jetfire, if not moreso given he is still a Titan figure (al beit a smaller one as we will get to). Honestly, the design of this altmode was mostly just Takara aiming to make something out of a stylized robot yet keeping in the electronics and base mode with the old toy. I can't really fault it if it's trying to look like something old that had this exact look, but it still looks somewhat like an afterthought with no real way of discerning how practical this would be if it were to be similar to G1 Prime's old altmode. So for this, I shall say Star Convoy is faithful to the old toy, though the old toy is still weird. I can see the back influencing Armada's Prime with how the trailer becomes legs, though these are part of a single unit instead of a super mode asset. 

His Ion Blaster has a peg that is larger than 5mm and can attach to the top of the truck mode for an attack mode if those turrets aren't enough. That blast effect is not only one of the largest Hasbro made, but it is also cast in a durable plastic this time around.

Opening the trailer section reveals a small transport vehicle meant to store Micromasters, though it's now scaled for Core Class figures...a size class Hasbro ended.

As for the trailer, it looks about as accurate to the old toy as Star Convoy himself, though the molded wheels on the front is due to the turret mode for the front section. Some paint on the rims would help add the illusion of them matching the other wheels. At least the badge, stripe, and insignia are nice and crisp.

And opening THAT trailer gives us a Core Class scaled take on Hot Rod, and the second version of the character at that! Makes one wonder why Star Convoy gets to be with his Micromaster but neither Tidal Wave nor Metroplex get their Minicons. At least with Nemesis, she doesn't likely have the right method of integrating a Mainframe-like partner without altering her design heavily, but who knows what could have been.

For a Hot Rod comparison, here he is with the Kingdom Core Class figure we got nearly half a decade ago. Apart from resembling the old Micromaster, the new Hot Rod has a less rounded look to his altmode than the Core Class figure, in addition to sporting some sweet metallic paint apps on the hood and spoiler. His pinned wheels even help him roll better than the snap on stuff we usually see from Hasbro. And he at least has an insignia on his chest unlike the Core Class figure suspiciously missing one like a high quality bootleg.

The robot modes so show the clear focus on the new Hot Rod better matching the old Micromaster toy, from the way his robot mode has the higher shoulders to the spoiler halves on the knees. On the plus side, he has no faux chest with a weird lack of red. That being said, despite both having ball joints at the shoulders, elbows, and hips, the new Hot Rod lacks a neck swivel and has his knees as hinges instead of ball joints.

Going back to that trailer, he can man one of the turrets while the trailer is flipped facing backwards so both the front end and shoulder turrets can peg in front of the space where Hot Rod normally enters. Yo need to make sure Hot Rod is properly slid into the tabs since he has no real way of pegging onto the thing.

For a vehicle mode size comparison, here we have him with SS86 Optimus Prime, just barely reaching the overall dimensions of this Titan. See, the reason why their scale is almost close is due to HasTak opting to make a smaller Titan Class figure than what we had previously, even smaller than Tidal Wave. Many felt that TW's size held back and otherwise heavily requested character to have the Titan size, yet we have a $50 cut for the price this time around. It's about as much as what HasLabs made after Unicron normally go for, which begs the question as to why they couldn't be mass retail if they have the same quality anyhow.

And here we have him with the other Prime's made so far. With all of them being ground vehicles, it makes one wonder how Micronus, Alpha Trion, Onyx, Amalgamous, and Quintus will work with rolling out alongside these five. And we still have yet to reach Vector Prime, Liege Maximo, and Nexus Prime.

Transformation is about the same as the original, though with a couple of new additions to make the figure a smidge more intricate despite the size and its attempt at being accurate. Nothing wrong with that, though the gray panels have a tendency to detach from the hinges near the opening shins if you're not careful. The resulting robot mode beautifully recreates the original Star Convoy  design from over 30 years ago, down to the faux chest that later inspired Animated Optimus Prime. The presence he has not only makes him a towering statement amongst the other Primes in the line, but he also has that classic Japanese mecha motif to him that was common the 80s and early 90s, which has been known for having super robots with mile-long legs and being god-like compared to the more alien influence of Transformers in general. Those legs, however, will be talked about later down the line. That being said, Optimus as you see here comes incomplete out of the package. He should have the backs of his legs attached like in vehicle mode as well as the antenna proper. What he has on is an anime influenced forehead crest that puts even Ratchet's and Prowl's chevrons to shame.

Going back to the legs, the backs should have the treads visible sort of like how the wheels normally are placed on a normal Prime, but the insides of the lower legs are completely hollow. Admittedly, this is due to the storage for the mini trailer that already stores Hot Rod, but with only one to fill in either leg, what could be done with the other one? You could store in some of the blast effects, but they'll either rattle around, barely fit inside when the shin closes, or fall out if the ankle tilts. Yes, with how the ankles are designed, there is no engineering that covers up the gaps due to the way the lower legs work. 

For his articulation, and with blast effects galore, Star Convoy has a neck swivel and a slight bit of downwards movement due to the base mode configuration, ratchets throughout the shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, thighs, and knees, swivels at the biceps and wrists, and hinges at the fingers and ankles. A single skirt flap is on a hinge to move out of the way, though really, it should have been more broken up like on SS86.

His Matrix can be used as a lightsaber if you want, what with the Star Saber under Prima's possession. Meanwhile, the Ion Blaster can combine with a turret and a clear blue bullet for a more powerful blaster than the one he has on its own. 

Opening his chest allows you to store the Matrix and the orb in the center, which kind of helps. Real up all that red inside his empty chamber. Alternatively, Hot Rod can sit inside as if he was Minimus Ambus. For anyone not aware of who he is or forgot about the first IDW continuity as a whole, he was some little dude who piloted a mech suit that resembled Ultra Magnus. You may loosely remember him from Combiner Wars if you still own that figure and skipped the options from Siege to SS86.

It should be worth mentioning that the figure has a slight misassembly error with the chest windows. They are a single piece of clear plastic screwed in three spots, and some copies may have them screwed in without having the part inserted properly. Unscrew the window piece, insert it into the chest plate properly, and screw it back in so the thing would be flush.

For a size comparison, here we have him with the other Primes in the line. Yes, Alchemist is absent though he could be getting drinks for everyone else. As I said before, he has a very dynamic shelf presence.

And here he is with his old self in the form of SS86 Optimus Prime. While I do have some G1 Prime fatigue with the 40th anniversary, SS86 Prime is at least good, and I am always interested in a new version of his Star Convoy form.

We also have him with Megatron from the Generations Select line, which many complained about back then for being shorter than the same subline's Star Convoy retooled from Power of the Primes Optimus, yet lo and behold, we have a bigger contrast. Maybe a Commander version of Battlestars' iconic Super/Ultra Megatron is in the works alongside Commander Class Onslaught if we have to wait a little longer for the Protectobots.

His base mode is about as much of a robot laying down as the original...and any city former before him. It's another trope of Takara where the big toys they design usually have an extra mode or two that they label as a base mode or whatever to sell the toy as doing more than it already could. And boy does it look as uneventful here with the hands exposed and his head hanging in shame. To be fair, it was matching the source material, though. Said source material could be clunky with its play features, let's be honest. Here, you could have smaller figures enter the empty shims (but only from Kingdom through Legacy United apart from Hot Rod, and Hot Rod could man the turret that can spin around with a lever until he hits Prime's left hand. Definitely not the mode you would want to put him in.

He does make for a decent battle platform for the other Primes, but it probably would have made more of an impact if there were Core Class figures released during Age of the Primes. I know Hasbro would have wanted to do that BW Dinobot along with some other characters who would make sense for the scale. A las, what we have is fine but could be better.

This isn't my photo, but he is shorter than both Combiner Wars Devastator as is taller than Legacy Menasor. While this isn't the end of the world thanks to the price cut, it does still sting a bit from the $150 price tag once belonging to Titans that were taller than Star Convoy prior to the increase in production value. That and how even at the price he currently is, we have a Titan Class figure that is good but not as impressive as one would have hoped. I love that we got a deep lore cut with Star Convoy, especially from a Generations line instead of a T-Spark release, but with how hollow he is in addition to the size decrease, I wish he was at least priced around $100-130 to still label him as a Titan without making him too close to a Commander Class price point. I would wait for a sale on this figure if you want him but are a bit let down with how the figure turned out in people's reviews. That being said, now we have AOE Grimlock to be concerned about given he will have the same height, and who knows if Hasbro would do something with the engineering and accessory count of not just him but the other Dinobots from that movie.

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