Transformers Age of the Primes Onyx Prime review

Not all Prime's are land or aerial vehicles; Onyx Prime represents one of the more unique characters to represent the original Thirteen. Not only does he have a beast mode, but he can also tap into the minds of other beasts and even the afterlife. It's all these attributes that led to him being one of the most inspirational characters ever, even if some would see this as him being comparable to a motivational Facebook post. Regardless, I was curious to see how he would turn out given there is no way you could make any other figure work like Onyx Prime, not even Predaking! Let's see how he turned out for today's review!

Here we have Onyx Prime in his beast mode. It is a hippogriff of some kind, with a bit of dragon-like elements added. Though the color scheme may not be as colorful as other beasts like him, it is still fitting given his ancient history in addition to him not needing to be as flashy as TFP Predaking or Cybertron Scourge. The Beast mode generally.looks good, and I appreciate that the articulation from the robot mode is still accessible without making it too obvious that parts of him are barely different from what he'll be like in robot mode. I will say that the hands being unchanged and just open kind of sucks, but the rest of him is still cool. His articulation consists of a ball jointed head, jaw movement, front and back rotation as well as in and out movement for what will be the robot arms, rotation above what will be the forearms, and wrist rotation. His hind legs can move around on universal hip joints, thigh rotation, hinged knees if you want to extend them for posing, and some pivot. Like with many TFP Predacons, articulation between beast and bot mode is mostly the same. As a bonus, you gain even more articulation with the added legs meant for centaur mode, allowing for a 6-legged hippogriff. 

For an altmode size comparison, here he is alongside everyone else minus Star Convoy because he is huge. I like that we have a bit of variety with alt modes, sizes, and aesthetics between these characters, and in addition to seeing Amalgamous and Quintus, I hope this continues with Liege Maximo, Nexus Prime, and Vector Prime.

The midway transformation grants us his centaur mode, which involves hinging the upper body back on a specific abdominal joint after straightening the front legs shaped after a horse. The tail splits in half to become part of a crossbow that he can hold decently firmly without a 5mm peg. That and the staff doubles as an arrow. This mode also grants us a mask on his face, giving him an extra bit of distinction from his normal robot mode. Feels pretty rare to see a centaur mode on a Transformer, especially an official one and not a fan mode. Articulation is still the same, but the figure still looks great.

As for the robot mode, it is generally accurate to how he appeared in the Covenant of Primus, but now as a biped as we saw with some recent media like his appearance in Transformers One. While it is modified somewhat to fit in with the current Generations aesthetic, the influence is kept intact as with other Prime designs themes after the book, unlike what happened with the early TFP characters. He has the right balance of segmentation without being too complex for the current Leader Class budget (thanks to the smaller figures despite price hikes making things worse). Apart from the feathery look on the wings and the hooves in place of feet, he has a bit of a good guy Predaking look. Ironic because his Prime Master was included with Predaking for the Power of the Primes line. He feels regal and isn't either too blocky or too close to the organic aesthetics of the Beast Era. Even the digitigrade legs, normally used for more evil characters, feel oddly heroic for a design such as Onyx Prime's.

His head sculpt has that look of an ancient warrior wearing the skins of animals he killed before, making for a tribal design choice compared to the more traditionally robotic heads of his fellow Primes. Even his spear, which is a new take on the Triptych Mask, has that sort of totem pole look while still remaining alien and ancient in appearance. Articulation is mostly the same but he has a ball jointed neck and can fully use his knee bends. He has a waist swivel, but the one thing that sucks about the toy is that the skirt flap gets in the way, which always irks me with any toy that does that instead of integrating it as part of the waist swivel.

Here we have him with the other Primes so far (minus Star Convoy once again). Feels good to have another Leader Class figure for this line-up, and one that is taller than Megatronus the Fallen at that! Honestly, I thought he and Alchemist was going to be my favorite figures of the Prime lineup, but Onyx may easily take the throne (but probably not the one that Optimal Optimus owns). Regardless, I am happy to say that his one-of-a-kind design, combined with the versatility of making him a centaur or a quadruped and even a six-legged beast, gives him a lot more to do than the average two-mode offerings. Get him before the price hike ruins things for us all.

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