Transformers Age of the Primes Liege Maximo review

The Fallen may have been infamous for betraying his brothers, but there is another evil Prime who eventually grew into a similar status, but for different reasons: Liege Maximo. Appearing in the Generation 2 comics as a tease for an impending threat on top of being said to serve as an origin for the Decepticons, he would eventually be reworked into one of the original thirteen Transformers for the semi-official Alignment story, he would eventually see more use in the Aligned Continuity as well as the IDW comics; even Earthspark had some use for him apparently, where he was said to look all cloak and facially resembled Ultron more than ROTB Scourge did mask less. Some media redesigned Liege to resemble Loki from the Marvel Universe, yet it was the old, ugly villain and not the version from the MCU that made all the girls normally not interested in comics into fan girls. So while he may believe that evil is infinite, we shall see if it's $55-60 worth that amount too.

Here we have Liege Maximo in his vehicle mode, which resembles the motherships from Dark of the Moon but with his signature horns. If that was the intent, I am all for it; given how "round" his armor comes across, that kind of ship makes perfect sense for someone like him, and I love how it retains an even creepier, almost technorganic look than what we see in the movie aesthetics. Even the front section gives it the look of a sentient ship rather than something traditionally technological, almost like the machines used by the Yuuzhan Vong. The only issue I have would be that his blaster doesn't tab in that great in the front, but this otherwise looks badass.

For an altmode comparison, here he is along with Quintus and Amalgamous Prime, all three of them having way better altmodes than Nexus Prime. I like that there is a bit of a pseudo animal theme to these; we know of the Squid motif for Nexus and Amalgamous looks a bit like a frog, so what would that make Liege Maximo? Bug like seems to fit well but the spikes and horns are comparable to thorns, so maybe he could also resemble a flytrap. 

Transformation is weirdly close to a mix between Cybertron Megatron and Siege Starscream. I say that because the arms work similarly to the former while the use of a waist swivel is comparable to the latter. I do wish the leg panels could look less shellformery while the shoulder pads could stay on better. The robot mode is very close to his G2 design, but with a few design elements from the concept sketch by Aaron Archer as well as being generally original. I love how gnarly he comes across, almost like a mix between Swamp Thing and TFP Unicron; they went all out on making him as antagonistic as The Fallen, and the shades of green in addition to the mechanical details throughout the torso and arms gives that toxic look. He also has a decent bit of planetformer in his DNA, and going back to the Unicron comparison has me wondering if this would eventually be retooled as the rumored Unicron Soldier for the line. I already mentioned the issue regarding the shell pieces clashing with the lower legs, but I hate how we have a bit of gorilla arm syndrome where the nicer arm details mean the elbows bend inwards, though at least the wrists can rotate.

Head sculpt is a little busy given you're dealing with all of the spikes on the head as well as chin guard almost resembling a weird jaw. I kind of wish he would have the horns that are pointing downwards at part of his head, but requiring normal neck articulation means that had to be altered. Speaking of, his head is on a ball joint, shoulders rotate as well as hinge in and out, biceps rotate, elbows bend, wrists rotate as well as utilize finger articulation and a hinge for the thumbs. Waist rotates, hips are universal, thighs rotate, knees bend, and the ankles are on pivots. I wish he can hold his gun better since the design of the hands means the shorter peg let's it slide out, but I like how it's another weapon without utilizing an existing design like the Requiem Blaster from Megatronus. His artifacts, however, are the Liegian Darts uniquely designed from each other.

The cannon can also peg into the left forearm despite that intending to be a cannon to begin with, but I like the way it looks even more this way; it's almost like it transformed from his arm! An equally cool thing about this toy is that it is compatible with the throne of Coronation Starscream. It's a bit undersized, but I like this way more given how well it matches the G2 comic panel he was seen in; the horns on the back even fit behind the throne!

For a robot mode size comparison, here he is with the other 2026 Primes we got. Don't worry, we'll bring em all together when AOTP Vector Prime pops up. Until then, let me say that Liege Maximo is worth gushing over. I thought I was going to like Amalgamous Prime the most since he had a shitton of potential from his play feature, but Liege Maximo ends up taking the throne, literally, as far as overall design and engineering goes. I still like Megatronus a tiny bit more, and laying over $50 isn't ideal, but in this economy, he earned it for the most part.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐