Review – Transformers Reveal the Shield Optimus Prime
The Transformers Reveal the Shield series* had very spotty distribution when it was released, with several of the toys never appearing in the Austin area Wal-Mart or Target stores. But they’ve been showing up in the various discount stores, and yesterday I found a small batch of the Legends toys from that series at Marshalls for $4/each.
As you can see, the Legends Optimus Prime* was the first one that I opened. How is he? Keep reading to find out.
One Small Truck
It’s not that I dislike the Legends series but more that the price and character selection always feels wrong to me. I regularly see this size/class of Transformers toy for $5 or $6 each and that’s a little high for such small and simple Transformers toys. And the character selection often includes main characters who should be larger. Optimus Prime, for example, shouldn’t be the size of the classic Autobot mini-cars. But here he is, shrunk down and ready for action as one tiny truck. And while he looks okay as a truck, I think that he’s just too small. But then when I put him with the other Optimus Prime toys in my collection I like the way he looks, so maybe I’m just being unreasonable.
As a small truck he isn’t too bad, though, with four of his six wheels rolling quite nicely. If you take a close look at the photos above you can spot the locked/fake wheels because they’re solid black and don’t have the chrome center section. It’s not terrible that not all of his wheels can roll, but this Legends Optimus Prime* really needed a little paint to make those fused wheels look better.
A Decent Robot Mode
The transformation process isn’t too far off from the original 1984 Optimus Prime, with the one major difference that the center of the torso rotates 180 degrees to reveal a false truck front in robot mode. It’s a really simple trick (and not exactly new) because it makes the toy look more stylized and comic/animation accurate than when his robot mode shares the exact same grill and bumper as the truck mode. It’s great to see Hasbro put the extra effort into this little guy and I’ve gotta admit that finding him for $4 made me like the toy a lot more than if I had paid $6.
Okay Articulation
The Legends Optimus Prime*, for its size, actually has okay articulation. The legs don’t move all that much, but the torso-twist transformation trick gives him effectively a swivel joint at his ab while the arms can rotate and swing back at the shoulders. Ball-jointed elbows are the final joint on the toy and give Prime the illusion of more poseability than he actually has. Larger toys in the line have much better articulation, but if you compare this to the same size toy from the eighties you can’t deny that this toy has superior articulation.
Rough Paint
Optimus Prime’s paint apps are actually his weakest point, with smudges and bare spots making the silver areas on the toy look less attractive than if the paint had been neatly applied. There’s nothing especially terrible when it comes to the paint, but it’s not perfect and that splotch of blue on Prime’s mouthguard is really unattractive. Get a mirror, Prime! I’m also unhappy with how dark the blue if on Optimus Prime’s head and legs, but I think that’s technically a plastic color and not paint.
Closing Thoughts
When the Transformers Reveal the Shield series* first started appearing on shelves I wasn’t as excited by it as much as I probably should have been, but now that it’s proving so tough to find these toys I’m starting to dig a little deeper. And this Legends toy isn’t the greatest, but if I can find more in the series at $4/each I’ll definitely pick up some others because they’re fun little toys at that price.
I still prefer the larger toys — Deluxe class are my favorite balance of size and price — but I can acknowledge that these smaller toys do serve a purpose and deserve to be in stores. It’s just too bad that this particular series didn’t get better distribution.
Philip Reed is worrying that he is posting too much Transformers stuff lately. But then he remembers that this is a hobby and decides to keep going on and writing about whatever the hell he wants to.
Good review for this figure. I found that the legs kept popping off mine when they were moved forward or back too much though. I solved the issue by removing them and shaving down the plastic above the ball peg hipjoint, being careful not to dig too deeply.
The articulation is strange though compared to others in the same line – thr lack of a knee joint feels pretty silly, but works for the figures size well enough.
I found the whole wave of these guys at one of those “throw all the toys and games that didn’t sell well together” stores that open in the mall around this time of year, got Prime and Megatron. Prime isn’t bad, he’s the perfect size to be held in Cybertron Primus’ hand (or to crushed in Unicron’s!) Megatron is less impressive and the orange barrel cap doesn’t help, World’s Smallest Transformers Megs is actually cooler despite being significantly smaller.