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Meat and Potatoes; 4.9
Perks; 4.9
Homer Factor; 4.9
Ah, the Big Bot just keeps coming... and coming... and coming. Transformers; Energon has brought Prime back, but this time as a combiner.
His main cab is the usual 7" tall robot, but this time the cab features more blues and whites on the trim and windshielf instead of the usual red and blue. Prime is accompanied by four vehicles called OP 1-4. They are futuristic versions of a helicopter, drill-tank, fire engine, and submarine. The 'chopper is mostly white, the tank mustard, the fire engine orange, and the submarine is blue.
All five parts merge into a super robot version of Optimus Prime. The Prime cab is the torso with the other vehicles form the limbs.
Finally the set comes with a special trailer to hold all four vehicles which also turned into a control tower/station.
Unfortunately, the form Hasbro has passed on to the leader of the Autobots has taken a beating on b-boards. Is it really THAT bad? Frankly, it's NOT. Ok, ok, so the new piece is using the time-honored trick of taking five vehicles and merging into a larger one, a la Power Rangers. However, this is NOT Optimus Megazord by any means. Sure, it's not perfect, but the piece is a very solid on in it's own right.
Meat and potatoes are very, VERY good over all, which is a major distinction between this piece and the usual Power Rangers merger. Normally, as fun as Power Rangers gestalts can be, the pieces have very mediocre sculpts and minimal articulation. These pieces tend to be less about 'realism' and more about just creating a big honking robot to fight the big monsters in Tokyo. Hasbro went a different route with Optimus Prime. The sculpt is very detailed on Optimus Prime and the four support vehicles. All five vehicles sport details such as vents and portals. Case in point are the number of torpedo-tubes sculpted into the OP 4 vehicle which is a submarine. You won't find this level of detail on a Power Ranger, folks. The articulation on Prime and the 'super robot' mode is also very solid. Both forms have shoulder, elbow, hip, and knee joints, giving the piece a number of great posing possibilities. You're lucky of your Power Ranger merger moves at the shoulders, people.
There are two problems. One problem is the paint... why oh WHY did Hasbro go with such a garish shade of orange for OP 1, the fire-engine? That color just reinforces the Power Ranger problem. Oddly enough, the other pieces are all painted pretty well in muted colors that aren't glow-in-the-dark. Go figure.
Second is size. Armada Prime was a MONSTER; 12" tall of imperfect but still intimidating robot. This one is closer to 10". Still pretty big, but considering the price-point on this baby, I had hoped for something a bit bulkier then this.
Perks are solid on the piece. Naturally you have transformations of the cab into robot, and all the vehicles merge into a pretty big robot. Another nice perk is the trailer that transforms into a 'control tower' for the OP 1-4. Oddly enough, every time I pop the vehicles out of the tower, I keep on thinking of 'Thunderbirds.' Woohoo! I wish the tower did more then just turn into a trailer to hold all the vehicles, but it's still a fun way to store the vehicles.
Ah, one gripe is I wish the individual vehicles also transformed into robots. Considering how often that was done with G-1 mergers, it shouldn't be had hard to do, and it adds more fun to the piece.
Homer factor? Still high for me. Hey, it's OPTIMUS PRIME. The piece has got to suck for me not to drool in anticipation.
So how is it? No where near as bad as some fans may think. Fine, so Hasbro is stealing from Power Rangers. Hey, it's a natural progression in Optimus Prime to become a serious merger. And besides, the piece is a lot of fun to mess with. And now... coming soon... is Megatron... AND Scorponok... Ooooooohhhhhhh...