Age of Extinction Voyager Evasion Mode Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime has a few toys in the Age of Extinction line. The first was the First Edition toy that went for like $60, was garishly chromed, and generally reviled. Now we have the actual Leader toy...and this guy. Labeled Evasion Mode Optimus Prime. What's he evading? Certainly not this review.



This is Optimus' truck mode. Look familiar? It's very similar to the G1 cab with the red cab and blue rear, even a similar silver stripe running around the middle of the cab. The windows for the windshield are clear, but...there's really not much to look at behind them. One thing that bugs me about this mode is there's only one smokestack in the back. Now, that's accurate to the truck and all, but I would have liked one on the other side for symmetry's sake. At least the slightly darker silver allows the grill and other windows stand out from the silver stripe, but there's little else to talk about in terms of color. The truck can roll on six wheels. Six pinned wheels, no less! ...It's almost kind of sad when that's exciting due to how rare it is for Hasbro to do that anymore. There's also three 5 mm ports to plug in the included weapon, which is ridiculous but at least it's an option. I'm not showing it off for...reasons, but it's a spring loaded missile launcher that's easy to fire. How about a comparison?



Much taller cab (obviously) yet far shorter than DOTM Megatron. Now, for the robot mode!



The G1 cab turning into the robot mode of the first three live action movies...and yet somehow this works brilliantly. There's more blue exposed, but I really wish they would have budgeted the blue paint on his hands and feet elsewhere like his upper arms and thighs. That said, the solid red body, grey thighs, and blue lower legs are classic G1 Optimus colors... He features an incredible amount of detail that is familiar to the movie robot mode's design, as well as some new like the ab grill. He' lacking his mouthplate, so there's that for better or for worse. He can hold the included weapon, but it looks very awkward.

As for articulation, there's about 25 points of it, though only his head is ball jointed. His bicep swivels are kind of tight, and his wrist swivels aren't budging without the aid of plugging something into his hands to act as a lever they're so tight. His elbows are...odd. The joint itself is lower than where it should be according to the molding. It still works perfectly fine, it just doesn't look very pretty when straightened fully. The wheels on his hips can actually move away from the hip to accommodate wider stances which it very softly ratchets to. The openings for the thigh swivels are in the front, yet the front of the hips hides them incredibly well, a nice touch. Sadly, his ankles don't tilt inward very much at all.

So how about a comparison for robot mode? And the reason why I've been so cryptic about the included weapon.



Yep, it's DOTM Megatron's shotgun. The nice part? There's tabs on the back that perfectly fit slots in Megatron's hands for him to hold it. And the pegs on the sides of it allow it to mount to the MechTech port on Megatron's back. Oh yeah, Optimus is actually taller. So much for these toys being even smaller than DOTM toys...

Now, I highly recommend this figure, for it is incredibly neat and I love the mad genius behind the engineering. This is the best Optimus Prime toy from Age of Extinction hands down. However, those who can't stand movie toys at all...obviously aren't going to be interested in this. But if you are, buy in good faith. There is a Takara version of this guy, and the deco is slightly better, but I don't think the difference is significant enough to warrant the import costs. Surely Reprolabels will make a set for this guy...right? ...Right?

I hope reprolabels does something for that Prime.
They have the power to make a pile of dog shit shine like a diamond.


Great review DB

I'm not very keen on this Optimus in regards to his looks, as much as its a homage to G1, I feel they added some unnecessary alterations, if anything in terms of looks compared to previous OPs of similar size, I say Hunt the Cons gets the movie design better while Classics gets the G1 look almost right but giving us a fun transformation at the same time, what could be the best OP toy, is BH if not for the misstep of putting the non faceplate look on the toy! As for what this OP is evading, its his own ego that just because Megatron is dead and his top officers also dead, doesn't mean the fighting is over and the embarrassment of mimicking his G1 self and blending it with movie look!

SuperOmegaPrime wrote:I'm not very keen on this Optimus in regards to his looks, as much as its a homage to G1, I feel they added some unnecessary alterations, if anything in terms of looks compared to previous OPs of similar size, I say Hunt the Cons gets the movie design better while Classics gets the G1 look almost right but giving us a fun transformation at the same time, what could be the best OP toy, is BH if not for the misstep of putting the non faceplate look on the toy! As for what this OP is evading, its his own ego that just because Megatron is dead and his top officers also dead, doesn't mean the fighting is over and the embarrassment of mimicking his G1 self and blending it with movie look!

Some people just can never be pleased...

very true DB.

But at least we ARE pleased to have your reviews

Detective Barricade wrote:Some people just can never be pleased...

I can be pleased by things, but this OP isn't one of them, he just looks to weird to be worth adding to my collection, on top of the fact I got a load of OP toys, let see now.............. I own:

Titanium WW
RID
Armada leader class
Energon leader class
Cybertron Leader class
Animated Voyager
Animated deluxe Cybertron form and earth form
Animated Wing blade
07 leader
07 protoform OP
ROTF
DOTM Jet wing
DOTM Striker
TFP FE
Classics voyager
Henkei
TFGO
TFGO Ex Optimus prime
Generations WFC
Generations FOC
Generations legends class
MP Hasbro (comes with a blue version of his gun)

That's off the top of my head really, a few others I could think of thou their small ones, so to put it simply, I'm all OP out for now!

Galvatron wrote: very true DB.

But at least we ARE pleased to have your reviews

Can't argue with that, DB is the lair's top reviewer of toys, he wears a crown on top of his detective hat that says "Top toy reviewer!"

I'm about the only guy who does reviews consistently... But I just got something that I know someone's gonna be awful curious about. A bot who's quite possibly insane.

Detective Barricade wrote:I'm about the only guy who does reviews consistently... But I just got something that I know someone's gonna be awful curious about. A bot who's quite possibly insane.

the official NOT Galvatron?

I've been waiting for a good review of the "not me"

Galvatron wrote:I've been waiting for a good review of the "not me"

Don't expect me to do it because he NOT on my list to get from the movie line, currently, my desire is Dinobots!

I could care less about the AOE "me". Unless they make him a complete bad ass in the movie.

I'm wanting a review of the "not me" Mania King

It's not Mania King. It's an official Transformer.

Galvatron wrote:I could care less about the AOE "me". Unless they make him a complete bad ass in the movie.

I'm wanting a review of the "not me" Mania King

I'll try and do one in the next few days "if" I get around to it!