Starting with vehicle mode number 1 and it is... a stylized fire truck with two bfg cannons serving as water cannons... I'll believe that. It's actually kinda awesome when you think about it. The cannons themselves are also where the line wide gimmick is used (Oh yeah this was a time when toys had to rely on gimmicks). On one cannon, where the end can detach and become a hand held gun for Prime, with a spring loaded launcher, you plug in the Cyber Key (something that came with all Cybertron toys, with designs unique to the character) to deploy two more spring loaded launchers for a triple shot. On the other, you have a light and sound gimmick where using the key turns it into not only a rail gun, but also has more sound bits. "What's this?" I hear you say, "A leader class figure with lights and sounds, and *gasp* gimmicks!" I know, and its only going to get weirder. Especially when you put it next to some of the more modern toys, and Cybertron Prime dwarfs the leader figures of today, in all modes. The cannons also rotate independently on their own ratchet joints, all the wheels turn well, one of my wheels have a bit of a squeak to it, but it still rolls well. Vehicle mode number two, because yes, he's also a triple changer... kinda. prime goes from a fire truck to... a flying fire truck... yeah this is a mode where it feels like they had some extra room on the paper, they knew people would do it, so they made it official. Its like the Gurwalk modes for flying transformers. It's ridiculous, its a shelf hog, but you can easily ignore it.
Robot mode, and in terms of pure look, this guy is a perfect Prime to me. Again, look, I'll get to the details later. He's beefy, no backpack, truck mode kibble is used to make him look powerful, like the leader of the Autobots, and when you consider the last form he took has been given the nickname... mostly by me, of Fattimus Prime, this is a massive step forward. However, things do fall apart a bit once you look a bit closer. While I love that all the joints are either hinges which are still stiff on mine even over 10 years later, or strong, meety, great feeling and sounding Ratchets, he's not very poseable. His arms are hindered by the truck cab shoulders, and the ratchets do mean that you need to work for poses, he also doesn't have a waist swivel, or ankles, but what was here is still fine, considering as he still has the super mode to do. Prime himself is the cab and the underside of the firetruck. The rest of it, including the cannons, can attach to Prime as a backpack, giving him a flying mode. It makes him top heavy, but a good placement of the cannons can fix that problem. He is now a bit of a shelf hog, with no real way to fix that, but unlike Armada and Energon's Super modes, he still looks like Optimus Prime, and hasn't needed to drastically change in order to compensate. All he did was get a bit taller, got bigger feet, and got four massive cannons. Prime even has more play functions to it, including an opening matrix cavity, optional faceplate, and the massive cannons, along with two more official combinations (one of which I may be reviewing soon...).
Is this the best Prime out there, arguably. While not Masterpiece like, in that it isn't completely poseable, it still feels like a toy. This is the best prime I have in my collection at the moment because I've had fun moving him through each of the modes. Perfect? No, but definitely the best of Unicron Trilogy Primes, and probably one of the best primes ever (from what I've seen in reviews, I own 3 primes, with a forth in coming). It's fine for something to be fun. See you on Wednesday for Pokemon Generation VI.
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