Mediaholics Toybox: Revenge of The Fallen Leader Class Optimus Prime

Ahh Bayverse, you're going to be a pain in my ass again come October aren't you? You and Jem have now brought my bar so low that you make me question if I should review what I call the cinematic duo of the dammed. I'm doing another Transformers month next month because of that movie. But, I will admit that the mountain of Energon sent out of the bay bots' waste disposal units has some gems in among the rough smells of bloated corporations making movies to appeal to as many demographics as possible, even those who shouldn't be allowed to drive due to a lack of brain cells. One of those was the first movie as I'm often more lenient on first films as I expect there to be lessons learned from them. And some were, just the wrong ones. Another gem was in fact the Revenge of The Fallen toy line, which gained the most from the movies as it was a blast of creativity and throughout its run, gave us a wide variety of movie faithful bot and con designs and classic characters that were given the Classics revival with a touch of Bayverse realism to create some really interesting designs. Might do some more of those later as what movie toys I do have from RoTF I do enjoy overall. One of them being today's subject, the original trillogy version of that one bot who likes faces and the removal of them, Optimus Prime.

Starting with the truck mode, and like all movie bots past and present, they worked hard to make the design as perfect as possible for vehicle mode, we do get a very accurate truck to the movie with next to no robot mode kibble to get in the way. Even the bottom is clean except for the obvious robot thighs, and even getting the battery pack to almost blend in seamlessly into the truck doesn't break the illusion. What I have is the Hasbro Retail release of the mold (It got reused a lot between movie 2 and 3) so there is a lot of grey plastic where silver would look better, but even this is far better paint wise then some of the more recent toys (seriously why are we getting so many now with barely hold able stickers!). There's even clear plastic for the front and rear lights. The only thing I can find that is a little off is the rear section of the cab being a touch too wide along with a few minor things, but even that's something I only found as I was writing this review by comparing the toy to the actual truck.

The robot mode is probably as close as they could make it considering the fact that it was still meant for kids, theoretically speaking. The wheels on his shins are a bit of a pain to deal with in the transformation, and the backpack, while not the worst I've seen on a transformer, is still pretty bad considering all its working with is the pannels that make up the rear section of the cab, the smoke stacks and tanks, along with the rear tire guards. And then of course, there are the arms, and the gimmick they come with. Even the mighty Optimus Prime is not safe from the intrusive gimmicks. I hate these swords. It's cool that he has them, don't get me wrong, but they're too small to look cool, they get in the way if you want to move his arms, along with the truck kibble hanging off his arms (would have appreciated something to do with two of them to move them closer to his shoulders. It's with the arms that we come to the biggest problem of this Optimus. He looks great, he looks movie accurate. But this Prime wasn't meant to be just for collectors. It was meant for kids, to play with, and he isn't fun to play with because of his gimmicks. The lights and sounds are cool, but thanks to those and the line wide gimmick of "Mech Alive" which is basically a bit more moving plastic to make the robots look more alive (its as useless as it sounds), the chest is a slight pain to transform into robot mode, and a real pain to turn into vehicle mode (he also seems to lack the ability to look in any direction but "heroic up". He's not even bent backwards I legit can't get him to just look forward). The blades limit how far the arms can move, and they're not even movie accurate as they replaced his hands in the movie. Why couldn't we have something like that, using the saved bit of money to also give his scyth weapons. I also have Jetfire, and I haven't put the two together because it was such a pain to pull them apart when I got them.

Is he movie accurate? Not perfect, but yes he is accurate, and I still prefer this design over Movie 4 and 5's missing truck design, I think I'm in a minority when I say that. Is he good to display? Yes, but is he fun? Not to me he's not, especially when I compare him to another leader class figure I have from RoTF, or almost any other Optimus I have (he does at least beat out RID 2001 Prime and probably Energon Fattimus if I still had him). Anyway, next week will be in space thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 being released, then I promise this time next week will have a Happy Home Designer. "I totally didn't loose track of time and wrote this at 7pm last night because I had nothing else ready. That's totally not the reason" Oh and as for the new name of these, I just liked the name to be honest. It kinda works, right?