Oh boy, I am so excited about this review that I almost can’t contain myself. Anyways, continuing with the Movie Optimus Prime-related review series, and of course, the Chinese New Year season, New Planet Cybertron brings to you what is touted to be the biggest Optimus Prime figure ever.
I initially never planned to get the Ultimate Optimus Prime because it didn’t appeal to me that much. Mostly because of the lack of articulations of the combined mode, and that unlike the Super Ginrai’s trailer, this trailer doesn’t serve any other purpose other than acting as a power-up tool for Optimus, and that was why I ended up going for Striker Optimus Prime instead.
Then come 2012, Hasbro suddenly announced that in conjunction of the Dragon year (based on the Chinese calendar), they were going to release an Asia-exclusive Dragon-year version of the figure. Needless to say, this was what appealed to me; hence here we are with this review.
Box:
Now, I don’t normally mention about the box unless it is worth mentioning. Since this is the Dragon year exclusive, instead of an embossed Autobot symbol on top of the clear plastic, there is an embossed Dragon with a stylized Chinese word 龍 (long), meaning Dragon.
The box itself is quite humongous, stretching to almost 22-inches long, 6 ¾-inches across and about 11-inches tall. Obviously it is smaller than its original packaging due him being packed in vehicle mode instead. In areas normally would be white in color, they are painted in a shade of yellow, due to the Asian’s obsession (mainly Chinese) of the color Gold or Red.
It’s quite a unique packaging, I must say.
Alternate Mode:
The combination of the truck and trailer is deliciously massive. The cab itself is almost 9-inches long and the trailer is about 12 ½-inches long, 4 ¼-inches across and almost 5-inches tall. The combined mode is about 19 ½-inches long.
The cab itself is about the size of a Voyager-class figure (probably slightly bigger), and the kibbles are quite obvious from below.
Since this is an Ultimate-class figure, I was hoping that the figure would’ve come with real rubber tyres instead of PVC ones. Still, they roll quite fine. The truck grill here is red in color instead of the normal silver/ grey.
The trailers itself is red in color instead of grey, and remember the Dragon embossing on the box? Well, the same Dragon designs are on both sides of the trailer. The maroon-colored Autobot insignia are embossed instead of either painted or sticker, which is a very nice touch.
Since this is a DOTM figure, Optimus Prime comes with Mech Tech ports, and loads of them. There are six Mech Tech ports on the cab alone, and on the trailer, there are eight on top, and two on each sides. There is also another engraved Autobot insignia at the front of the trailer, painted in silver.
Overall, an impressively detailed alternate mode worthy of the name Optimus Prime.
Robot Mode:
The robot mode is quite impressive in size. It’s really a Leader-class, but something that is near to an Ultra-class. It is not as detailed as the Striker Optimus Prime or even the ROTF Voyager Optimus figures, but he is still recognizably Optimus Prime.
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| From left: ROTF Voyager Optimus, Dragon-year Optimus, 2007 Leader-class Optimus |
The arms are a bit too big, in my opinion, but overall I think the robot mode is a bit more streamlined compared to various versions of Movie Optimus Prime, due to lack of dangling parts.
Articulation-wise: the head rotates 360°; the shoulders are on universal joints; the elbows rotate and bend; no wrist and waist movements; hips are on universal joints; the legs rotate slightly below the hips and bend the knees; and finally the ankles can tilt forward.
But this is not why you buy this figure for, it’s all about the gimmicks.
Ultimate Optimus Prime:
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| Trailer Ready for Interface |
This is literally why you buy this figure for. You want to have the cab combine with its trailer.
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| Blaster Deployed |
The resulting figure is just massive – gargantuan even. At a wingspan of almost 22-inches, 1-foot tall to the tip of the head (19-inches if you count to the tip of the wings), he makes the ROTF Optimus-Jetfire combo (who by itself is a massive 16-inches in width, 13-inches in height) looks like Spiderman compared to the Hulk.
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| From Left: 2007 Leader-class Optimus, Dragon-year Optimus, ROTF Optimus-Jetfire Combo |
The finished figure is predominantly vibrant red in color, with the inner wings having slight shades of bluish-grey.
There is also a gun/blaster attachment, which by itself is massive, can be kept behind the robot mode. When deployed, Optimus will end up with a targeting helmet with an enormous blaster to be held up with both hands.
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| Lights & Sounds Activation Buttons and Dial |
Articulation-wise: the arms are designed well enough to accommodate the inner arms movements, which are very good; and Prime also has a pair of ratcheting ankle joints that allow inward movements.
Summary:
This figure is simply amazing. I’m surprised that I actually let him fly by for the numerous times that I’ve seen him on the shelves. Then again, it was probably a massive price tag. The first time I’ve seen him, the figure cost about RM320. I was somehow waiting for the price to drop a bit before making the purchase, but the price ended up getting as high as RM380 at one point.
Then my wait was eventually proven to be a blessing in disguise and was rewarded with the Dragon-year exclusive instead.
This is truly a massive and great looking figure, worthy of any collections, especially to those specialized Optimus Prime collectors.
Absolutely recommended.
Final verdict: 9.5/10.
Got mine for rm216 at toys r us clearance sale yesterday.. A very, very nice figure i must say..
ReplyDeleteWow!!! That's a really good bargain... Congrats
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