Transformers Review: G1 Omega Supreme (Encore Edition)

Intro:

In the days before the appearance of the behemoths that were Scorponok and Fortress Maximus; even before the city-sized Metroplex hurled his equally huge counterpart—Trypticon into the pacific (or was it the Atlantic?); and even before Optimus Prime suffered his first ever on-screen death and Megatron reformatted into Galvatron; the largest Transformer of that era came in the form of a rocket launcher pad, and in the series, he soon established himself as the regular sparring partner for Devastator. He is none other than one the legendary Guardian Robots, the former protector of Crystal City – Omega Supreme. 

The first ever Omega Supreme I ever had was the Energon version, or rather the knock-off version of the Energon version. But to me, the Energon version just wasn’t convincing enough. Just look at it, the carrier didn’t look like a carrier, and the other part didn’t even look like a train that it was supposed to be!!! The only thing okay with it was the robot mode. The Transformer: Animated version is a perfect reincarnation of the G1 version – they almost looked the same in appearance. I wonder if the action figure looks just as good.

Anyway, the fact of the matter is, no matter how many reincarnations of Omega Supreme there ever will be; the G1 version will always remain a benchmark.

            I had always been impressed with Omega Supreme, the action figure, but surprisingly, I didn’t actually purchase it the first when I saw it at Teencom. It’s not that I wasn’t interested, but I just had other options. At first, it was a gamble between Omega and Masterpiece Megatron. I had to choose Masterpiece Megatron instead, and hope that Omega would still be there the next month. When the time came, I chose Masterpiece Starscream instead. In the following month, I chose to grab G1 Metroplex instead, while one of the two Omega Supremes still decorated the shelves. The following months after that, I grabbed the Collector Set Voltron instead. Then eventually, my lottery paid off – Omega Supreme was still there after 5 months on the shelf. It was inevitable that Omega just had to join The Family.

Robot Mode:

 

           Omega Supreme comes packed in a disassembled robot mode. Once you manage to figure out to assemble together all the loose parts, which is fairly easy, you get a bot roughly the size and height of G1 Metroplex. There are actually two ways to arrange the train tracks onto the back of Omega. The first way is actually similar to the way depicted in the show. However, you will end up with four more extra parts with nowhere to keep. This tends to bug me since I hate to have the risk of losing vital pieces of my Transformer.

The second method will solve this problem, but then you’ll have to contend with a hideous looking robot, as depicted in the photo. This method is actually recommended in the instruction manual.

How you arrange the tracks on his back is really up to your own preference. You can even take off the standard tracks and replace them with others, as depicted in the photo.

             In robot mode, Omega seems blocky and bulky. He also tends to look off-proportioned, with an unusually long pair of arms, not to mention that he had no fingers. However if Omega wants to hold anything, he can use his right arm. 
            The head sculpt is also nice, and it differs slightly from its original G1 release, by having a removable faceplate underneath.

Articulations-wise, the arms are as good as normal modern Transformers. It rotates at the shoulder and it can lift its hands. The elbows also work wonderfully. The legs have virtually no articulations at all and no knees. This would normally bug me to no end, but somehow it contains a very interesting secret, which I’ll elaborate more later on. The head turns 360 degrees and that’s about it.

Rocket Base Mode

 

Back in the G1 days, inter-planetary travel was a chore, even with the technology available to the Transformers. The Autobots did not have the luxury of Space Bridge as the Decepticons did. All they had was Omega Supreme. Throughout the history of Transformers, we’ve talked about how Optimus’s trailer and Megatron’s silencer tends to disappear mysteriously and magically reappear during transformations, the same thing also should be said about Omega Supreme.

Omega Supreme is often depicted in this mode in the animated series

View from another angle

Autobots usually travels from planet to planet via the rocket, which is formed with Omega’s hands. However whenever Omega lands at the destination, the base would always reappear! Logically, since the tank, the launcher and the tracks forms a large part of Omega’s bot mode, Omega shouldn’t be able to transform into robot mode upon reaching his destination. Plus, how the heck do those parts travel through space anyway?

Omega in a jumbled mess, during transformation

Leaving the mysteries behind, let us get back to the review. The base span is quite huge. The circular track provides the path for the tank to move around in order to protect the base from unwanted Decepticon attacks. Not as convincing a base as Metroplex, or Fortress Maximus or any of the Decepticons bases, but Omega does make a convincing rocket launcher base. Below are the photos of the tank mode.

Gimmicks:

            Back in those days, the most popular gimmick available was automated movement. Just as Sky Lynx was made to walk and roll with a push of a button, so was Omega Supreme. As mentioned earlier, Omega’s tank mode is able to travel around the tracks with no effort, with the turrets turning round and round simultaneously.

            In robot mode, Omega can walk! Omega doesn’t make much distance in a step, but at least he walks in a straight line. Children may get easily confused with the transformations, but once transformed, they sure gonna a hell lotta fun.

Summary:

            With all said and done, Omega Supreme stays true to his cartoon form, from robot mode to rocket launcher base mode. The set would provide a lotta fun to those expecting a good play-set, with all the automated movements.

            As far as I’m concerned, this is the Omega Supreme. People will always remember Omega as the rocket, just how they will always remember the Megatron as the gun, Optimus as the blocky truck and Soundwave as the cassette deck. They will tend to be the benchmark to all of their character reincarnations, for better or for worse.

            In my case, I’m quite happy with my Omega, which I consider an even better figure than the Energon version. In all, it’s a very good robot by G1 standards, and makes a helluva good play-set.

            Highly recommended.

Rating – 9.5/10