Toy Review - Age of Extinction Leader Class Optimus Prime

[GoktimusPrime]

Looking at the pics of the toy transforming posted by you and others, and fiddling with my FE Optimus, I have to say I think it might be the case that the truck mode emerges from the movie model's back in a similar way to the toy, but with some liberties taken to make it more streamlined. It may well have been a compromise, and one that Hasbro were actually willing to go with to have a streamlined Prime to accompany their "streamlined" new take on the TF line.

Interesting points about the design. Based on the theatrical trailer, it seems to me that there's a lot of folding on the CGI model that simply can't be replicated on a toy of this size, especially without making it chunky. Then again, it's possible that this is a result of the designers not having access to the final CGI models and having to work from concept art.

Have a look at this video showing Optimus Prime transforming in Age of Extinction; a good portion of the rear section of the truck cab essentially gets swallowed up into his back!

This is obviously just impossible for HasTak to translate as a toy. Overall I think that HasTak have done a commendable job with Generations Leader Optimus Prime; the roof panels divide and form the shoulder pads as they do in the film, and they've managed to get a lot of the front part of the truck cab to fit inside the legs. Okay, the rear of the legs don't look screen accurate (aww, no Astroboy leg jets ), but it's easily forgivable considering that these parts have to go somewhere on the robot! The unsightly backpack kibble appears to be an inevitable by product of this screen model which defies toy design. But these parts have ended up being carried on the back, rather than inside the back. I really hope that the TF designs for the next film end up being more toy friendly. The designs from the TF1, ROTF and DOTM were a lot more toy friendlier than AoE, as we can see from the previous Optimus Prime design and resultant Leader Class toys.

I found that theres something about the AOE toys that make them look significantly better in person than photos. Had a look at this figure in the store. Lots of sculpted details make it look real good, but the engineering doesn't justify the price tag. Cost reduction really hit recent designs badly. It's like the designer had something planned for the backpack but was dropped for budget reason at last minute so he just plain gave up and left it as one chunk of truck on the back.

Yep, definitely not worth paying full price. We can see that the Generations Leader toy does do a better job of that than the First Edition Leader, but ultimately I think having some form of backpack kibble seems to be unavoidable due to non-toy-friendly nature of the screen designs.