Toy Review - Optimus Prime (ROTB Voyager)

[SharkyMcShark]

OPTIMUS PRIME
Series - Rise of the Beasts
Sub-line - Not Applicable
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 1
Released here - April 2023
Approximate Retail Prize - $49.95 (Big W), $59.95 (Toyworld)
Approximate Size - 15cm to helmet horns, 15.5cm to smokestacks.
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Truck
Main Features/Gimmicks - N/A
Main Colours - Red, blue, grey
Main accessories - gun

I was caught off guard by this figure. My initial reaction was that a mainline figure has no right being this good. I think I'm still scarred from the Bumblebee main line.

Truck mode
- It's the standard red cube with legs hanging off the back, more or less.
- There's a bit of kibble that is sort of half justified, if you pretend that it's a racing truck and if you squint hard and tilt your head to the side the feet do look a bit like a spoiler.
- I ran out of things to say about Optimus Prime G1 style truck modes in the early 2000s if I'm being honest. Let's move on.

Transformation
- Really fun, very intuitive. It does a lot of things that it didn't have to, give that it's a mainline (not Studio Series) figure. The shin flip/collapse, and ER/WFC style fuel tank fold out is a lovely touch.
- I love the way that truck grill and wheels roll up to sit in the small of the robot mode back.
- It feels like a really refined SS-38 transformation - really really good hand feel.

Robot mode
- Really fantastic articulation. It lacks a ball joint head (swivel only) and the knees only go to 90 degrees, but everything else is there. Ball joint wrists, free range feet, hip skirts. The waist is a weird two step thing where the actual 'waist' only has a range of about 30 degrees either side of centre, but there's a joint will full range of motion higher up the chest. Combine the two and you get very organic looking waist poses. The figure has an ab crunch too!
- Great proportions. Broad chest, tapered waist. this Optimus lifts.
- The boxy shoulder 'pads' are separately jointed to the actual shoulders, which adds to the organic posing.
- Really really solid.

Build
- QC is on point. Everything is just as tight as it needs to be.
- Paint is the figure's one weak point. There is a lot of unpainted grey here. I don't mind but your mileage may vary.
- This figure is quite small for a voyager, and light. If it wasn't as good as it is in almost every other area, I'd be annoyed. However, it justifies the price.


Absolutely get this figure.

[Tha_Phantom]

There's not really much I can add here as your thoughts mostly mirror mine. I will say that in cases where I have both, the ROTB mainline figures are more fun than their Studio Series equivalents. That SS-38 Bumblebee Prime felt unnecessarily overly complicated, whereas this is a joy to transform and nothing feels missed.
My only gripe with it is the amount of boring grey on show. If they did a redeco with premium paint I'd be all over it like Oprah on a baked ham.

Good, fun figure though. Definitely recommend!

[GoktimusPrime]

I find the truck mode to be mediocre at best. I can't get the leg tabs to tab in all the way, they keep popping out.

But the robot mode is freaking amazing. I cannot think of any other Voyager Class toy that is poseable enough to do a super-hero landing pose! (stupidly impractical but damn it looks cool!)
















^Most MPs can't strike this pose!

I personally don't think this toy looks as nice as Bumblebee Studio Series Optimus Prime, but it is a more fun action figure to play with, thanks to its superior range of poseability. And given that play is the core function of a toy, this gets a big thumbs up from me.

[GoktimusPrime]

I picked up a second Voyager ROTB Optimus Prime today, and thankfully the legs are able to successfully tab into place. So it seems that the one I grabbed in Singapore was a dud. Although the one that I got today has one fuel tank pops out really easily and won't lock out in place, but I've swapped it with the same part from my first Optimus Prime. So now I've got where everything fits into place okay, and another with dodgy parts.

[Dimi194]

One of my favourite OP figures of all time - while I agree about the lack of paint (esp. on the legs) and that it would have been nice to have a slightly darker grey, the proportions, articulation, and satisfying transformation (pinned wheels!) knock this out of the park design and sculpt wise compared to SS 38. It's tying with AOE Evasion Mode Prime as my favourite Movieverse toy ever.
I hope this gets scaled up/repainted (with a ball joint head) for the ROTB SS version rather than them trying to fix up the SS 38 mould, as comparing them side by side you can really tell the SS38 was based on concept art (as he's a lot chunkier than OP actually is in the BB or ROTB films).

[GoktimusPrime]

as comparing them side by side you can really tell the SS38 was based on concept art (as he's a lot chunkier than OP actually is in the BB or ROTB films).

It's also because Bumblebee Optimus Prime has a more complete looking truck mode. ROTB OP's truck mode is fairly ordinary and pretty rubbish from behind, whereas Bumblebee OP's truck mode only has a gap in front of the trailer hitch, but otherwise looks fairly complete, even including the sleeper compartment. ROTB OP is definitely the superior action figure, but Bumblebee OP remains the superior truck toy. And both figures have their pros and cons in achieving this; as you said, 'Bee OP is chunkier as a result of being the better truck while ROTB OP has a less realistic looking truck mode as a result of being a better looking and more poseable robot.

Comparing truck modes


Comparing robot modes


And while this doesn't personally bother me, some people might take issue with ROTB Voyager Optimus Prime being a rather small Voyager.

As you can see, ROTB Optimus Prime is the smallest of the Voyager Movie OPs. He is still taller than Deluxe Protoform OP, but shorter than the other Voyagers; pretty much midway between the typical height of a Deluxe vs Voyager. Of course, his engineering and poseability is far above the other Voyagers, which is where the budget has obviously been shifted towards, but at the cost of the toy's size.

Again, not something that personally bugs me; but then again, I'm the kind of person who's perfectly happy with the size of my G1 and Titans Return Blasters (I skipped Kingdom/Legacy Blaster; Legacy Twincast is the only version of that mould that I have). But I know that scale matters more to a lot of other fans, so I can see how ROTB OP's size might be a point of contention for some people.

[Bemblebuu]

Love the design of this new Optimus. Just had to add some paint

[klystron]

This is a great little figure. Emphasis on the little. Dude is small. (Smidge shorter than Needlenose; same height as Leo Prime, but with less bulk).
But, from other reviews, it does look like he'll scale well with SS101 Scourge.
Very poseable bot mode, and nice transformation that does the job without being too complicated or too simple.
I think the truck mode looks cool. Well except for the feet on the back which aren't much better than SS90 Galvatron imho.
My main gripe would be the size of his peashooter gun. So disproportionately small, it looks ridiculous. Put ER Prime's gun in his hand and you'll see what I mean.

Hasbro stuffing up weapons/accessories seems to be the new normal.
If they gave us proper weapons to start with, I wouldn't have to buy so many aftermarket upgrade kits, and could buy more transformers!

QC is great. All joints, tabs, hinges are tight.

Got this at the same time as mainline Airazor, so recency bias cancels out, but I would pick Airazor over this Prime everyday.
If you can live with his diminutive stature, its a defn RECOMMEND, but perhaps wait for discounted price.