Quote Originally Posted by Sutton View Post
The quote "much good work is lost for the lack of a little more" sums this guy up for me. It's lazy. In fact, you can apply that to most of ROTB Studio Series line...the back of Scourge's truck, the overall messiness of Battletrap in both modes, the fact that Cheetor turns in to a bear...pretty bizarre considering they had an extra year to work on these.
My understanding is that these toys are based on earlier screen models. Bear in mind that while toy designs must be finalised at least half a year in advanced (often longer), screen models can be tweaked only weeks before a film's release.

Quote Originally Posted by Sutton View Post
I partly blame the real life truck design itself - there's very little material to work with at the rear to make the legs work, so you'd have to go to MP level engineering to do better. Hilariously, the truck mode almost looks better with his legs not transformed at and just sticking out the back. On the plus side, transformation is quite smooth and easy compared to the Bumblebee Prime so...there's that.
Agree 100%
On the plus side, the RotB Optimus Prime screen model is incredibly toyetic. Never before have I seen an Optimus Prime transform on the big screen where it really feels like watching an action figure transform! This got me really excited about getting the toy when I saw it in trailers. Watch this video from the 3:11 to 3:16 minute mark. It feels like a "reverse Masterpiece" moment; whereas MPs are usually makes you feel like the screen models jumped out and became toys, this moment feels like your action figure jumped into the movie and became a screen model! I don't remember seeing anything quite this toy-like since Beast Wars. Okay, BW is still better, but that's because the toys were made first and the animators 3D scanned the figures.

Quote Originally Posted by Sutton View Post
I also find the mini handcannon a little bizarre - if it was small because it flipped inside the arm I could understand, but it's just an accessory so....make it bigger? One of the iconic poses from the trailers for the film was him pointing the big cannon at the camera all mad and 'STAND DOWN' etc. But this looks like a little Milo tin.
The cannon isn't proportionately large, being only marginally bigger than Optimus Prime's hand.

Granted it is still proportionately bigger than the toy's gun, but only slightly. The design of the shoulders disappoints me more than anything else, as it affects the functional playability of the toy. A slightly smaller gun really doesn't bother me in the slightest.