Transcanning Optimus Prime - A Review
Transcanning Optimus Review.
I was really looking forward to this figure, The shots on the net that I had seen made it look really cool and the fact that it could be a Protoform as well as a truck took my fancy. Plus I would finally have a movie Optimus Prime that has a nice shiny grill, juts like the movie (and unlike my Leader class figure). The toy is about equivalent to a deluxe size figure and comes with a “Core Body” (skeleton), Protoform armour parts and Earth-Mode armour parts.
Lets start with the box. It is a standard movie style box and on the back has a picture of the core body, Protoform and Earth mode Optimus, as well as the stats bar. There is a bit of CG work done to show the Protoform in comet mode and an Earth mode Prime with a scanning effect running over part of his body. I like the box, it looks classy. Once inside the box, we find that there are 2 layers. The first has the Core Body, Earth mode face and Protoform parts and the second has the parts for the Earth Mode.
Core Body
Now That I have released him from his shackles, I shall work upwards. The Core body look reminiscent of a Terminator robot skeleton. It’s very skinny and lanky and has heaps of joints. I was excited as this meant the articulation would be great and it really is quite fantastic. If not at least equivalent too, I would say it even has more than the good old Microman figures! Balance is tricky, although I managed to put him into some never-done-before-for-a-Transformer poses.
Things are off to a good start.
Although the detail is a little plain, it has a Prime-esque face and a rather Ironman looking blue bit in the middle. I just realised that it may be representing his spark ( A nice touch). Not much in the way of moulding details, just a heap of plugs for the armour and some kneecaps really. He does come with a set of extra hands that can be swapped from fists to open-palmed. On to the Protoform!
Protoform Mode
After plugging the Protoform pieces on, I saw that it was still pretty skinny and managed to retain the articulation of his naked mode. A little had been lost around the shoulders, but nothing too bad and its still got more than the deluxe sized Protoform, although the deluxe one is pretty good and most poses can be copied, just a few have a bit of trouble with balance. The other difference is as the TS one doesn’t have so much kibble, the robot mode looks a bit better. Then we get to the comet mode.
Well, since the gimmick of this is to become the Protoform, I must say I was disappointed with the comet mode. Transforming consists of folding he head, arms and legs back and bammo! One comet. Unfortunately, it looks quite poor, with a huge drop from the upper arms to the legs and looks nothing like the Protoforms seen in the movie. This is where deluxe Protoform Prime is much, much better. Odd really, as I thought that with the armour just being plugged in, it would be just a case of snapping another bit on and it would looks sweet. Thing is though, there are no other bits and it just looks crap. Comes with a nice stand though.
Earth Mode
Now Optimus has landed on earth and scanned his truck. I liked this bit. The robot looks cool. Problem is that the only cool thing about it is looks. The kibble here is overwhelming. All the awesome articulation has been negated by the kibble and what’s left (knees and arms) is severely restricted. The leg armour doesn’t stay together well enough so his heels are always splitting, causing him to topple backwards, which is a constant battle, as the backpack is so heavy. Bits pop off easily and can be frustrating to get back on because you may have to move other pieces to get them back on. For me, this was his little red shoulder pads. In some of the photos, you may see one missing, mainly because I got tired of taking the backpack off and putting the thing back on, only to have it pop off again about five minutes later.
The guns were interesting. They were made from the foot stand to the cab and fuels tanks (as opposed to the smoke stacks) and they are attached to the back and swung around from the back, under his arms like Galaxy Convoy (or Cybertron Optimus Prime). I quite liked this different take on movie Ops weapons and they look pretty powerful too! Shame he can’t really point them anywhere due to the backpack hindering his arm movement.
Despite the “Confined” robot mode, I was looking forward to getting him into vehicle mode and beholding the shiny grill of a smart looking truck mode.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. I LOVE instruction manuals, I will look over them for hours on end if I feel it will help me, even if they are in another language I will still give them a thorough going over (I realise that I must be a rare case for this fact, or a nut case). TS Primes are pretty bad. The pictures are small and hard to see and form something that has a lot of kibble and needs careful skeleton positioning I found the transformation process EXTREMELY frustrating. So much so that I was trying it for about an hour and a half, which considering how big the toy is is quite a feat!
This picture was as close as I got to his vehicle mode......
After all that time, I never got it into vehicle mode. I got really, REALLY close with only 1 step to go, but as I was doing the second last step, the panels that I had done before came apart and I was back at halfway done. That’s this figure’s major flaw, as a plate-former the whole concept depends upon the plates fitting together and staying together. Here they don’t. I tried and I tried, but just as success loomed on a later stage, one of the previous ones would fall apart and I was back at square one. If it wasn’t that, it was plugged in parts falling off or ball joints popping out. After an hour and a half of this, I had had enough and left it.
Later on, I took it apart and put the panels together (without the skeleton) for the purposes of photography, but of course it needs the skeleton to hold pieces in place. Oddly though, I got closer without the skeleton than with. The truck mode looks nice. Its like a nice plastic model kit and I like it. If only it worked like it should. One problem I see happening later on, is severe chrome wear on the smoke stacks and front grill, as the stacks are used to hold the door panels in place (rather poorly I might add) and the grill is often popping out of place as well as being use as the sole of the feet for the Earth robot mode, so they are both areas that receive a lot of contact.
Overall, the skeleton mode is ace, but looks like, well a skeleton. Protoform mode is about the same, and the Earth-mode looks good, but is crap. Transformation is a frustrating experience that is not enjoyable but the truck mode looks like it should be good. Generally, I would not recommend this figure to any fans, unless you are an “In Box Collector,” as the box is nice.
I might change my thoughts later if I ever get this figure out of the box again, but at the moment that is unlikely. Having said all that, anyone want to buy a Transcanning Optimus Prime?
Got some more pictures in my gallery here. I got snap happy, coz I certainly wasn't toy happy and am slowly uploading them all. If its a bit lacking, check back in a couple of days and I'll have some more.
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Originally Posted by kurdt_the_goat
