I picked this toy up today on sale, and I have to say that I was really pleasantly surprised. From what I've been hearing from people and judging from pictures and looking at the toy MOSC in stores, I thought this toy would royally suck, but I find it has far exceeded my expectations!

As I mentioned much earlier on this thread, the idea of "Classicsverse" is to use contemporary toy engineering to improve upon older toys, like G1. With most G1-based Classicsverse figures, they have improved on the old toys. With the Beast Wars based ones, they haven't (IMHO). G2 Laser Optimus Prime though was a masterpiece of an action figure by 1995 standards... and I gotta say that I wasn't sure if RtS could do it justice, but I find that it has in several ways.

Pros:

+ Very nice articulation. The wrist can bend forward so that he can hold his sword aloft with the tip of the blade pointing up like He-Man. He can do a lot of impressive poses.

+ Good playability. Unlike Perceptor and Jazz, this toy doesn't come apart in the middle of fast-action toy play. The joints move smoothly and easily, something which has been standard in Transformers since Beast Wars, but with recent engineering flaws, this makes the toy stand out.

+ Complex transformation. I thought this toy would transform in a similar way as G2 Laser Prime - and it kinda does, only with greater complexity. Which is impressive considering that it's a smaller and cheaper toy (mind you, a lot of G2 Laser Prime's cost is taken up by the trailer/battle station). But yeah, not having an electronic block means they have more creative freedom... the way the truck windows actually becomes the chest windows was a surprisingly clever touch I thought (whereas on the original toy the chest windows are very obviously fake).

+ I like the way the sword transforms into a hitch for the cab mode. On the original toy it just stows underneath like Drift's sword, but with RtS Prime the sword is part of the alt mode. "What's so good about that?" Well...

That's right! RtS Optimus Prime's sword allows him to hook up with G2 Laser Prime's trailer!! That's cool! And it fits in pretty tight too, as you can see in that last pic.

+ Doesn't have "Optimus Prime" written all over him in vehicle mode. Let's face it, that was always a silly feature on the original toy.

Cons:
- No gun.
- The doors just hang off the arms like they have no place to go and kinda get in the way.
- The stripes on the top of his head light pipe real well, but the eyes don't!

Other comments:
* I'm not a huge fan of the head sculpt. There's nothing wrong with it - just personal preference.
* Truck mode has moofie-inspired chopper flames. I don't like nor dislike this over the original vehicle cab colours.
* Sword's a bit tricky to place into the hands

Here are some comparison pics between the original and RtS figures:




Overall I think this toy is pretty decent, especially for a Deluxe price point. Even better if you can get it on sale. Sure, Laser Optimus Prime comes with more accessories and a trailer battle platform as well as electronic gimmick, but that toy cost about $100 retail iirc (it was certainly the most expensive toy in '95). So putting it in context of the relative price difference, I think RtS Optimus Prime offers comparable value for money.

I'd recommend this toy -- even moreso if you can find it on sale of course.