Toy Review - Studio Series Voyager Optimus Prime

[SharkyMcShark]

OPTIMUS PRIME
Series - Studio Series
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - new
Wave - 1
Released here - April 2018
Approximate Retail Price - $50
Approximate Size - Small.
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Whatever truck he transforms into in the first three films. See GoktimusPrime for more specifics.
Main Features/Gimmicks - N/A
Main Colours - Red, Blue, Grey
Main Accessories - Two sword things?

Review in capsule form because I'm afraid that someone else is opening this thread right now and if I'm not first my world might end.

Vehicle Mode
- On the small side, with a gappy back end and fuel tanks that don't really soldily come together. The smokestacks are also puny, for no real good reason.
- The colours look kind of muted, especially the red. The painted blue doesn't match the plastic blue at all (this is something I usually don't care enough to mention, but here we are).
- It is otherwise functional. The proportions are good, in that the figure looks long, sleek and menacing.
- Honestly, it's competent, for the scale. All the first trilogy Voyager Prime figures tend to have good alt modes marred by average back ends, and this is no different.

Transformation

- This is the highlight of the figure.
- The legs are the same as the 3rd party figure M-01 Commander. That is to say that they're the same as AOE Evasion Prime but with the added bonus that the middle set of wheels are connected to the knee by an arm that allows them to rotate up onto the hip for screen accuracy. Love that, especially at this scale.
- That torso and arm transformation is pure wow. Not necessarily intuitive, but involved and with a pleasing amount of mass shifting, with everything finding a place to fold away to.


Robot Mode
- Stature wise, this is also tiny. It's significantly smaller than the only other voyager Prime I had around, being the Evasion Prime. It also has quite the backpack - it's not huge and it doesn't stick out too far, but it just essentially a massive plate (being formed from the truck roof).
- Sculpted detail is on point. Paintwork is strong, even if the colours are off.
- Poseability is great. Of note is the wide ranging neck joint and the fact that the ankles are on REALLY broad tilting jointings.
- EDIT^4 - The main problem with this mode is that the backpack itself doesn't lock into place and can flop around when posing. The fuel tanks are on swivels that have no locking point in robot mode. Basically, the backpack needed another engineering pass.
- I disliked the 90 degree rotated knuckleduster sword things on M-01 Commander, and I dislike them here. Would have preferred a gun.


Yeah so, it's a decent figure. It looks nice enough in robot mode and has great proportions and poseability. The transformation is the most pleasing part, but what exists at either end are quite small modes that are compromised to an extent.

EDIT EDIT: I've spent more time fiddling with this overnight. My opinion of it has gone up. I still think that Starscream is comfortably the better of the two Voyagers, but this is growing on me. The colours and robot mode backpack remain the weak points. I've warmed to the scale - it is objectively a very small Voyager, but it is designed to scale with all of the other figures in the line so I don't really have an issue with that. As above, the highlight is the transformation.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: Have revised, again. I've realised that the truck bonnet parts that become his flanks do lock in. I'm a dunce.