Toy Review - Platinum Edition Breakout Battle

[griffin]

It is fascinating to track these two reviews on other fan sites, so that I can see what other fans think of these toys... to see that almost all other sites are posting up one or the other set (as news), but not both. And oddly enough, Seibertron didn't feature either set. Usually both of the big two global fansites copy each other with their news pages.

Another reason I'm tracking the reception of these two sets is that if I did a good enough job promoting these two sets, I might be allowed to review the Dinobot 5-pack... so fingers crossed.

Until then, I might do some more feature reviews of new toys I've bought, as extra "payment" for the donated ones.

[griffin]

The Japanese Rusty Optimus toy finally arrived today, so here are the comparison photos I promised.



Most of the photos I had seen previously online of the Japanese one were the robot mode, which had me preferring the Hasbro version... but now
that I have had it in truck mode, the paintwork makes the Japanese one look slightly better in truck mode (it actually looks like an abandoned
junkyard truck, compared to the Hasbro version just looking dusty).



The Hasbro one still looks better in robot mode (to me), but neither capture the red and blue you can see through the dirt of Optimus in the
movie in robot mode. Since these are parts that are mostly hidden in truck mode, I don't see why either version didn't put some "weathered" blue or
red on those parts.
It's not like they spent all their money on painting the whole exterior of the cab, because the Japanese version has splotches of the pinkish-red "rust"
on the robot parts (which actually works against it for not looking like rust or weathering), while the Hasbro version has more of the brown "dirt"
painted on its robot parts.
Side by side though, the Japanese one is just way too white to be considered the "Movie-accurate" Optimus toy. It actually looks more like an
Ultra Magnus redeco Optimus toy.
As such, if I had to choose one, I'd probably prefer the Hasbro version... because it has the better robot mode (the mode I display the toys in), it
has a plausible vehicle mode deco that they replicated well with paint (being dusty instead of rusted), and it comes with a cardboard diorama
tray for display.

Anyway, the rest of the photos for others to make up their minds with.

The images on the back of the box made the Hasbro one look whiter.


On the front of each, the same artwork is used for Optimus, although, the Japanese one looks like it might be the Silver Knight artwork since it is so
white. You can still see hints of blue on the Hasbro box art.


It's amazing to think that that is all paint covering both of them.


I couldn't get my Japanese one to transform properly, as you can see in the photo above, a little tab kept getting pushed up on the roof of the cab.
When I looked for the reason, I found that the front middle panel of the cab was not glued together properly, so it stuck out just a millimetre. It
might not seem like much, but that tiny difference can affect the whole alignment of larger parts, which you then do see as significant (like the
BotCon Scorponok shoulders). Below is the part that wasn't glued in far enough, making it press against the robot neck inside the cab in Vehicle
mode. The only thing I could do is sand down a little off the front of that part, so it could then slide in next to the robot neck, instead of pushing it
up through the roof of the cab.


With it fixed, I could go back to taking photos of the Vehicle mode.

.

.

.

.

.


The paint method of both appear to be different as well. Either the Hasbro one was brushed on, or the resolution of their spray was finer, because the
Japanese paint deco looked like one of those bad reprints of a 1980s comic.
From a distance it looks really nice, but close up it looks really bad.

.

.


Robot mode.
The Japanese version uses the face-plate head, while the Hasbro one uses the mouth head... which could be an element of personal preference to
collectors choosing one or the other.
(I also think that the blue robot eyes on the Japanese version is too bright, as the Hasbro one has slightly darker eyes... while the other two Red
Optimus toys have black eyes)

.

.

.

.
The colors of the Japanese version in robot mode keeps reminding me of the limited edition version of the Dual Model Kit - http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:DOTM-DMK...lorVersion.jpg
.

[Yongeltron]

Great work doing such a thorough job on this! It's really awesome to be able to see such a detailed side-by-side comparison of these two guys.

I personally really prefer the look of Hasbro's "Scrappy" over Takara's "Rusty" so this only makes me want this Breakout set even more!

It's interesting to see the Takara paint job up close. On some pictures I had seen, it looked as though there were fingerprints in the paint (talk about quality control!). I realise now that it was just a visual artefact from taking digital pictures of a printed dot-pattern.

I do have a question though. The feet and helmet on the Hasbro one seem to have a blue-ish tinge to them in some of your pictures. Can you confirm whether there is any blue in the colouring or if it's just a dark metallic grey? I see the tiny bits of muted red in the joints and on the missile so I'm wondering whether Hasbro is actually trying to do a very subtle blue/red colour scheme here.

[Dimi194]

Thanks for this awesome review-super keen to get this set now. I agree that the printing thing they did with the Rusty version is a little odd (Mine arrived on Wed), and the original pics made him looks more grey/silver, which I was expecting, as opposed to the white/red which was on the final model. Still happy with both, but I like the mouth head better so will certainly be grabbing this set, even if I didn't really like the 'Vehicon' (which I do!)
Thanks again!

[griffin]

I do have a question though. The feet and helmet on the Hasbro one seem to have a blue-ish tinge to them in some of your pictures. Can you confirm whether there is any blue in the colouring or if it's just a dark metallic grey? I see the tiny bits of muted red in the joints and on the missile so I'm wondering whether Hasbro is actually trying to do a very subtle blue/red colour scheme here.

Under a bright light, it does indeed have a very faint blue tinge to that dark plastic on the head and feet... but too faint to be obvious.

[kurdt_the_goat]

It wasn't until I saw that red missile in Prime's gun that i realised it was there at all in my regular TT version!

[Omega Metro]

I think that it's great that both versions of rusty Prime are quite a bit different from each other.

[Yongeltron]

Under a bright light, it does indeed have a very faint blue tinge to that dark plastic on the head and feet... but too faint to be obvious.

Sweet. Thanks for confirming.

For me, even if it's hardly noticeable, that's still extra points in favour of the Hasbro. Actually, especially if it's hardly noticeable, because I love finding and savouring that kind of super-subtle detail.

I've seen some heated discussions online about which version is more screen-accurate. For me though, the fact that those colour design elements are indeed still present on the toy makes me appreciate the Hasbro version more as a representation of the character in that period.

It's definitely a good thing that the Hasbro and Takara versions are such different takes on it. It makes for a much more interesting purchase decision than just whether to pay import price for a few more paint-apps on an almost identical toy.

[Holdobot]

Robot Kingdom have just listed their Pre-order for this set. It is priced at US$89, available on the 1st Sept. That, I guess means Myer will be definitely breaking the $100 mark.

[Sinnertwin]

Robot Kingdom have just listed their Pre-order for this set. It is priced at US$89, available on the 1st Sept. That, I guess means Myer will be definitely breaking the $100 mark.

Go with Robo -at least they put padding in their boxes.
Myer has his regular retail at $169. Yeah, you could wait for a Myer sale, but delivered to your door, i think that's a much, much better price.