 Charlie Clone |
Welcome to Charlie Clone's All Action Figure Revue at SWAFT.info! I'm your host, Charlie Clone! |
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Have we got a review for you today! Charlie Cat and
I are proud to announce that we had on the premises none other than the
greatest of all Autobots...Optimus "You Can Kill Me Three Times and I
Still Won't Stay Dead" Prime! If I wasn't wearing a helmet, you could
see my tears. It may well have been the greatest day of my life. I do have to admit, though, old Op' Prime seemed a little confused. He was missing his official Autobot insignia and was running around claiming to be representing the Transformatrix Light Up Action Figure line. He also wasn't quite looking like himself, but we'll talk more about that later. Once again, this figure was acquired in a Dollar Tree, and distributed by Greenbrier International, Inc. of 500 Volvo Pkwy, Chesapeake, Very Autobot-likeville 23320. And, you guessed it, made in a secret Chinese factory that is hidden from international copyright lawyers. |
 (Transformatrix Light Up Action Figures come in two variant body types, and each boasts a wide array of colors.) This toy is "not for children under 3 years" because it is "for ages 4 and & up." |
CONCEPT:
If you recall my last encounter with a
Transformatrix toy, you can see why this toy is infinitely cooler than
its predecessor. It transforms. It lights-up.
It isn't translucent. It
isn't loosely held together by weak and/or completely missing magnetic
parts.
And it's Optimus Prime! What more can you ask for than all the heroic grandeur of the Autobot Commander for a mere buck?
The Transformatrix edition Optimus Prime has
broken free from
his 80s pop culture icon status and is all ready for the
ghetto-fabulous 21st century, featuring pimped-out metalic foil bling
on his chasis and a wild rave-light in his cab.
Charlie Cat thinks that this extravagance
seems out of character for a noble and selfless leader, leading him to
have some suspicions that this might not be the real Optimus Prime. (I
think Charlie Cat is a closet Gobots fan.) Plus, Charlie Cat notes that
the name Optimus Prime doesn't appear anywhere on the package. But,
hello, he's a robot in disguise!
He wouldn't want to go around advertising his identity or publically
plastering his strengths and vulnerabilities on his package for all the
world to see!
Also shocking to Charlie Cat is that, quite like Elvis Presley, Optimus Prime is now available in a younger, fit and trim version, and the late-in-career, addicted to Nucleon, flabby gut Prime.
Or perhaps we have it the other way around,
and Prime is supposed to go from overweight trucker to sleek gladiator
by consuming Alpha Trion's special low-Energon diet.
ACCESSORIES:
His trailer seems to be hiding in whatever Transformers limbo it goes to whenever he transforms into robot mode.
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FEATURES: Now, as far as I'm concerned, there are a few principles of transforming that should be recognized by toy designers. In my humble and unsolicited opinion, the best transforming toys are those that make clever use of aspects of one mode in the other. For example, Optimus Prime is a great transformer because some clever little person at Takara thought about the fact that the front of a truck looks like a human torso...with the windows as pectoral muscles and the grill as a ripped abdomen. Now that's artistic thinking! It astutely perceives the organic shape of an inorganic machine. I've never looked at trucks the same way again. Another aspect of a well-designed transformer
is the elegance of design. Attaching and detaching body parts is
cheap...and really just meant to encourage children to lose parts.
Unfortunately, the Transformatrix Prime models are not the most elegant. That is, most of his body parts pop off and then his legs swivel around. This also means that the figure has generous articulation: neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, hips, waist, feet, tires. The shoulders and hips are ball-jointed no less. But the truck mode is perfectly believable for a dollar store toy, even if removing the head creates a moon roof-effect.
Still, who actually bothered to play with Optimus Prime in truck mode anyway? If you want a toy truck, go play with a Tonka. The whole appeal of Transform(atrix)ers is that they are giant killer robots. The legs lock together in truck mode, and the feet cleverly slide into the bed of the trailer. There are numerous holes and pegs on the body, perhaps meant for accessories in a deluxe version to be sold in a $1.75 store.
I'm not exactly sure what the deal is with the "light up" feature. Perhaps he is summoning the power of the Matrix. The TransforMatrix that is. The bulb glows a frightening red color from his chest that is sure to haunt your children well into their twenties.
Regardless, the manufacturers think that it is a pretty important element of this toy as they provide detailed instructions on how to replace its batteries on the back of the package. If only Perceptor had access to this sensitive technical data after Prime's ill-fated battle with Megatron, he could have just switched out Prime's batteries and spared the Autobots the dark years under Rodimus Prime's incompetent reign.
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PLAY VALUE:
For a dollar each, why not build a Prime army? A convoy fleet of Convoy if you will? Transformatrix Optimus Prime's actually a heckuvalot cooler than those awkwardly posed and disproportionately sculpted Transformers Titanium figures, and he's certainly cheaper than any of the other more official incarnations of the Mack-truck Daddy.
Perhaps
not surprisingly, Tubby Prime's joints are significantly
stiffer than Solid Gold Prime's. The ball joints in the hips and
shoulders seem fragile, especially the shoulders since they have to be
popped in and out.
The removable head also means you finally have a cost-effective way of depicting all those times when the cruel Decepticons decapitated Prime and left his head functioning for one reason or another.
If, like Charlie Cat, you still suspect he is not the real Optimus Prime, his evil red light up feature makes him the perfect choice for depicting some devious Decepticon clone sent to infiltrate the Autobot ranks and fool them into following a Prime doppleganger.
At the very least, it's just a very cool
looking toy, and, as Charlie Cat has observed, the brazen shamelessness
and audacity of bootlegging an Optimus Prime sculpt is reason enough to
reward the makers for their shady efforts. Charlie Cat believes we
really do need more quality bootlegs like this, so go out and support
your local bootleg toy distributor!
| Until
next time...
--Charlie Clone |
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