Phil's Cyberverse Optimus Prime Review

[Philip Ayres]

Cyberverse Commander Optimus Prime

Cyberverse takes the two smallest sizes of Transformers, the Legends and Scouts, and renames them as Legion & Commander using them nearly exclusively as smaller versions of larger toys. The Deluxe toys become Legions, the larger toys become commanders. Over the entire line the hands are molded with 3mm c-clips to use with a new 3mm standard of weapons handle.

Cyberverse Optimus Prime comes in robot mode but as per usual we'll start with the vehicle mode. As per usual with Movie Primes, he's a long nosed truck, mainly red but with a blue cab and flame details. The truck feels elongated overall, with the cab in particular feeling too long. The flatbed at the back of the cab has a 3mm bar mounted at about the point where the trailer hitch would be: the bar is set so it runs front to back. There's another longer bar running along the back of the cab. Either can be used to attack weapons with c-clips, but the one of the flatbed is used here with the jet pack supplied with him which gives the truck cab wings and engines like a jet plane. I'm told this comes from the films but I think it looks very, very silly. On the top of the pack are a pair of 3mm holes which can be used to mount Optimus' twin guns on to give him some firepower in vehicle mode.

Transformation: Pull the nose of the truck forward. Fold the sides of the rear of the truck cab out and forward till they're flush against the sides of the front of the cab. Fold the front of the vehicle down to form the legs, rotate at the waist 180 degrees and peg in under the cab. Push the waist forward. Fold the top of the rear of the cab down revealing the head. Separate the flatbed down the middle and fold up onto the robot's back. Unfold the arms.

Prime's robot mode is nearly the same height as my RTS Windcharger but considerably less bulky: his shoulders come out as far as Windcharger's chest does. The height is achieved using an extension to the legs: I think this makes him look too tall and the robot works better with the extension retracted. The blue in robotmode is confined to the chest, with the red on the lower parts of the limbs and black/painted silver upper limb pieces. His articulation included ball jointed shoulders & hips plus bending elbows & ankles. In theory his waist turns on a ball joint, but the stability of the toy relies on the waist being pegged in properly when it faces front. Unfortunately it's a little hard at times to get the small connector into the slightly smaller hole!

His hands in this mode are 3mm c-clips allowing him to hold his weapons or hold onto 3mm bars on the other toys. I understand why the Scouts in Energon all had 5mm peg hole hands but a peg hole that size then dictates the size of the arm and thus the hand. I've liked many of the Scout class toys but always felt the Basic class used previously and slightly smaller was better. The Commanders feel more like a return to that scale. Prime's jet pack, using a different c-clip, attaches to the trailer hitch 3mm bar and looks far better in robot mode. Once again the weapons can be mounted on the backpack. With the jet pack removed you can still mount the guns on him courtesy of a 3mm hole on each side of his back, formed from the underside of the flatbed whose halves don't quite mesh together in this mode due to the trailer hitch sticking out of his bottom.

Overall: I'm not 100% keen on the aesthetic of Movie Primes. The vehicle mode looks too long and I don't like the way the flatbed halves don't mesh together. The main thing wrong with this toy is the price: It's not a £9 toy. £7 maybe. If you want an Optimus Prime try and skip this one: the action set version looks much better value for money.

Optimus Prime is a "get used to it" toy. It was sold as a preview toy in the USA with a pair of 3D glasses, is packed 3 per case of 6 in the first wave of Cyberverse Commanders, returns in the second wave, is repainted with new weapons in the third wave *and* is included as a minor repaint with a new transforming trailer piece in one of the second wave Cyberverse Action Sets.

[Philip Ayres]

Cyberverse Action Set Optimus Prime

Now when you think Optimus Prime, you think truck: a cab towing a trailer. Yet in recent years trailer less Prime cabs have become more and more common. Combat Hero Optimus Prime doesn't have one but he has got a massive cannon on his flatbed. It's not until 2002's Armada Supercon that the floodgates really open following which Energon 2-Pack, Universe Spychanger, Masterpiece, Robotmasters, both Classics Voyager & deluxe and Reveal the Shield deluxe come with no trailer. In addition no version of Movie or Animated Optimus has ever had a trailer till now. So when it was announced that in Dark of the Moon Prime would have a trailer many people were pleased.

The Cyberverse Action Set takes the Cyberverse Commander Optimus Prime as it's base. Prime looses the jetpack and the pair of guns for this release, and has his deco simplified with no flames and bright plastic colours. But essentially it's the same commander toy so your decision on whether to buy the Commander or not hinges on how much you like the accessories and whether you want to help clear the shelves of a substantially overpacked toy.

The new trailer is mainly silver with pale blue edges and front. A wheel array is under the rear but only one of the two wheel pairs turn. Connection is via a c-clip under the front of the trailer, but the C-clip is fixed in place, unlike those seen on many modern weapons, so the trailer is fixed in it's orientation to the cab. Fixing this would have been simple but I can see that may have made things more difficult later. On the front of the trailer is a 3mm bar for added on weapons. There's a long clip and a bar on the rear of the trailer which will let him just about tow Bumblebee's APC. On the roof is a 5mm peg hole for Mechtech and other weapons and a 5mm peg. Sadly the peg isn't a Minicon port, that would have been nice. Most of the roof of the trailer will pull away (eventually) allowing you to see that there's a missile launcher and missile on the underside which can then be pegged into the 5mm peg hole which has remained in the remaining roof pieces.

The Trailers two alternate modes are far better defined than Bumblebee's APC's base modes were. Transformation starts with removing the roof/missile launcher and un-hitching the trailer. Separate the middle of the trailer and fold down to the sides. Unpeg the grey arms and swing the sides of the trailer out to the sides. Fold the panel the arms are connected down under the trailer so they point down. Fold the side panels of the truck out to the sides and back do they point away and forward from the front of the trailer and their fronts slot into the front of the trailed. Fold the wheels out from under the back of the trailer to form a ramp leading down from the now raised platform. Peg the missile launcher into the 5mm peg hole.

The Base mode you get is a ramp (yeah!) with a V shaped section of Wall sticking out behind it. You'll need to swing the cannon out to the sides to get some higher vehicles onto the platform and only shorter ones will fit due to the space at the rear of the platform being taken up by the support for the missile launcher. The platform deck has 4 3mm halls for Cyberverse weapons.

The second alternate mode for the trailer is a power up for the Cyberverse Commander Prime. Fold the ramp so it points down at an angle of 90 degrees from the ramp. Unhook the trailer sides. Remove the missile launcher and fold it's support back. Raise the front of the trailer up. Stand on the wheel assembly. Clip the trailer hitch on Prime's back into the c-clip on the transformer trailer. Slide each foot into the clips on the wheel base. Fold the arms forward and rotate the black pieces so the 5mm holes are on top. Slide Prime's hands over the handles then turn the trailer sides down so that the Autobot Symbol faces the right way up.

Prime's Assault Vehicle Mode isn't a proper robot formed from a combined cab and trailer like Ultra Magnus or Powermaster Optimus Prime, more like a person in a mech suit like the Power Loader in Aliens. Both sets of arms move well together which is better than on some similar toys I've seen where as soon as the figure is holding on it immobilises both sets of arms. The right arm ends in a claw while the left has a double barrelled cannon. There's a 5mm peg hole on the top of each and another peg hole on each "foot". There's a 3mm bar on each shoulder and another one on the top of the 3 barrelled launcher above the robot's head.

Just adding a trailer to Prime would be enough to please some people, but to get a base and an OK power up out of it as well is a good effort. I don't feet either mode is quite perfect: the base isn't as good as Bumblebee's APC Base and there are better power ups to robot out there. But still for the size it's a nice toy and there's a feeling that the more Cyberverse pieces you have that you can connect together, the better.

[Shockprowl]

Yeah, I wasn't blown away with cyberverse comdr Optimus, epsecially when compared with the excellent Powerglide and Blackout. The trailer base sound nice though.

[Philip Ayres]

Battle Steel Optimus Prime

If you're an American you might be forgiven for wondering what this toy is because in the USA it's helpfully labelled Optimus Prime just like the first Cyberverse version. According to Hasbro documentation it's called Battle Steel Optimus Prime and this was recently confirmed by it's European release which gives the name on the card. EDIT: I see from comments made on that photo that it looks like the US Version has been altered too now.

There's two reasons you should buy this toy: the deco change and the new accessories.

The colours used on this toy are almost a straight swap from the previous versions: blue plastic becomes a cherry red and red plastic becomes blue. Both modes have some paint operations to back this up wit the lower half of the cab doors being painted blue and the top of the long nosed bonnet painted cherry red. We see some more cherry red paint in robot mode covering the forearms. The overall effect produces a toy a lot closer to the original Optimus Prime in colours and it looks much better for it.

The accessories for the toy are new: we loose the pair of guns and jetpack seen with the original toy and gain a new pair of guns and a pair of blades, both moulded in silver grey plastic with the blades painted a bronzey gold. I'd have moulded them all in clear orange and painted the guns silver, but that's just me.

The guns each have 3mm peg handle for Prime to hold them. Slung to the rear & side of each gun is a plastic strut. At one end of the strut is a c-clip that allows the weapons to be clipped onto Optimus' exhaust pipes in robot mode. The other ends of the struts fit together to form a mounting unit that can attach to Prime's trailer hitch in vehicle mode allowing the guns to be pointing forward alongside the cab. The top of each gun has a 3mm hole for attaching the blades onto, but the barrel is also a 3mm peg hole which allows you to have some fun with the toy.... Hatchet's missiles look great plugged into the front of the gun. I think, given the choice, I'd have done the guns differently. They look odd held with this bit of plastic sitting in the back. I'd have moulded the mount as a solid piece with clips at either end for the weapons posts to attach to and with either c-clips or holes through the guns so they could still be mounted on the exhaust pipes.

The blades look similar to those seen on several previous Movie Prime toys. The blade's handle doesn't continue down from the blade, like a sword, but instead projects out at a right angle allowing the blades to be held as if they're projecting out from under the forearm. Sadly for them to be held low enough to be swung round under the forearm means they loose contact and fall out of the hands. In vehicle mode the blades are carried on top of the guns and can be folded out to the sides to damage nearby vehicle. If you've got the original Cyberverse Prime then the blades can be attached to the jetpack supplied with that toy to form energy blade wings.

If this was the first version of Cyberverse Prime it would be an instant buy. It's not, it's the third and there's two more coming. The new weapons are fun, but could be better. The deco is top notch but not enough by itself to guarantee a rebuy. I can see this being left on the shelves by many people which is a problem because in his initial case he's 2 per case with 1 each of Hatchet, also a new toy, and Megatron, Ironhide & Sentinel Prime from Cyberverse wave 1. He then returns in a second case, again at 2 per case, with a new toy Guzzle & the repainted Dark Sentinel Prime at one per case each and either Megatron & Blackout or Ironhide & Powerglide, all at one per case. So yeah, four times as many of the repainted Prime in circulation as there are Hatchets or Guzzles. Nice one Hasbro. Surely a Powerglide/Blackout/Hatchet/Guzzle case is in order?

Cyberverse Ultimate Gift Set Optimus Prime

Prime makes not one but two appearances in Wal Mart Dark of the Moon Cyberverse giftsets. The first is in the Cyberverse Ultimate Gift Set. Essentially this is the original Cyberverse Optimus with a brighter red plastic used and the weapons & jetpack cast in black plastic not silver. Easy pass. Another Cyberverse Bumblebee, very similar to the wave 3 legion, Sideswipe & Crowbar all don't make me want this set. The problem is the fifth toy in the box is Powerglide, a green repaint of the wave 2 Commander which looks superb and I must have.

Battle in Moonlight Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime's second Wal Mart Cyberverse exclusive is as part of the Battle in Moonlight pack. This uses the Action Set Armoured Weapons Platform as it's base. The robot swaps red for bright blue, blue for bright red and black for a very pale grey while the trailer swaps blue for black. This last detail in particular, together with the bright colours on the robot, points to the Prime being a Generation 2 Optimus Prime homage. However I'm not sure I have room for another action set Prime: seeing this almost makes me sad I bought the original!

Also included in this set are Legions Ratchet & Crankcase, both similar to their original versions.