Phil's Generations Legends Optimus Prime & Roller Review

[Philip Ayres]

Generations 30th Anniversary Optimus Prime & Roller

When This Image surfaced in Jan 2013 showing what appeared to be a new Optimus Prime with a Targetmaster Roller there was great excitement amongst Transformers fans. I suspect what most fans were expecting was a deluxe sized toy. However when the toy, and it's Bumblebee counterpart, were shown at toyfair were shown at Toyfair they were classed as Legends!

Now what does the name Legends say to you in Transformers terms? To me it's the 7cm/3 inch high figures, smaller versions of larger toys, available since the Cybertron range started. It's not a card game. Or, even worse, a different size of toy!

The packaging style shown at toy fair was the same size as that used for the Generations Data Discs - they couldn't possibly be that small? The main clue to the size of the toy came in this photo of Roller which show's Optimus' gun with two different sizes of peg. So that probably meant 3mm and 5mm and if you Work back from that you end up with a Prime Robot about the size of a Cyberverse/Powercore combiner.....

..... which is roughly what you get. Optimus is the same height, to the top of his head, as Transformers Prime Cyberverse Commanders Ironhide and Dreadwing/Skyquake.

To transform into vehicle mode start by parting the chest down the middle, folding the head down and closing the chest round it. Rotate at the mid torso swivel so the chest windows are the same side of the body as the grill and pin the grill into the chest. Bend the arms at the elbows, fold the shoulders back and fold the arms into the sides of the cab. Clip the legs together and fold back at the waist under the toy.

What you get isn't the worst Prime cab by a long way but there's three major concerns here. One is the feet stick up at the back of the flatbed and in a toy this size they could easily have been hinger backwards. Then there's the odd wedge shape at the back of the cab which just look odd. I could see this working ok at the front and stretching back the length of the cab but the back ? ? ? ? Finally there's a big lump of blue plastic, the back of his head, visible in the roof of the cab. Uncovered it's a bit distracting but since the back the head is a 5mm peg hole it lets you mount Optimus' gun or any number of extra weapons on the cab.

This Optimus Prime toy is just a cab, there's no trailer, so the 4cm long Roller toy included with it automatically looses the launcher play feature that made the original so good. But he makes up for it in other ways. Roller's change shape a bit: whereas before he was an open top vehicle he's now more of a small 6-wheeled armoured vehicle, moulded mainly in blue plastic. On the top of the vehicle is a 5mm peg hole which, like the earlier version, allows Roller to carry Optimus' gun around with him.

Although there's no trailer as such Roller can sort of be towed by Optimus: there's a pair of bars on the front of Roller that clip into a pair of slots on Optimus' trailer. I think Hasbro missed a trick here: spacing the holes and bars a little further out would have mirrored the combination on the Cyberverse Optimus Prime with Trailer Launcher and let this new Optimus tow that trailer.

What Roller does have that he has never possessed before is a robot mode: stand him on the rear of his vehicle mode exposing the robot parts moulded into the underside and fold his arms up.

Yes it's simple but there's fun to be had here. Roller's got 3mm holes in his hands so he too can hold Prime's gun which handily has a 3mm post too allowing both robots use the weapon. Roller also has a 3mm port in the middle oh his chest so if you've got any Cyberverse weapons with a rear post they can be stuck into his chest - he looks really good using Cyberverse Beast Hunters Bumblebee's bow.

But Roller also has a third mode: He's a Targetmaster. Turn the vehicle mode over and pull the rear of the vehicle down folding out a 5mm peg for Prime to use.

Roller become a double barrelled gun, a familiar Targetmaster form and one Prime's used previously with his Generation 2 Laser version. I've got a few issues with this as a gun: the rear, formed from the top of the vehicle, has sections linking at odd angles so the back of the gun slopes downwards in relation to the barrels. The barrels themselves are *just* over 5mm wide so they won't tightly hold a 5mm peg which is a bit of a shame. The 3mm peg hole on the robot mode Chest is now on top of the gun so you can add extra weapons that way.

But there is a non documented method for expanding the dual cannon: the rear of Optimus' gun has a weird concave sided bar. This slips between the barrels of the Roller Targetmaster to form a larger combined weapon. I can't tell if this is coincidence or not but the height of this bar is exactly 5mm so it will slide into 5mm peg holes, like hands or Minicon weapons. Sadly the hole in the front, which looks like it should be a 5mm peg hole, isn't. There's rifling inside the barrel that stops you pushing a 5mm peg into it which is a shame especially as Legend Bumblebee's Blazemaster will take 3mm pegs in his barrel. Attempts thus far at removing the riffling have failed. A couple of 5mm pegs/holes in the side of the weapon would also add to it's playability. It's good but it's so nearly great and with a little more thought it could have been.

Roller has also got an unofficial ground mounted cannon mode: from gun mode, fold the arms down to form supports for the gun. A nice little extra.

Transform by pulling the arms out the side of the cab, then pulling the grill forward. Turn the top of the cab round so it faces the rear. Fold the waist down under the toy. Fold the grill onto the robot back and slot in place. Open the chest, fold the head up and close the chest.

The robot toy mode ticks the basic Optimus Prime boxes very easily: blue legs & hands, red arms & body, cab windows as the chest and blue head with silver faceplate. The most obvious problems are the shoulders: the raised lump at the back of the cab is now on the shoulders and is inexplicably hinged. Now while I have found pictures of an IDW comics Prime (whom I'm told this toy is modelled on) with sloped shoulders on the comics version they slope outwards. The shoulders may also be distracting you from a feature that's missing: No exhaust pipes on the shoulders! The hands are open sided 5mm holes and, to be honest, look too big for this size of toy. But they are necessary: Roller's gun mode needs a 5mm peg, a 3mm peg would break or shear under the weight.

Articulation is good: ball joints at knees, hips, shoulders and elbows plus a turning head. In fact the shoulder articulation reveals the only possible reason for hinging those slopes on the top - it allows access to the open top of the ball joint socket allowing the arm to fold right the way out to the sides. About the only thing really missing is a swivel joint as the waist.

Some early in-hand photos showed him with a sloping lower chest but these were just mistransformed: a straight chest is normal.

A pretty decent attempt at doing a smaller scale Optimus Prime. Yes there's a few minor issues but it's a good toy. Can't wait to have a Metroplex to go with him!

Optimus Prime & Roller are a Wave 1 Generations 30th Anniversary Legends toy packed along with Bumblebee & Blazemaster which became available in the US in late April 2013 and in the UK in August 2013.

For More pictures see: www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/generations-classics-44/transformers-generations-toy-fair-2013-legends-official-images-176851/

www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-feedback/872090-generations-legends-optimus-prime-roller.html

tmukhub.proboards.com/thread/7206/transformers-generations-legends

Future Repaints

Roll out the Ultra Magnus, Scourge/Nemesis Prime, Thunderclash and Motormaster Variants

[Hero]

Still want one of these. Are they out here now?

[Philip Ayres]

Aug 16, 2013 10:03:43 GMT Hero said:

Still want one of these. Are they out here now?

£13. TRU.

[The Doctor]

Not in the Edinburger store. Not even a shelf tag.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Generations 30th Anniversary Legends Nemesis Prime & Spinister

Black evil versions of Optimus Prime have been a recurring theme since the Car Robots Black Convoy/Robots in Disguise Scourge repaint of G2 Laser Optimus Prime with the Nemesis Prime name being used on them ever since the Armada repaint of Supercon Optimus Prime. So it's no surprise to see the Legend Optimus Prime return in black.

To mix things up he and Bumblebee's repaint Cliffjumper have swapped companions: Cliffjumper gets a yellow Roller repaint called Suppressor while Bumblebee's Blazemaster helicopter is repainted in purple as a minicon version of Spinister. In the process Nemesis Prime has lost his rifle to Cliffjumper too but Blazemaster makes an excellent replacement weapon.

For some while there was a little resentment towards this toy because of what he might have been at one stage: In November 2013 Gnaw popped up on a Computer listing as a Legends class toy packed with a Minicon called Gnash and having the Hasbro product number A7804. But even then there was some doubt over his release with the listings showing Nemesis Prime with Spinister having taken his product number! Fortunately Titans Return Gnaw is now out which rather heals any remaining hurt.

I like this Nemesis Prime, I don't mind paying for easy repaints at smaller sizes and Nemesis Prime is a sensible reuse of Optimus Prime.

Silver Roller

Silver Roller is the Roller toy cast in various shades of clear plastic. I'll be honest, I can't see a lot of silver on him in the pictures I've seen, making the name a little inappropriate, and he's the toy in the 2014 Clear Microns campaign that interests me least.

Combiner Wars Legends Huffer

Three of the 1984 Minibots were redone during Generations Thrilling 30: First Bumblebee, then his repaint Cliffjumper and then Gears as a new head repaint of Swerve. So expectations were high that a few more would get knocked off the list during Combiner Wars and it was no surprise when he was revealed, albeit accidentally to be a forthcoming toy in the Combiner Wars range. While hoping for a brand new mould, the suspicion was he'd be a Legends Optimus Prime remould and so it proved when he was revealed at NYCC 2014.

I can see the attraction for doing both Optimus Prime & Huffer from the same mould as both are similar looking vehicles. But their robots are completely different: Prime has his truck front, especially his windows & grill, as his chest with a free standing head and arms formed from the cab. Huffer has a completely different chest, with no vehicle mode detail, a head surrounded by a frame and arms formed from his exhaust pipes. While acknowledging the latter might be a bit difficult to achieve the earlier two points are important and neither are accomplished here. We get Optimus' chest, in orange and blue, and a free-standing head, albeit a new one modelled on Huffer's cartoon head. But it just doesn't look right! Yes, he gets Optimus' gun back as an accessory but even that doesn't look right.

A slightly better Huffer is obtainable from this mould, but at a cost. Don't bother rotating the top of the cab during transformation and turn the head during transformation so the head looks out over what was the back of the toy, now forming a mostly blue chest.

I'm sorry but this toy very much falls into the "go away and have another go" category.

Combiner Wars Legends Pipes

Huffer's 1986 remould Pipes has received a little bit of a revival in recent years thanks to his rather accident prone More Than Meets The Eye appearances. Unfortunately after Huffer his fans were resigned to what would happen ..... and it turned out worse than that! Pipes has always been a Dark Blue, Combiner Wars Pipes was a mid blue. Huffer might have had a new head, Pipes just got Huffer's in the same blue as the rest of the toy. The worst thing is the toy is completely missing the exhaust pipes which give the toy it's name.

You can try the reversed chest trick here, but it won't help the colour or head design. You can give him the pipes under the forearms his animated form had by inserting his and Huffer's spare gun into the underside of his hands.

Worse than Huffer, really not good enough.

Future Repaints

It's somewhat surprising that this mould hasn't been done in all white as Ultra Magnus. The Combiner Wars version is lacking a cab robot, so a legend in white would have made a good companion to the larger toy elsewhere in the line.

Thunderclash and Motormaster are two other truck robots that it might be possible to repaint from this toy.