Optimus Prime

[Jawjaw]

Arc - I'm sure you could get decent money for it on ebay if you really wanted to unload it. Personally, I'm no huge transformer fan myself but you don't see transformers like the 20th Ann. Prime everyday. Part of the new Prime's charm is that its a little like the old school transformers with the diecast and chunky appearance while it has detailed touches like the pistons, opening vents, moveable fingers,etc.

[Blaine23]

I wholeheartedly admit that "I don't get it" and all my gripes are mainly complaints of a non believer. People know I grant leeway to things I like.

Anyone wanna buy a Hasbro Prime? Never been fired and only dropped once.

Eh... we all focus on the positive toward things we want to love and the negative on things that we want to "change our minds" for us. It's pretty rational and totally human.

Prime just ain't your bag, baby.

[JRock]

Hasbro and Takara version use the same plastic and paint styles other than the obvious on the Hasbro version. Sorry you didn't like it, JS.

[JsARCLIGHT]

I should probably explain that the other toy line(s) I collect besides Macross are 12" Army Dolls (Joes, Dragon, BBI, etc.)... so I am very, very spoiled when it comes to my expectations of "poseability". If a toy cannot hit certain poses like parade formation, present arms and all manner of neat commando "kick in the door", "pull the guy out of the spiderhole" and "boot to the head" poses I get all bent out of shape... I've learned to deal with my issues reguarding the Yammies but I must meditate more on the Optimus thing.

This has got to be the first time I wholeheartedly disagree with Js.... my world falls apart...

Naaahhh... remember that time I thought I could launch a monkey into space and you said my math was wrong? We fought like dogs over that... Well guess what?... my basement still smells like burning monkey.

Edited March 5, 2004 by JsARCLIGHT

[Uxi]

Wow surprising.

This thing's fists should be the model that Yamato goes by. It doesn't have GI Joe Kung Fu death grip, true, but it's far far better than 1/48 skeleton hands, for example, in holding Primes Ion cannon, Megatron or Matrix... Hell the thing can give a double Stone Cold Salute... The legs have every range of motion as a 1/48 VF-1... And it feels alot sturdier...

Poor quality? This thing blows Yamato out of the water and is better than even Bandai.

I don't see how "not getting it" could translate to "poor quality" and unpossable... maybe you did get a lemon...

[Blaine23]

I should probably explain that the other toy line(s) I collect besides Macross are 12" Army Dolls (Joes, Dragon, BBI, etc.)... so I am very, very spoiled when it comes to my expectations of "poseability".

Dude... I thought all you "12 inch soldier freaks" would set yourselves on fire before you referred to them as "Dolls"

[JsARCLIGHT]

I'm a realist. Anything with real cloth clothing is a doll... if you have an issue with that you need therapy.

[pfunk]

I'm a realist. Anything with real cloth clothing is a doll... if you have an issue with that you need therapy.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Wow surprising.

This thing's fists should be the model that Yamato goes by. It doesn't have GI Joe Kung Fu death grip, true, but it's far far better than 1/48 skeleton hands, for example, in holding Primes Ion cannon, Megatron or Matrix... Hell the thing can give a double Stone Cold Salute...

For the record I loathe the Yamato 1/48 DYRL hands... I am actually in the process of swapping them all out with top notch recasts of the TV hands for my units in battroid mode. Those Yamato hands have the same issue as my prime hands, put a gun in there and a little while later *clunk* it falls out onto the shelf. I myself find all poseable hands to be quite dumb, there is no need to have articulated fingers when they are perminantly bent in a gun holding fashion. If prime came with neat beefy solid mitts like the new Yamato TV hands I would have nothing to complain about... plus nice rounded beef mitts would be more fitting to the cartoon.

Poor quality?  This thing blows Yamato out of the water and is better than even Bandai.

Yamatos lack two things this toy has: cheap pearlescent plastic parts and cheap plated plastic with flashing all over it. Nothing says "cheap toy" in my book like mottled color plastic and plated parts like you would find in a car model... it's just tacky and it looks bad on the toy. Perhaps only the american toy has this issue I don't know.

I don't see how "not getting it" could translate to "poor quality" and unpossable... maybe you did get a lemon...

My "not getting it" is along the lines of blind love for the toy. Not being a transfan my views of the optimus toy are through the eyes of a skeptic and not a diehard. I'm looking at it like a tree hugger looks at a muscle car... I see the use of the thing and the love that people have for it but it's true luster is lost on me. As for posability the thing is just not as posable as it seems. Those SOC EVA toys, those things are posable... the Perfect Grade Gundam RX-78, that thing is posable... the 20th prime, not so posable. The only reason I brought it up was because all the reviews and raves I heard and read about the toy were that it was sooooo posable. I later found out that most of those reviewers meant "it is so posable compared to the original" or "it is so posable compared to a barbie doll". I admit that the toy has some joints on it, it's just that those joints don't translate well to high posability... just like yamato 1/48s. Every time I try to pose it it falls over (because the legs cannot support the thing, poor foot design. Not so much the foot on second thought but the ankle... it does not support a wide enough arc of movement to keep the foot flat on the ground) or it just can't reach the pose I want. My Yammies have the exact same problems. That is why I leave them in the display case and don't touch them much as they are more for looks than posing. If I were as big a transfan as I am a VF-1 fan I would do the same thing.

My 12" soldiers on the other hand can do everything from the macarena to yoga... I just need to get it through my thick skull that non-human transforming robot toys with incorrect proportions can never match the posability of a Dragon or BBI soldier doll and I should stop comparing the two. Things like the perfect grade gundam on the other hand spoil me into thinking they can. The simple addition of the joint structure of the PG Gundam to this prime toy (like they did with the prime knee, the only joint on the thing that works "right") would have made me like it a lot more... that and the whole cheap plastic thing.

I just don't like this prime toy, my personal opinion. I'm thinking of selling it if someone offers me a good enough price for it (as I don't like flushing $65 down the drain) or I might just do as others have suggested and box it up (with tape as that box is in shambles) and take it back.

[David Hingtgen]

Gotta pipe in here:

So how wold YOU represent chrome-plated parts on a truck model, besides "cheap" chrome-plated parts?

I mean, nothing looks like a real Freightliner's chrome stacks and bumper, than actual chrome.

Chrome looks bad on Camaro engine block models, because they're not chrome in real life. But truckers LIVE for chrome.

Now, "shiny" fuel tanks usually are stainless steel, not chrome, but that's an exception due to operational necessity. (And air cleaners sometime, but Prime's are internal so you can't see them).

[JsARCLIGHT]

Here is my shpiel:

The problem with plated plastic parts is in how they are made. They "plate" the standard plastic parts while they are on a parts tree of some sort and then they remove them from the tree and attach them to the toy. This process results in the plating compound going over things like flash on the model parts and on the stems that hold the parts to the mold trees. When the parts are taken off the trees to assemble the toy they leave "tree holes" in the plating that look ugly as they appear as a "hole" or pitt in the plating. Then to top it all off you can't cut of the flashing that remains on the part as it would cause the same gash in the plating finish. This has been an issue with plated plastic parts since day one... they all have these issues and in my personal opinion they come off as cheap looking.

On the flip side of the coin for things like the shocks (the parts on prime that in my book look the worst due to the plated plastic parts) they could have just used some type of fleck plastic that looked like steel. I have a ton of 1/18 scale cars made by various makers that employ that tactic on the engine parts so they don't give off that "cheap plated plastic" look. Some of the more expensive 1/18 scale car models I have like my Dan Gurney Cobra Daytona use painted parts and post-tree "low gloss" plating that looks very, very good on the final car. The paint is straight out for the shocks but for things like the nubby smoke stacks it would have done wonders. Now that I think about it, here is a comparisson on the american prime: the truck's grille is all plated plastic... it has no depth to it and it looks like cheap plastic. But the robot mode's grille has painted accent marks that really bring out some depth in the part and make it look soooo much better. If they had applied the same tactic to a slight degree on all the plated parts they could have made them look worlds better and much less "cheap" looking in my book. After all, they already gave most of his upper body a hit with the stuff why not carry it over to the other plated parts?

Still you have to admit that plated plastic used on toys looks nothing like real chrome, it looks like cheap plated plastic. If they could only find out what material that is they use on real cars for making the name badges that look like real metal they could solve the problem in one stroke... but that junk is most likely waaay too expensive.

[Radd]

As a fan of giant, transforming robots in genera, old scholl Transformers and Prime specifically, I'm very happy that I just picked up the 20th Anniversary Prime tonight at Toy's R Us. Walmart and Target just did not seem to be carrying them. I've been to both stores once a week every week since the toy came out, and neither of them have had him (or the Alternators Dodge Viper), TRU had both, though the Prime they had was the last one on the shelves. He had the black gun, so I was happy and snatched him up.

I'm slightly dissapointed with his truck mode, it's too small compared to his legs, but it's nothing I can't forgive. I can see someone who's more into cars being more upset about something like that. In robot mode, he is pure awesome. Far above and beyond any other Transformers toy I've ever seen.

I think I still prefere my Yamato 1/48th Valkyries as they're still more detailed and look better in all modes. I think they're a little more stable standing up, as well. Something tells me Prime would be a more stable toy if he was all plastic instead of die cast, but oh well.

As for the little debate about the hands, well I think the Yamato hands are much more capable of holding their guns than Prime's is for his gun, because the Yamato's can put their finder through the trigger fingerguard, gives it a little more stability. I've never had any problem with them dropping their guns, and I've been known to let them sit in a pose with their guns for a couple of weeks. I haven't had Prime long enough to see if he has any problem.

I won't argue quality of the toy, except Prime's a lot higher quality than anything in the Energon/Armada/Universe line, by far. A lot higher quality than most similar toys that I've seen. I do amit thought that he's still not nearly as nice looking in truck mode as a lot of truck toys I've seen. Still, I'm more in it for robot mode, and his truck mode still looks a lot more realistic and a heckuva lot nicer looking than any Prime toy since the original G1 Prime.

[David Hingtgen]

I'm wondering if this is a US vs JP thing. I have a Takara Prime, and his stacks have NO flash, and the only sprue scab is on the undersides of the stack's mufflers---and it's plated over. Never noticed any on his bumper.

For a "realistic" grill that'd take layers and layers of parts. Even worse if there's a screen over it.

"Chrome plated" plastic parts are vac-metallized, generally. "Real" chrome, is literally chrome-plated---as in, electroplated. Can't electroplate plastic, never will. I've always felt the main difference in appearance comes from the clear-coats in the vac-metallized process. That's also what's responsible for many "not so shiny" chrome parts in models. They're usually chromed, but with an additional "almost, but not quite" gloss clear-coat over them that tones it down just enough so that it looks more "real".

Radd--few people are more disappointed with his truck mode than me. He's the exact opposite of an Alternator--instead of a "perfect" car, he's a perfect robot--and the truck mode suffers a *lot* for that. My #1 request would be bigger fuel tanks, or at least reverse how they're hinged--they're always angled, and only on "straight" when you press them in while transforming the legs--couldn't they have done it the other way, so they look right most of the time?

Edited March 6, 2004 by David Hingtgen

[UN Spacy]

While we're on the topic of Hasbro's 20th Anniversary Prime. Does anyone know if someone has attempted to make a true movie damaged version?

[Deadzone]

Finallly got one at Walmart in Anaheim. Yesss!

[GobotFool]

Just to stand up for the plastic quality on Prime, I yoinked out my SOC Dancouagar and examined the plastic, it has about the same thickness and pearlecence as the 20th Anniversary Prime. I won't compare it to a Yammy valk, as I have always defended Yamatos on the basis that they are less toys, and more display models, but when it comes to bang for your buck, this prime does blow just about every SOC out of the water.

Who knows, it could be a Takara vs Hasbro deal as I have the Takara Edition but have never held Hasbro's version. Anyone out there have both?

Edited March 6, 2004 by GobotFool

[EXO]

I just bought a hasbro Prime today for my nephew, and I gotta say that it didn't feel as solid as the my Takara version. The joints were loose and and the parts that came off did so easily. I thought they were suppose to be the same? I didn't mention it to my nephew because I didn't want to ruin it for him. It's still worth the money, but it made spending a few more bucks for the Takara seem more sensible. Even the Megatron gun wasn't as tight.

[Deadzone]

I just bought a hasbro Prime today for my nephew, and I gotta say that it didn't feel as solid as the my Takara version. The joints were loose and and the parts that came off did so easily. I thought they were suppose to be the same? I didn't mention it to my nephew because I didn't want to ruin it for him. It's still worth the money, but it made spending a few more bucks for the Takara seem more sensible. Even the Megatron gun wasn't as tight.

I actually own both. However, I have kept the Takara version in the box. If I knew there was a difference, I would have bought more Takaras in Hong Kong!

I have to say, overall the toy is really good for the price tag. The poseability is a little better than the Unicron Armada toy and the robot mode looks dead on to the cartoon. The legs are a bit big in truck mode and there are no side windows, but I can live with that. My biggest complaint would be the flimsiness of the hands, fingers, and ankles. The wrist appear to be very loose, but that's okay since he only needs to hold a gun. The ankles are the bigger problem. Because they are so loose, Prime has a tendency to tip over when trying to hold poses. The ankle supports just give way.

Can anyone else who owns a Takara confirm if the Takara version has tighter joints?

Personally, I can live with myself spending $68.00 on a toy of this quality. A hundred dollars would be too much. That's one of the reasons I sold my Super VF-1J 1/48. It looked nice, but not over a hundred dollars nice. As fans of both Macross and Transformers, I think you get more for your money with Prime as opposed to a 1/48. He has a lot of diecast metal (almost too much), he is big, and very poseable. Of course, most people here who love Macross over TFs would disagree, but most Macross fans would probably take a 1/60 over a Prime.

BTW: where did that thread go for people who wanted to buy the longer smokestacks?

[Lynx7725]

Can anyone else who owns a Takara confirm if the Takara version has tighter joints?

I recently got a Takara, and in general the joints are okay. The hands aren't designed very well to grip the weapons though, and my pet peeve is with the ankles -- they keep popping out, and you do have to be somewhat careful posing Prime to prevent him from tipping over due to the ankles giving out.

[McJob]

I've had my MP Prime since January, in the same pose next to my computer without any problems. He's been holding both his rifle and Megatron (who can be held a lot better if the stock is removed) without any problems since I released him from the box. I haven't had nearly as many stability problems with him (none actually since I realized that Prime's legs can move forward at the hip) that I had with the Hikaru VF-1S FP, which is pretty top heavy (I leave him in fighter mode mainly because of it).

There are only a couple of minor gripes that I have with some of the paint apps, mainly the use of gray on the legs (Prime's legs were completely blue), the gray rifle (but it doesn't bother me as much now that I've seen the "black" rifle that Hasbro Prime comes with), and the yellow on his forearms. I'm probably the only person that thinks that the prototype color (the all gray version) looked the best. I'm kind of surprised that a company like eHobby didn't release that version of Prime as a special edition.

[BoBe-Patt]

I've had my MP Prime since January, in the same pose next to my computer without any problems.  He's been holding both his rifle and Megatron (who can be held a lot better if the stock is removed) without any problems since I released him from the box.  I haven't had nearly as many stability problems with him (none actually since I realized that Prime's legs can move forward at the hip) that I had with the Hikaru VF-1S FP, which is pretty top heavy (I leave him in fighter mode mainly because of it).

There are only a couple of minor gripes that I have with some of the paint apps, mainly the use of gray on the legs (Prime's legs were completely blue), the gray rifle (but it doesn't bother me as much now that I've seen the "black" rifle that Hasbro Prime comes with), and the yellow on his forearms.  I'm probably the only person that thinks that the prototype color (the all gray version) looked the best.  I'm kind of surprised that a company like eHobby didn't release that version of Prime as a special edition.

I'm hoping that the final botcon exclusive would be a 20th prime all black version!! That would be awesome!!

Edited March 6, 2004 by BoBe-Patt

[Radd]

It's interesting to note the varying quality and different issues people have been having with both the 1/48ths and the 20th Anni. Prime. My Hasbro Prime has very solid ankles, not at all loose like some people have described.

I'd say my Prime wobbles a lot more than my 1/48ths, but he's yet to tip over. I've had his feet planted firmly on the ground though, as much as I've been able to manage, whereas my 1/48ths have held some pretty dynamic poses for weeks on end, even with the FAST packs attached.

That's not to say Prime's a brick or anything, far from it. He's still more posable than a Bandai 1/55th, or almost any of my other Transformers, with the possible exception of Scourge/Black Convoy.

[BoBe-Patt]

Ok now, something new has been brought to my attention. I'm finding out that some of these 20th anniversary primes came with posters and some didn't come with posters. I thought all of them came with one. The one I bought came with one. The way you can tell is that in the front of the box there was a silver sticker that says poster included. So how many of you got this version? Can you post up a picture of the poster? hehe sorry, I still haven't open mine yet, and I don't plan to now that I find out it has the poster.

[Macrosso]

i got one havent opened it yet.

[buddhafabio]

i got one havent opened it yet.

be prepared to lose an hour of your time if you decide to.

[VF-19]

i got one havent opened it yet.

be prepared to lose an hour of your time if you decide to.

You can cut it down to about 20 minutes with a pair of wire snippers.

[Uxi]

Heh I'd like a white "Return of Optimus Prime"/ Ultra Magnus Convoy/Prime special edition re-release. I'd probably buy that Takara!

[Ali Sama]

I'm hoping that the final botcon exclusive would be a 20th prime all black version!! That would be awesome!!

hate to burst your bubble. It say's on the official site there will be NO botcon exclusives thsi year as this year's con is not offical.

[question]

Are any of you from bay area near SF? I can't find MP anywhere (east bay that is). All target seems to be sold out, and I can't even find a tag in walmart... Do any of you know when walmart might get some?

Also, side note, do you know if Takara will be releasing color variations for this guy? All black or black and red (scourge color) will be very nice...

[ManxoChu]

Any MP Prime sightings in the area of Ventura county, CA? Preferably near L.A. county.

[Jawjaw]

I gave up looking for one in my town (Houston) so I bought one from BBTS for $75 (with shipping). I'm sure I would of eventually found one but I was getting sick and tired of wasting my time looking.

[dyowelb]

I gave up looking for one in my town (Houston) so I bought one from BBTS for $75 (with shipping). I'm sure I would of eventually found one but I was getting sick and tired of wasting my time looking.

sorry to hear that...btw, just came from walmart, target, tru here in austin and they all have OP...

[UN Spacy]

Are any of you from bay area near SF? I can't find MP anywhere (east bay that is). All target seems to be sold out, and I can't even find a tag in walmart... Do any of you know when walmart might get some?

One of my coworkers told me he snagged a 20th OP from the Target in Union City. One of his friends found the last one sitting on the store shelf, needless to say there was a bit of ninja-esque going on (he HID the 20th OP so no one else would find it).

BTW...he's been busy trying to find it (Walmart, TRU's, and Target's all around the East Bay). I guess he got lucky last weekend.

[GreenGuy42]

For those of you anywhere NEAR the Clearwater area...

There are SEVERAL MP Primes, Side Swipes, and whatnot at the Super Target on Gulf to Bay I was down there for my friend's wedding, and stopped by.

[Golden Arms]

I gave up looking for one in my town (Houston) so I bought one from BBTS for $75 (with shipping).  I'm sure I would of eventually found one but I was getting sick and tired of wasting my time looking.

sorry to hear that...btw, just came from walmart, target, tru here in austin and they all have OP...

Where in Austin did you see these? I live in NW austin ( Near Cedar Park).