PACKAGING:
As I said earlier, the colour choices for the packaging could have been chosen a lot better, the yellow really ruins the whole look, it makes it look very weird.
A shot from a slightly different angle (and much darker too). I found it really hard to take a good photo that showed the contents without using flash, and this was at night, I couldn't wait until the morning to open up this guy...
A close up of Optimus inside, he was surrounded by so many twisty ties that it was a pain to free him. I've said it before, the way he was packaged, it was so nice that I would be tempted to display him sealed.
The left side of the box advertising the MechTech compatibility and stats, not that I am too interested in either.
The right side where the bio is contained, personally, I don't care too much about this either... I found that they had used the same stock photo on ALL sides of the box, yeah, all six surfaces, you can see the same stock photo of him, geez, as if putting it on two sides wasn't enough.
Top of the box, not much to say here really.
...and the bottom, where the background is completely yellow, I much prefer the space background. Anyway, on it is... you guessed it, the same stock photo, as well as the name, so no matter how you store the box (or how the box is put on show) you will always know who was in this box.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Here are two samples of the instructions booklet, in which it is FULLY TRANSLATED into ENGLISH. A really really nice touch I must say, and it does make the transformation much less ambiguous. He comes with two instruction sheets, one for the Jetwing Armour and the other for Optimus himself.
For the instructions for Optimus himself, you might think that they will just reuse the ROTF version, and you are right, to a degree. They've taken the time out of their way to go and replace the photos of the ROTF Optimus with the Jetwing Optimus retool, not completely neccessary, but again, really nice that they did it. I just can't believe they took the time to go translate the whole package (well, the bio card is still in Japanese I guess).
VEHICLE MODE:
I really do miss all the paint apps that Optimus should have gotten, he looks fairly drab here and plain, not like the 'premium' figure it is supposed to be.
I think it is a great truck overall, and the only noticeable thing that detract the look is the small gap at the trailer hitch section, where if you look carefully, his knee caps show.
You can clearly see the "Mech Alive" gears in the colourless front windows, and I do think this kills the realism a bit, it's fine in robot mode, but in vehicle mode it is just ridiculous. That said, we usually see robot kibble through the windows anyway on other figures so I cannot critique this one.
JETWING:
Top down view of the armour, although it is impressive, I cannot help but think that the thrusters are shaped too much like a tube... I wish they were more angular and less circular.
This configuration pretty much only looks good from this angle, as the guns flanking the sides is impressive here, but as I said before, it sits too far out to the side to look plausible from anywhere else.
A picture showing the rubber connectors of the guns, this helps the gun clip on really securely.
Looking at this I guess I would prefer a proper trailer like the Ultimate version.
I like how they bothered to paint the inside of the thrusters to be red, and the sculpted detail on the jet pack overall is fantastic.
Spreading the wings so he can fly...
OTHER:
With the additional of Jetwing Prime, I can finally give the second buster cannon to my Buster Prime, and the dual guns look GREAT on him. Granted, one is unpainted ugly grey plastic so it doesn't suit the figure overall, but at least it's dark enough to be passable.
Firing both at the same time...
Anyway, click here for the second part of the Extra photos.