Review: #779
Name: Optimus Primal
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Maximal
Line: Rise of the Beasts
Year of Release: 2023
Size Class: Ultimate
Mold Status: new
PACKAGING:
Awakening Optimus Primal is a Japanese exclusive release that is designed to be the biggest and the definitive toy version of Rise of the Beasts Optimus Primal.
As a result, the packaging has a clear window at the front, and plenty of stock photos at the back showcasing his many many gimmicks.
BEAST MODE:
Optimus Primal transformers into a mechanic gorilla as seen in the movie.
This is a good mechanical beast mode and the thing that does strike you is that the figure feels solid. The figure utilizes big chunky pieces.
In terms of size, while he is officially in the "Ultimate" size class (i.e. bigger than Leader), he is roughly around Leader sized, but much much heftier and bigger than the current Leader size.
The gorilla head sculpt is fantastic and perfectly captures the onscreen model.
Being such a large size, it had the budget to properly make both modes as best that it could, including various panels to cover even the back of the gorilla. The only robot pieces that you can identify are the robot feet tucked into the back, and the red peeking out which are the shoulder cannons.
Optimus Primal has plenty of articulation here, it helps that a gorilla has a humanoid shape so it shares most of the joints from robot mode.
He has enough range to stand on two legs, akin to his Beast Wars incarnation, even though he doesn't do that in the film. However, his head doesn't have quite enough range to look down enough so he's forced to still tilt his head upwards as a result.
This is a fantastic beast mode and one that shows that there was a lot of attention to detail paid to it by the designer, even if the beast head can't quite look straight ahead when he's standing on two legs.
TRANSFORMATION:
Optimus Primal has a very familiar transformation, he pretty much shares it with his original namesake, with a few new minor elements to it. The rear legs straighten to form his robot legs, you fold down the feet and the shine pieces in the process. The arms basically are the robot arms that you only swap the fists around with and lifting up the shoulder pieces. The biggest change is that you open up the chest to tuck the beast head away and flip up the robot head. You finish it off by rotating the chest piece and folding the back plates away.
ROBOT MODE:
No matter how good the beast mode is, of course the robot mode is more important and Optimus Primal does not disappoint in this area.
He looks amazing, and the black plastic used has a bit of shininess to it which really adds to the look.
The head sculpt is a bit flat to be honest, even with the faceplate on.
In terms of size, he is quite tall, although to be fair, it's only as tall as Leader classed figures were a few years ago. However, he is still much heavier, so he carries a fair bit more extra mass.
Articulation is great as you'd expect, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, waist, hips, knees and ankles.
The figure has a multitude of gimmicks. The first is that you can swap out his masked face for his unmasked on.
His fingers are individually in two spots, which is nice and not something that they had to do as his weapons doesn't really require his hands to need to open.
The next gimmick, and you'll notice that he shares pretty much the same gimmicks as the original Beast Wars Optimus Primal, are pop out guns on his forearms.
Each forearm has the guns and they're springloaded, which is always fun to activate.
He has a pair of swords, and he does use these in the movie.
He can hold them in both hands but sadly, the sword are an unpainted plastic, if they were silver it would have looked much nicer.
Optimus Primal can hold both swords with one hand.
Lastly, the swords can attach to slots on his back for storage.
The other gimmick is that he has flip out shoulder cannons. You need to open up the chest (i.e. start the transformation process) in order to flip them out, so they can be a bit annoying. It's a trade-off to keep the shoulder cannons out of sight in robot mode though.
There are missiles that slot into the shoulder cannons, but they are only pressure launchers, rather than springloaded launchers.
Like the original Beast Wars toys, the gimmicks here are all unobtrusive but they add a ton of play value and character to the figure.
The figure is just great to feel in your hands because he is so big and hefty. He features mostly ratchet joints, so each click is satisfying while keeping him stable.
He doesn't have much kibble, the only piece is the panel behind his waist.
This is a well designed robot mode that does it's job of representing the character, as well as being a fun toy, well.
OVERALL:
Awakening Optimus Primal is an awesome figure. He is not cheap but you are getting value due to his large size, a nice amount of detail, and a lot of gimmicks. Given that the Studio Series figure isn't even as screen accurate as this one (and that one was released later too), this is probably the best Rise of the Beasts Optimus Primal figure that you're going to get.
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