Review: #901
Name: Micronus Prime
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Age of the Primes
Year of Release: 2025
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 3)
Mold Status: new
MICRONUS PRIME:
Micronus Prime himself is a small, almost Mini-Con sized figure. He's a wide bulky blue robot.
He's pretty non-descript (and you'll see why later with his alternate mode), but the blue paint used is nice since it's got a shiny metallic sheen to it.
The head sculpt is okay, a bit too serious, especially for this size.
That said, for this size, he has a great range of articulation, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees.
Unfortunately, and this is part of the gimmick, but he has translucent plastic for his arms and legs, including the ball joints. Thus it is fragile and very prone to stress marks straight out of the packaging, if not after your first transformation.
As long as you don't play with it too much... (which is ironic) it not a bad figure. Good concept but the choice of materials to questionable.
Micronus has a simple transformation as you just fold all the limbs together to form a disc.
VEHICLE MODE:
Releasing Micronus as only a Micromaster sized figure is not going to fill up the Deluxe class value, so he comes with a single wheeled bike of sorts.
It is a very unique design, although the side exhausts are very obviously the robot hands. The wheel itself can also roll, despite the transformation.
Micronus can sit on the seat, and his arms rotated so that the fists holds onto the handlebars, fully securing him on there.
There's a bit flaw with this vehicle mode though... and that is it cannot stand up by its own. There's no flat piece or whatnot on the wheel to keep it upright, and it's a very poor design. Yes, you can fold the exhaust down to act as a stand but it doesn't look proper then.
Size-wise, given the transformation and the separate figure, the whole set is a little bit smaller in footprint compared to other Deluxes.
It's a compact vehicle mode, you can see from the side how short it is, it has more height than it has in length.
The teal / aquamarine and black color scheme works surprisingly well.
A unique vehicle mode, just hampered by the flaw that it cannot support itself upright.
ARMOR MODE:
The vehicle can split up into multiple pieces, and it is designed so that it can be attached to another Deluxe, similar to a Weaponizer.
It's not great, mind you, given it just gives the robot a huge backpack and some extra kibble behind the legs. Even the wheel as a shield weapon looks ridiculous given how thick it is.
TRANSFORMATION:
Unfortunately, Micronus is a partsformer, so you will have to split him into multiple pieces to get the robot mode. It's fairly disappointing in this aspect. But anyway, the wheel comes off and it unfolds rather interesting into the legs (given that it goes from a wheel shaped thing into a pair of legs and waist). The sides including the exhaust detach to form the arms, and the rest of the vehicle is the torso.
Pegging it all in together, you'll notice that the torso is hollow, this is is because you will need to get Micronus Prime himself into his disc form and insert it into the torso.
Once that is done, you can finally close the panels together. It's an interesting design and one that is ambitious to do in Deluxe, given that Micronus takes up so much space. You are left with a wider robot as a result.
ROBOT MODE:
Micronus' robot mode looks good, and if you didn't know, you wouldn't have expected that the torso can be opened up to reveal the disc shaped Micronus Prime inside. It's a neat idea and one that is executed quite well here.
Alas, he has a huge amount of kibble at the back. The vehicle mode's front, as well as the support struts that attaches to the wheel. The designer tried to make it look better here, giving fan-like pieces at the end (that actually spins), but it's tacky.
The head sculpt is nice, with the silver visor, if a bit taller than it is wide.
Given the transformation, Micronus is short and stocky in robot mode, however, he doesn't have that many hollow parts and feels compact.
One thing is that you detach a separate transparent circular piece with Micronus' insignia (which is also the Mini-Con insignia), that you attach to the chest, it's a pretty cool look. Plus, the torso panels have gaps in them so that you can see through to Micronus.
Articulation is good, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles.
He doesn't have waist articulation due to transformation.
He also doesn't have any handheld weapons. It's not a huge deal given his fingers literally are guns, so they look good enough there.
The legs are interesting, as they're jointed a little differently due to transformation. Given the shorter legs, it can be challenging at times to get a good pose out of them.
A unique robot mode, both in terms of construction and in aesthetics.
OVERALL:
Micronus Prime is a good figure, despite the compromises and flaws. The vehicle mode is the biggest one, not being able to properly stand up by itself. Micronus himself would have benefited from being cast of normal plastic rather than a more fragile transparent plastic. But the transformation and the concept of the bigger robot mode being some sort of armored shell for Micronus himself is really cool and executed well here.
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