Beast Wars Transmetal Optimus Primal
Finally I own an Optimus Primal toy that isn't Optimal Optimus or from Beast Machines. Sadly
the Primal toys haven't been all too great, which is sad mainly because the majority of Megatron
toys have been stellar. TM Primal delivers better than his later incarnations (OpOp, deluxe BM, BPOP),
but it's still nowhere near as cool as TM Megatron.
First we have his monkey mode, which is quite cool looking aside from the fact he looks
like he had his legs hacked off just below the knees by the mod or Megatron possibly. Actually,
he really has a complete lack of feet, unless you want to call the pipes sticking out of there
feet. I don't.
Actually beast mode lacks articulation to the extreme. His arms are great with universal jointed
shoulders (I think, they work just like unlimited ball joints), upper arm swivels, hinge elbows and
uh, well, his wrists don't move, but that's due to the transformation, so I'll let it slide, muhaha.
His legs have thigh joints of the same nature as his shoulders, but his 'knees' (if you want to
call them that) are pretty much nonexistent. There's a piece of vac metal plastic that sorta hangs
where a good spot for a knee would be, but they don't attach to his feet in any way, so you're stuck
with a nifty gorilla with horrible feet. His head also makes no attempts to move.
Because of that, forget about the hunched over monkey look unless you don't mind him
staring at the ground forever. Could use some work, but at least it holds together unlike
deluxe BM Primal's, uh, everything.
As is the Transmetal trend, Op has a vehicle mode which is, as usual, pretty lame. Just fiddle
with the stuff hanging off the back of his legs and it forms a board, you know, for sky boarding. You've
seen the show, damnit, you know what I mean. Not very impressive, though it beats Depth Charge's
crappola third mode hands down. Also it's rather tough to stand, oh, look at that, just made myself
eat my words. He's slanted an an angle though. Wow, I have no clue how I just made him stand on his
own, I had to lean him for the picture. Oh well, maybe this room is crooked.
The board also has wheels at the bottom, though they're pretty useless. Also before I forget,
he comes with two maces (sorta) and a gun that looks more like a bullhorn or megaphone than anything
else. You can make his megaphone shoot the mace thingies if you want as well, though they won't
go very far.
Transformation is simple, and I won't really go into it. His board becomes his lower legs, his
body rotates for the head swap and his hands do the same dealie as Depth Charge's. Not too hard,
though you may have some troubles cracking open his chest. Helps to have fingernails I suppose.
Robot mode is quite nifty, and actually his face isn't as ugly as it is on the show, which is
good, because I hated his robot mode head on the show. He's also pretty tall and quite blocky, up
there with Blast Punch Primal in that respect, only with more poseable arms and legs. Ah, also to
make up for beast mode's bad articulation, his legs actually have knees that swivel, though the
vac metal blue bits get in a way a little, but all in all it's a solid robot mode. Very cool.
Also I forgot to mention he has a holster for his 'gun' which is a plus, as now his gun won't need
to reside in the 'shoebox of doom' with all the other guns and missiles I have to stick in there
since there's no other place to put them. I know they can hold them, but, damnit, sometimes they look
cool just sorta standing there.
All in all? Well, beast mode is kinda weak, and vehicle mode has its charm, but is still
kinda eh, but robot mode is cool. I had to shell out $15 for one (not even MISB either, but MIB,
go figure) and he's worth about that. If you can find one for under $20 then pick it up, but
be sure you have TM Megatron (or better yet, the Metals version) because he's quite excellent himself.
