(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Robots in Disguise 2001 Air Attack Optimus Primal. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Robots in Disguise 2001 Air Attack Optimus Primal here.)

    Well, this is another mold I never thought I'd see again! I thought "Air Attack" Optimus Primal was one of the best molds of his Beast Machines design. For the Beast Wars 20th Anniversary Year (2016), we get this... Beast Machines design... in traditional Optimus Prime colors. Huh. I can see how Beast Wars fans (such as myself) may not be happy that this was basically Hasbro's only acknowlegement of Beast Wars' 20th Anniversary. Still, taken by itself it's an interesting piece. His main colors are dark blue, a fairly light red, and a brownish black that approximates gorilla fur while still being a shade of black. These colors certainly aren't remotely realistic for a gorilla, but this isn't exactly a realistic gorilla either, so let's just take the color scheme by itself. I do like the brownish black, as well as the relatively dark blue. (The monkey butt is no longer pink, but rather blue. Hasbro just can NOT make that piece not stick out like a sore thumb and be hilarious.) The red is a little TOO light, I think, especially for a "Premium" piece like this. Particularly on the forearms, it just looks cheap (I'm not saying it is, just that it looks it to me compared to the other colors). The colors are spread pretty evenly over Primal's body in both modes, so generally there's not one huge part of him that's just one color. My favorite color on the toy is a nice transparent cherry red, which is used for Primal's chest and lower arms. It's a really nice shade. (I still think it's weird to have the entire lower arms transparent, but that's how the mold was made.) There's a bit of transparent dark blue used as well, on the robot head, his stomach disc, and on the jetpack "exhaust" piece, which looks really close to the regular dark blue to the point where it doesn't really add much to the overall scheme. For some of the minor connector pieces, there's some light milky gray, which is a blah color but thankfully is only used in little bits. There's some silver on the robot and gorilla faces, the feet, the waist & robot stomach, and some of the "wires" on the armor parts on his robot shoulders/gorilla lower arms. I believe there's also silver paint on the backside of the transparent dark cherry chest in robot mode, to make it look more "metallic"-- it looks nifty. Beyond a bit of light red paint here and there, though, that's about it as far as colors; for a toy this large and this expensive, more colors and certainly more detailed paint apps should have been added. He looks a bit too plain, without enough metallic or eye-catching colors. That said, I really do love the "Autobot/monkey face" insignias on his shoulder/forearm pieces. It's a really nice melding of the two images, though the lack of any Maximal symbol was an oversight, if you ask me.
    Year of the Monkey Primal has no mold changes, but many of the electronic sounds have been changed. Pressing in on his chest to "power him up" makes a red light flare on in the chest while one of two "jungle-style tiki" music jams play and a roar sounds. The light stays on for about 10 seconds or so, until he "powers down" from not using him. In robot mode, when he's powered up, if you press down on his head it'll light up green and he'll say "Optimus Primal" or "Transformers" in a voice that is CLEARLY not Gary Chalk's, but some kinda generic gruff-sounding voice. He'll also say "transform" sometimes if you push down on his chest while it's still lit up. In beast mode, pushing down on his gorilla head makes his eyes light up red and he'll rotate between two different roars and the same "Transformers" saying from robot mode. His punching, stomach-blaster, and jetpack sounds still activate and sound basically the same as on his original version.
    The "Year of the Monkey" edition of Optimus Primal is an okay redeco of a mold I never thought we'd see again, but the red and blue doesn't really suit a monkey as well as Primal's Beast Machines color scheme. Add that to A. This being a "Beast Wars" homage toy that's not actually a Beast Wars toy, B. The price being about 5 times as high as when he was originally released (I get inflation over 14 years and all that, but still, that's a RIDICULOUS price jump), C. There being comparatively few paint apps compared to the original, and D. Inferior sound effects done by a person who is clearly not Gary Chalk, and you end up with a toy that is definitely inferior to the original release of this mold. If you really like Beast Machines Primal and can't find the original version of this mold for a decent price, this is a nice consolation prize (especially if you can find it on deep discount), but otherwise you can probably spend your money better elsewhere.

Review by Beastbot

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