The original "Masterpiece" Optimus Prime was an outstanding toy, but it was missing one major thing-- his trailer! Optimus Prime's second Masterpiece toy helps to rectify that problem, but the core Optimus Prime toy is a brand new mold too, taking advantage of various engineering enhancements made since the first Masterpiece version was released back in 2004. In his truck with trailer mode, Optimus is incredibly accurate to how he looked in the original G1 cartoon, and proportionally spot-on. His red and blue are very primary colors which hearken back to how he looked in the 'toon, and he's also got a good amount of silver chrome, too-- namely, on his smokestacks (they aren't "clippped down" this time!), wheel hubs, front bumper, headlights, and grill (both the vehicle and "fake" robot one), and parts of the sides of his truck cab. What I find best of all about his color scheme is that there's VERY little gray plastic in this mode (though if you open up his trailer, it's the primary color on the inside); instead, nearly all of the parts that would normally be gray on a mass-retail toy are coated with a gorgeous shade of silver here. It particularly looks great on his trailer, which admittedly would've looked a little boring otherwise. All of the expected mold detailing is here, right down to the fake "bolts" on the sides of his truck mode, little stepladders, door detailing, the iconic white-and-blue stripes along the sides of his trailer; everything. (The stripe looks particularly dynamic on this large of a toy and on the silver trailer). All of the appropriate parts are transparent, as well; his front windows, his taillights on his trailer, the yellow "fake truck lights" on his robot waist. The only part that could really stand to be transparent that isn't are his truck cab's bottom rear headlights (the top rear headlights are clear plastic). His tires are also rubber (or at least rubber-like plastic), so he rolls along a flat surface with no problem. The part where his trailer attaches to his cab is also fairly well-secure too, consisting of two fairly deep pegs and corresponding holes that also allow the cab to angle in a different direction a fair bit compared to the trailer. Unless you pick up Prime by the trailer, it'll stay connected unless you mean to disconnect it-- and even when you do the former, it still tends to "stick" for a split second before the two parts of the vehicle mode finally come apart. As is the case with Masterpiece figures, the details in the truck mode's functions really help to give it that extra bit of playability. His front windows can open up, and-- although there's not a convincing driver's area inside (you can see the back of Prime's head), you can fit the little Spike Witwicky (non-poseable) figurine he comes with inside his cab! That's pretty impressive, given his transformation. The rear hitch of his trailer can also open up and a ramp can slide out to let Masterpiece-scaled cars (or smaller) roll up inside-- he can fit about two at a time in there. Also, although it's admittedly a little thing, I like how his little rear view mirrors can flip out in this mode to look more "genuine" instead of simply being molded against his side windows or ignored as they often are. If you take off the trailer, Optimus Prime does have one very minor robot mode extra, and that's his waist with the fake truck headlights that are visible right behind the red part of the cab. (The feet fold in a mildly convincing manner to form his cab's taillights.) This is admittedly not perfect, but it's so minor compared to all of Prime's other awesome abilities I have a tough time taking off anything for it.
    Optimus Prime's transformation to robot mode takes a lot of cues from his first Masterpiece toy, but streamlines certain sections and adds certain little extras that make him look just that much better and more animation-accurate in this mode. It still consists of a lot of steps-- the waist/lower truck cab area can be tricky-- but it isn't quite as frustrating as his first Masterpiece outing, if you know what I mean. Little things like having panels cover up the wheels on the sides of his legs, having his smokestacks being able to shorten and elongate, the way his blaster can store in his upper back if you so choose, the way his leg detailing is hidden in vehicle mode-- it's all very well-done. Some of the features of his 1.0 Masterpiece version are missing-- no flip-up communicators, talking mouthpiece, or glowing Matrix here-- but given the better proportions, I feel that the sacrifice was worth it, with the exception of the "talking" gimmick, which I felt was really great. (Don't worry, though-- he still does have the Matrix inside of his chest, it just doesn't have an electronic feature this time around.) As far as the mode itself goes, I really don't have a negative thing to say about it at all-- the proportions are absolutely PERFECT to the extent where you just gotta wonder how the heck that robot turns into that vehicle. He is also extremely, EXTREMELY poseable, being able to move at the neck (at three points), at the base of each antennae (!), at the shoulders (at three points), elbows (at two points), at the base and mid-point of each of his index fingers, at the base of his three small fingers on each hand (all as one piece), at the wrist, the waist, the hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and ankles (at two points). Given how completely kibble-free he is and how nice and tight (but not too tight) his ratcheting joints are, you can get him into a RIDICULOUS amount of poses. No issues here at all. All of the necessary paint is here too, such as the silver on his chest, waist, and lower legs, his face paint apps, and the like. It is worth mentioning here that this version of MP Optimus Prime is slightly shorter than the first, due to the inclusion of a trailer on this version (this robot comes up to the bottom of MP Prime 1.0's chest), but it really doesn't suffer at all for it, and with the almost complete lack of diecast, it means that none of his joints are too heavy to stay in a pose, either.
    As for Optimus Prime's trailer, it's pretty much exactly a large-scale replica of how his original G1 trailer base looked, being pretty much a box that folds out. (It can be stood up on end to serve as a personal "repair bay" for the Prime figure, though this is literally just standing it up on its end and nothing more.) There's a ramp for Prime's little "Roller" vehicle to slide down. Roller himself is well-painted and well-detailed with nothing remotely major missing, and slides on all four (plastic) wheels quite well. The large "repair crane-thing" is also intact here at a larger scale, and the cockpit is able to hold the Spike Witwicky minifigure too. The repair crane is also moveable at several places, including five places along the "neck", two places along the "satellite dish arm", and six places along the "claw arm". There's also loads of tech-like mold detailing along the inside of the trailer, though most of them are somewhat hollow-- that still doesn't quite keep them from looking cool, though. Prime's two weapons can be stored in the cavities in the "back" of the base mode-- his (non-firing) blaster and his axe accessory. His blaster can be held both in one of Prime's hands or even by Roller (near the back end), and the large transparent "energy axe" weapon fits around one of Prime's fists semi-snugly, though not QUITE as snugly as I'd like.
    No, I didn't make a mistake on Masterpiece Optimus Prime 2.0's rating-- this is the first toy I have EVER reviewed that actually gets a perfect score. The incredible engineering, 99% lack of kibble in both modes, fully functional trailer, unbelievable posability, and the many "little touches" like the ability of the Spike minifigure to sit in two different places on the toy, the way his blaster folds up, and how well his leg and chest transformations work just completely obliterate even the smallest of downsides and say "GET THEE GONE". A HIGHLY recommended purchase for any Transfan, particularly if you can get it near the retail price-- as you can imagine, this toy was a hot seller, and he's gone up quite a bit in price since then, but even with a 50% or so markup I still feel he's very much worth it. GET THIS TOY.

Review by Beastbot

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