As is the case with the other Prime Master figures, Vector Prime-- the "inner Prime Master" for this set-- doesn't look a thing like he traditionally has. Rather, he's got a fairly nondescript robot mode for his Prime Master's robot mode. He's got your typical Titan/Prime Master proportions, with typical fist details on the hands, skinnier leg details on the lower legs, a vent and some ridges on his waist and upper legs, and a couple of squares on his chest. His head is also pretty average, having a very average "curved helmet with two side antennae" helmet and a "normal" face with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. The color scheme in this mode is dark gray on the body and legs, with dark blue on the arms and a titch of silver paint on the face. The silver goes quite well against the dark blue, but otherwise this color scheme is a bit too dark, and could have used another paint app or two. As with all Prime/Titan Masters, Vector Prime can move at the neck, arms (at the shoulders), hips, and knees in this mode (with the latter two each as one point, since both of his legs are molded together). His alternate mode is a "Prime Core", essentially symbolizing the embuing of Vector Prime's powers to whoever's wielding the Prime Armor he's slotted into in this mode. This design's rather inspired, with a dark blue ridged circle around the edges, compete with four "claw" triangles coing in at each corner-- sort of like a compass, and also hearkening back to the original Vector Prime's stomach design. In the middle is Vector Prime's "symbol", a circle in which three dots are connected to each other, sort of like a constellation. It stands for Vector's mastery over space/time, with him "teleporting" to various places instantaneously. (The "constellation" portion can, of course, bring to mind "space" as well.) The symbol itself is painted a nice light metallic silvery blue, with both contrasts and complements the dark blue of the rest of the front quite well.
    Vector Prime can fit inside the "Pretender armor" that comes with him to form the full set, and this Pretender armor is an homage to G1 Metalhawk. As a whole, Metalhawk doesn't look all that unique for a Pretender in G1, having another "human in armor" look to him. However, for this version-- what with the human face removed and all-- you can see the inner Prime Master's face through the space in the helmet instead. The front portion of this mode is pretty well-decorated, with several intricate details on the main body including a shark-fin-like helmet, litlte yellow bits that come in on the sides of his fairly dark red chest, red abs, silver "teeth-like" details on the sides of the abs, a blue armored waistplate, and large polygonal silver kneecaps. What isn't painted on the front of this mode is dark blue. When looked at from a side view, you can see that most of the rest of this mode beyond the front is dark gray-- not exactly the most eye-catching color. In spite of the silver and yellow paint apps, that's my biggest issue with this toy's color scheme-- both of the main colors are dark, so beyond the chest and upper legs Vector Prime/Metalhawk's a bit too dark. Either the blue or gray should have been lightened up some, methinks. Metalhawk's got some fairly generic robotic detalils on his arms and the rest of his body beyond the front, and like all Prime Master "exosuits", he can move back-and-forth at the shoulders, but that's it as far as articulation goes. For a weapon accessory, Metalhawk comes with a long single-barreled gun in this mode that can be held in either his hands or clipped onto his back if you want it out of the way. I like the addition of all that silver paint, though holding it in his hands, it's kind of ridiculously large proportionally for Metalhawk. As with all Prime Masters, to use the Pretender's "weapon mode", you just fold out the weapon portion from the upper back, flip out a small peg between the feet so a larger Transformer can hold the toy, and then-- if you want-- attach the Prime Master in Core Mode onto the top back to serve as a sort of "power source" for the weapon. Of course, with such a simplistic transformation, it means you've got obvious arms on the sides and the entire Pretender shell front on the bottom of this mode, though the overall silhouette isn't too bad. Obviously, given the handheld weapon, this forms a long single-barreled gun in this mode for larger TFs to wield. It's okay, but not particularly unique, and the dark gray plastic that dominates the body of this mode is kinda boring, too.
    Vector Prime/Metalhawk has a few things going for him-- a well-painted, well-detailed front of his Pretender mode, and a really unique and awesome symbol for his Core mode-- but other than that he's slightly below average for a Prime Master set. (Not that that means a whole lot, given how similar all the Prime Master sets are structurally.) He needed more light colors (particularly in weapon mode and Vector Prime's individual modes), and although his gun's a solid weapon, it's not particularly unique. Plus, though it looks alright, the Pretender shell isn't particularly unique, given it's another "guy in a suit" Pretender.
 

Review by Beastbot

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