(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 the original RID2015 warrior Optimus Prime toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original RID2015 warrior Optimus Prime here.)

    It's year 2 of a toyline, so time for themed redecoes! For Optimus Prime (and a surprising number of other redecos), he gets his own "Blizzard Strike" i.e. "Arctic" version. As with pretty much every other "Blizzard Strike" redeco, Optimus has various shades of blue along with some white. In vehicle mode, it's mostly a somewhat dark arctic blue on the cab and a VERY dark, nearly black shade of navy blue on the trailer. Although it didn't need to be light, I think the navy blue should have been a bit lighter, as it just looks too much like black and particularly in vehicle mode needed to be a bit more visually interesting, as there's no paint apps along the side of the trailer. The arctic blue stripes along the top of the trailer/on the lower robot mode legs look pretty cool and the angular design of them fits right in with the RID2015 aesthetic, though. The cab section has a good amount of paint, with some metallic black on the front windows, some dark red on the headlights, and white on the front bumper, smokestacks, and grill, all of which go nicely against the arctic blue. In robot mode the white becomes more prevalent, with white paint on the abs and waist and a slightly duller, off-white shade of plastic used for the upper legs and upper arms. The very dark navy blue plastic extends to the lower arms, hips, and head as well. The arctic blue is added on the chest as well as some nice "circuitry" stylized lines on the lower arms to boot. The combination of all three major colors definitely helps the robot mode look better visually. There's also a few other accent colors-- more metallic black on the faux window on the chest, some silver on the faceplate and center of the head, and blue on the eyes. One last color that may not be apparent from a cursory look of the figure is that all of the wheels as well as the axe are a clear tinted plastic-- basically the color of "dirty ice", and it fits right in with the theme while bringing something a bit different to your usual "arctic" scheme. Having a mostly clear axe with an arctic blue blade looks especially cool, and was an awesome design decision.
    No mold changes have been made to Blizzard Strike Optimus Prime.
    The warrior class version of Blizzard Strike Optimus Prime is worth considering if you like this design of Optimus Prime, but are tired of his usual red/blue/gray color scheme and want him in something different. However, when judging the colors solely by themselves, although they have some nice highlights like the angular arctic blue patterns, overall they're just a bit dull, particularly when compared to the original version of this mold.
 

Review by Beastbot

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