Allegiances: Autobot
Size: Crash Combiner 2-pack
Overall Rating: 4.3
 

Optimus Prime

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Dark milky semi-metallic blue, moderately dark milky semi-metallic red, and some black, dull forest green, silver, orangish "cheesy" yellow, and moderately light blue
Individual Rating: 2.6

    Optimus Prime's truck mode is-- ohhhhh that's baaaaaad. Yeah, it's hard to start on what's wrong with this mode, because almost everything is. Okay, let's start with what's GOOD about it. Optimus' main two colors of dark blue and red both have a nice semi-metallic sheen to them on this toy, since there's some glitter mixed in with the plastic for both of those colors. The red is perhaps a titch darker than on most other RID2015 Optimus Prime toys, but only just so. There's a bit of black on the wheels, connector piece, and the front window, which helps for a bit more contrast. (There's also a forest green arrow near the connector piece to emphasize that's where you connect him to another Crash Combiner toy.) It's a basic color scheme, but it still works, even if there definitely could be a LOT more paint apps in this mode. There's also some of the RID2015 stylized mold detailing on the front section of this mode, with the angular way-too-small side windows, trio of divots on the front hood and rear sides of the vehicle mode, headlights on the sides of the front, and treaded wheels. Even if they're not painted, such details are appreciated on such a small toy. Still, MAN this mode is awful. Let's see here... the truck cab is way too large in proportion to the trailer portion; the top of the trailer is just the back of the combiner mode chest plate, is VERY transparently so, and looks absolutely awful; the connnector piece ruins the front portion of this mode; there's no back end to this mode at all, it just being obviously the combined mode fists on the top with a bit of the regular robot legs visible below them; the chest piece stays in place via very shallow pegs in this mode, and due to its spring-loaded action can come undone a bit too easily, automatically transforming this mode into the upper half of the combined mode; and the middle sections are far too wide, being the folded-up combined mode shoulders. Nearly all of these would make for a bad alt mode BY THEMSELVES, and yet here they all here, together on one toy. Even acknowledging all the compromises they had to make for the gimmick and the size, this mode should've gone back to the drawing board.
    To transform Optimus to his normal robot mode, you stand him up on his back end, open up his chest panel, flip out the robot head, and re-close the chest panel. You can also swing out the arms a bit from the sides, though this is Optimus' only articulation in this mode; side-to-side at the shoulders. As with many Crash Combiner individual robot modes, Optimus' robot mode is basically molded onto the bottom of his truck mode. Thus, the truck parts stick out all over the place, from the connector behind his head to the front portions behind his chest and upper arms to the HUGE wide parts jutting out from the sides and behind his waist and upper legs-- that latter part is especially unsightly. As with the vehicle mode, the parts that are here are pretty decently-detailed; he's got the faux truck front w/ window on his chest, the long rectangular details on his legs (in fact, they're a bit TOO long proportionally even for this Optimus design's legs), and fists molded into his arms. His fairly square shoulders are replicated pretty well here too, and the headsculpt is good, though the chin looks a bit odd-- like his chin strap lines come up to his mouth, looking like he's mid-way into his faceplate coming up. His face is painted silver with fairly light blue eyes, and the faux truck window on his chest is painted black, but there's no other paint apps in this mode-- this is especially bad near the midsection, which really could've used more color than just all that red.
 

Strongarm

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Dark milky semi-metallic blue, white, and some black, silver, yellow, moderately light blue, dull forest green, and moderately dark red
Individual Rating: 3.5

    Strongarm's police car vehicle mode is... alright, given the Crash Combiner's inherent restrictions. It's a bit too wide proportionally, and the top roof doesn't stick out enough vertically from the front hood. As is the case with many of her toys, the color layout just isn't right. Most of the vehicle mode is white, but there are substantial sections on the back end of the roof, around the rims, and on the front bumper that are dark blue-- the same glittery semi-metallic dark blue as on Prime. That said, particularly with the front section the colors aren't in their accurate placement compared to the show model, and only loosely correlate to the general ballpark, as it were. There's a big honkin' connection port on the front of this mode, which is of course needed for the Crash Combiner gimmick. In this mode it's definitely an eyesore, however, leaving her with no real front grill. The basic details of the rest of her mode are represented in the mold detailing, though, such as the headlights, wheel treads and covering, the taillights (with some "bottom-of-the-feet" bits obvious on the back end), the car doors, and the like. Don't expect much else beyond the basics, though, given the size and the other compromises Strongarm has to make for this gimmick. She does have black paint on her front and front-side windows, and her police siren is painted. Other than the small green arrow on her connection port, though, that's it for paint for this mode, leaving her color breakup very unfinished. At least spring for some paint apps for the headlights, Hasbro! Beyond the connection port at least, though, there aren't any MAJOR extras in this mode.
    Strongarm's transformation is also exceedingly simple and a lot like Prime's-- you just open up her chest, flip out her robot head, close it again, and then spread the arms out from the sides while standing the car mode on its back end. The feet also separate slightly, but don't separate them to their full extent or they'll be like they are in the Combiner Mode, which is too far apart for this mode. Basically this is, like Prime, Strongarm molded onto the bottom side of her vehicle mode-- it's there to show she's her own 'bot, but it's very unimpressive. Basically the entire white portion of her vehicle mode hangs off her, and because of the proportions even the "core" of her robot mode has her looking a bit like a hunchback with the connection port and its associated parts right behind her head. The basic Strongarm robot mode details are molded in, like the faux armor-panel-chest, her "belt" on her waist, the divots on her lower legs, the rectangular plates with "rivets" in them for her knees, and hands molded into the lower portion of her arms. Her shoulders aren't as bulky as they should be, but that's relatively minor given all the other kibble in this mode. Her headsculpt is pretty good and accurate for the small size, and her face is painted silver, with her eyes light blue and her headcrest yellow. Unfortunately that's pretty much it for the paint in this mode-- she's got some white paint all over the flap on her chest that you tuck the head into/out of, but otherwise the entirety of the "core" robot mode here is the same dark semi-metallic blue plastic, which obviously is VERY inaccurate to the show in terms of color and makes her look considerably duller than she should. For articulation, she can move her arms side-to-side at the shoulders-- so little useful articulation, sadly.
 

Primestrong (Combined Form)

Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Individual Rating: 6.7

    Primestrong is the uninspired name for the combined form of the two; Optimus forms the top half, while Strongarm forms the legs. Strongarm doesn't really do much; it's basically just her vehicle mode split in half, with the gestalt feet folded out. Optimus does a fair bit more, with a panel folding down to become his chest and his leg sections folding out and to the sides to become the backside of his robot arms. (All of this automatically happens when you combine the two together in vehicle mode at their designated ports, hence the "Crash Combiner" term.) This is definitely the best mode out of these toys, as everything looks fairly proportional except for the head, which is meant to be a bit smaller to give an indication of increased size, as this IS two Transformers smacked together. Optimus has fists molded onto the opposite side of the pieces that become his legs, and Hasbro did a good job of putting a few Strongarm influences into the upper portion of this mode, as well-- there's big hefty tires molded onto the shoulders like Strongarm's, and the belt section at the waist also is reminiscent of Strongarm's. The headsculpt is essentially Optimus' faceplate, center headcrest, and eyes, but with Strongarm's Prowl-like headcrest splitting off of the forehead and some Strongarm-y details around the ears. It's a pretty good mix, overall. The head is very well-detailed, with a blue helmet, silver face, and light blue eyes and a yellow headcrest. There's also black on the faux truck window-chest, and some silver on the abs. Unfortunately, all the other paint apps are just the ones carried over from Strongarm's vehicle mode on the lower section-- some important detailing like the shoulder-wheels aren't painted in this mode. Still, overall the color breakup is pretty good, with the red and white contrasting against each other nicely enough while the blue shared between Strongarm and Optimus helps to unify their schemes. This toy can move back-and-forth at the elbows, and can spread its legs slightly in-and-out at the waist, but that's it. Crash Combiners are all about the functionality of the gimmick in a relatively small package, not articulation.
 

    Like with many Crash Combiner sets, the combined mode of Primestrong is better than the individual vehicle and robot modes. However, with this set the gap in quality between the two is even bigger, with an above-average combined mode that looks pretty good (even if it can't move much), but very iffy individual vehicle modes (ESPECIALLY for Optimus), and robot modes that are just molded onto the undersides of said modes even moreso than on several of the other Crash Combiner sets. Overall, this is one of the weakest Crash Combiner 2-packs, and not recommended.
 

Review by Beastbot

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