I didn’t get to go to San Diego Comic-Con last year ‘cuz I was Moving with a capital M, which was Terrible with a capital T, which meant I didn’t get to see this toy for the first time in person. I only had photos to go off of. But I was in love from first sight all the same. And so I counted down the days. I counted down the days until I’d receive my Transformers: Prime “First Edition” Optimus Prime.
And counted. And counted and counted and counted. And, oh, hey, I guess these aren’t ever gonna show up in the United States! WONDERFUL. Well, I’m getting him, dammit, and thanks to Magnus from Allspark.com, I got one shipped from Canada at cost. That cost was still not a good one considering US retail, but I was not gonna not own this guy.
Sure, there’s another Voyager (“Robots in Disguise”) Optimus Prime in stores that I could readily grab out of the back of any of the fifty billion Targets in the Columbus area, but that’s not the Optimus Prime I fell in love with. And I’m sure the RID one’s better in some ways. The RID one is better in some ways, in fact! His shoulders actually become the air foil junk on top of the truck. The robot mode windows actually become the truck mode windows. And he’s electronic. Those are all very good improvements over the more expensive one I chose. But–
I’d miss the very-important red on the chest. I’d miss the way the truck kibble folds up better on the robot mode back. I’d miss the sword and the gun that mount properly on the arms. I’d miss the general proportions. And I’d miss the toy I fell in love with.
So here I am with the “First Edition” Optimus Prime! And I do love him. I don’t think I have any complaints. He is at his core a sized-up version of the Deluxe, the one that came in a wearable Matrix at SDCC. He transforms nigh-identically. The hood of the truck folds up over the back of his arms. His shoulders attach to a pair of fake windows that cover up the real windows. The air foil splits up to become his heels and folds down over his legs. Everything else crams onto his torso. But the Voyager does it so much better, undoubtedly because of his size. The front wheels don’t have to hang uselessly off of his back, instead they fold into his shoulders snugly. The leftover truck panels can collapse into a smaller space on his back. The hood halves are more snug against his forearms. Everything comes out looking way better at this scale.
I will probably put some silver paint on him, however. Parts of him call out for it.
He comes with two weapons! One is the gun from the show, but annoyingly in black. Well, black with obvious silver specks all over it. He also has his sword, which is equally important. The sword is cast in very rubbery plastic. I’m not used to 5mm pegs being so rubbery. But oh well. He has the sword, which, again, is important. And they plug into his hands so they look like they popped out of his wrists, which is, again, important. The toy readily available in stores just gives him a sword he holds like a sword. I don’t want that crap!
Anyway, now that I overspent on this guy, I fully expect him to show up in Marshall’s and TJ Maxx everywhere tomorrow for $15. Which, really, would be fine by me in the long run, because I want to be able to share my joy with others.
But with this guy, I was leaving nothing to chance.
And I still need to figure out what I’m gonna do about Bulkhead.
I just got both FE Prime and Bulkhead today myself. Prime was from Canada, Bulkhead was a backorder from HLJ that actually was fulfilled. They are both pretty fantastic. Bulkhead ended up around the same price as it cost to import the Hasbro Prime shipping included. And he’s worth it.
I’m Canadian, so I was able to pick this guy up at retail and I’m glad I did. Normally I don’t like it when a figure fakes so much of its transformation, but largely that’s because it usually means that the real kibble ends up hanging off the figure’s back in robot mode in an articulation-impairing mess. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen here, as the transformation basically consists of taking the vehicle mode and turning it inside out to form the robot, which means that the duplicate parts are nicely buried in whichever mode they’re not needed in.
One thing that strikes me as odd about this toy is the pain apps. It looks like he’s lacking them with the absence of hubcaps in vehicle mode and a lot of unpainted detail in robot mode, but in truth he has quite a few; they’re just used in really weird ways. The air foil, for instance: that whole thing’s painted, even though it’s just a solid colour. It’s moulded in blue plastic and then painted over in red. Seeing as how there are some moulded red plastic parts on this guy (the nose of the truck, for instance) this seems like a waste of a paint app; why not just mould it in red and then use that extra app on the wheels or the robot-mode abdomen?
It’s also not just a matter of there being no room left on the red plastic sprues, since there’s a piece of red plastic hidden away inside the legs where it can only be seen by looking into the weapon-storage peg-holes.
That’s not the only instance of a red part being moulded in some other colour, either. The upper-back panels are also made out of blue plastic and then painted on both sides, and the red on the chest is actually paint over grey plastic (this part makes sense, though, since there’s a lot of grey on those pieces still visible.)
A minor problem, sure, but it’s something that could’ve been solved so easily that it’s a bit annoying.
Fell in love with a Prime
I fell in love at once and at most completely
I didn’t buy it in time
Sometimes the distribution can be so misleading
Haha, thats great.
I think it’s just sad when I want the less shiny flat painted FE Bulkhead and I’m going to have to import the shiny Takara version just to have this figure.
When did it become harder to get the less painted toy, and why is Hasbro making it so damm hard to buy their products?
This whole damm mess feels very…Matty-ish.
I actually preferred the Hasbro Bulkhead to the Takara one myself. But in person, Takara Bulkhead is VERY sharp. Really glad I was able to get one.
Did you notice the molded detail INSIDE HIS CAB? You can only see it if you stop midtransformation after you pull out the head. Its crazy!
Yep, he’s got a steering wheel moulded in the grey plastic of his torso and what looks like a CB radio moulded into the back of the translucent plastic windshield piece. Plus the underside of the panel that his head is attached to (which faces forward in vehicle mode) has seats moulded in. I love extra details like that.
Wow, that’s pretty great. And completely unnecessary. Yet Tomy sculpts this kind of stuff into unseen places all the time. They’re pretty awesome.
On behalf of my boyfriend who veryveryvery much wants First Edition Prime (and Arcee and Cliffjumper, etc) …
DAMN YOU WILLIS!
My TF:Prime Arcee (that Willis encouraged me to open even though it was packaged as Starscream for some reason) had infuriatingly-diffucult-to-move feet, so much so that it took me a long time to get up the courage to finish her transformation for fear of breaking them, and she’s pretty much in Robot Mode forever as a result (much like TF:A Prowl’s Samurai Armor version). Is that sort of thing common in the Prime line? All of the Optimuses since the Baymovie are apparently required by law to consist of 40-50% panel-based greebles by volume, and that seems like a recipe for screaming due to inevitable breakage.
Arcee’s feet are very stiff but I’ve transformed mine multiple time its allright.
And seriously First Edition Prime is beautiful in its economy of paneling. EVERYTHING goes somewhere and holds in place, his backpack is flat and very visually appealing. Seriously look at his forearm, can you even tell that’s actually the FRONT of the truck cab hood? Its a figure you CAN look at from the back and still find cool, unlike like…95% of the new RiD line which has crazy backpacks and hollow legs all over. -.-
The good news is that the cancellation of the First Edition line had no affect on me.
The bad news is that this is because I was crazy enough to order the Japanese versions of Bulkhead and Optimus for their paint differences before the cancellation was even announced.
“And I still need to figure out what I’m gonna do about Bulkhead.”
Beg your Canadian readers to get you one?
Apparently, according to Toy News, they might maybe be releasing the FE molds over here still. Maybe. If not I might have to drive to Canada. Bah.
Good luck. I live here and I saw one Bulkhead only once ever. Even when you see a wall of nothing but Bumblebee you can bet your ass it will be gone within two days.
The FE Voyagers aren’t exactly clogging the shelves here in Canada, either. They get scooped up by scalpers pretty much as soon as they arrive.
I’m just glad I managed to snag my Optimus and Bulkhead in December before the line was announced as cancelled.
So, wait… should I NOT have opened that First Edition Arcee I found at TRU last week? I admit, I wasn’t planning on getting too many Prime toys to begin with, but now they’re cancelling them all and putting out different ones? I guess I don’t understand what’s happened. They’ve decided to redo the entire line somehow?