While this is a white themed redeco of Power Surge Optimus Prime, it has been released first, so this is our first experience with the Power Surge retool of the RID Warrior Optimus mold.
For starters, here are quick comparisons between this particular Toysrus Exclusive redeco of Power Surge Prime and the upcoming wider release of Power Surge Prime.
As you can see, he is principally a retool of 2015's Warrior Optimus Prime and when looking at this toy I can't help but feel a bit retroactively jipped. It mostly deals with the paint apps, plastic used, and accessories.
Firstly, this toy uses a lot of clear plastic while none of the other versions of this mold do. Clear plastic is used on the entire torso (both front and back pieces), the two swords/wings and the removable shoulder blasters.
What says clear plastic means more paint and Optimus has a lot of paint on his chest to give the wanted design against the clear plastic. This figure has a significant amount of paint apps. My favourite actually has nothing to do with clear plastic, it's actually his feet which are painted in two different colours (white and silver) and it's a great result.
The last thing that makes me feel a bit cheated about purchasing the original mold are the accessories. All previous released only came with one axe that didnt store anywhere in robot mode. Yet here at the same price point you get two clear plastic wings/swords that can be stored well in vehicle mode (and hide his obvious legs better) as well as in robot mode where they can serve a dual purpose. What is really awesome is that even though the wings can be pegged and unpegged easily, they were designed in a way that you can rotate them simultaneously without unpegging them and they would never block eachother. You also get these boosters/blasters that peg behind his head in robot mode. This clear plastic piece, which does have some pant as well, can also be stored elegantly under his vehicle mode. And to add insult to injury, he also comes with the same axe. Of course, this is all good news since you get way more bang for your buck here, but it really makes any previous release feel cheap in comparison.
Now onto the retooling.
With the legs, it is only the outer flap piece that is retooled. There are no wheels on that piece for this retool. There is also a hook which I am at a loss as to what its purpose is. It makes the legs look different from any side view.
The chest is where most of the retooling is. The chest and back are basically different pieces entirely from the first warrior.
The arms and shoulders, which turn into the cab, are also changed from the previous mold uses. The panels under the arms are smaller with more of the cab piece present on the shoulders, extending them a bit. This makes the hands more evident.In vehicle mode, that just means that the connection between the arms and shoulders is further down the grill. I find it very cool how they fixed a big problem with no change done to the visuals of the alt mode.
While I didn't care much for the initial release of the mold, I think there is very good value here with good paint apps and a great amount of accessories and I love when I see feedback taken into consideration and a toy improved through it. If you don't have the mold yet, I would suggest giving this guy a try.
