The Energon Pub

I just got the leader class Movie Optimus Prime toy and I thought "Rather than doing a normal toy review why not do a few comparrison shots with the original?" Then I figured "Hey I allso have the Delux sized Protoform Prime, I can work with that too." I'm preddy sure I allready have a review for Protoform Prime up somewhere so that's why I'm doing the VS. thing.


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/FH ... G_0013.jpg

I'll start with this image. As you can see here Protoform Prime is about the same size as Reissue Prime without the trailor. Thanks to the crappy pant job though Protoform Prime looks more like Ultra Magnus. I had planed on getting a second one and repainting it in G1 colors but I haven't got around to it yet. The flames in the back actully don't look half bad in this picture but I still leave them off in robot mode.

Over All rateing I'd say G1 Prime wins round 1 for haveing the better alt mode.


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/FH ... G_0015.jpg

I would have taken a picture of Reissue Prime with his weapon as well but I seem to have lost it. As I remember it never really fit in his hand anyway. They both have verry monkey like features so I guess it's "Truck AND monkey" the extra long arms on Reissue Prime must have been the insperation for Optimus Primal. Neither one of them look anything like their on screen counterparts. You will notice that Reissue Prime has a much simpler transformation and is slightly talling in robot mode.

I'll give round 2 to Movie Prime for not looking completly rediculas and actully haveing a place to store the Gun on the vehicle mode so I don't loose it.


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/FH ... G_0016.jpg

Here we have Movie Prime and 20th An Prime. Both are a pain to transform, both are really big, both came in robot mode in packaging, and both can flip you off. 20th An Prime has one dissadvantage in this form, no place to store his accessorys. Here you can see his gun and Ax sitting on the dresser. Megatron and the Matrix are on top of my TV off camera but Megatron shouldn't store on him anyway and the Matrix actully can be stored in Vehicle mode I just leave it out because I like playing with it. Movie Prime does not have a Matrix or even an AllSpark cube. They're about the same size in this mode but Movie Prime is lighter and he holds togeather a little better in this form.

Round 3 goes to Movie Prime.


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/FH ... G_0019.jpg

Here I have them in robot mode. Now I don't know if this is a problem for all of these figures or just the one I got but some of the parts are exstremly loose on one side and really tight on the other. The back kibble, one side will continuasly pop out of place if you breath on it but will go back in really easy. One side on the tires in the back of the legs is so tight that I have to force the peg into the slot where the other side takes no force at all. Anyway you can see here there's a major hight difference and dispite being the smaller of the two Movie Prime has alot more kibble to move around unfortuantly that does not mean he's more articulated.

I'm giving Round 4 to G1 Prime for being more posable and not falling apart so easily when I do try to pose him.

And now for the tie breaker round...


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/FH ... G_0023.jpg

He doesn't even have any wrist rotation and I was really hopeing for that so I can get his gun barrow to apper over his hand rather than under it. You can get the gun on top but the hand will then be upsidown. Because Movie Prime can have a blaster and a sword out at the same time on one arm that leaves his other hand free to flip you off. 20th Prime on the other hand has no hands. Movie Prime's Sword does seem to be inspired by 20th Prime's Ax, both actully replace that hand, you have to retract the hand before you can attach the weapon. Bad part about that sword, it's detachable and I see no reason why it couldn't have been perminatly attached. It falls off it's peg too easily.

This round is going to G1 Prime for more posibility options.

Movie Prime put up a good fight but the ability to weild a long and short range weapon in one hand and flip you off with the other just wasn't enough.

Not bad. But I'd also consider comparing these two to arguable one of the best Primes ever, the RID version.

I'd go for Movie Prime.

G1's truck just don't cut it. Especially the MP version. It's a semi-alien truck design. Alien, in the sense that, there's no actual truck looking exactly like that.

Auto Bot wrote:I'd go for Movie Prime.

G1's truck just don't cut it. Especially the MP version. It's a semi-alien truck design. Alien, in the sense that, there's no actual truck looking exactly like that.

Uh...Okay.

I think because some of the lines on 20th Anniv. Prime don't line up so well, that the movie (peterbilt) Prime works alittle better in vehicle mode.

Between G1 and Proto Prime, I would go with G1.

Auto Bot wrote:I'd go for Movie Prime.

G1's truck just don't cut it. Especially the MP version. It's a semi-alien truck design. Alien, in the sense that, there's no actual truck looking exactly like that.

I guess the flat nose trucks aren't in common use anymore. At least not in your area, I still see them on a daily basis here. They are a little more rare than the long nose but it's not like they're NEVER seen anymore. And yes 20th An prime does actully look like a miniture flat nose truck in vehicle mode. There's nothing alien about it.

Of course if you're looking at the section that becomes his legs that might be a different matter. Seeing any kind of a truck without a trailor attached is not something I see to offten so I really have no idea what that section should look like.

Looking at the same section on Movie Prime though, his sword actully stores back there in plane view. It doesn't show up in the picture I took because of the angle but I'm fairly sure that a weird piece of Cybertronian weaponry isn't included with Earth trucks. That section of the truck on Movie Prime is actuly not even formed by his legs but by the pannel on the forearms that cover another pannel that cover the chanber where the hands are stored. The tires are on a series of hindges conected to the uper legs but the legs themselfs are actully forming the long nose section of the cab. In robot mode he's actully standing on his grill, headlights, and front bumper. The pannels that cover the legs, the top pannels fold into his knee caps and the side pannels fold up onto his back and are supose to be held in these little pegs but they're really loose and thoughs pannels won't stay up right.

Thankfully because the head is spring loaded the little piece that keeps the head locked down actully works otherwise I'd never get the head down.

I know those COE trucks, from which Prime was copied from.

What i meant was, the MP truck is grossly out of proportion to look overly unrealistic. What with the long protruding legs from behind the truck? The tiny misplaced gas tank? The windshield protruding beyond the front end? The tiny lower section of the front cab? And much more.

It's ok to have a vehicle not exactly copied from any particular brand. But at least retain a realistic car image. For example, the upcoming Classics Sunstreaker and Prowl. They're obviously designed to look different from the branded cars they were taken from. But they still retain realistic car proportions.

Auto Bot, please stop posting that rubbish. I know you don't like MP Prime, but there's something you need to understand: it's just you. Everyone else loves it. And the truck mode is fine. So please, pretty please with sugar on top, knock it off. I haven't been on this forum for months, and yet within a couple of days of coming back, I find you trotting out the same line of easily-refuted gibberish. Please stop.

I like MP Prime. Especially the robot mode. I'm just being objective. It doesn't mean i can't complain against or comment on something i like.

Besides, i'm not the ONLY one. I first seen a few of similar comments before i started to observe and express the opinions of my own.

Auto Bot wrote:What i meant was, the MP truck is grossly out of proportion to look overly unrealistic. What with the long protruding legs from behind the truck? The tiny misplaced gas tank? The windshield protruding beyond the front end? The tiny lower section of the front cab? And much more.

The legs are the section that actully hooks to the trailor and I even addmited thoughs were probly nothing like a real truck.

The Gas Tank is not missplaced and it should be "gas tanks" there's one one each side. They look tiny and missplaced compaired to a long nose truck but this isn't a long nose truck.

Windshield? Protruding? Beyond the front end? Indshield isn't protruding beyond anything unless the definition of the word "protruding" has changed.

There's nothing tiny about the lower section of the front cab.

After reading your post I was looking verry carefully at the pictures of Prime and the real life flat nose someone else posted and I fail to see where ANYTHING on Prime is unrealisticly out of proportion. There are some differences to be sure but it's mainly a lack of some of the detail on the top of the cab (the lights, horn, and sideview mirrors) but the truck looks fine without thoughs details.

Saber Prime wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:What i meant was, the MP truck is grossly out of proportion to look overly unrealistic. What with the long protruding legs from behind the truck? The tiny misplaced gas tank? The windshield protruding beyond the front end? The tiny lower section of the front cab? And much more.

Windshield? Protruding? Beyond the front end? Indshield isn't protruding beyond anything unless the definition of the word "protruding" has changed.

The windshield does protrude slightly past the grille.

I think it's exaggerated, though, by the fact that the headlights are recessed, leaving the front look a bit uneven. The windows are flush with the bumper, but not the headlights or grille

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Autoclot wrote:

Saber Prime wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:What i meant was, the MP truck is grossly out of proportion to look overly unrealistic. What with the long protruding legs from behind the truck? The tiny misplaced gas tank? The windshield protruding beyond the front end? The tiny lower section of the front cab? And much more.

Windshield? Protruding? Beyond the front end? Indshield isn't protruding beyond anything unless the definition of the word "protruding" has changed.

The windshield does protrude slightly past the grille.

I think it's exaggerated, though, by the fact that the headlights are recessed, leaving the front look a bit uneven. The windows are flush with the bumper, but not the headlights or grille

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Ah, I see what he was talking about now but that still doesn't = to "unrealistic proportions", thoughs modifications could be easily made to any Semi Truck. It's just a slight change in the shape of the body, it doesn't effect how the truck will run.

The robot legs comming out of the back, that might possibly be the only thing that would be exstremly difficult to pull off on a real truck.

You know what, we should send this into Monster Garage and see if we can make them build G1 Prime.

Movie Leader OP, best OP in my collection IMHO

Movie Prime(any version) is the worst of all Primes. And there have been some bad Primes.

And you wanna talk unrealistic. Flames on a semi?

UltraPrimal wrote:Movie Prime(any version) is the worst of all Primes. And there have been some bad Primes.

And you wanna talk unrealistic. Flames on a semi?

a semi truck with flames isn't acutaly that uncommon

autobot commander wrote:

UltraPrimal wrote:Movie Prime(any version) is the worst of all Primes. And there have been some bad Primes.

And you wanna talk unrealistic. Flames on a semi?

a semi truck with flames isn't acutaly that uncommon

Really? I've never seen one. And I've received thousands of trucks. None have had anything anywhere near like Prime. The trailers maybe, but not the cabs.

UltraPrimal wrote:

autobot commander wrote:

UltraPrimal wrote:Movie Prime(any version) is the worst of all Primes. And there have been some bad Primes.

And you wanna talk unrealistic. Flames on a semi?

a semi truck with flames isn't acutaly that uncommon

Really? I've never seen one. And I've received thousands of trucks. None have had anything anywhere near like Prime. The trailers maybe, but not the cabs.

Well first of all you do realize Movie Prime is a real working truck and it really does have flames on it. How can it be "unrealistic" when the thing is right there on the freaking set of the movie when they're filming it.

Optimus Prime's U-turn in the movie is the most unrealist thing about the vehicle mode. There is just no freaking way a semi can make a tight U-turn moving that fast. That was most likly generated on a computer.

To add to that they said in an interview the paint job for Prime was inspired by a picture of another semi truck.

AND I've seen SEVERAL semi truck cabs with flame paint jobs LONG before the movie ever came out. There's a auto body shop right across the street from the high school my dad works at and another one at the end of the road where I live so I've seen ALOT of different trucks all my life. I've even seen flat nose trucks with flames on them.

Strangly enough I heard this about flames on trucks from someone on the movie web site as well. Are they really that uncommon to some people because they're an every day occurance for me?

When I get some free time I'll go fire paint hunting with my camera and take some pictures.

Anyway what I really think is unrealistic about any movie design are the robot modes. They defy the laws of physics to transform and they leave alot of open gaps in the armor that make them really weak and easy for humans to kill.

There's a trucking company in Australia, I can't remember their name, but their trucks are all bright purple with yellow flames. Very distinctive.

Although i'm not a fan of flames on Prime, i think the body paint should not be a big factor in judging realism. If you don't like the paint, you can easily choose to repaint your Prime toy into red, or any other color. The resulting Movie Prime toy will still have realistic proportions.

JTKranix wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:I'd go for Movie Prime.

G1's truck just don't cut it. Especially the MP version. It's a semi-alien truck design. Alien, in the sense that, there's no actual truck looking exactly like that.

Uh...Okay.

That's not red, like Prime. So clearly, MP Prime is based on a fictional vehicle.

Really though, this arguement of Auto Bot's is so old and so empty. MP Prime may have faults or flaws, and not everyone has to think it's the best toy ever made, but Auto Bot's arguement is just weak. Before it was that Prime's interior wasn't as realistic as that of Alternators. It's just dumb. So the windows stick out over the truck grill, so what? It's a toy. Want an awesome looking toy truck? Buy one. Want a Transformer? Buy MP Prime.

Dagon wrote:Prime's interior wasn't as realistic as that of Alternators.

That's actully the one problem I have with the toy but considering allmost EVERY Transformer toy doesn't have an interior at all I over look that. At least Prime actully has an interior even if it is just one big seat in the middle of the cab. Outside the Alternators line no transformer has ever had a real interior, they useually store their robot mode parts inside making it impossible for them to actully carrey passengers like they do on the cartoons.

Hell the movie toys don't even have interiors that's why I allways wished the movie designs were based on the Alternator line toys. I'd love it if just once we could actully get Transformers with realistic transformations and no matter what Micheal Bay thinks the movie designs are NOT realistic. The Alternators are.

As long as you can physically make a transforming toy that has a real interior so it looks like a real vehicle it doesn't matter if the robot mode parts are stored underneath somewhere, you can't actully see them in vehicle mode. That's realistic.

If you have to cheat on the toys and hide robot parts in the interior of the car where there are supose to be passengers able to sit in the vehicle mode there's nothing real about that.

Adding a trailer to MP Prime make all the difference in the world. The trailer helps camoflage the out of proportion rear/leg section, IMHO anyway.

Saber Prime wrote:

Dagon wrote:Prime's interior wasn't as realistic as that of Alternators.

That's actully the one problem I have with the toy but considering allmost EVERY Transformer toy doesn't have an interior at all I over look that. At least Prime actully has an interior even if it is just one big seat in the middle of the cab. Outside the Alternators line no transformer has ever had a real interior, they useually store their robot mode parts inside making it impossible for them to actully carrey passengers like they do on the cartoons.

Hell the movie toys don't even have interiors that's why I allways wished the movie designs were based on the Alternator line toys. I'd love it if just once we could actully get Transformers with realistic transformations and no matter what Micheal Bay thinks the movie designs are NOT realistic. The Alternators are.

As long as you can physically make a transforming toy that has a real interior so it looks like a real vehicle it doesn't matter if the robot mode parts are stored underneath somewhere, you can't actully see them in vehicle mode. That's realistic.

If you have to cheat on the toys and hide robot parts in the interior of the car where there are supose to be passengers able to sit in the vehicle mode there's nothing real about that.

And the answer is: Allspark Landmine.

Dagon wrote:

JTKranix wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:I'd go for Movie Prime.

G1's truck just don't cut it. Especially the MP version. It's a semi-alien truck design. Alien, in the sense that, there's no actual truck looking exactly like that.

Uh...Okay.

That's not red, like Prime. So clearly, MP Prime is based on a fictional vehicle.

Really though, this arguement of Auto Bot's is so old and so empty. MP Prime may have faults or flaws, and not everyone has to think it's the best toy ever made, but Auto Bot's arguement is just weak. Before it was that Prime's interior wasn't as realistic as that of Alternators. It's just dumb. So the windows stick out over the truck grill, so what? It's a toy. Want an awesome looking toy truck? Buy one. Want a Transformer? Buy MP Prime.

Yup. Old, and weak, and empty, and dumb. But true. The truth need not be beautiful nor colorful to be worth revealing.

I'm not anti-Prime or anti-TF. But if i can, in my own capacity, point out the obvious, and be objective enough, then i can have hope that Hasbro and Takara will move towards further improving the toys.

Look at how far we have come from the old G1 era or stiff, hardly-posable toys.

Yup. I love G1 too. But i'm happy we didn't get stuck with those kinds of toys forever.

I don't mind being the bad guy. I'll just be happy to see something awesome and something fantastic in the next generation of TF toys.

Auto Bot wrote:

Dagon wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:I'd go for Movie Prime.

G1's truck just don't cut it. Especially the MP version. It's a semi-alien truck design. Alien, in the sense that, there's no actual truck looking exactly like that.

That's not red, like Prime. So clearly, MP Prime is based on a fictional vehicle.

Really though, this arguement of Auto Bot's is so old and so empty. MP Prime may have faults or flaws, and not everyone has to think it's the best toy ever made, but Auto Bot's arguement is just weak. Before it was that Prime's interior wasn't as realistic as that of Alternators. It's just dumb. So the windows stick out over the truck grill, so what? It's a toy. Want an awesome looking toy truck? Buy one. Want a Transformer? Buy MP Prime.

Yup. Old, and weak, and empty, and dumb. But true. The truth need not be beautiful nor colorful to be worth revealing.

I'm not anti-Prime or anti-TF. But if i can, in my own capacity, point out the obvious, and be objective enough, then i can have hope that Hasbro and Takara will move towards further improving the toys.

Look at how far we have come from the old G1 era or stiff, hardly-posable toys.

Yup. I love G1 too. But i'm happy we didn't get stuck with those kinds of toys forever.

I don't mind being the bad guy. I'll just be happy to see something awesome and something fantastic in the next generation of TF toys.

Man, it's not dumb or anything. Everybody is certainly entitled to their opinions, I just don't really understand why the interior of a transforming robots vehicle mode is such an important factor. Everyone wants something different, sure, but come on, interiors? Have we fallen so far as a fandom to be overly concerned with vehicle interiors? A Transformer toy cannot carry a person, and they are not G I Joe type toys where they are designed to carry a pilot or other figure, so so what? I just don't get it.