william-james88 wrote:So now that people have the leaders, what are your thoughts on them. I personally find them both underwhelming so I am curious if I am maybe not seeing something or if people agree.
Also, currently writing a top 5 list for best Hot Rod/ Rodimus toys and I dont know if 5th place should go to Leader Rodimus or Energon Hot Rod. I am wondering which is a better toy, and I am not sure. probably the leader but he has so many flaws that I dont know if they are a bigger issue than Energon Rodimus' lack or articulation.
Same with Voyager Starscream. Lots of feedback on Grimlock, but little on his wave mate.
You are in luck, WJ88! I opened up and transformed Evolution Optimus Prime and Evolution Rodimus Prime earlier this evening!
I'll start with Evolution Optimus Prime. It's strongest mode, by far, is as Optimus Prime. He's not perfect, mind you, but he's really good enough that any improvements would be fairly small by comparison to his other modes. The sculpting is great. He looks the part, and there is a extensive amount of paint involved, despite the use of stickers for some details. Hasbro used a good gray color plastic this time, eschewing the weird "beige-gray" they were so fond of with Powermaster Optimus Prime in Titans Return. Next, I'll tackle Orion Pax. He looks really good...from the front. His back is just so obviously Optimus Prime's chest, but it's hard to think of a way that could have been hidden without having a mess of cosmetic panels to unfold like a plastic origami project to hide it all. He looks like he stepped right out of the G1 cartoon, so the sculpting is really spot on. The blue should be a little lighter, and he's missing a few tiny details from the animation model, but he's mostly correct. Honestly, I can understand the blue being darker as it's ultimately a better match to Optimus Prime's color palette. The trailer for truck mode is pretty well done, all things considered. Yeah, a lot of red plastic/paint peeks through, especially on the top and front of the trailer, but it doesn't look bad. The sticker stripes on the sides are fairly well aligned and have reasonable sculpted recesses in which they fit and don't cover up any obvious sculpting detail. It would have seemed easy to paint the back doors gray, as those would just be the bottom of Optimus' feet, but maybe it's unpaintable plastic? Regardless of those color details, the trailer gets the job done. The glaring problem with this toy overall is definitely the truck cab. There's just no way to explain away the mess that is the back half of the cab. The front looks perfect, but halfway back, it just turns into a jumbled mess of robot kibble. Here is where it would have been worth it for Hasbro designers and Takara engineers to use some "plastic origami magic" to hide that unsightly mess. Orion Pax doesn't look so great from the back, and even Optimus Prime obviously has Orion's legs folded up on his back, but at least the robot modes look good from most forward facing angles, which is how they'll be displayed. The truck cab only looks "right" from head on. Sideways, it's very bad, and that's exactly how most people would display it, because of the trailer component that completes the look. Overall, though, I like Evolution Optimus Prime as a fun Transformers toy that commemorates an old storyline from the second season of the original cartoon in an interactive, tangible form.
Next up is Evolution Rodimus Prime. His strongest mode, I believe is the "Space Winnebago" alternate mode. It's nice to finally have that form of Rodimus Prime in a big, chunky toy for the first time in the "Classics" era of Transformers. It looks pretty good, all told. The stickers aren't intrusive and work well with the sculpt, much like with Optimus Prime's trailer mode as mentioned above. There are a few little issues, like some gaps on the sides where the "Suepr Car" spoiler pokes out, or the obvious Rodimus Prime fists sticking out on the front of the trailer portion, just above the car's cabin. The next best mode, in my opinion, is actually Rodimus Prime's robot mode. He's sufficiently chunky and imposing. He really looks like a viable Autobot leader, especially standing next to Optimus Prime. I love the face sculpt, which conveys the increase in experience, wisdom, and confidence that Rodimus Prime cultivated during his tenure as "Prime." Much of the "super armor" to form Rodimus Prime is in a darker, more maroon leaning shade of red, contrasting the brighter "cherry red" that dominates more of his "unevolved" self in both robot and alternate modes. Again, this gives a nice sense of maturity in the evolution of the character and calls back to details from the original cartoon as well. It's a little bit disappointing that the Rodimus Prime arms require "partsforming," but it's understandable. Some downsides include, of course, the backpack. I'm usually pretty lenient on robot backpacks, as I understand them to be a necessity of engineering transforming toys and probably the best choice for compromise on where to stash that "extra mass" from alternate mode that the robot doesn't need. In this case, though, it does make the trademark yellow spoiler look a little strange when viewing Rodimus Prime from the back or side. There's some "gappiness" in a few areas around Rodimus Prime's torso too, and yeah, you can see the Hot Rod arms on the sides, but they also blend rather well too. They just don't seem to bother me like they do some people. I think the biggest disappointment, though, is that gap between Rodimus' neck and collar. Next up, the Super Car mode. There isn't a lot to really say here. It's Hot Rod's classic alternate mode, though and through. Nothing about it is really that special. It's been done many times before now in the "Classics" era. I might dare say, though, that this rendition is the least interesting. It's a bit blocky and the proportions are a little bit off. He's kind of "flat" top to bottom and a little wide too. Finally, that brings us to Hot Rod's robot mode. This is the weakest mode, but not really terrible. He definitely looks the part to a "T." The transformation is VERY simplistic, though. Almost the entire robot hides as the car's undercarriage. You basically just stand him up and stretch him out a bit. The robot chest is a faux piece too, which is kind of sad, as I believe all previous Hot Rods have been able to legitimately integrate the car hood into his robot mode. I do like the robot head reveal, though! Hot Rod also suffers from a rather obvious "butt flap." It does call back to the original G1 toy, but come on! It was silly then too! The butt flap is painfully obvious from ALL angles, even the front! It's not something that, from an engineering stand point, would have been that hard to fold up onto his back either. It's just a shame. I also don't like how far his "sleeves" reach over his robot mode fists. I know this has been a trend with "simplified" transformations for Transformers toys for several years now, but this is an extreme. The side panels reach out far beyond the end of the fists. You can't even see his hands from certain side angles. This would be a great update to the 2006 "Classics" Hot Rod toy, if it weren't for the fact that the Tians Return/Transformers Legend version came out in the past year or so. THAT is my definitive Hot Rod on my "Classics" display shelf now. Again, though, Evolution Rodimus Prime is a great toy and commemorates another classic story line from the original Transformers series in plastic form, letting you recreate the magic of that moment from the 1986 movie.
In a way, it is still a little sad that Takara will be releasing these figures completely unaltered from Hasbro's production versions in their own markets, meaning that some of those small little details that would make these figures even "better" (e.g., more animation accurate), won't happen. However, even Takara's knack for paint application improvements will only make the best modes of these two toys just slightly better at best and won't do anything to help some of the inherent flaws, which are mostly a matter of design and engineering budget limitations.
So, overall, my assessment of the first two Leader Class figures for Power of the Primes is thus:
They are first and foremost great toys with a lot of playability options. Secondarily, they can be good display pieces and offer a lot of different display options, though some are better than others in each individual case. These are definitely NOT Masterpieces, in any sense of the term, but they aren't "bad" figures, and they're certainly not "bad" toys. If you love Transformers at all, Evolution Optimus Prime and Evolution Rodimus Prime are not a waste of your money or time, in my honest opinion.
). The Titan master were heads, thats a pretty big deal. But these prime masters dont add anything significant. They end up actually being better used on Titans return Overlord than any other toy in POTP so far.
jet bot's and they really bring him together, might fiddle around later with using the other parts of liokaiser on him.
taking over around that time, I'm guessing the parents of those kids were spending their toy money elsewhere. 
