The Energon Pub

Optimal Optimus looks awesome. He may actually be the best Evolution figure so far.

There he is, my little guy.

There he is,

My

Little

Guy

Isn’t he cute?

Man, I’m so glad they did Optimal Optimus Justice, even if the Optimus Primal isn’t the strongest link. But since I have the MP-32 Beast Convoy, I can live with it.

I dunno, I guess the fact that it’s as good as or better than the original toy is what makes me like it. I mean, the original Optimal Optimus still holds up by today’s standards, and this one gives him what he’s missing from modern engineering; namely, ankle tilts and show-accurate(ish) retracting shoulder cannons.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:There he is, my little guy.

There he is,

My

Little

Guy

Isn’t he cute?

Cheetor?

Wolfman Jake wrote:Making the front of the transport mode orange would be very unpleasant to most peoples' eyes.

See, in my mind they've already altered Primal so much by giving him an alt mode that reminds me of one of those Transformers flying coffins that an orange cockpit wouldn't strike me as anything unusual, and in fact be understandable knowing it would have been done to give OO a proper chest.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Friendly reminder that that Optimus Primal is NOT supposed to be a Masterpiece. So, it's completely useless to waste so many posts and so many words debating some irrelevant spot that is the "wrong color".

His entire chest is an "irrelevant spot"?

Emerje

Yes, because his eyes are up there, and no, you cannot just read what he has on his "shirt".

o.supreme wrote:found Hun-Gurrr at walmart yesterday! Take THAT HTS! . It must have been a fresh case because there were 2 Hun-Gurrr's and 2 Elita-1s (Both had black feet instead of pink)

Also this particular walmart had wave 1 PM's on clearance for $3.00

Since we're all obsessed with Elita One's shoes lately, can I ask if anyone has found a sample of her in the wild with her robot mode feet correctly assembled? I'm referring to the fact that early ones all seem to have the feet switched such that she doesn't achiever a proper flat-footed A-stance. Swapping the feet around remedies this, but it would be nice to know if later production runs fixed this assembly error. Unfortunately, from what I understand, doing the fix yourself is a little more complicated that just unscrewing the ankle joints and swapping the feet. You've got to disassemble much of the leg too.

Emerje wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Making the front of the transport mode orange would be very unpleasant to most peoples' eyes.

See, in my mind they've already altered Primal so much by giving him an alt mode that reminds me of one of those Transformers flying coffins that an orange cockpit wouldn't strike me as anything unusual, and in fact be understandable knowing it would have been done to give OO a proper chest.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Friendly reminder that that Optimus Primal is NOT supposed to be a Masterpiece. So, it's completely useless to waste so many posts and so many words debating some irrelevant spot that is the "wrong color".

His entire chest is an "irrelevant spot"?

Emerje

The issue was only about the small grey part on the upper part of the chest that is "supposed to be" orange.
Pretty pointless.

Emerje wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Making the front of the transport mode orange would be very unpleasant to most peoples' eyes.

See, in my mind they've already altered Primal so much by giving him an alt mode that reminds me of one of those Transformers flying coffins that an orange cockpit wouldn't strike me as anything unusual, and in fact be understandable knowing it would have been done to give OO a proper chest.

Yeah, and the whole cockpit already hides on the smaller figure's back in robot mode anyway. He'd just have an oddly-colored orange backpack instead of an oddly-colored gray backpack.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Making the front of the transport mode orange would be very unpleasant to most peoples' eyes.

See, in my mind they've already altered Primal so much by giving him an alt mode that reminds me of one of those Transformers flying coffins that an orange cockpit wouldn't strike me as anything unusual, and in fact be understandable knowing it would have been done to give OO a proper chest.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Friendly reminder that that Optimus Primal is NOT supposed to be a Masterpiece. So, it's completely useless to waste so many posts and so many words debating some irrelevant spot that is the "wrong color".

His entire chest is an "irrelevant spot"?

Emerje

The issue was only about the small grey part on the upper part of the chest that is "supposed to be" orange.
Pretty pointless.

It's still the most prominent part of his chest that isn't a window.

I mean, the same could be same about the area surrounding Potpie Leader class Optimus Prime's chest windows. Those are properly colored red as they should be, but suppose if they were instead colored green or purple for whatever reason, while the rest of his torso remained red. People would make a fuss over it being colored "the wrong color".

One major thing that needs to be considered is mold layout, like are the trailer and core robot completely separated in terms of colors used?

I'm back after a full, busy day and I wonder what people are talking ab-

...aaaand people are still stuck on the whole 'grey cockpit torso' part. Damn it people, is it really that important? And keep in mind I am a Beast Wars fanboy and even I think it's a understandable sacrifice.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Making the front of the transport mode orange would be very unpleasant to most peoples' eyes.

See, in my mind they've already altered Primal so much by giving him an alt mode that reminds me of one of those Transformers flying coffins that an orange cockpit wouldn't strike me as anything unusual, and in fact be understandable knowing it would have been done to give OO a proper chest.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Friendly reminder that that Optimus Primal is NOT supposed to be a Masterpiece. So, it's completely useless to waste so many posts and so many words debating some irrelevant spot that is the "wrong color".

His entire chest is an "irrelevant spot"?

Emerje

The issue was only about the small grey part on the upper part of the chest that is "supposed to be" orange.
Pretty pointless.

It's still the most prominent part of his chest that isn't a window.

I mean, the same could be same about the area surrounding Potpie Leader class Optimus Prime's chest windows. Those are properly colored red as they should be, but suppose if they were instead colored green or purple for whatever reason, while the rest of his torso remained red. People would make a fuss over it being colored "the wrong color".

I'm assuming you mean blue windows and a red chest, but here's the difference, Sabr. What would be the justification for such a drastic change to Optimus Prime? That would be a weird change in color just for the sake of change itself. Changing part of Optimal Optimus' robot mode chest to gray is more of a logistical decision based on how the figure is a combination of two figures each with their own unique color schemes. The gray cockpit is part of Optimus Primal's new alt mode. Orion Pax and Optimus Prime essentially share the same color scheme, as do Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime. There is no reason to change Optimus Prime's chest to green or purple. Those chest window panels are ONLY part of Optimus Prime's robot mode. They aren't needed for Orion Pax's robot mode or the truck cab mode. In fact, they're just faux parts. These are not equivocal comparisons.

Skritz wrote:I'm back after a full, busy day and I wonder what people are talking ab-

...aaaand people are still stuck on the whole 'grey cockpit torso' part. Damn it people, is it really that important? And keep in mind I am a Beast Wars fanboy and even I think it's a understandable sacrifice.

That's what I've been saying! A lot.

I mean, this isn't a Masterpiece. It's not trying to be as much 1:1 to the animation model AND it need to accommodate a gimmick which, 10-15 years ago, would have no doubt made the toy a complete and utter brick. For what the toy is and what it manage to accomplish, possibly even surpassing both Optimus Prime and Rodimus in terms of how much functionality it has in doing so....I can live with a grey cockpit chest. If it bothers me too much later on I'll paint it.

But, seriously, I don't want to be the guy who defend Hasbro. They're an awful company and get be very lazy in many respects and cut corners but this? This isn't such a case. This isn't laziness or not caring it's balancing the piece count and color scheme of two figures who are utterly different in color palette. The only way this could have been fixed is if they had agreed on designing the orange 'optimal' ape so it had the cockpit in the torso, not the Primal figure,

I’m personally with Sabrblade on this one. Whenever I get Optimal I’m going to remove those stickers and paint his chest orange. It annoys me because they’ll go out of their way to reference the most specific G1 toy details and yet Optimal Optimus’s chest isn’t even the right color. The silver in the middle of all the orange is also kind of an eyesore to me at least.

SureShot18 wrote:I’m personally with Sabrblade on this one. Whenever I get Optimal I’m going to remove those stickers and paint his chest orange. It annoys me because they’ll go out of their way to reference the most specific G1 toy details and yet Optimal Optimus’s chest isn’t even the right color. The silver in the middle of all the orange is also kind of an eyesore to me at least.

I 'get it', but then I remember we got things like Headmaster versions of Targetmasters. And a Krok that turned into a crocodile. It's all "Yeah, sure, whatever".

SureShot18 wrote:I’m personally with Sabrblade on this one. Whenever I get Optimal I’m going to remove those stickers and paint his chest orange. It annoys me because they’ll go out of their way to reference the most specific G1 toy details and yet Optimal Optimus’s chest isn’t even the right color. The silver in the middle of all the orange is also kind of an eyesore to me at least.

Optimus Prime's gray hands say, "Hi!"

Skritz wrote:But, seriously, I don't want to be the guy who defend Hasbro. They're an awful company and get be very lazy in many respects and cut corners but this? This isn't such a case. This isn't laziness or not caring it's balancing the piece count and color scheme of two figures who are utterly different in color palette. The only way this could have been fixed is if they had agreed on designing the orange 'optimal' ape so it had the cockpit in the torso, not the Primal figure,

It's one thing to do something just because there's no other way around or because it's part of a theme, but it's something else to do what they've done in the PotP line with Leaders. Prime doesn't have to have blue hands, there are blue parts that the hands could have been gang molded with, but they consciously chose to pair them with the gray parts for no conceivable reason. With Primal they already decided the figure was inconsequential enough that they could just make up an alt mode so why care about giving him an orange backpack? Why decide to color correct the smaller robot gimmick and not go all the way on the biggest selling point, the big Leader class robot? It's just so weird that they would give color priority to the wrong form.

Emerje

Beware what you wish for .....you might just get it! All this bellyaching with the color schemes for the united Hb/Takara releases as in , no more Takara anime inspired/color accurate releases/G1 toy color releases is so darn funny!

Back when Takara was churning in their higher end versions, especially in the Takara focused thread, we get all this "I'm taking the Hb version, colors are much better or not worth the price etc etc etc............"

Just two options now. Buy or not buy. Either Show Hb your displeasure by demanding a much better product/packaging (Takara is technically a much better packaging (box/paint etc) as the Japanese excel in such aspect of sales) and cease the purchase or keep on buying their plastic crack!

Me? I'll be taking the Takara versions of PotP because its my only option (thank you Hb for your veeeeeeeeeeeeeery optimal product distribution system.......sarcasm)and want to support the brand so it won't go extinct.......to a certain point.....like until Predaking and a new Scorponok gets released. But the design choices of being more hollow is starting to get on my nerves (sure they HB/Takara need to profit and all but the focus on them young'uns and not us young once who have disposable income to throw is quite annoying). With that, my main focus will be the MP series now (just loving the Datsun guy's( like 3 years over due) and got Takara Prowl (next target is Smokescreen and Bluestreak) and hope to complete them soon!)

Wolfman Jake wrote:I'm assuming you mean blue windows and a red chest, but here's the difference, Sabr. What would be the justification for such a drastic change to Optimus Prime? That would be a weird change in color just for the sake of change itself. Changing part of Optimal Optimus' robot mode chest to gray is more of a logistical decision based on how the figure is a combination of two figures each with their own unique color schemes. The gray cockpit is part of Optimus Primal's new alt mode. Orion Pax and Optimus Prime essentially share the same color scheme, as do Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime. There is no reason to change Optimus Prime's chest to green or purple. Those chest window panels are ONLY part of Optimus Prime's robot mode. They aren't needed for Orion Pax's robot mode or the truck cab mode. In fact, they're just faux parts. These are not equivocal comparisons.

Likewise, the cockpit part, nay, the whole front half of Optimus Primal's altmode isn't a part of his robot mode either. It just hangs off his back like a long backpack and matches none of his robot mode's deco colors or overall aesthetics.



That backpack could have been literally any color and still look just as disconnected color-wise from the rest of the figure, since the figure itself is black, white, red, silver, flat gray, and flat blue, while the whole backpack is bluish gunmetal gray, a color found nowhere else on the figure's robot mode:



Because of how they designed the figure, it was always going to have a disjointed colorization. They might as well had gone all in with it rather than try to hide that fact as though they were ashamed of it. I mean, this is Optimal Optimus we're talking of here, one of the wackiest-colored TF figures of all time. Embrace its loud colors rather than dull them with gray sameness. Why, making the front half of the surfboard orange and brown would have even made it match better with the deco of its rider, thereby creating a sense of serendipitous uniformity through use of the chaotic color scheme.

Sabrblade wrote:

I just noticed something with this figure. If Primal's connection to Optimal works the way I think it does, wouldn't it be possible to remove Primal's backpack and connect it to Optimal, therefore having a backpack-less Primal (albeit without the ability to transform) and a complete Optimal at the same time?

Theoretically, yes.

Autobot N wrote:I just noticed something with this figure. If Primal's connection to Optimal works the way I think it does, wouldn't it be possible to remove Primal's backpack and connect it to Optimal, therefore having a backpack-less Primal (albeit without the ability to transform) and a complete Optimal at the same time?

...Poooooooooooosibly?

Sabrblade wrote:

Autobot N wrote:I just noticed something with this figure. If Primal's connection to Optimal works the way I think it does, wouldn't it be possible to remove Primal's backpack and connect it to Optimal, therefore having a backpack-less Primal (albeit without the ability to transform) and a complete Optimal at the same time?

...Poooooooooooosibly?

<snip>

It looks like that hinge (red circle on the image) is the only connecting point between Primal and his backpack. In theory, all you would have to do is knock out the pin (assuming that's what they've used), and you would be able to have them separate.

You know, I still think this would have looked better had they decided to make the whole figure colored like Primal's first form.

....what?

I'm truly well aware that there would have been gnashing of teeth, rage and the cry of fanboys but frankly it had crossed my mind that this was a very real possibility until we finally saw pics and yes, it truly was colored like the original Optimal Optimus. While it would have been awfully inaccurate I do think it would have certainly produced a more unique and visually-pleasing figure.

Am I glad they committed to a show and toy-accurate (as possible) deco? Oh hell yes. All I'm saying is, if there was one 'Leader Evolution' figure I thought they'd try something completely new it was this guy.

Skritz wrote:You know, I still think this would have looked better had they decided to make the whole figure colored like Primal's first form.

....what?

I'm truly well aware that there would have been gnashing of teeth, rage and the cry of fanboys but frankly it had crossed my mind that this was a very real possibility until we finally saw pics and yes, it truly was colored like the original Optimal Optimus. While it would have been awfully inaccurate I do think it would have certainly produced a more unique and visually-pleasing figure.

Actually, I think that might have been an interesting idea. It would have been kind of analogous to how Super and Ultra Megatron were to G1 Megatron, as opposed to how both of Optimus Primal's Transmetal upgrades were more akin to Galvatron instead. All they would have had to do was call it something other than "Optimal Optimus" and *boom* it's a whole new Super Robot form for a familiar character, rather than a new take on a preexisting form that's only "almost but only just not quite" there.

Similarly, someone on another board mentioned how, to him, the smaller Hot Rod form of Potpie Rodimus Prime is pretty much already serviceable to him as Rodimus Prime proper instead of as Hot Rod, while the evolved Rodimus Prime form to him will instead be used as an all new "Super Rodimus Prime" or "Powermaster Rodimus Prime" form in the same vein as the Super Robot mode of Powermaster Optimus Prime.