Transformers Power of the Primes Leader Class Optimal Optimus (with upgrades): Peak Boss Monkey?

By fan demand, Optimus Primal returns as the newest Autobot leader. A brand new toy where he can stand shoulder to shoulder with Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime, he even got a convention exclusive black repaint that I won't be covering here even though I am still bitter about the last four Prime Masters being locked behind it. I was excited when this was announced, curious as to how it was going to work given the gimmick of Power of the Primes Leader Class figures. Then I saw it and... oh dear... credit for trying? It had problems, it needed a lot of help to improve it, which is why for this review, not only will I be reviewing the figure but the two DNA Design upgrade kits that came for it, along with one free modification you can do to any copy of the toy.

With that said, that free modification comes into play with the smaller of the two figures, Optimus Primal... And they're not subtle about them hoping that Primal didn't win that poll... Like the Optimus and Rodimus toys from Power of the Primes, Optimal Optimus comes with an Optimus Primal that can "evolve" into Optimal Optimus. Optimus Prime's was easy, they've been doing Powermaster style Optimus Prime toys for a while, so it was easy to integrate Orion Pax into Optimus Prime. Rodimus was a bit more of a challenge but doable, and the look itself works well enough. Primal on the other hand feels bolted onto every mode he's apart of, so much so that one configuration for the Optimal gorilla is noticeably worse off with him attached. So, I took the pin connecting Primal to the chunk of Optimal that becomes his backpack out, and both figures are better off for it. The only issue is that the Optimus Primal figure doesn't have any form of transformation without the Optimal Optimus chest piece. You lose any form of independent transformation, but even with that excluded, Optimus Primal isn't a bad little Deluxe figure. While not as poseable as Siege and Earthrise Deluxe class figures, as there's no wrist and waist articulation, it is still a nice "pre beast wars" Primal figure thanks to the paint and sculpting (though I wish the Maximal faction logo wasn't a sticker). The two guns that come with the base figure scale really well with Primal, giving him a solid pair of shotgun-like blasters, and with the extra pieces that come with the two upgrade kits, you get the ability to use Optimal's shoulder pads as shields (which I don't really care about), and a pair of swords which I'm a bit more mixed about. Like with the blasters in the base toy, the swords feel like they're made for both Optimus Primal, and Optimal Optimus, and as a result don't really work well for either. The hilt looks too long on the swords, and due to the tabs needed for Optimal to hold them, Primal doesn't hold them properly, his hands are too far away from the hilt for it to work. Considering as the original Optimal Optimus hands can't hold the swords anyway, I don't see the need for the bigger figure to hold them. In fact, the only reason the bigger figure would need to hold them was for that convention exclusive repaint, and at that point, you may as well made swords that actually look appropriate size wise for that figure. Still, though, the Primal is solid enough once you fix his backpack issues. Onward to the big guy.

Starting with Optimal's Gorilla Mode (first configuration) and once you get the Optimus Primal shaped butt flap off, it is a nice representation of the Optimal Optimus gorilla mode even before the upgrade kits get involved. Though not as metallic as the original toy, the colours are still good enough that it is a solid representation. That isn't to say it's flawless though, even once the butt flap's gone, the main reason I got the two upgrade kits were the replacement guns, and the replacement hands. The original figure's hands looked lanky to me, the fingers were too long, and with the exception of a single hinge at the knuckle, along with the transformation required hinge on the base of the thumb, they didn't move, which made basic actions with them look awkward. The new hands though that come with the upgrade kits, though not flawless, do a much better job, thanks to the more muscular look to them, along with fully poseable fingers, and even a hinge at the wrist. The guns I'll cover more when we get to Robot mode though, as their importance is more significant there, though I will say that I do appreciate guns that aren't hollow in clearly visible angles. Though the Optimal chest can go into the gorilla's back, another mode that you can put it in by reconnecting Optimus Primal to it is a hoverboard mode as a reference to the Transmetal Optimus Primal that I reviewed a while ago. As silly as it is, I do appreciate it as a nice nod to the in-between form Optimus Primal had before Optimal Optimus in the show.

Onward to Jet mode (bare with me Beast wars fans, I'll get to that elephant in the room in a moment). Optimal Optimus' jet mode, let's be honest with ourselves, looks awful, and that is exactly what people want from it. Due to the nature of the Transmetal and Transmetal 2 toylines, when the original Optimal Optimus was designed, when they tried to have vehicle modes, it looked more like animals cosplaying as vehicles, or vehicle bits slapped onto animals. It's how you got things like flying cats, T-Rexes with jet turbines and rollerskates, a rat cosplaying as a Go-kart, a gorilla on a flying surfboard, and in the case of Optimal Optimus' jet mode, a folded up gorilla doing the Superman pose. Objectively, it does not look good, and while this toy does a good job at replicating it, they couldn't improve it, it is unsalvageable. But that's kinda why I love it, it's so bad it goes back to being good. I'll give it credit that it doesn't suffer from robot under jet syndrome, but it doesn't care about looking like a jet anyway, so much so that you have to ask yourself "how exactly does this thing fly?" It is dumb, objectively it's awful, but it's one of those insane ideas of the '90s that you can't take seriously. However, to go back to that elephant in the room, Beast Wars fans will know that the original toy had two vehicle modes, whereas the Power of the Primes toy only had one. This is the other main reason for the upgrade kits, the inclusion of wheels to give Optimal Optimus his "truck mode" (see the statement on Transmetal and Transmetal 2 vehicle modes). While the mode still looks as dumb as the jet mode does, it is nice to see this toy with a truck mode, and the integration of most of the wheels do work well into the other modes. The back four wheels you can keep on the legs forever if you wanted too, and with the front wheel, you can give the Jet mode some form of jet turbines, and it acts as a back filler for the gorilla mode while on the surfboard. I do wish the front wheel actually moved, the pin connection on the pieces is too tight to let it spin, but I'm willing to let it slide (both figuratively and literally) as the upgrade kit is a third party addon, not something officially made by Hasbro, aimed at older collectors who aren't really going to play with it. It does its job, but... well the job is to try and turn a gorilla into a car, it's been over 20 years and people are still trying to make that work, something that's even harder to do when the base toy you're upgrading wasn't designed to do it at all.

Imagine this with folded up/ removed wheels and you have the Jet Mode

Optimal Optimus's robot mode is where the toy shines (something that isn't hard to do when the main alternate mode is a humanoid gorilla), however, as brought up before, it needed a lot of work. The replacement hands once again help a lot for the figure, and the chest guns better scale here compared to the smaller blasters the base figure came with. A major issue though that the upgrade kits highlight is the lack of ratchets in the hips and knees (at least on my copy of the toy). Though it's serviceable before the upgrades, once you stick two half wheels, two swords, and two giant guns that look better then what the official product shots try to pass off as an appropriate weapon to hold. For as dumb as the two-vehicle modes, along with the gorilla surfboard looked, this robot mode commands power, and the upgrades to a lot to help it. Is it as good as the original toy? I don't know, I don't own an original copy of Optimal Optimus. Does this fill that gap I didn't know I had though? Now he does, yeah. The articulation is great compared to Optimus and Rodimus, thanks to the new hands (though even the old ones were better than those two), and the waist swivel. However, like them, this guy relies on rather low quality, pre-applied stickers, and though some like Primal's Maximal faction sticker and the faction stickers on Optimal's body held up well, others like the stickers on the cockpit piece that holds his Matrix haven't. My view on these hasn't changed, they're still bad, and I'm glad that they stopped it during War for Cybertron.

Even before the kits, I found Optimal Optimus fun. Flawed? Yes, very, very flawed. But as someone who grew up with overbearing gimmick focused lines like the Unicron Trilogy, this fills a need for me that not all modern Transformers fill, that being a figure that, regardless of the stupidity of the look, just rolls with it, and makes it look awesome while being fun to play with. These are still toys after all, and toys are meant to be fun. If you can find one, get him, he's worth it, though just be aware that he'll need some more work to truly shine. Besides, people who got the Combiner Wars-style combiners are well aware of that problem. Speaking of combiners, got some lined up soon. Overlord from Titans Return (the Hasbro release one at least), and then the Generations Selects Seacons.