TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

DDM's review of: (Bat) Optimus Primal

Name: Optimus Primal
Function: Maximal General

"The Maximals and I have no choice but to stop Megatron and his Predacon minions before they destroy us all! Freedom may be the right of all sentient beings, but to protect the greater good we must vanquish to Earth from these evil Predacon creatures! It won't be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is!"

One of the most easily forgotten forms of the great Prime (or Primal, in this case) was his bat mold. In the beginning there were to be three forms for the two beast wars leaders, Primal got a bat and Megs got a alligator. However, due to costs these were cut from the television show, but they both were released as figures.

Alternate Mode:
Optimus Primal is a bat. Not just any bat either, a small blueish gray bat from hell. I don’t like this mode, simple as that. I’m sure if it was larger (leader size) it would be leaps and bounds better, but unfortunately it isn’t. It’s very easy to see the robot part dangling underneath the bats body and the bat has no articulation whatsoever. There is a lot of detail on his “furry” back however, so Hasbro gets partial credit for that.

Robot Mode:
Finally, the nice part of this mold. First off, let me say that while transforming him into the form for this review, I broke him. Yes, that is right, he is now permanently stuck in robot mode because something in his rather poorly designed spring/gear transformation system slipped and now he won’t fully transform. At least he isn’t stuck in animal mode, haha. Anyway, he looks MUCH better due to more color variety and a decent shape. He has much more articulation (eight points total) and has two very nice swords. The head on the other hand looks very little like an Optimus head, which loses points for me.

Transformation: 3 spring loaded, although very fragile.
Durability: 3 VERY fragile, I know it’s old, but I could see his mechanism giving out ever since I first laid eyes on him.
Fun: 6 bat mode doesn’t do much, but it’s Optimus, and everyone can have fun with Optimus.
Price: Unfortunately (now that mine’s broken) I think these go for a pretty penny seeing as not many people own them and they are, after all, still Optimus prime.
Overall: 5 He’s a very nice collectors item, but don’t play with him to much or you’ll learn your lesson the hard way, like I did.