Familial October - Arcee, Chromia and Elita One

The Sisters

The Bike Trio are an interesting set of characters, and here they are:

Arcee

"Arcee jumped at the chance to join up with Ironhide and the other Decepticon hunters on Earth. She proved such an effective warrior that she was quickly given command of her own strike team, made up of robots similar to her in attitude and design. Together with the Autobots she leads, she stalks the Decepticons in silence, creeping close enough to look them in the optics before she strikes.

"

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 8

Intelligence: 6

Speed: 8

Endurance: 5

Rank: 5

Courage: 7

Fireblast: 7

Skill: 9

Robot Mode

Arcee's alternate mode is odd, she has a serpentine-style design where her upper and lower bodies are connected by a segmented connector similar to a snake's body.

Arcee's body is mostly pink with black added for the limbs, wheels and connectors. Arcee's body also features some silver detailing such as on her arms, upper body and face.

Arcee's torso is designed to emulate a woman's bosy with noticable abdominal areas and a feminine chest (if you mistook her for a male character then I feel sorry for you). Arcee's head is connected to the torso by a combination of a gear-based hinge and a ball joint that allows it to rotate to either side and nod up and down. Her face is silver and surrounded by a pink helmet and uses a lot of angular shapes, like triangles to create cheekbones, a chin, nose and chevrons, giving her a very feminine look (better than some other attempts). Her face features a light-piping effect that gives her pale blue lit up eyes.

Arcee's arms are connected to her torso at the left side by a ball joint connector that gives it great freedom of movement, which leads to an elbow joint created from another ball joint, again giving it a great amount of movement. Arcee's left hand to sculpted with dainty fingers, and the hand is able to fold in on itself, thanks to the transformation sequence she uses. This arm also features a black weapon created from her licence plate area from vehicle mode, which is flipped around by 180 degrees, and has a button that releases her translucent blue blade weapon.

Arcee's right arm is connected by a hinge connector that is hidden by her vehicle mode windscreen and surrounding area, creating a shoulder. Arcee's actual arm is connected to that by a ball joint that again gives it great mobility, and again leading to an elbow created by a ball joint connecting to the lower arm. Arcee's lower arm is surrounded by a chunk of her vehicle mode's shell that could be used as a shield or a make-shift bladed weapon if desired.

Arcee's snake-like connector is created by three black pieces that are connected to the upper torso by a ball joint and to the lower body by another ball joint and hinge combination. The inner piece of the connector is connected by a pivot joint and a hinge joint respectively. As can be assumed here, the number of joints in this section allows Arcee to be very flexible in this mode, allowing you to pose her in pretty much any pose you need, however, due to the excessive usage of the ball-joints, they do wear out pretty fast, so you may want to use some nail varnish to make them thicker and restrengthen them after a while.

Arcee's lower body is essentially her vehicle mode wheels and their gears etc folded in on themselves, creating a pair of wheel-based limbs for her (like what Sideswipe and Demolishor also have in this continuity) however, unlike those two,Arcee can use a stand in this mode to keep her standing upright (as seen in my pictures). However if you have a surface with indents made especially for her, or that has a malleable texture and can be reshaped as needed, then you can gte her to stand without it.

Vehicle Mode

Arcee's vehicle mode is a pink and black motorcycle with a set of Cyberglyphics on either side, and features some sculpted features like her windshield, translucent headlights, handlebars with brakes, twine exhaust pipes, wheel spokes, plastic tyres, licence Plate, gears, chains and seat, along with other smaller features.

Arcee's wheels are each capable of rotating on their axis' and she also features a working kickstand for her to being to stand upright (or as upright as possible for a two-wheeler).

Arcee's stand, which enables her to stand upright in robot mode is also used in vehicle mode in one of two ways, with as a pair of non-firing side-cannons, which clicks into the right side of his rear wheel, or as a side car that clips into the left side of his rear wheel. You can place a Mini-Con or a small Human figure from another toyline in there to enjoy the ride as well. In either of these configurations, Arcee doesn't need her kickstand deployed.

Chromia

"Chromia is as tough as nails, and always spoiling for a fight. She's been friends with Ironhide for centuries, and their reunion on Earth was one of the high points of the war for both of them. Now they work side by side, hunting and destroying Decepticons. Neither of them has ever been happier. The two robots make great partners, and she, along with her sisters are an invaluable part of the team."

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 7

Speed: 8

Endurance: 5

Rank: 5

Courage: 9

Fireblast: 8

Skill: 4

Robot Mode

Chromia's robot mode is very different to Arcee's but in concept is actually very similar, her upper and lower bodies are separated by a snake-like connector (though this one is much more simpler than Arcee's)

Chromia's body is a combination of blue, black, grey and silver for her detailings. Her torso is very similar in design to Arcee's, but in a slightly different set up. Her head is connected to a hinge and ball joint combination like Arcee's and her face in general has the same basic design as Arcee (suitable for a triplet character) Chromia features a pair of blue painted eyes, but she also has a light piping feature, but due to the eyes being painted it's been neutered.

Chromia features a pair of shoulder pads above her arms that come from the bulk of her vehicle mode. Her arms themselves are connected to the torso by a ball joint each, giving them some movement. Her lower arms are connected by an elbow joint created from a pair of hinges on each arm that allows them to bend inwards and upwards about 90 degrees each way. Chromia's right arm also features a large cannon created from the bulk of the rear of her vehicle mode that features a firing missile, with the trigger on the underside of the weapon. Chromia features an immobile sculpted hand on her left arm, but not on her right.

Chromia's lower body is connected to the upper by a pair of grey connectors that form her snake-like inner body that can be reposed to allow her to bend forwards, lean back and much more. The lower body iself is made up of her rear vehicle mode wheel that can be folded inwards (along with the opening hatch on her vehicle mode) to create a wheeled limb, like her sister has. Again, like Arcee she comes with a stand that can be used to keep her from falling over.

Now in my case I position Chromia's movable kibble pieces differently from Elita's so as to differentiate between them easier. In my Chromia's case I keep the wheel found behind her head upright, as she is most commonly seen in this manner in fiction. For my version I also rotate her headlights to point forwards with her handlebars folded inwards. I also fold in her hatch opening and wheel so that the hatch is basically unseen and it looks like it isn't even there, but the wheel is fully visible. Her stand is positioned so it fully encases her wheel and the pair of guns are pointed forwards (the same direction as her large gun and headlights).

Vehicle Mode

Chromia's vehicle mode is a blue, black and silver motorcycle with white Cyberglyphics across her form. Arcee features working wheels and kickstand like Arcee does, but also features a moving handlebar, brakes and light segment, that allows it to rotate either way (as if you were veering to the left or right) and also has a hatch in the center that can open upwards for you to pretend to put things in there (like your helmet when leaving it or your lunch, like on a real bike). Chromia also has a firing missile between her exhaust pipes, although the actual trigger is hidden in this mode.

Chromia's extra sculpted features include a gas intake valve, gears, chains, twin exhaust pipes, licence plate that can be lowered to act as a wheel guard for the rear wheel too, sculpted wheels and other smaller pieces of detail.

Chromia's stand from robot mode can be reused here, like Arcee's could as well, but in a different way. In Chromia's case you can clip it onto the ports just in front of the rear wheels that allows her to stand there straight, with cannons beneath her, and due to the positioning of it, can also be made to look like she's performing a wheelie by just pushing down on the rear point of the motorcycle.

This stand can otherwise be inserted into the slots found on the two exhaust pipes and be used as a pair of extra weapons, including a pair of gatling guns. In this mode you need the kickstand open or hold her up manually, otherwise she'll fall over.

Elita-1

"Though she is a sister to Arcee, Elita-1 has more in common with Sideswipe. She and the swordsman team up whenever possible - especially if it means they can get away somewhere nice to do a little Decepticon hunting. This time, the two Autobots have found themselves up against Axor, who should present just enough of a challenge to make things interesting."

Toyline: Transformers 2010 line/Hunt for the Decepticons

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 4

Intelligence: 9

Speed: 8

Endurance: 5

Rank: 6

Courage: 8

Fireblast: 6

Skill: 6

Robot Mode

Elita One's body is the same as Chromia's (SHOCKING!) but of course features her own colour-scheme or black, metallic purple, grey and silver. Her eyes feature a blue light piping effect.

As she shares the same design as Chromia, there's no point in me just repeating the previous review's robot mode section, I'll just mention my own changes in how I pose her kibble.

Mostly Elita is the same as Chromia, but I fold back the wheel from behind her head fully, mostly hiding it from forward view, and I also leave the lights and handlebars as they were in vehicle mode, with the lights pointing upwards (towards her face) and the handlebars outwards. I also leave her storage hatch opened up and kept in front of her wheel, and rests on the front of it.

An additional change I make is with the stand. I connect it in the opposite fashion to how I do with Chromia, so the guns are pointing out backwards, and could be missed when seen from the front. Remember, optical illusions are your friends when it comes to repaints!!!

Vehicle Mode

Elita-1's alternate mode is the same as Chromia's except for the colour applications. Elita's colouration is a combination of silver, black and metallic/chome purple that works very well, even if I do say so myself.

Elita comes with more Cyberglyphics across her form (same as Chromia's but in different places) and features all the same sculpting details and working features as Chromia.

Elita's major difference in terms of details is her Licence Plate, which features a "leet/1337" version of her name "3L 174" (ELITA).

Elita of course features the same stand as Chromia, and it can be used in exactly the same ways again, there's nothing new to add here.

Combined Mode

As I'm sure is very well know, the combined form of the sisters was abandoned officially by Hasbro before Elita-1 was created, and thus Elita was made into a pure repaint of Chromia meaning that any combined form you make from them will look just wrong. But the one I pictures above seems to work well (enough) and is pretty easy to make, you just fold out their connector pieces (found on their backs) and slide them into each other creating a small triangle between them, and then repose Arcee into a laid-back position and have the two mold mates standing up.

This combined mode isn't great, but it's something at least. She isn't able to move any easier or release any new weapons in this mode, but it'll do for it's purpose...you might want to just ignore this mode and just look at the pretty motorcycles below....

there! Wasn't that a much nicer picture to look at that Abomination Gal? Yeah...just try to forget the previous picture..'kay?

My Thoughts?

The bike Trio are quite unique in that their toys were released across two toy lines (ROTF and HFTD) and on top of that, the third member, Elita-1 was merely made a repaint of the earlier Chromia toy (which led me to positioning her vehicle mode parts in different ways between the two to help differentiate between them). Also, because Elita-1 was hanged from an individual mold to a repaint, the combined form ISN'T what it was originally meant to be, but rather what I decided looks best, considering what I had available to me.

And interesting point I should make here is that all three of these girls actually had a counterpart in the first Movie's toy line as well. Arcee of course had her Deluxe class toy which was based on the concept created for her when she was intended to be in the movie originally, but the two Scout class Energon Arcee repaints in that line are actually very similar to the paint schemes on the other two toys (the blue Arcee toy as Chromia, and the black and chrome-like purple Elita One as he new counterpart, which ironically means that Elita was a repaint of Chromia AGAIN!).

The three sisters have been used in the comics and novels for the movies since the start and have been around for several key events (the launching of the Allspark, Starscream's Reign etc) but in the recent, pre-DOTM comics the Elita-1 character was killed off, and her sister's fates have been left unclear as of yet.

Arcee has been in the Transformers franchise since the G1 Cartoon Movie, where she was introduced as a female Autobot who could turn into a futuristic sports car. Very unusually for a main character in the series, Arcee never received a toy. However in 2001, Arcee received a Botcon toy of herself for the Universe line, and was a repaint of Transmetal II Black Arachnia, and later also received a Binaltech toy, which was a repaint of Decepticharge (who was also meant to have a repaint as Black Arachnia as well coincidentally). Arcee has also gone on to appear in the Energon TV series and Animated series, where she received a new toy in each (Motorcycle and Sports Car respectively). As well as the aforementioned Movie 1 Arcee toys, this version of Arcee has also been repainted as additional versions of herself, as well as receiving some smaller toys as well, in the Legends and Fast Action Battler sizes.

Chromia has actually been in the franchise longer than Arcee, though she has been used a lot less that the former female, she was introduced in the G1 TV series during Season 2 along with Elita One's G1 Counterpart as well. However unlike Arcee, Chromia has only ever received a toy in one other continuity. She received a toy in the Botcon 2005 set, which was a repaint of Energon Arcee (see some repetition here yet?). She has also received a Legends class toy, and the aforementioned re-purposing of Arcee's Movie 1 Scout toy.

Elita-1 premièred in the Transformers franchise at the same time as Chromia and was revealed to be the female counterpart/sister of Optimus Prime, both being rebuilt by Alpha Trion after being "killed" by Megatron. Elita's G1 counterpart received her first toy at Botcon 2009, where she was a mostly pink repaint of the Cybertron Thunderblast toy (at least she's not yet another bike!), and the aforementioned Movie 1 Scout toy of course.

Elita-1 was originally announced to be called Flareup, named for the Botcon 2005 character who shared a mold with Chromia, but this was soon changed when the toy was announced. Also, the toy itself looks completely different to the character seen in the movie and comics, in terms of colour and body type (not shockingly considering that she's a repaint). The colour change was most likely done to make her look more similar to her Movie 1 counterpart.

Over all, I really like this batch of toys, it was fun to collect all three over time, and despite the third member being just a repaint, I still think it was well worth it in the end. Their snake-like designs have been well translated from the character models to toy-form (within reason of course, it would be impossible to have made them look exactly screen accurate).

Y is a Wild Card!!!

The Winning Toy

Name: Terradive

"Terradive loves to dive towards unsuspecting prey with the sun behind him. The light blinds his target, and the scream of his engines terrifies them, leaving them easy pickings for the blades of his trident. With JETBLADE serving as a decoy, TOMAHAWK will never know what hit him."

Toyline: Hunt for the Decepticons/Transformers 2010

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Decepticon

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 7

Speed: 8

Endurance: 8

Rank: 6

Courage: 5

Firepower: 5

Skill: 7


Robot Mode



Terradive's robot mode is predominately orange with black on his limbs and wings, and some white and silver added in other random places (such as white feet and silver upper legs). Despite him having an orange colourscheme, he doesn't look too garish, which is often a problem with bright colour toys.

Terradive's torso is made up of his cockpit and front wings folded inwards, giving it an angled triangular patchwork look. The panels that make up his chest can be opened outwards so you can pretend he's using it as a storage area (maybe for a Decepticon Matrix?)

Terradive's head is connected to the torso by a ball joint and connector piece creating a neck, which is surrounded by a collar. His head itself is is designed with a flattened look that is reminiscent of Robots In Disguise Sky-Byte's. The helmet of the head is an orange colour with black markings, such as on his "ears" and his forehead chevron. The back of it features his clear light piping port (which is neutered sadly due to his eyes being painted red). His face is silver and features slits for his cheek bones and one arge nostril. His mouth is painted a gold-brown which is sculpted with a mouth and a short chin beard.

Terradve's shoulder joints are connected to the main toso by a pivot joint that allows the shoulder to move back and forth as much as needed. The upper arm is connected to that by another pivot joint that allows it to be raised outwards by just under 90 degrees. The upper arm also features a pivot joint that allows it to rotate fully (obstructions withstanding). The lower arm is connected via an elbow joint that is connected by a pair of pivots that allow him to bend his arm or flex. The hand is connected to the lower arm by another pivot that enables it to rotate fully at the wrist (unlike a real wrist of course). His hands are sculpted with fingers that are posed to enable him to hold his spear/trident weapon on the larger hand grip parts.

The top of Terradive's upper leg is connected to the groin area by a ball joint-pivot combination that gives it an amazing amount of movement, enabling you to re-pose it for any surface or position you need. His lower leg is connected to the upper leg by a pivot joint acting as a knee, enabling it to bend backwards by about 90 degrees. The feet are connected by another pivot and are able to be repositioned somewhat as well. The back of his feet are connected on a separate pivot joint as well, meaning you can make him have a high-heel look if needed as well or keep him flat footed, again depending on the surface or situation you want to portray him in.



Terradive comes with a spear that can be extended to become a trident. it features two wider parts that act as grips and can be held in Terradive's hands (at the same time if needed). Also due to his good arm articulation he's able to pose his trident in pretty much any way desired. Also, the clip on his left shoulder can be folded back behind his arm and be used as a storage area for the weapon in robot mode if you wanted to.


Alternate Mode



Terradive transforms into an orange, black and white fighter jet based on a Sukhoi Su-47 jet. This mode actually also resembles that of the Animated seekers mold (in particular Sunstorm) due to it's wing-positioning.

In this mode he features three landing wheels (one under the cockpit, and one behind each main wing, the wheel's cannot actually move and are just for decoration. He also has a pair of thrusters on the very rear of the jet mode between a pair of heavily angled tail fins. His cockpit features an opaque red canopy (which in some cases was translucent orange instead) which cannot be opened up (aww).

This jet mode is extremely curvy and angular, and almost looks like it could be an alien jet (until I looked him up for this review). His robot mode trident is kept stored folded up in his undercarriage on a hook and clip system. However if you have the trident inserted then you can't open up the front landing wheel (though you can open it out and then insert the trident instead).


Legacy

Terradive has so far only appeared in fiction in the Unite for the Universe comic book where he was called in to attack the Autobots along with several other powerful Decepticons (all of whom just happened to have new toys) and was afterwards ordered to retreat with the others once the Unite project was destroyed. He also appeared in the Hunt for the Decepticons game, where he was one of the enemies to defeat.

The name Terradive has been used by the G2 Bomber Plane, the Armada Mini-con Stealth Jet/Trident and the Energon A-10 Thunderbolt part of the Superion Maximus combiner set.

This toy mold has been repainted and remolded with a new head as Space Case for the Dark of the Moon line, an homage to the G2 Cyberjet of the same name. Interestingly Space Case has appeared in the main IDW Movie comic continuity, which even his mold's originator hasn't yet (unless he appeared extremely obscured in a crowd scene)


Is he Cool?

Oh Primus yes!

Terradive is a very cool figure, his design is pretty unique and can easily fit into the Movie toyline or even fit with the Generations figures. His weapon makes a very good gimmick and is extremely fun to play with (especially if you have a couple of him and put them as guards of a high rank character like Straxus or Megatron perhaps?)

The only real issue I have with this figure is that his light-piped eye gimmick has been neutered, but that can be easily remedied if I wanted to, but scraping off the red paint.

All in all, Terradive is a very fun figure and is well worth buying, and what made it even better for me is that I got mine for about half price in a sale!

O is for Optimus Prime

The Winning Toy

"With the destruction of Megatron, Optimus Prime thought he was finally, after millions of years, at peace. Little did he know that the escape of Starscream would draw dozens of new Decepticons to Earth. The desire that burns brightest in his spark is that the war will soon end. He is determined to see that end come, and so he works with his human comrades and the other Autobots to hunt the Decepticons that have come to Earth, and destroy them, one by one."

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Leader

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 10

Speed: 7

Endurance: 10

Rank: 10

Courage: 10

Fireblast: 10

Skill: 9


Robot Mode



I have heard this version of Optimus Prime be referred to as "Masterpiece Movie Prime" in the past, and I have to say, I fully agree, he's basically perfect. He has nearly perfect articulation and looks very screen-accurate. His body has a lot of sculpted mechanical parts, such as pistons and some false parts, like the front grill in his abdomen (his actual grill is on the soles of his feet).

Optimus is a combination of silver, blue and red with a few highlights in yellow, gold and orange with black wheels as well. He retains the flame deco from his truck mode, but most of it is hidden in this mode.

Optimus's arms are connected to his upper torso by by a series of hinges and pivot joints that give him full articulation in his shoulders and elbows. His hands are connected to his lower arms via pivot joints that allow them to rotate fully. Sadly, the hands lack any real articulation, as they just have sculpted fingers, with a slot for any weapons he may happen to hold to go in (ie Jetfire's blaster). Optimus has a flip out sword on both arms that are activated by pulling up a small trigger.

Optimus's legs are connected to his groin area by a pivoting hinge connector, giving it full articulation (when there's no obstacles anyway). There is a small pivot at the top upper legs that enables them to rotate slightly. His knee is on a hinge that allows it to bend backwards by about 90 degrees, and forwards by about 80, his "kneecap" his able to be folded outwards if needed for any reason on a small hinge. Optimus' feet are connected to his lower legs by some pretty huge ball joints (which also happens to make them easy to pull off by the way) The feet are quite bit and wide, which means that they can easily support his upper body weight, which is a BIG plus for a toy this cool :D

Optimus' torso is quite cool in itself actually, by pushing the small button on the bottom of his abdomen you can make his chest windows move slightly, whilst the voice box activates as well, which makes it look like he's actually speaking. In my version, Optimus just says "Optimus Prime" (due to mine being a European version) however the American release has him saying "I am Optimus Prime" in Peter Cullen's voice. The chest and eyes also light up in red and green (respectively) when the button is pushed. When you are actually transforming Optimus Prime, you can hear the famous transforming noise when you connect his waist into his groin (and when removing it as well)

Optimus' head is able to rotate on it's connector, and be repositioned slightly (due to that being required for his transformation to truck mode). His head is mostly blue with a silver mouth piece and side vents, he also has sculpted eyes, forehead chevron and ear antennae amongst other little pieces of details

Optimus' back kibble is pretty tidy as well on this toy, with most of it seemingly becoming back armour rather than just hanging there (like on his original toy), it's also possibly to hold small weapons in some of the gaps as well, making it practical as well.



As seen in the Revenge of the Fallen movie, Optimus can take on the parts of the ancient Transformer Jetfire to give him more power. Basically to make this mode, you have to turn Jetfire into a strange looking coat, clip on the belt around Optimus' waist and stick Jetfire's feet inside Optimus'.

This mode is a mixed blessing to be honest, it makes Optimus A LOT bigger, gives him more weapons, a jet pack and makes him look stronger in general, the problem however is that Optimus also loses the ability to move his legs effectively (however his arms are still able to move around.

Please note, I WAS able to get Optimus into my little orange studio, but getting the combined form in there required me to add more cardstock!!


Alternate Mode



Optimus Prime's truck mode is a heavily updated version of his 2007 Movie release version, and...well, it's basically perfect, it hides all it's weapons within the actual vehicle and doesn't have a giant gun sticking out it's back (like the older version did) and even has a connector area that could be able to haul a trailer.

Optimus has 6 working wheels, one pair at the very front, and 2 pairs on the rear section. He also mas a lot of sculpted/aesthetic pieces of detailing on the vehicle form, such as rear indicator lights, headlights and smokestacks. The front wheels have an outward bulging hubcap, whilst the rear wgeels each have inverted ones, it's unknown why they are different types. On the very top of the front grill you have a small red Autobot insignia. None of the lights work as real ones (but then again, were you expecting them to?)

The vehicle's colour-scheme is very similar to his original toy's one (as both are based on the same on screen character) and is a combination of blue, red and yellow with a flame deco in specific points (from the front grill to the end of the wheel rim, and on the sides of the driver's cab. Potions of the vehicle are a grey/silver painted colour for the smoke stakes, engine parts, back guard and other parts that would be left a metallic colour on a real truck. By pushing a small discrete button on the bottom of his cab's back guard, you can hear engine noises


Legacy

In the franchise, this incarnation of Optimus Prime is by far the most war hardened and willing to kill, as shown by his constant head-shots on his enemies, beginning with Bonecrusher, which of course began a massive fan meme about how Optimus likes to collect faces. This Optimus is perhaps the most realistic in terms of how a warrior would actually act in an eons-long war rather than the very peaceful Optimus Prime from G1 or any of the other incarnations (with maybe RiD Optimus Prime being the exception)

There have been many Optimus Prime toys made for the Movie toy lines, so it would just be pointless to mention every single one, so I'll just mention a select few. In the 1st Movie's toyline, Optimus had a legends, voyager and leader mold made up for his character, with the most impressive being the Leader versions, which are, for all intents and purposed simplified versions of this very toy. The leader version also received a blue, black and silver repaint called Nightwatch Optimus Prime, which can very easily be re-purposed as a Movie Continuity Nemesis Prime. In ROTF the toy received new molds in each of the afore mentioned size classes, with his legends version being able to combine (sort of) with the Legends Jetfire as well. The Voyager and Leader versions (leader one shown here) have been remolded with new weapons, accessories, colour schemes and other very slight differences many times (from replacing the blades with hooks, to even removing his face mask to allow his true face to be shown, as in the movies. In the DOTM line he receives several new toys including a Cyberverse Commander, Deluxe, Voyager and Ultimate toy, the latter comes with a trailer which acts as a jet pack in robot mode.

Now as for other incarnations of Optimus Prime...again there's far too many to count, it's actually easier to count the number of series' where Optimus DOESN'T appear in!

Okay, in the G1 cartoon Optimus was the Autobot commander until his death at Megatron's hands in the animated movie in 1986 (set in 2005) when he passed on the Matrix to Ultra Magnus, who in turn gave it to Rodimus shortly afterwards, where he became Rodimus Prime, who remained leader until the end of Season 3 when Optimus was revived. Now in the US version, Optimus remained leader until the end of the 3 part Season 4, whilst in the Japanese continuation he was killed off at about the same time, when Rodimus was made leader again, until Cybertron was destroyed and Rodimus flew off into space, leaving Fortress Maximus as commander.

This is significant because after this point in the Japanese fiction, Optimus is never leader again in the cartoons, as Fortress Maximus is succeeded by Ginrai, Star Saber and Dai Atlas in that order, until the end of Zone's one and only episode. He does return as Star Convoy in the Return of Convoy series, but this again was quite short lived.

In every series originating from Japan after G1 finished, the commander was a different character, who just happened to look like Optimus (and of course WAS renamed as Optimus in the Western versions). This trend however ended with the appearance of the Live Action Movies and Animated in Japan (which originated from America) where the character who would have been called "Something Convoy" was actually called Optimus Prime still.

In the West, Optimus Prime was a main character in every cartoon with the exception of the Beast Era cartoons, where he was replaced with Optimus Primal (originally meant to be a new version of him, as shown with an early product catalogue, but is in fact a totally different character) a trend that was also used in Japan's own Beast Era cartoons by replacing him with Lio Convoy and Big Convoy, two totally different character who just resembled him slightly

Optimus' two most recent TV representations are both quite different, the Animated version is a younger character who leads a small band of Autobots on Earth, who began as a Space Bridge Maintenance crew, meanwhile his newest incarnation, the Prime version is shown to be basically a less head-shot prone version of his Movie incarnation.

Optimus has been a main character in most official comic series', as he's one of the few very recognisable characters in the franchise (along with character like Bumblebee, Starscream and Soundwave)

One very prevalent fact about Optimus remains throughout every incarnation, and even amongst those who just share his basic appearance...he ALWAYS dies, at least for a little while. Something else that is quite uniform when it comes to the many Optimuses (Optimi?) is that they all tend to turn into a Truck Cab, and some have a trailer than can either become a base of sorts, or a power up for the character (this is also the case with Star Saber and Rodimus Prime having Trailers of sorts, and of course Ginrai as he shares a mold with Power Master Optimus Prime) Some significant difference to this is the Alternators version of Optimus Prime, who turns into a Dodge Ram Pick-Up Truck, and of course his Beast Era counterparts. Also, most Convoys/Primes/Opitmi also have similar faces, with a chevron on their forehead and sometimes a face plate and ear antennae.


Is He Cool?

This Optimus toy is very cool, I mean his high level of articulation alone makes him a very worthwhile toy to play with, and on top of that he's pretty sturdy and durable as well, meaning that a small child can play with him very safely, with only the huge feet likely to pull off easily (and if a small child can swallow these feet...then they were VERY determined to choke themselves!). He is a very beautiful toy that I doubt can be surpassed for this character (although the DOTM Ultimate Optimus Prime does look pretty nice as well)

On the negative side however, this version of Optimus is extremely hard to transform, so basically if you're not used to a high level of transformation sequence, then you'd better decide whether you prefer him in truck or robot mode and keep him that way forever. It takes me a fair few minutes to transform him personally, and the point where his chest connects into his torso is very hard to remove once it's in, sometimes just requiring you to yank it out with all your might and pray you don't break it!

His combined form is interesting, but since it requires 2 Leader class figures, which would cost you about £90 to make, it might not seem worthwhile for the less enthusiastic fans to buy them.

So, in summary, I personally believe that this is one of the best Transformers around for multiple reasons, but because of it's price I can see most parents just choosing the cheaper Voyager options instead. However, if you really love Optimus Prime, and like the Live Action Movie aesthetics, then tis is definitely a toy you MUST own.