Between the Michael Bey-bot designs and Hasbro’s heavy focus on simply transformations, the Age of Extinction toy line hasn’t done much for me. But there is one toy I could not pass up. It’s not what Evasion Mode Optimus Prime is, but what he becomes.
By day he’s a mind-mannered leader of the Autobots, determined to make his way out of his cardboard and plastic prison to protect humanity from the evil Decepticons.
By night, he’s the closest thing the movie line is ever going to give us to the original Freightliner FLA86 alt-mode from the original series.
Now there’s a grill you can see your reflection in as Optimus mows you down on his way to the ultimate confrontation with Megatron.
This new/old form of Optimus Prime is inspired by early scenes in the upcoming movie (as seen in the trailers), in which Optimus Prime assumes the form of a blown-out Marmon 97 in order to hide from the government in Marky Mark’s funky garage.
Evasion Mode Optimus Prime is decidedly un-rusty. In fact, he’s quite lovely.
This is a very tight Transformer. When he’s in vehicle mode, he’s going to stay in vehicle mode until you say it’s OK to come out of hiding. The first time I attempted to change him back into robot form, I was almost certain I was going to break some pegs. But no, he withstood my fumbling fingers, single smokestack standing tall and proud.
It’s not a perfect toy — movie line releases rarely are. The transformation is a bit tricky, and the rear of the cab is a mess.
But as long as you keep him facing front in vehicle mode, Evasion Mode Optimus Prime is a worthy addition to any shelf.
Plus, I’ve found the nod to G1 Optimus Prime leaves me in a generous mood as far as the toy’s robot mode is concerned. He transforms into a rather economical living machine, with barely any kibble hanging off, He’s unexpectedly sleek. If he were black instead of red and blue, he could pass for Ninja Optimus Prime.
If the mouthy-face bothers still bothers, there’s a Platinum Edition two-pack coming to Toys’R’Us that features a poorly chromed-out version of this figure with a faceplate sporting head.
Available from the Hasbro Toy Shop for $US24.99, Evasion Mode Optimus Prime is all the Transformers: Age of Extinction I’ll need until the movie comes out on video.
Comments
8 responses to “At Least One Good Toy Came From Transformers: Age Of Extinction”
what is ‘mind-mannered’?
and while he is a decent translation of the G1 Optimus, his face is still that Bay-ified POS – just a plain mouth guard thanks Hasbro
He minds his manners?
In these new movies all the transformers have mouth guards for battle-mode, so I don’t know why they can’t provide it in the toys.
It’s another way to differentiate identical toy SKUs and completionist-type collectors will buy both e.g. Buster Optimus Prime which had two versions and the mouth guard was only released in a handful of SEA markets = $$$.
As for this figure… I know the truck is supposed to be a homage to G1 but how does Optimus Prime fit in there? There’s supposed to be no size-changing in this universe and the long-nose trucks have a lot more mass, unless Optimus is hollow in robot mode in those last movies.
look at all the designs in the transformers movies – lots of it is enclosed spaces, not solid construction
Well sure but let’s assume Optimus Prime is always around the same size in robot mode, that means something is being tucked in somewhere because long-nose trucks are significantly larger than cab-over ones.
true – but from memory the nose were his arms before (at least in the toy)
about the 7:00 mark – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj23LLkE8lE
No size-changing in the live-action universe? Looks like they only said it with words…