Flame Toys have been putting out a very cool series of Transformers model kits featuring various design variations on familiar Transformers characters. In addition to IDW inspired versions, there’s an excellent-looking G1 Optimus Prime coming very soon. The IDW model kit of Optimus has been out for a while.
That one had been on my “to buy” list, but then I saw that Flame Toys was going to be putting out an actual action figure based on the IDW version, so I opted to wait for that one, since it was prebuilt, pre-weathered, no muss or fuss.
A few months ago I reeived the recent Revoltech Yamaguchi Optimus Prime. It was a ton of fun to move around, so that had set a gold standard in articulation for my Autobot leader. I have to say that the Flame Toys version easily matches it in terms of “stuff it can do.”
The IDW version of Optimus carries with it most of the usual Optimus highlights, just with a little stylistic variation added to differentiate it. There’s enough of a “classic” look to it to keep it all recognizable, but enough is different so it has a bit more of a mechy Cybertronian feel.
Going on pictures, it looks like it’s essentially the model kit in action figure form, except with the addition of some paint touches that give it more of a lived-in feel, where the model kit is more out-of-the-box pristine and would need some work to make it feel used. The sculpting is clean and sharp, and everything has a nice weighty look to it that makes it look like it should be heavier than it is. The price difference between the two is 30 dollars, so you have to figure out if the worth is equal to the cost to have everything already done for you. While I love building model kits, I don’t regret the extra money for what I got.
The articulation is the main selling point, and it’s pretty phenomenal, it has: ball jointed head with a jointed neck, fully articulated shoulders/biceps with double-jointed elbows and jointed wrists, two torso joints that allow you to crunch and tilt from side to side, a huge range in the hips including moveable parts that get out of the way for deep crouches, single-jointed knees with a huge range of motion (the wheels on the back of the leg slide inward and get out of the way as you bend the knee) and hinged ankles that give you some forward and backward and side to side, inhibited only slightly by the design.
Dude can split better than most of the Spider-manseses I have.
I was expecting the articulation to work pretty well based on promo pictures and what the one Bumblebee model I’ve built so far (with a few others waiting for me to get off my lazy ass and put them together) but it exceeded my expectations in-hand. I can always appreciate it when articulation isn’t just plentiful but useful as well; nothing is worse than a ton of articulation that’s so poorly engineered that nothing really has the range it should have. All the articulation has the proper placement and clearance to let him take full advantage of it.
Optimus comes with three sets of hands: fists, gun-holding and splayed. They all plug in very easily to a small plug that holds the hands firmly in place. The gun hands have to be separated into two pieces in order to fit the grip into the hand and then snapping both pieces apart, so there’s a little extra step there, but once the gun is secured in his hand it’s not going anywhere. In addition to the hands, he comes with his signature gun. He does feel a little light in accessories, but outside of the usual energy axe or whatever other higher-end Optimus figures comes with there’s not much I really “want” that just some alternate hands and a gun doesn’t satisfy, so in the end that’s not a complaint.
He comes with a stand that’s different from the type of stands I usually see. The arm can attach to any of the fours sides and can slide from front to back, which gives you a decent array of options.
At right at 7 inches, Optimus sizes well with Hasbro’s War of Cybertron Siege Optimus Prime. I don’t have the more recent Earthrise Optimus yet, but I think he’s comparable as well.
Optimus is Flame Toys’ first stab at a full-on action figure, and my opinion is that it’s a success, and makes me eager for anything else they’ll be pumping out later. I was already going to be grabbing more and more of their model kits, but if they’re jumping into action figures, they’re going to be getting a lot more of my money.
