So, Transformers One! I never really wrote about the movie here, thanks to being knee-deep in getting married around the time it came out, which is a shame (well, not about the wedding, that was great), because I rate One pretty high on the tier list of Transformers movies. A part of it was that the marketing made the film seem like it was going to be a laugh-a-minute kid’s comedy, and while the finished product certainly had a lot of jokes, it actually turned out to be a surprisingly serious, darker-than-expected take on the beginnings of the Great Transformer War, that went to a lot of unexpected places. For one thing, Chris Hemsworth’s version of Orion Pax seemed to come with the hint that his pushy, busybody nature may have played a big role in D-16 coming to hate him, and igniting the war. It’s an interesting take on the character, in an interesting take on Transformers in general. Since I’m a fiction-first kind of fan, a good movie makes me want to go out and get the merchandise. Which, if you’re collecting Studio Series stuff, is a measly two Deluxes.
Well, at least it’s the two leads.
This Studio Series release is based on Orion’s third and final form from the movie, after earning the Matrix of Leadership, and the name Optimus Prime, which is an interesting choice for the first (and for a long time, only) Transformers One release in the Studio Series, but kind of appeals to the kid in me, who’d rather imagine post-movie adventures, than just re-enact the film. The figure itself has has actually been out for awhile, releasing far in advance of the movie, but, again, because I’m a fiction-first fan of Transformers, I waited until I’d actually watched the flick before tracking him down. Fortunately, he’s a part of something called “A-Level” distribution, where Hasbro keeps him available to order for longer than normal Transformers, so it shouldn’t be too hard for you to track him down, too.
Robot Mode
A fledgling hero? Or a fledgling problem-causer?
It’s kind of funny. I closed 2024 talking about Legacy Optimus Prime, a Deluxe-sized figure that was strangely tiny. This Optimus is the opposite of that, being unusually big and bulky for a Deluxe.
Not quite as big as Netflix Prime, but getting there.
I’m not sure where the budget for his size came from, but him being just a little bit taller makes sense for Optimus Prime: The Early Years.
What not having any other Transformers One Autobots does to a MF.
He cuts a pretty dynamic figure, too, hitting all of the usual Optimus Prime design highlights (smokestack shoulders, a chest window, truck wheel legs), but filtered through a bit of a more greebly, high-tech aesthetic, and with just enough chunky blockitude to his sculpt to give him a real sense of mass. He’s also, from what I can tell, nicely screen-accurate, save for a bit of a backpack, but even that’s just a fairly unobtrusive flat panel.
As well as good weapon storage.
Uptop, he’s got a nicely detailed headsculpt, with a sort of angular v-shape to his face, and they’ve opted to keep his mouthplate deployed. The funny thing about this choice is that by hiding his face, they’ve basically made it so that the whole figure doesn’t really read as being a part of Transformers One’s slightly exaggerated art style.
A Prime for all seasons.
This reads more as just a normal Cybertron-mode Optimus, which makes it easier to fit him in with Transformers from other ranges. A funny thing about his look was that I could swear he reminded me of an old third-party Optimus Prime, and after searching around, I think Maketoys Striker Manus is the guy I was thinking of. Something about the complicated sculpt feels similar.
It’s more vibes and design language than anything specific.
His colors, meanwhile, have something a bit odd going on: They’re not technically film-accurate. Sure, he’s got all of the hits of color that he’s supposed to have, but his red, gray, and blue colors are all a little bit desaturated, a bit less vibrant, and in the case of the gray, a bit yellow, like we’re looking at him during sunset.
They’re about to have a duel at sundown.
This seems to be a bit hit or miss to some people, especially since it almost looks like his plastic has photodegraded, but personally, I like it, because it looks a bit dramatic. It wouldn’t surprise me if they re-release him later with his colors hue-shifted to screen accuracy, though. On top of his three primary colors, he’s got bits of yellow here and there, and a nice clear blue chestplate, letting you get a glimpse of the Matrix through it.
WHAAAAT IIIII’VE DOOOOONE
His build quality is where we run into some weirdness. Most of him is constructed solidly enough, but there’s some strangeness here and there, and to start with, we’re gonna have to talk about his crotch.
Hiking it up.
Basically, there’s this weird flappy panel over the entire font of it, that can raise and lower a bit. I think the idea here is that you can kick his legs forward really far, and it’ll move up and out of the way. It’s hanging off a couple of pegs, too, and pops off easier than I’d like.
Knock it off, and he dies of embarrassment.
It feels like an oddly complicated solution to something that wasn’t really a problem, since his legs can raise pretty far before you even need to move it, and they could have always just sculpted the whole….region…a little bit differently if they needed room. Meanwhile, moving up his body, there’s an odd, unsightly gap between his abdomen and chest.
Oh, that’s not right.
The two parts are supposed to peg together, but come apart fairly easily, giving him a kind of gruesome “torn in half” feature that’s a bit too easy to access.
“MAN I love doing this to Primes!”
Finally, his shoulders have an annoying tendency to dislocate along one of their transformation joints when you pull them outwards.
*Peter Cullen Swearing Outtake.wav*
They pop right back in, but it’s just another death by a thousand cuts for this aspect of him. All of his actual joints are nice and tight, though.
At least the weird crotch means he kicks high.
On the other hand, he’s got really good articulation, which is surprising, given that I’d have expected some of it to get cut to make him larger. He’s got all the expected modern joints and swivels, plus the usual extras, like ankle rockers and wrist swivels.
“Oh no, I’m late for Prime school!”
When it comes to bonus articulation, he’s got articulated toes thanks to his transformation, which make it easy to stand him up while running, and a pretty generous ball-joint on his head, with a big range of motion. Plus, as odd as his shoulders may be, I appreciate that they can also move inwards and outwards, and not just the usual forwards/backwards/sideways axis. It all combines with the sculpt to give him a nice sense of dynamism.
Or solemnity, if it’s needed.
For accessories and features, he’s actually got a lot going on. Firstly, he’s got his 11th-hour energy axe weapon, cast in solid blue.
No joke here, I just thought it was really cool when he flung replicas of it at Megatron, like some kind of fighting game attack.
I’d have gone with yellow, because out of the two colors it was in the film, it was mostly that, but I guess it needed to be on the same sprue as his chest.
Honestly, blue pops against his yellowy colors better.
You can fit it over either one of his fists really well, or, if you need to stash it somewhere, clip it onto his backpack on a bespoke tab. Next up, he’s got an identical feature to Legacy Deluxe Optimus, where his smokestacks can rotate, or pop off of his shoulders to serve as little pistols.
If this is a new thing every Optimus does, I’m not complaining.
There’s an obvious trick they missed with them, though: They’re too thick to hold most blast effects, so they can’t shoot fire like in the movie (I managed to cram Studio Series 86 Hot Rod’s blast effects on there, but it was a tight squeeze).
Literally only these ones worked.
Plus, pulling them out gives you access to a couple of 5-millimeter pegs, to weaponize as you like.
Borrowing some armaments from his….predecessor? Successor?
Next up, flip his chest open, and there’s a little Matrix of Leadership there.
Yup, there’s the problem.
It’s way smaller than the usual Earthrise and Legacy Matrixes, to the point where I wondered what the age rating was on the figure.
A Minor Matrix.
The whole thing’s cast in clear blue, painted silver and gold, and lovingly sculpted to include little details on the crystal inside. Pop it off, and it’s got a proper 5-millimeter peg on the back, for adding it into the Weaponizer system.
Or inducing blunt force trauma.
But its best feature has to do with the two clear tabs on either side of it. There’s grooves in his fists that they can slot into, letting him properly “hold” the Matrix by the handles with both hands, or one hand, if you want.
“We’ve been questing for this?”
It’s a really nifty little bonus that adds a lot here.
The obligatory pose.
Lastly, there’s this rubbery gray bar, with a couple of spikes (or lasers?) sticking out that’s really meant for his truck mode, so all it does here is stash inside of his backpack panel….rather poorly.
It falls out a lot.
The rubbery material, and a set of awkward tabs means that it’s prone to falling out at the slightest provocation. Granted, you can just leave it off and stash it somewhere else, but it still doesn’t feel great.
I guess you can sort of make an attack mode with it. No, blast effects won’t fit.
I also instinctively feel like he’s missing a proper Optimus-worthy Ion Blaster, but he actually didn’t use one in the movie, and I’ve got more than enough suitable replacements lying around that he can use.
Yup, that works!
Transformation
So, in the abstract, Transformers One Optimus transforms the same way most modern Primes do, which is to say, it’s mostly the G1 transformation, just with a waist twist to reverse the legs. The biggest difference here is that this Prime’s arms fold back towards the legs, instead of merging into the torso. The devil’s in the details, though, and those arms kind of cause trouble, as there’s a lot of tabs and holes you need to line up, and there’s a fair amount of massaging and fiddling involved, particularly when it comes to plugging the fists onto the little grips on his legs.
Holding onto himself for dear life.
I’ve got it figured out, but there was a bit of a learning curve.
Truck Mode
Honk, honk!
At the end of it all, you get a Cybertronian interpretation of a truck…that’s clearly mostly a guy lying down, visible arms and legs and all, with a sculpted grill and bumper, painted silver beneath his windows being the only newly-visible detail.
This robot ain’t in disguise.
Okay, to be fair, this is what it looks like in the movie, too, so I can’t knock it too hard for accuracy.
We got a Battle Convoy, ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Though, to be fair, the movie version hides his forearms and fists, instead of having them dangling off the sides of the truck bed. Still, I guess it makes sense in-universe for these alternate modes to be a bit more practical, and less flashy in design. Or maybe I’m telling myself that to cope.
Megatron’s more cohesive than he is.
The other odd thing is his smokestacks, which are located on the front corners of his altmode, and point forwards, like weapons.
You can still barely squeeze Hot Rod’s blast effects on there.
Still, provided you managed to get everything pegged in, it’s a more solid and stable alternate mode than you’d expect. It helps if you weave his energy axe between his back legs for storage, as it reinforces the connection between the legs.
Don’t think too hard about how this works.
For features, he, surprisingly, rolls nicely on four little hidden wheels underneath the truck. You can also take that rubbery set of spike-laser-thingies, and plug them into his truck bumper for extra firepower, though I don’t remember him ever using these in the movie?
Cowcatcher mode.
Still, a little extra’s always appreciated, though it can be a bit tough to get the assembly back off once you tab it in there. I’ve found it gets in there tight enough that I need to get behind the grill, and press each tab with a small object to get it out.
You’ll need to press those little square tabs with something.
Meanwhile, if you want to give him a bit more extra firepower, you can still use the five millimeter ports the smokestacks are attached to.
A prize from a former friend.
Overall
*WHAP!*
Studio Series One Optimus is a bot of contrasts. See, there’s nothing overly wrong with him, but does have a bunch of tiny things that bug me. His weird pelvis, gappy abdomen and pull-apart shoulders, his afterthought of a vehicle mode, the way that little spike thing likes to fall off of him, nothing’s a figure-killer, but they’re all just little things that make him fall short of greatness.
Like how Megatron’s about to make him fall.
At the same time, he pulls a lot of things off very well! He just looks good in his robot mode, and even from some angles of his truck mode, he’s very well-articulated and dynamic, and features like the tiny holdable Matrix really feel like extra effort was put in here, which makes sense, considering the whole “A-series” thing. So, I wouldn’t call him a critical must have, but if you want to start collecting Studio Series Transformers One figures, he’s not a bad place to begin. Thusfar, only he and Megatron are out, and to be honest, while I do like him, I mostly got Optimus so the guy I was more interested in had someone to face off against.
WHO COULD THAT BE, I WONDER?
But we’ll talk more about him next time.
This time, Pepperoni showed up for the shoot!
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