DJ (Re)Plays With: Transformers: Age of Extinction Voyager Class Evasion Optimus Prime
With an extra year break in-between movies, the Transformers returned to the big screen in 2014. However, the toy industry had changed greatly in the interim three years, due to a combination of petroleum prices fluctuating and the play habits of kids dropping off at an accelerated rate than before. While the days of gigantic, 7 wave long movie tie in toy lines may well be over, Transformers is still based on said aforementioned toy line, so of course they still made one, albeit one greatly abbreviated from the past. While the larger Leader class toy took a shot at recreating the brand new designed Optimus Prime from this fourth movie (and I’ll get to that when I talk about the next toy), for the Voyager class they opted to adapt the throwback design the Autobot leader sports when in hiding early in the film. This is Transformers: Age of Extinction Voyager Class Evasion Optimus Prime.
Let me point out now how weird and bizarre it is that now – four movies in – they finally went and addressed the minor fanboy uproar about Optimus Prime not being a flat nosed truck in these movies by finally making him a flat nosed truck, long after most people stopped caring or completely forgot they were supposed to be angry about it. Unlike his worn out look in the movie, however, they opted to complete the G1 reference by painting him in more or less his classic color scheme – no flames, just the classic red, blue, and grey. It’s done well enough, but honestly the adherence to the color scheme actually does hurt his robot mode, but put a pin on that for now. It’s just a nice, clean updated truck mode from that original character and there’s really not much to complain about. The one aspect that sticks to his dilapidated state in the movie is the single smokestack on his right side, with the left missing and presumably broken off. It also rolls nicely, so there’s that.
One of the real treats of this toy is the transformation. It’s simple and intuitive but its trick of essentially turning the G1 truck mode inside out into the ’07 movie’s robot mode in great. There was a lot of talk back then of how a flat nosed truck would have made for a smaller Optimus Prime, so it’s fascinating from a toy engineering view how far technology has advanced that they now could in fact hide movie Prime in the once “too small” cab. For how disappointed I was going into this movie’s toy line, this is the toy that made me do a 180 and realize that this line would have some real treats in it. I just can’t stress enough how utterly cool I thought it was they were able to do this with a simple transformation but still include an “Aha!’ moment.
When I say it turns into that first movie’s robot mode, I mean it. The silhouette, the chest and abdominal details, the legs, and everything harkens straight back to that version of the model, without any of the adjustments and updates he received in RotF and DotM. It’s great, and while the detail is a little washed by the otherwise solid reds and blues, what’s there is fantastic. The downside to the G1 paint scheme I mentioned earlier is that his otherwise silver feet are now also solid blue, which is a shame because the silver paint on this toy, like Primes past, actually does a great deal to help the details pop out on places like his plate-less face to great effect.
Poseability is more than the standard set of joints. The head is on a good ball joint, but also on a sort of forward and backward swivel allowing his head to crane back and forth for that extra little bit. Arms are on the usual swivel joint at the shoulders with cut joints at the bicep and wrist, and despite the block at the elbow looking like it might mess with movement, it has the decent beyond 90-degree range available. Proper waist joint on the toy works with the usual hip movement and thigh cuts, with the knees bending maybe not as much as I’d like but gets at least 90 degrees. Rounding out with some ankle tilts that also come with back and forth movement and this toy can be placed in most any pose you’d want a movie Prime to be in.
As far as accessories go, Prime comes with a gray spring-loaded shotgun weapon, which in and of itself is fine, but I actually really don’t like as a weapon for him. It just doesn’t look quite right in action poses. It looks fine when in ready or rest poses, but the placement of the handle just makes it all look weird and like he doesn’t know how to hold a shotgun otherwise. It is still, however, pretty awesome. Why? Because if you look at the butt of the shotgun, there’s a notable long tab on it, and if you happen to own the Dark of the Moon Voyager class Megatron, said tabs just so happen to perfectly fit into his hands, finally giving the crazed, cloaked Decepticon leader his proper weapon from that film. It somewhat makes sense that Optimus would still be carrying it around since he was the last guy using said weapon, but I digress. It’s a neat little bonus for collectors who have been collecting the line for the last little bit, and while it means Prime doesn’t actually have his own gun, that’s not so bad since it’s his later form in AoE that has the more iconic armaments anyway.
Overall, this toy is great. It’s fun to play with, fun to transform, and the whole package is a great experience. As a toy for kids he can do battle with the best of them in toy box wars, and as an older collector, the puzzle play aspect and posing makes him well worth owning. If you admire engineering, it’s well worth getting your hands on it without any instructions and just seeing it literally unfold from truck to robot is an exercise worth going through. Yes, it’s a little disappointing that beyond a somewhat difficult to find and overly pricey store exclusive version he comes in G1 colors rather than one accurate to his rusted-out mode from the movie, it’s just a great toy. Accounting for how the Age of Extinction line was one of the first produced after the toy industry was climbing out of “The Economy” as a limiting factor to toy design and product use, and he’s even more impressive and maybe the best example of the earlier Dark of the Moon initiative to simplify transformations while still being detailed and screen accurate. He is well worth picking up, and is ultimately a much better toy than either of the Leader Class versions of his later knight inspired design.
But wait, you may ask, I really like his newer modes from this movie, surely it’s worth picking up the Leader class for that? Well, yeah, the second, non-First Edition one is mostly okay, and the Japanese exclusive version is better, but even then, they’re somewhat lacking. Fortunately, much like the first movie, if you just wait long enough for the next movie, you may be rewarded for your patience with a superior version of that Optimus Prime…
