That’s a heck of a title. Basically this is Unicron Trilogy (Cybertron) Optimus Prime, in the Siege line…for some reason. It looks like they’re explaining it in the current comic series, but I haven’t been reading so idunno.
At first, when this toy was announced I was annoyed. Like a lot of jerk-wad Gee-Woners, I tend to look down on the Unicron Trilogy as “inferior”. I often forget there are a whole crop of fans who grew up with these shows being “their” Transformers. Just like the Movie-verse kids, as a fan community we need to remember that. But still. Galaxy Prime? Meh I said. MEH. My actual reasoning was that we already had Optimus and I didn’t get why we needed yet another one in the same line. But you know what Has/Tak says to that? Meh. MEH.
Now it’s time to eat crow – because frankly, this toy is radical. As an update to a toy that is undoubtedly a fan favorite, the new type of Leader-class toy works as a great option here. Like Ultra Magnus, you get an “inner” smaller robot that you add armor on to become a bigger “Leader” sized toy. It’s a fun gimmick that’s been around since the G1 days of Ultra Magnus.
This is where I really fell in love though. I kinda have a soft spot for “fat” Transformers. The inner robot for Galaxy Prime, the regular Optimus toy, is a chunkster. It’s awesome. He’s designed this way so the actual leader toy is bulky but I 100% prefer him sans-armor. Plus the head sculpt is spectacular and he even has the G1 yellow eyes. My copy has some wonky paint, but I sort of dig it, as it looks a little weathered, and that fits in well with the line.
I was also surprised to see how close in size he is to the Voyager-class release of Optimus. I assumed he would be much smaller, but he’s not at all.
As I mentioned earlier, the Leader-class figures of this line all feature “power up” armor. They begin essentially as Voyager sized toys, and with added armor, gain the extra bulk to make them Leader class. Shockwave, Magnus and now Galaxy Prime all pull this off quite well, with Shockwave being probably the weaker example (I would have been just fine if they released him as a Voyager).
Vehicle mode does a really good job of mimicking the original toy. The armor parts all connect together to form a trailer/second half of a fire truck quite well. Everything pegs and snaps securely into place so you have a nice solid form at the end of it. Because this figure uses the Magnus frame though, you can also use the trailer as a battle station and just have Optimus in truck-cab mode too.
BOTTOM LINE
I’ve eaten my crow on this toy. Sure I poo-poo’d the living daylights out of it at first, but its a really fun Optimus Prime. Fans of Armada will rejoice for sure, but others may find a very surprisingly fun Leader Class out of this one. We just seriously need a lot more Decepticons in this line to balance out the ratio a bit.
Pax Cybertron 