Dave's Titanium Series Rant Target Exclusive Movie Optimus Prime 3-Pack Protoform Optimus Prime Vehicle Mode Optimus Prime Robot Mode Optimus Prime Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/3TiX1 Despite the "X1" part of the link, this isn't actually the first Titanium exclusive, just the first I've gotten. Toys R Us has a two-pack of G1 Prime and Bumblebee in shinier paint schemes, but I passed on it. The box proclaims that the Protoform figure is exclusive to Target, meaning that the truck mode will be getting released at some point. And, of course, it's entirely possible that the Protoform is only exclusive in this particular color scheme, and the mold will come out separately later as well. But it lets me get two molds early, and I don't really need to buy either again separately, regardless of color schemes. See http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/3Ti4 for the regular Movie Prime figure, as far as I can tell, the 3-pack version is identical to the single-pack version. CAPSULE Movie Optimus Prime 3-Pack: Two decent figures and a good one. If you have none of them as a single-pack, recommended. If you already have the single-pack robot Prime, mildly recommended for being a tad overpriced for what you get (especially since at least the truck will come out separately, and a color-different Protoform probably will). $12.99 at Target. RANT Packaging: The basic shape is like an upside down Cybertron Voyager box, a narrow-topped trapezoid shape with the front corners truncated. Most of the front is a window, with a bit of cardboard bordering made up to look like Prime's chest, typical of Titanium packaging. It's 10" (25cm) wide at the bottom, 8.5 (22cm) wide at the top. It's 6" (15cm) tall and 2.5" (6.5cm) deep at both top and bottom. Just above the cardstock border on the bottom left is the "ONLY AT (o)" (okay, my attempt at an ASCII Target symbol) sticker. The front left panel says, "Includes exclusive Protoform figure!" The middle panel has the Transformers logo and the names of each figure underneath the figure. The front right bottom panel says, "Die cast metal! Includes display bases!" The bottom of the box shows cosells for Decepticon Brawl, Autobot Jazz and Autobot Ratchet...it's the All-Trademark-Hassle Wave! The back shows photos of the three toys, and a single bio note for all three, with no techspecs. At the bottom is a RoboVision bit, which just kicks out "ROBOVISION" again. There's no RoboVision decoder. Because of the tapered shape, it's best to open the bottom (requiring the cutting of four pieces of tape). Taped in baggies inside are two pegless Autobot symbol bases, the bags taped to the cardboard tray. Inside, the three figures are twist-tied onto blister backs that are glued to the cardboard tray. The tray itself has "RoboVision" sighting details on it, centering on the truck mode, to make it look like Prime is scanning the truck. A little "Titanium Series Die-Cast" logo card is on a strut at the top. The two robot modes are held in with one twist-tie each, the truck with two. AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME Designed to protect him against the rigors of interstellar travel, the Protoform mode of OPTIMUS PRIME is a pitted, meteor-scarred apparatus of alien metal, forged in the heat of distant suns. Its rounded, flaring edges are lined with superconductive materials to bleed away the catastrophic heat of reentry into a planetary atmosphere. Housed within his indestructible body, OPTIMUS PRIME also carries the same scanning equipment as the other TRANSFORMERS, with which he scans an Earth transport vehicle, adopting its shape as his disguise on this new planet. Thus hidden, he is free to move about this planet among its inhabitants, keeping them safe and secure until the time comes for him to reveal himself. Ultra-high-temperature superconductors, keen! ;) No techspecs, but presumably they're the same as on the single-pack version. Protoform Robot Height: 2.75" (7cm) at the head, 3" (7.5cm) at the top of the back kibble. Parts: Chest and lower legs are metal. The rest of the parts seem to be made of a metallic light blue plastic. Paints: The metal parts are painted to a very good match with the plastic parts. His chest windows are painted medium blue, and there's little red dots on the front and back of each shoulder, plus red eyes. He's got black on hands, upper arms, some torso details, and on the variety of fake wheels on his back and legs. Oddly, they molded the actual wheels from the Protoform Deluxe toy too, interesting attention to detail. Pose: Stepping forward with left foot leading, both arms slightly bent. The shoulders, neck and waist turn, although his big back kibble plate restricts waist movement. The backplate is an odd choice, given how most of the other protoform kibble bits are suppressed, and the actual Deluxe toy lacks a big backplate. Overall: It looks pretty good, actually. If/when it becomes available separately, it's worth picking up. Truck Mode Size: Just shy of 4" (10cm) long, that makes this about 1:96 scale (it's half as long as the Voyager version), so not to scale with Hot Wheels cars (they're 1:72), but it's a little more likely to be compatible with Hot Wheels and Matchbox playsets (the wheelbase is 32mm wide, a little wider than standard Hot Wheels). [Update: according to a poster, the vehicle is 336" long at full size, so it's more like 1:87 scale.] Parts: The cab top is metal. The wheel hubs, barrel things ahead of the doors, steps below the doors, grille in front and weird chain-holder thingy behind the cab are rigid silver plastic. The smokestacks and side mirrors are rubbery silver plastic. The windows are clear colorless plastic. The tires are rubberized black plastic, and the rest of the toy is black plastic. [Later note: Nutjob R/T of the AllSpark suggests that the silver chunk behind the cab is a guard installed on logging trucks, and the chains are for the tires. Necromancer Bob counters that they seem standard for flatbed haulers in general, and they're just chain racks for carrying spare tie-downs. In any case, the rack does appear on the movie version, making this toy more accurate than the vehicle modes of any of the transforming Primes.] Paint: The cab is painted in the blue and red alternating flame patterns typical of movie Prime, and the rear fenders are painted red with blue flames. The windshield visor and roof lights are painted silver, as are some bottom border bits. A couple of dabs of paint on the headlights would be nice, though, but I can fix that easily enough. Pose: It's a truck, what do you want? The wheels turn on through-axles, with one tire on each side of the front axle and two on each side of the rear axles. This version has a feature not seen on Voyager Prime's truck mode, however. Some sort of rack or armored wall mounted behind the cab, with what appear to be chains spooled up on it. Maybe he has a sort of ad hoc tow truck function? Also of possible interest, there's four phillips-head screws on the bottom. They seem to be in there hard enough to fuse, or maybe there's glue in there, either way they're not coming out without a lot more effort than it's worth to me. :) Overall: Nice die-cast truck, although comparing it to other similar- scale trucks makes the Titanium price point of $6 seem a bit high. Set overall: If packaged separately, I'd rate the Protoform as recommended and the truck as mildly recommended, mainly due to being overpriced. I've already rated the regular movie Prime robot as mildly recommended. All together, though, if you haven't gotten the single-pack version of Prime yet, I'd recommend getting this. Dave Van Domelen, still hasn't opened the Leaders or the non-exclusive Voyagers....