Guest Comments by Justin Anderson, since I'm not rebuying a $70 toy. Dave CAPSULE 20th Anniversary DVD Edition Optimus Prime: A slight recoloring of the previous US release of this toy with a bonus talking base and new packaging. Strongly Recommended if you have no version of this toy already, recommendation drops if you do (depending on what you have, I'd wager). $69.96 at Wal-Mart, $69.99 at Target, and $89.99 at Toys R Us. RANT The fifth release of this mold so far - Japan has had MP-01 Convoy (long stacks, cardboard trailer), MP-02 Ultra Magnus (white redeco done up as the white cab the G1 Ultra Magnus toy came with) and MP-04 Convoy with Trailer (a reissue of MP-01 with an official trailer accessory and massive price bump), while the US had 20th Anniversary Prime (for the 20th anniversary of the toy line's birth in the US) and now the 20th Anniversary DVD edition - timed just before Sony's big release of a new 20th anniversary edition of Transformers: The Movie on DVD...the 3rd DVD release of the movie, behind two prior Rhino releases. Availability doesn't seem to be an issue this time, of course - higher shipment numbers as well as over-saturation of the first version are likely to leave this one easier to find. Packaging: A standard box this time around with a small sturdy cardboard tray attached to the bottom by cardboard slats. The tray can be pulled off and used to hold small stuff in. The box opens normally from the top (the bottom is flapped together with no tape, I suppose you could open it there too). Prime, the axe and Megatron gun are twist-tied down while the Matrix sits in by the shape of the tray. Lots of twist ties including some that don't go through the back. UPDATE: The box actually has a very slight slant to it, widening at the top. But it's so slight I almost didn't even notice it. This may be why it's not openable from the bottom. The packaging is Classics so I would assume this toy to be considered as part of the line (which means we get 3 Primes - the standard voyager, 2-pack G1 version and this). "20th Anniversary DVD Edition (DVD not included) is on the front with battery warnings. The left side displays a lot of toy features, the right has a paragraph about Optimus Prime the fictional character and the movie rather than a character bio. The back is more photos and features. Instructions use lifted artwork with a new panel for the display stand. Energon Axe: unchanged, apparently. Megatron gun: the sliding piece of the handle and the stock are now made of some odd translucent green of a very dark variety. I thought it was just shiny black until I held it to the light. It's soft and a touch wobbly in the slider. I guess this stuff cured a bit smaller? UPDATE 5/30/07: kitbashed the attachment parts (scope, stock, silencer) into the cannon emplacement mode and had to do some cutting. The "green" rubber is actually clear with a heavy coating of a very dark green paint over it to appear black, like how a lot of "black" markers are actually really dark green or purple. Matrix: Chrome ditched for silver and gold paints. The halves are also a touch floppy opened or closed, I'd assume this to be a case of the chrome covering adding extra size to keep things stable. Gun: blue with the silver paint apps of the original and some yellow at the back end. Mine has the very tip piece glued in straight...both of my original run figures had this slightly uneven. The plastic "jewel" in the end is still green. The rest: The red plastic is a bit lighter shade, with the blue a flatter shade with no glitter in it. All chrome is ditched in favor of silver paint - this makes the small metal square bit above the bumper more obvious. All die-cast is retained with a flatter-shaded paint than the original. The new paint is a heavier duty stuff than the original issue used and seems to have a thicker coating. It also tends to be a flatter, non-glossy shade to the point of making the toy look like solid plastic. The panel bits in the toes are now painted opaque. The eyes are light blue paint instead of blue chrome now and the mouth plate moves easier when you push the button. All the blast marks and dirt paint are gone, and both the silver bicep bits and abdomen striped are changed to a pearly white paint(and whereas the silver abdomen paint of the original extended to cover the wheel wells in truck mode, they do not here- one irritation I had with the original was the silver in that spot scraping due to transformation, so I'm a touch glad it was ditched). The lights on the top of the cab lack the orange tips now, just solid gunmetal. In addition, the small vents on the cheeks are painted yellow, much like the original Hasbro promo pics of the first release. The gray cylinders on his legs and silver bars on his feet are unpainted this time. The plastic piece the head sits on is a bit darker than the rest of the plastic - given the ball joint the head attaches to, this piece may require a sturdier plastic than the rest of the toy and have its own separate mold sprue. The communicator stickers are changed. Grimlock on the right and Megatron on the left. MP-04 has these same stickers from what I've seen. No mold changes from what I can tell (though the Matrix cover is reversed in-package with the bumper forward so it may look retooled at first glance). Toy is as sturdy as the original (and I've owned MP-01 and the previous US release before this). The version on the box photos seems to be an odd hybrid piece - the DVD edition with the long chrome Japanese stacks for robot mode and vehicle mode is either MP-01 or -04 with blast markings on the right shoulder. Truck mode on the box also has these odd black outline marks on the cab stripes. The feature pictures on the side of the box use photos lifted from the original American box. They also package the toy with the antenna on the head pointing back for some odd reason. Given the HTS catalog that ships in the mail photographs the toy this way, I wonder if someone along the line when doing the packaging didn't know what Prime's head looked like and pointed them back for some reason. Oh, and this release of Prime uses a blue LED instead of the white one. Seems no brighter or dimmer, though. Stand: A large gray piece molded with a relief image of the Matrix in the bottom and the Autobot emblem on the front. It contains a voice chip...however, Hasbro had no means to lift Cullen's samples from the movie (they claim, anyway, that they couldn't borrow the materials from Sony in time) so they got a local guy to say the lines. They're okay for what they're worth but I wouldn't count on the guy getting hired in any official cartoon capacity. The button is the molded top forehead of the emblem and the speaker is insanely loud. It's an okay stand for the figure though I'm not sure the electronics warrant a $10 inflation. Overall: If you have no version of the toy, it's a good piece to pick up domestically. If you really want a trailer them money isn't an issue for you anyway and you've either bought MP-04 or one of the myriad of unofficial trailers already. You can also buy repro long stacks online if they matter that much to you (sellers make them in either plastic or metal). I'm not sure if the stand warrants a re-purchase of the toy if you own it, though.