Dave's Transformers Rant

     Optimus Prime Battle Rig Blaster

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/NerfPrime

     There's also a Starscream jet, but at the $30 price point I decided to
stick with just one.  And Prime looked better in pictures.  

CAPSULE

     Optimus Prime: Probably the coolest roleplay toy for Transformers ever.
The only caveat is that if you have large hands for an adult, you'll have
trouble using it.  Strongly recommended.  $31.99 at K-Mart, probably $29.96
when it hits Wal-Mart.


RANT

     Packaging: Big red and yellow box with one corner open to show the front
of the vehicle mode, and a hole in the opposed side so you can test out the
fit.  16" (40cm) wide, 10" (25cm) tall, 6.5" (17cm) deep.
     In what seems to be the standard movie pattern, the box is red with a
blue-rimmed gray oval off-center, and lots of yellow highlights.  The
corroded metal movie logo is seen in many places, and the individual toy logo
looks kinda Playskool-ish, as mentioned in the Cyber Stompin' Bumblebee
review.  The upper front right corner is open, as is a 4" (9.5cm) hole in the
left side.  No plastic windowing.
     The front is dominated by a picture of a kid shouting as he swings the
gauntlet gun up into attack, with frame-shots of the truck being
transformed.  Between main pic and frames is the copy, "One pull!  Truck to
Blaster!"  There's smaller copy pointing out that it includes three darts.
In the lower right corner is the age limit (5+) and the conversion
difficulty (1, or Easy Conversion).  So this is a nice bit of consistency
with the Cyber Stomper, which had the same look but "Non-Converting".
     The top shows the truck mode more clearly, and says, "Roll Optimus Prime
into action!"  It also has a littel fold-down tab that warns about shooting
at people, modifying the blaster, etc.  You know, legal CYA so that when
people make it so that it can shoot crossbow bolts they're not to blame.
     Right side is mostly missing, but has another shot of the truck cab, the
logos, and the copy, "Battle the DECEPTICONS with OPTIMUS PRIME!"  The left
has the words "Blaster Fits On Your Arm!" around the hole, and the character
logo again.  The bottom is a repeat of the top, but without the legalese.
     On the back is a repeat of shouting kid, now with a dart shown flying
out of the barrel.  Four clear frames show the conversion process, with
"Pull back handle to get ready for action!" under it.  There's also callouts
of: "Easy conversion to dart blaster!" "Includes 3 darts!" and "Dart storage
inside!"  There's also a repeat of the clear shot of the truck
     In the lower left is the copy, "Hidden among us, alien machines of
incredible power fight their ancient battle for the AllSpark.  They are...THE
TRANSFORMERS!  Welcome to the ranks of the AUTOBOTS!  Now you can join the
fight against the DECEPTICONS with this incredible, converting arm blaster!
Roll into battle, and blast evil with this awesome dart launching blaster!"
The last line is in yellow and italics, the rest in white.  
     A second corrugated cardboard tray is inside the main box, and one piece
of tape in the upper right window area keeps the two together.  You can open
the main box from either end, but have to cut the tape to get the inner tray
out.  The truck mode is held onto this tray by three heavy twist-ties.  A
blister is tab-taped to the tray to hold the three darts, but you can pull
the darts out without having to undo the blister.  There's one rubber band
around the cab halves to keep them from flopping open in package.

     Vehicle Mode: This is a slightly chunky/chibi tractor-trailer.  The cab
is basically a shortened version of the movie Prime, but the trailer looks
very G1 in design.  Since none of the other Prime toys I've seen for the
movie have trailers, I dunno if he ever has a trailer like this in the movie,
or if they just put in the G1 version for lack of an official movie design.
There's ten wheels, the front two share an axle but the rest are
independent.  All roll freely.  The whole thing is 15" (38cm) long, 7.5"
(19cm) tall and 5" (13cm) wide.
     The cab is mainly a dark blue plastic, although the grille is black
plastic.  The wheels and underside are also black plastic.  The trailer is
medium gray plastic.  The handle inside the trailer is safety orange, as are
the barrel tip and slider visible on the underside.  The handle atop the cab
is black.
     Much of the front end is painted red, with flames trailing onto the
sides.  The grille, bumber, stacks, fuel tanks and visor/lights are silver,
the the centers of the lights themselves being yellow.  The headlights are
white, as is the license plate (with blue PRIME).  The windows are painted
black.  The hood ornament is a red-outline Autobot symbol on the silver
grille.  On the wheels, the hubcaps are silver painted.  On the sides of the
trailer, the molded large Autobot symbol is painted red, and the molded G1
stripes are painted dark blue, a good match for the blue plastic.
     Inside the trailer are slots to hold the three darts.  The holder is on
the left side, making this a right-handed toy unless you have very small
hands.  There's also enough room inside for one Deluxe-sized vehicle mode to
fit inside, if it's short.  The Fast Attack Battlers look like they'd not
only fit, but also have the right chibi look.
     The truck rolls nicely on carpet on its fat 2" (5cm) diameter, 1"
(2.5cm) wide wheels.  Feels kinda Tonka.

     Transformation: Put your right hand down the back of the trailer (making
this the Robot Chicken "Junk In The Trunk" Prime getting a proctology exam).
Grab the handle atop the cab with your left hand.  Pull up and back.
     KACHUNK!  
     A little tap to make sure everything seats right and you're done.  Push
up and away to reverse.
     The front sides of the trailer fold back, the cab splits open and comes
to the top, and much of the suspension flips up to become the barrel.

     Gun mode: Now, while the truck mode has movie aspects, this is 100% G1
Prime's forearm and right hand.  Oddly, the index and middle fingers of the
Primehand are on the trigger, not just the index.  From barrel tip to back of
the gauntlet, this is a beefy 19.5" (50cm) long.  The forearm part alone is
5.5" (14cm).  The gun, which is reminiscent of Prime's G1 rifle, but more
pistol sized, is 16.5" (42cm) long, but cannot be removed from the hand.
     The barrel tip is an orange piece of plastic that's also the pump
slide.  Pulling it back reveals a small orange ring on the center core, just
to make sure it always has an orange tip.  But that's the only color
concesstion to safety laws.  The hand is mostly painted dark blue, although
to save money on paint masks the top and bottom are still gray.  The flaps
that fold out to become the forearm sides are molded with the G1 Prime's
pattern and painted solid red.  The gun itself is black with some silver
paint.  A bit of blue plastic is visible on the inside barrel.
     The darts are yellow foam, purple-tipped whistler darts.  The muzzle
velocity is respectable for small Nerf darts.  Mind you, these are the
standard 1.5cm diameter Nerf darts, so you can always replace them with
sucker tip or velcro tip darts if you want.
     And I must say, cocking the weapon involves a very satisfying KACHUNK.
It fires with a nice thump sound, even if not loaded.  It doesn't rapid fire,
since it needs to be loaded manually each time, the only real "flaw" with the
toy.  But if you just want to fake-fire it, it has a very fast pump and
dry-fire cycle.  CHUNKthumpCHUNKthumpCHUNKthump!

     Overall: Okay, big and bulky roleplay toys have limited appeal to adult
collectors, but this one is worth getting over any reluctance you may have.
Not only does it have a proper (if Go-Bot-ish) vehicle mode, but it's also a
very cool nerf gun.  Combine with the voice-changer helmet for a Halloween
costume.  :)  Sadly, not available in left-handed version for two-gun mojo.
But you can always scrape up Energon Prime's gun for your off hand.

     Dave Van Domelen, needs to go into the park across the street some time
and terrorize people with this....