Dave's Transformers Rant:

     Optimus Prime Voice Changer

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Voice1

     I'm hearing that there's some variants out of this, some with Peter
Cullen voicing the pre-recorded lines, some with Garry Chalk.  Mine sounds
like a mix of Chalk and some generic person trying to sound Prime-like.

CAPSULE

     Optimus Prime Voice Changer: It can be worn by an adult, even over (not
too-big) glasses, albeit uncomfortably.  The voice changing isn't very
impressive, and would suit a Soundwave helmet better.  Mildly recommended.
$29.99 at Target.


RANT

     Packaging: In an open-fronted corrugated cardboard box, with just enough
top to it to try to stack 'em.  It has a Try Me mode, where all the buttons
on the side do the same thing, cycling through all the preset sounds.  The
trade dress is regular movie line, not kiddie line.  
     Cosells on the bottom show Cyber-Stompin' Prime, Leader Class Prime, and
the Nerf gun Prime.  The right and left panels have robot mode movie art of
Prime.  The back shows the helmet, explains the buttons, and lists the
"Battle Phrases".  Above the picture it says, "Become OPTIMUS PRIME!"  In the
upper right is the following copy:
     "Become the mighty leader of the AUTOBOTS!  Defend the Earth against the
DECEPTICONS as the invincible OPTIMUS PRIME!  Lead your fellow robots in a
battle to save the AllSpark from the cruel hands of mighty MEGATRON!"
     The battle phrases are:
     - AUTOBOTS...roll out! (incorrect, it really says "AUTOBOTS, transform
and roll out!")
     - I am OPTIMUS PRIME!
     - MEGATRON is in my sights!
     - We must protect the Allspark cube! (yes, inconsistent S capitalization
on the same package)
     - The DECEPTICONS must be stopped!

     In Try Me mode, it cycles through these and the classic transforming
sound.  The third and fourth phrases listed above don't really sound like
either Chalk or Cullen, but the rest sound like Chalk on mine.
     At the bottom of the package back, the three buttons are labeled and
listed:
     1) BATTLE PHRASES: OPTIMUS PRIME speaks!
     2) VOICE CHANGER: make your voice sound like a robot!
     3) CONVERSION SOUNDS: hear OPTIMUS PRIME change from a truck to a robot
and back! 

     Cutting six pieces of tape at the top lets you open the top of the box
and wrestle the inner tray out.  Five heavy twist-ties hold the mask to the
inner tray.  Instructions are between the trays.  There's three pieces for
the back of the helmet just loose inside the helmet.

     The good news is, there's an adjustable headband thing inside.  The bad
news is, this is in no way designed to accomodate glasses.  Even with my new,
smaller frames, I needed to go to the extremes of adjustment to fit the
helmet on over my glasses, and the headband would only connect at one point
on either side (rather than both) when in that extreme.  At least the lenses
are brownish, so I wouldn't need to also wear sunglasses under this.  :)
     Including the antennae bits, the helmet is about a foot (30cm) tall.
It's mostly made of dark blue plastic, with gunmetal gray on the outer
antennae, middle ear covers and cheekguard armor.  The headband is also dark
blue.  There's black rubberized plastic around the eyes in the inside, a
goggle fit I might appreciate more if I wore it without glasses.  Ther's
sufficient venting to avoid steaming up the brown clear plastic lenses in
normal use, I hope.  There's extensive gunmetal paint, plus some black and
metallic orange paint details.  Down the left cheek, just ahead of the
cheekguard piece, are a series of Cybertronian glyphs between the vent slits,
like Prime's got himself some tats.  
     The sound controls are on the right cheekguard.  A three position switch
has on, off and demo.  When on, pressing the upper forward button triggers
one of the two transformation sound effects (forward and reverse
transformation).  The upper rear button shouts out one of the preset phrases,
which echoes pretty loudly inside the helmet.  Holding down the bottom button
activates the voice changer.
     The microphone inside the helmet is on a flexible stalk, so you can try
to get it closer to your mouth.  The changed voice is fairly flat and
monotone, like a cross between Soundwave and Marvin the Paranoid Android.
The sounds themselves come out of the helmet crest, which is also where the
batteries go.
     While wearing the helmet, peripheral vision is pretty much gone,
especially downward-looking vision.  You can see a little down through the
slots, but walking around a room strewn with Transformers packaging while
wearing it is, um, a bad idea.  Also, wearing it over glasses will jam them
right into your eyebrows, getting them messy.  The glasses, not the
eyebrows.  Although I suppose if you carefully style your eyebrows it might
mess them up too.
     Finally, here's a bit of picture-in-the-mirror with me wearing it:
     http://www.dvandom.com/images/primehelmet.JPG

     Is it worth thirty bucks?  Well, if you don't wear glasses, almost
definitely.  If it'll fit over my head while wearing glasses, it'll fit just
about any head, even that kid who was on the Daily Show because he couldn't
get a big enough football helmet.  The rear pieces don't stay on as well as
I'd like, though.  Right now, irritation caused by the nosepads on my new
glasses has made my nose hurt (takes a few days for the new pads to break
in), I'll try it on again once that goes away and amend my review if need
be.  But it's kinda uncomfortable with glasses.

     Dave Van Domelen, working through his stack, mainly simple stuff first.