Dave's Transformers Dark of the Moon Rant Preview Pack Optimus Prime Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/DotM/Preview1 This time out, rather than making a preview at the Deluxe size (Protoforms for the first movie, Bumblebee and Soundwave for the second), they're using the preview to introduce the new Cyberverse class, which is essentially a tweaked Legends class. Specifically, Optimus Prime is the slightly larger "Commander" style, selling at the Scout pricepoint and including accessories and using bulkier vehicle modes. Micromaster-like battle stations and playsets will also be coming. As far as I can tell, this mold will also be coming out in non-preview packaging later on, maybe with slightly tweaked colors. These appeared mostly in endcap displays, at my local Walmart the endcap also included a bunch of wave 4-5 Generations toys. CAPSULE Optimus Prime: Some stability issues in both modes, but looks decent as a robot and good as a truck, plus the transformation is clever. The potential of the Cyberverse line is hinted at, and it looks good from an engineering standpoint. My only real problem is the price point. Recommended if you can deal with sticker shock. $7.96 at Walmart. RANT Packaging: I expect this will not be exactly what the eventual Commander Cyberverse blister cards will look like. If nothing else, they'll probably be narrower. But it does give us a look at the trade dress, which uses a picture of the Earth and Moon from space, the Earth along the bottom and the Moon in the upper right. The logo is in the upper left, and the blister extends over it with a black-printed ghost of the logo to give a sort of 3-D effect. The card is 7.5" (19cm) wide and a little over 8" (21cm) tall, with no funky die-cut shapes. Just a rectangle with a hook slot at the top. The dominant colors of the card front are blue/white for Earth, gray/white for the Moon, and black with a smattering of blue and white stars elsewhere. The main logo is in metaltones just above the figure itself. The upper left has the transformation difficulty (word on a silver field, number on a chartreuse field), and they've dropped down to just three levels. Easy is 1. The cardback is all space-and-stars background. The name is across the top, with "Autobot" on a chartreuse tab while the main name label is silver. A silver Autobot symbol in a circle is on the upper right. Below the name on the left are the techspec bars, fading from chartreuse to blue with white words and yellow numbers. The bio note is in white to the right of the numbers, and a photo of the vehicle mode is below that. Where they might have put a robot photo is instead a burst shouting "View exclusive 3D content at TRANSFORMERS.COM!" with a smaller disclaimer below that pointing out that the included 3-D glasses (which are blue-red) won't work in theaters. In the lower right is a claim that the rest of the toys will hit May 16, 2011. Sounds like a Street Date to me. The card in the blister just says "LIMITED EDITION PREVIEW PACK!" on both sides and has legalese on the bottom, no co-sells. It's mostly silver gray with some chartreuse (okay,, I'm just gonna call it "green" from now on) bands. The silver Autobot symbol is at the upper left of the inserted band (which is only along the bottom), then the name, and the 3-D glasses burst repeated on the right side of the band. Along the bottom front are a warning about 3-D glasses safety and a repeat of the preview pack blurb. Inside the blister, Optimus Prime is packaged in robot mode, with his guns in his hands. To the viewer's right are the glasses themselves. The blister itself is taped on the sides, glued on the top and bottom. The instructions have moved from linework to what looks to be either photos of an unpainted prototype or simply the computer model used to make the prototype. The "3D effect" logo is actually a clear plastic sheet insert. It will cling to a computer monitor if you put it there. This is probably not an intended effect, I just thought I'd try. :) Oh, and I didn't forget to mention it...it's just that the term "Cyberverse" is nowhere to be found on the packaging. I suspect it'll go in the spot that currently says Preview Pack. [Later note: as with Revenge of the Fallen, there's no function or motto on the packaging, so I made up my own.] AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME Altmode: Truck Licensor: None Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1) Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: None Gimmick: 3-D Glasses Function: Autobot Leader Motto: "The leaders of the future lie buried in the past." Though OPTIMUS PRIME has led the AUTOBOTS for many years, he is only the latest in a long line of great leaders. He looks to the history of his world for lessons on honor and duty, and lives his life according to the ancient principles established by the leaders of the past. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 7 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRB 10 SKL 9 Avg 9.5 Packaging: A single rattan string holds the robot into the blister. The instructions are under his feet, and the 3-D glasses are just resting in a slot in the blister. There is no catalog or other paperwork. The glasses are decent cardstock folding things, nicer than the freebies often included with DVDs or in supermarket ad sheets, but not exactly something worth keeping around for their own sake. The instructions disagree with the package photos as far as how you connect the jetpack in truck mode. The instructions are pretty clearly wrong in this case. Robot Mode: Lanky and with a few oddball design elements, but clearly recognizable as movieverse Optimus Prime...with a jetpack. While definitely inspired by his "dead Jetfire pieces" mode in Revenge of the Fallen, this looks to be a purpose-built new jetpack. When you leave the rifles attached to it, there's a sort of Victory Saber feel to it. The torso is a bit on the blockish side, and from the side the sliders in the boots make for some ugly gaps, but they did a pretty good job of making this figure look bigger than the average Legends toy. It positively towers over the original Legends class Optimus Prime movie toy, whose head only comes up to the abdomen pseudo-grille on this toy. Unfortunately, even though its 3.75" (9.5cm) height is comparable to the Scouts this size class replaces and to the various Marvel and DC action figures it shares this price level with, it still *looks* smaller. The spindly limbs are a big part of it...it's as tall as Dune Runner, for instance, but far less robust. The toy also can't shake the feeling of being a jumped up Legends. The jetpack and rifles help a little in terms of overall bulk, although if you leave the rifles on the jetpack the figure tends to tip over backwards. One hopeful sign for this new size class is that they seem to be going big on the so-called C-clip system, the 3mm rods and clips. It's a simplified version, with the clips molded into the jetpack rather than being separate struts as seen on Deluxe and larger toys, but the compatibility is there. There's a rod on the back for connecting the jetpack, and the armor chunks on the forearms each terminate in a 3mm rod segment. Less obviously, the smokestacks are also 3mm in diameter...while nothing he comes with clips onto them in a good-looking way (although he can just manage to grab a smokestack as if it were a Gundam-style beam saber hilt), it does mean he could potentially carry borrowed weapons on shoulder mount. Or borrow some from Darkmount. The rifle grips are 3mm rods, and there's 3mm peg holes in the jetpack and on the rear wheel chunks that make up his back (so he can stow the rifles without having the jetpack on). His hands are 3mm clips. While the jetpack is a major accessory, the toy is complete without it. No obvious big gaps, so if he lends the jetpack to someone else the robot mode won't look stupid. Dark blue plastic is used on the head, torso core and torso flanks. The upper arms, adomen and shins are black plastic, as are the wheels. The thighs are dipped in paint, but I suspect the underlying plastic is black there too. The forearms, boots and back chunks are bright red plastic. The rifles and jetpack are silvery gunmetal plastic, apparently of the "unpaintable" variety. Probably the most extensively used paint is a faintly bluish silver, seen on: truck windows and shade on the chest, smokestacks, thighs, fuel tanks on the flanks, soles of the feet. A regular silver is used on the faceplate, helmet crest, feet and lower shins and abdomen. I think the eyes may be faintly purple-ish silver, but that may be reflection from the visor's dark blue plastic. A silver Autobot symbol is printed on the left torso just under the molded window detail (which is not a proper window location for vehicle mode. The center of the chest is painted red, but comes out a bit duller than the plastic. The head does not turn, nor does the waist (it can bend on a transformation hinge, but only by unclipping the abdomen). Shoulders and hips are ball joints, while elbows and knees are hinges. The feet are a bit small given the big backpack, and there's no heel spurs. So it can't really stand in a lot of the poses that it can be put in. As mentioned earlier, the arms are able to reach back so that the clip hands can grasp the smokestacks. The torso stability is a bit of a problem when posing the arms, since the side pieces don't snap firmly into place (they hook over the rear view mirrors, rather than having proper slots). For an alternative flight mode, you can transform the rear wheel chunk to clear the way to attach the jetpack horizontally, for a more "Gundam 00" appearance. Transformation: Very interesting, if a bit part-poppy at times. The main weak spot is where the abdomen and pelvis connect, since you unhook it and then spin the lower body around to bring the heels up as the truck hood. Then transform the rear end together...and slide the torso forward. That's the clever bit. That makes room behind the cab for the arms to fold together along with the torso side pieces to make the sleeper compartment. For the most part, this holds together, but the nose end doesn't clip onto the cab very strongly. Vehicle Mode: This is where the "it's not a Scout" effect really kicks in. At only 3.75" (9.5cm) long and more or less properly proportioned, it's smaller than any Scout's vehicle mode. It's about 1:90 scale, close to the 1:72 of Hot Wheels (and since they don't stick firmly to 1:72 either, it's not a big problem) and most of the Legends cars. Actually, comparing it to photos of the physical movie truck, the rear wheel chunk is a couple of centimeters shorter than it should be. Taking that into account brings the "true" scale to 1:78 for the cab part. Unfortunately, you can see where the vehicle mode makes sacrifices for the robot mode, such as the front fenders that curl down way too much behind the wheels in order to overhang the wheels in robot mode. The kneecaps hang down so low that unless you're very careful with transformation the front wheels don't even touch the table. And general quality control issues led to the front right wheel on mine sticking. Still, there's some good design at the molding level, even if the toy lacks the paint apps to really bring it out. The forearm 3mm rods end up on top of the "headache rack" so you can mount C-clip weapons at the back of the cab in addition to putting them on the smokestacks. The jetpack attachment rod is just ahead of the nicely-molded fifth wheel, and I can certainly see someone making a trailer that uses a Lego clip as a hitch. There's plenty of sharply molded detail just waiting for someone to bring a paintbrush to bear. The red plastic ends up as the nose, headache rack and most of the rear. Black on the wheels and the hitch section in the middle right behind the headache rack. The center part is dark blue, although the legs make up part of the lower sides. Additional paint puts red flames on the doors, blue flames on the hood, silver-blue on the grille and side windows. Clipping the jetpack on according to the package photos turns it into a rocket truck like Energon Rodimus, although somewhat less elegant. And with guns on top. Lifting the wings gives a look that's like a cross between an ARC-170 Republic Fighter and a semitractor version of Lone Star's ship from Spaceballs. At least as credible a flight mode as anything you can do with Cybertron Optimus Prime's vehicle mode. :) If you want even more connection points for borrowed C-clip weapons, the guns stay firmly in place when only a millimeter or so of the handle is pegged into the backpack, so you can slide a strut-based clip onto the exposed length of handle. Overall: It's a taste of the new Cyberverse line, hinting at the sort of cross-compatibility that Action Masters and Micromasters thrived on, only moreso. There's some stability issues, but really the only thing about this toy that bothers me is that it's taking over the $8 price point. If I seriously thought most stores would settle on $6.50 or even $7 as the default price for Commanders, I wouldn't worry as much, but Scouts rarely went on sale below $8, and I fear that a smaller toy at the same price will only languish on the pegs of the stores that bother to order any. Especially if $9 Deluxe sales keep happening...if you thought a $8 Scout looked like a bad buy next to a Deluxe on sale, these will look like a total ripoff. Price aside, though, it shows promise. Dave Van Domelen, now to get back to Kup and Scourge. Two months until the deluge....