Dave's Transformers Rise of the Beasts Rant: Voyager Wave 1

Optimus Primal (mecha-gorilla)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotB/VPrimal

Okay, done with the Beast Alliance and 2-in-1 toys, on to the "Core"
line. At least, that's what they call it...to judge by store shelves this is
a tiny side line. But its core in the sense of having more traditional
Deluxe and Voyager classes (but, ironically, not the Core class). As of
early June 2023, the only Core stuff that has hit shelves has been the two
first wave Voyagers (this and Optimus Prime), and a Target three-pack of
Deluxes (which I have in the queue, and have already seen on 50% off
clearance). Beast Alliance and 2-in-1 toys get the big endcap displays, Core
gets put in with the regular Transformers, fighting for space with Earthspark
and Legacy.
Note, this is not the same mold as used by the Japanese-import Primal
that Pulse is sold out of already for $60, that seems to be a Leader Class
rather than a retool of this Voyager.

CAPSULE

$35-$40 price point.

Optimus Primal: Looks screen-accurate enough in both modes, with an okay
transformation, but the gorilla mode might as well be a statue. Still, a
decent toy overall, recommended.

RANT

Packaging: The same basic trade dress as other full box RotB toys, with
a minimal open window at the top to see the chest, head, and a bit of the
arms of the robot inside. Much of the area in front that used to be plastic
window is dominated by a movie-CG image of the main mode (gorilla for Primal,
robot for Prime).
The box is in the normal Voyager range of size. 9" (23cm) tall, 6.25"
(16cm) wide, and a little over 3" (a little udner 8cm) deep. The inner tray
has the faux-Nazca patterns.

MAXIMAL: OPTIMUS PRIMAL
Assortment: F5496
Altmode: Mecha-gorilla
Transformation Difficulty: 24 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: None

Packaging: Three twisted-end rattan strings hold the robot to the inner
tray, and one each hold the swords in the lower corners.

Robot Mode: While several of the other toys give the robot mode
something closer to Primal's Beast Wars look, with blue and red bits, this
sticks to the few bits we've seen of the movie model, which is all muted
brownish grays and metallics, the only splash of any other color is the
metallic blue used for the eyes. There isn't even paint on the molded
Maximal symbol on his sternum. Proportion-wise it's okay, but the way the
chest transforms (which is at least not the same as the Battle Changer or
Weaponizer) leaves the robot a bit chunky and bloated-looking. From behind,
there's the obligatory buttflap with the gorilla buttocks (and a second
buttflap under that, used in gorilla mode for the pelvis front), as well as a
couple of rectangular posts on the back with rectangular tabs in them for
sword storage. Some of the molding of fur versus metal makes it look like
the forearms or lower legs are supposed to split open, but they do not.
6" (15cm) tall and mostly the same colors as Beast Battle Master Optimus
Primal (brownish gray, silver, dull gold) plus some light gray plastic. The
light gray plastic is mostly used on joints and struts that are largely
hidden (inside the shoulders, inside the lower torso, back of the pelvis),
but also on the fists and the robot toes. Silver paint is used for the
faceplate, abdomen, shins, some inner thigh bits, and some of the details on
the forearms. A pale gold or perhaps pale light silvery brown paint is used
on the shoulderpad details, sides of the torso, much of each thigh's non-fur
part, a lot of the back, some more on the forearms and upper boots. The
sword blades are silver. The only other paint is bright blue on the eyes.
The neck is a ball joint with a decent range, the waist is a swivel but
you need to lift up the buttflap to let it move. The shoulders are hinge and
swivel universal joints, with the shoulderpads on their own hinges, and bicep
swivels. The elbows are hinges that snap into place for straight arm
stability, but bending them more than a little makes them look kinda broken.
The wrists swivel. Hinge and swivel universal hips with thigh swivels right
below the hip joint, double hinge knees. The toes are hinged separately from
the rest of the foot, and the ankle wiggles back and forth a little.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs, but they need to be fairly long because the
thumbs are several millimeters tall. This makes it so that the Beast Battle
Master Optimus Primal guns are only held loosely. There's non-standard slots
on posts on the back for sword storage. And...that's it. (The Leader
version appears to have 5mm pegs on the forearms, so that's a quick way to
distinguish the otherwise similar molds.)
The swords are based on the original Beast Wars design, if a bit
skinnier and in dull colors. The hilts are 5mm pegs, but there's a short
cross-ways cylinder halfway up, so it always looks like he's trying to
squeeze a little more reach out by holding the very end of the hilt. The
identical swords are 3.5" (9cm) long with only about 2/3 of the length being
the curvy blade. As the instructions show, he can hold both in one hand like
a bladed staff, or dual-wield.

Transformation: Most of those 24 steps are concerned with either opening
up the chest to do a head-swap and then closing it up in a different
configuration, or with folding up the robot toes to hide in the shins.
Otherwise, rotate 180 degrees at the waist so that the thighs can fold up
against the buttflap, and fold the shoulderpads down. Getting the shins open
is a little tricky from robot mode, but if you press up by the knees that
generally gets them to pop open just enough to grab.

Altmode: Okay, I praised the Beast Battle Master for having a really
good gorilla mode in terms of proportions and stance, and this is almost as
good. I mean, the robot thighs are still pretty obviously pretending to be a
gorilla pelvis, and the hind legs a little thick with undersized feet, but
the general outline is decent.
In its default pose, the top of the head is 3.5" (9cm) above the table
surface, with the swords on the back sticking up a centimeter or so more.
The only newly visible parts are the pelvis front and the head, both made of
the brown-gray plastic. Well, the mostly covered inner chest panels are now
outer chest panels, and they're brown-gray. There's some silver paint newly
visible on the chest, and the eyes are bright blue. There's no Maximal
symbol in this mode, either painted or molded.
The head is on a hinge and swivel combo that lets it look up. The arms
retain full articulation from robot mode, but the waist and legs are
functionally stuck in one position. The way they faked the pelvis means the
figure cannot stand up on its hind legs without looking really bad, and
lifting one arm means the figure tips over. So...in terms of useful
articulation, it's almost a statue that can move the head and wiggle the
limbs a little. And that's kinda sad, since the trailers imply he'll be
spending most of his screen time in gorilla mode. I mean, it looks decent,
but there's car altmodes with more articulation.
If you just transform the chest and not the legs, you get a sort of "guy
in a gorilla suit" robot transitional mode. I kinda like that better than
either official mode. http://www.dvandom.com/images/MoarMunky.JPG for this
mode holding twin Primal cannons.

Overall: If you don't expect beast modes to have meaningful articulation
(goodness knows a lot of them don't), it's a pretty good representation of
the character as seen on the screen. And no part of it feels cheap or
brittle, which puts it ahead of the Beast Alliance line in general.

Dave Van Domelen, thinks the hybrid mode might be a Jammer cyber-ape
from Feng Shui/Shadowfist.