Dave's Transformers Authentics Bravo Class Wave 6

Optimus Primal (Gorilla)
Bumblebee (wave 1 repackage)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/Bravo6

With wave 6, the Authentics Bravo Class caught up to the "plastic free
packaging" initiative. As with waves 4 and 5 there was only one new mold,
and at the least a repackaged Bumblebee came in this wave (others might be
possible, but when I got mine there were two each of these two on the pegs).

CAPSULE

$6.15 at Family Dollar. Might still be $5 at Dollar General, I haven't
seen it there yet.

Optimus Primal: Kinda floppy, but a better figure than the Rise of the
Beasts figures of about the same size, if only slightly. Based on the Beast
Wars appearance rather than RotB. Probably the best Bravo class so far,
especially if you're willing to take measures to fix the floppiness (washing
did most of the job on mine, I only needed to use the superglue trick on one
joint). Recommended.

RANT

Packaging: After five waves of blister cards, they switched to "plastic
free" (except for tape) packaging. It's a small open-window box 5.25" (13cm)
tall in front with a hangtag making it 6.75" (17cm) tall in back. 4" (10cm)
wide, 2" (5cm) deep, in the basic Authentics/evergreen trade dress. The art
on front and sides is painted art of gorilla mode for this one, but Bumblebee
has robot mode. On the hang tag is a picture or render of the altmode. The
back has renders of both modes, the name and short epithet (in five
languages) and the number of transformation steps. The instructions when
unfolded are only 3" (7.5cm) tall and 5.25" (13cm) wide, but clear if tiny.
Primal's even shows a few panels of where you can place his guns.
Inside, the figure is secured to the inner tray by various low-plastic
means, folded tray bits and rattan strings. The instructions are folded up
under the inner tray.

MAXIMAL: OPTIMUS PRIMAL
Assortment: F6756
Altmode: Gorilla
Transformation Difficulty: 9 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: None
Epithet: Noble MAXIMAL Leader

Packaging: In addition to description above, one black rattan string
held the upper body in place.

Robot Mode: This brings to mind a simplified version of the Robot
Masters Optimus Primal figure. It could certainly use more paint, but the
molding is pretty good, and there's even molded forearm cannons and other
details that match the Beast Wars design quite well. About all it's missing
are the swords and mace (I have a spare mace-tail from one of the Cyberverse
tiny titan Sharkticons and this figure can hold it reasonably well), but it
does have shoulder cannons that can be held as pistols. As with most Primal
toys, the feet have robot toes on one side and ape finger-like toes on the
other.
4.5" (11.5cm) tall in mostly black, blue, and gray with some silver and
red. Rubbery blue plastic is used for the guns and the head. The biceps and
pelvis are light silvery gray plastic. Everything else is black plastic.
There's silver paint on the faceplate and thigh fronts, the eyes and kneecaps
are painted gloss red, and the mechanical detail shield on the chest is
painted all gloss blue.
The neck and waist are swivels. The shoulders are hinge and swivel
strut joints, with the swivel where it meets the torso and the hinge several
millimeters out. The shoulderpads share the pinned hinge with the upper arm.
The elbows are restricted ball joints, mostly rotation but a little wiggling
around. The hips are ball joints, the knees are actually dumbbell double
ball joints, but restricted so that the knees bend mostly normally (but
there's a sideways bend at the upper connection that seems to serve no
purpose). The ankles are somewhat restricted ball joints. The joints were
all fairly loose, but washing the figure in soapy water fixed all but one
(left knee), and the superglue trick took care of that.
The hands are not molded to hold pegs, but the grip can hold some 3mm
pegs loosely, or the 3.5mm pegs of the included guns (also a little too loose
for 1/8" Lego pegs and rods). There's 3.5mm sockets on the back for gun
storage and 3.5mm sockets on top of the torso on either side of the head to
let the guns be mounted in "deployed" position. The forearm cannons are
molded fairly shallowly, and the barrels do not function as studs or
sockets.
The guns are identical and meant to evoke the flip-out missile launchers
of the original Optimus Primal "Ultra" class toy. Each is 32mm (about 1.25")
long with a 3.5mm peg and a 2.5mm diameter barrel tip. While the barrel is
thicker in the middle, it only gets to about 4mm, so it's simply incompatible
with regular Transformers in any way. Stowed on the back they can pass for
his jetpack thrusters.

Transformation: It looks super simple, but it actually has a few tricks
to it. Just as in the cartoon Primal had to turn his waist 180 degrees, you
need to rotate the waist 180 degrees here or the back won't fold back enough
to let you swap out the heads. While you're doing this, the chest panel
rotates to bring out the ape chest, and the center panel of the backpack
folds down over the robot thighs to at least sort of fake being the gorilla
butt. The shoulderpads fold down over most of the mechanical bits of the
upper arms, and rotate the forearms to proper knuckle-walking direction. The
back end just holds together with joint friction, so cleaning off that mold
release oil is pretty important here.
Note, neither the package image nor the instructions correctly show the
orientation of the forearms for proper gorilla pose. Fortunately, the figure
itself can move correctly.

Altmode: There's actually mechanical details on the gorilla head, but
they're unpainted and therefore not as obvious. In hand it doesn't look as
bad as the package renders, which is a reverse of the usual. It's not a
great gorilla mode, but it's acceptable and better than some of the smaller
RotB gorilla modes.
Not counting the guns on the back, the top of the head is about 2.75"
(7cm) off the ground and the knucklewalking figure is a little under 3.5"
(9cm) long. The blue paint is hidden, the silver paint is largely covered
up, but there's new light gray paint on the face and chest, plus red eyes.
If you take off the guns, it's basically black plastic with only a little bit
of anything else visible around joints and paint.
Technically the arms retain full articulation, but as this figure is
stuck with a quadrupedal pose they can't do much. The ankles can rotate a
bit but the hips and knees of robot mode are committed to the
transformation. The new head can tilt up and down a bit, but not turn
otherwise. If you do put the gorilla up on his hind legs, the head can't
quite tilt down enough to face forwards and the fronts of the shins are
hollow.

Overall: This stands up well against Battle Changers, which are $10, and
even some of the Beast Combiner core figures, so it's definitely good value
for the money. The loose joints are the only serious problem, and that can
mostly be fixed by just washing the figure. I recommend picking one up of
you see it.

Dave Van Domelen, got Leader Studio Series Optimus Primal this week too,
that's gonna be a complexity whiplash from this....

Just picked this up on a grocery run and it's surprisingly solid. Definitely enjoy it more than the R.E.D. Primal. No self-respecting Beast Wars fan should be without one. For $5 it delivers, and in spades - I've heard this is the best of the Authentics Bravo run, but I'm still tempted to pick up all of the others, just based on the joy I've gotten from this one figure alone!