It's been a while since I've been so enthusiastic about buying and collecting toys. I have to say the new Transformers Animated series has gotten me all excited about the brand again.It's been so long, in fact, I think I probably bought my last Transformer 18 years ago (when I was 12) before I got this guy about a year or so back.
He was only going for $16 and change when I saw him on the shelves of Toys 'R' Us while browsing with my cousin.
Now we'd always talked about how cool this Transformer was, and how they now have re-done some that Transformer so they really up to scratch or even better than what we used to play with. And the original Generation 1 Optimus Prime was my absolute favouite Transformer. So 16 bucks for a beter looking G1 Optimus? Heck Yeah!
I have to be honest, my cousin wasn't so much against the idea that I get the toy, but rather he was more for pointing me towards the Henkei Voyager class Optimus that was around $45. Now I didn't want to spend that much on something that i felt at the time would be mainly for aesthetic purposes, so I just went ahead and got this deluxe 2.0 version.
And I was happy with it. I am happy with it, for what little I spent. Highly poseable, head rotates 360, arms as well (a given, even the G1 could do that. Lol). Elbows and knees bend well, as do his feet. The one thing he has that G1 never did was 360 rotation of the legs at the thighs. Now that made this guy waaaay poseasble when it came to macho stances:
But there were a few things that aren't spectacular about Universe Deluxe Prime. First of all was his vehicle mode: His arms didn't fit flush against his waist under his chest. Now that made him look rather half transformed. Add to that that you could still his his legs in truck mode, and his head was totally visible from the top--hard to avoid a face full of bird poop while rolling out.
But there are some really nice details on this toy though. First of all his paint apps are done really nicely. I especially love the white on his knees, and the circuitry on his shin. Also, his gatling gun is a nice black, and can transfrom to be mounted in vehicle mode. But the best of all is how his the light piping for his eyes catches the light really easily. It's a light purple, and there are definitely better coloured eyes on other versions of Optimus, but this one lights up the easiest and the brightest.
For example the SE-01 version (same mold, slightly diff paint apps) which comes in a black box has better coloured eyes (deeper blue I think), but the paint apps in robot mode are not quite as neat as this version. Also that version has a dark blue gun, which looks funny on Prime.Oh and also, his chest tends to swivel (it goes 360 deg as well) when you pose him. It's part of his transformation and this punch feature, which makes him spin round and round.
So overall, I give Universe 2.0 deluxe version Prime a 6.5 outta 10. He's defenitely worth his S$ 16, but I wouldn't pay more than that. You'd wanna get him for his nice, G1 cartoon accurate robot mode and prob not see him in truck mode. :)
