QuickPic Review: AOE Optimus Prime (Leader Class) [Hasbro vs TakaraTomy]

Welcome to the QuickPic Review post. QuickPic Review will be posts regarding a quick review of a toy or a comparison review such as this one. There will be not a lot of review details in this section. The post will act as a mere guide to help fans and collectors in making decision. Hope my humble posts do help collectors and fans out there in decision making to purchase items.

Let's start. Still we are looking at the Age of Extinction toys. Yesterday (Saturday) the TakaraTomy versions of AOE toys arrived at our local toy stores. I managed to get myself the Leader Class Optimus Prime and the Voyager Evasion Mode Optimus Prime.

The box basically the same as Hasbro's. In fact it is Hasbro's packaging. Like they've done before, they put a sticker of Japanese writings. The artwork, the toy display on the back, all are exactly the same.

The stickers on the back on the front of the box. 

The Figure

As you can see from the pics, he has more silver metallic paint job. This is what makes this Optimus is more appealing than Hasbro's. 

Comparison Pics:

Weapon and Shield

Left: TakaraTomy; Right: Hasbro

Left: TakaraTomy; Right: Hasbro

The sword and the shield are basically the same. There is no different in paint jobs. However there is slight different tone colours. Very very minor. Wouldn't even noticed if you do not examine closely.

The Figure: Robot Mode

Left: TakaraTomy; Right: Hasbro

Left: TakaraTomy; Right: Hasbro

You can see from the pics, all (or most) of the grey plastic on Hasbro's are silver metallic paint on TakTom's. The paints on the chest piece are swapped. And flames added to it. The head especially are mostly silver. I know traditionally Optimus has to have a blue head but this silver actually works for me. The silver is being painted on the right parts. The eyes are more visible now. Also you can see there are flames painted on the inside of his lower legs.

The Figure: Alternate Mode

Left: TakaraTomy; Right: Hasbro

Left: TakaraTomy; Right: Hasbro

Left: TakaraTomy; Right: Hasbro

In truck mode, there is not much different from one another. The main paint jobs are the same but if you look at the flames, the one on Hasbro has much thinner designed flames compare to TakTom's flames which is thicker. The other noticeable difference are the rims, back of the cab and the plates with the tail lights are all painted silver. More appealing. 

That's it. Those are the main difference between TakTom's and Hasbro's. Through out the years TakaraTomy has the more appealing touch in terms of paints on Transformers figures. Though on some occasions Hasbro outshines TakTom, this is not the case here. For me TakaraTomy's paint job wins over Hasbro's

Next post will be review on TakaraTomy's Voyager Evasion Mode Optimus Prime. Signing off now. Till All Are One!

Pictorial Review: Age of Extinction Grimlock (Leader Class)

The hype of Age of Extinction keeps building. With that also the hype of the toys increases. Here we have the pictorial review of the leader class Grimlock. ROAR!!!!

In Package

Here we have the box. Same as Optimus Prime's box. Basic box shape. On the front the art work of Grimlock seems awesome. On the back as usual the toy's alternate and robot form displayed and his bio. Now you see the paint scheme on Grimlock is mostly brownish but the toy inside is totally different. As you can see below.

As you can see the toy's colour scheme is different from what appears on the box. Noticeable most on his shoulders. Hasbro has been using a lot of chromes on figures lately. It used to be TakaraTomy's thing last time. 

Instruction and Accessories

Here you have the instruction and Grimlock's weapon and shield. Note on the instruction, despite the real picture of the toy's being used, it only shows the toy transforms from alternate mode to robot. The toy comes in robot form so you have to read the instruction in reverse to transform it into alternate mode. So a bit of more focus needed. Same goes for Optimus Prime.  






The shield can be transformed. The one on the left is the normal mode and it's actually part of the alternate mode. When in robot mode, the sheild should be transform in to the one on the right.


Robot Mode

Visually he look great. The upper torso looks big and he has six pack. Or maybe eight? As you can see his body is chromed as oppose to his appearance on the back of the box. Up to individuals of course but for me I like the chrome better. Though it long term the chrome may wear out.  

His face is a little weird. Green eyes with black face. Not sure he has a battle mask on or that is his face. He has eyebrows too.

I don't know why but to me if he is without his weapon and shield, he kinda looks a little "naked" to me. When he's holding his accessories, he looks great.

His articulation can be considered better than Optimus Prime. He has wrists joint! Unlike Optimus. 

Shoulders, elbows, knees, hips are all on ratchet joints. Click-click-click. He has ankle joints too. Elbows and lower legs can be swiveled in and out, left and right. 

Elbows can bent at 90 degrees only.

The knees can be bent more the 90 degrees which makes him able to have more poses. 

His head unfortunately is not on a ball joint. The head is screwed in. So he can only look to left and right. No up and down. 

His feet is stable enough for to hold him in almost any kinds of poses you may like. 

Size Comparison

His height is about the same as Leader Class Optimus Prime. Or maybe slightly taller if you include his horn and shoulder pads.

Alternate Mode

Obviously again a T-Rex. Though some angles he looks great, but from the side you can see his body is kinda thin and straight. It's like he's not been fed for many months. Even on the bottom of his body there's a bone like pattern. So maybe he is hungry after being stasis all those years.

The sheied and the weapon are transformed and combined together to be part of the tail of T-Rex mode. The shield and the weapon make up the part right after the chromed part.

The head sculpt is kinda has a menacing look thought. Almost similar to what we see in the trailers. But he has green eyes instead of red. He has horns. Since when does T-Rex has horns? 

The horns are rubber and so are the teeth. However the bottom mouth has some hollow parts. This is due to its transformation. Being the head split into two and become the shoulder pads.

Unfortunately his robot mode hands cannot be hidden. This is how the hands are placed when in dino mode. It sort of become the heel for the legs. This is the only robot part exposed in alternate form.

Though the alternate mode looks great and menacing, it is a big disappointment. Because there's almost nothing you can do with it. There is no head articulation. Except maybe looking up and down a bit but that's because of its transformation. The tail because it's made from two different parts once it's combined it's one solid piece. So he can't wiggle his tail. Only articulations he have are the legs and his tiny arms. And of course those have limited movements too. 

It's like a skeleton T-Rex with a skull head. 

Battle with Optimus.

Everyone is sure to do this action. Optimus riding on Grimlock. Find the right center gravity and Grimlock is able to stand still with Optimus on his back. Sorry no comparison shots of him in alternate mode. 

Rating:

Robot mode: 7 out of 10

Alternate mode: 4 out of 10

Cosmetic: 6.5 out of 10 (The chrome on the body is nice but it could wear off with excessive play)

Play-ability: 7 out of 10. (Though alternate mode almost literally can't be played with, the play-ability of the robot mode makes up for it.)

Until next review, I'm signing out now. Till All Are One!

Pictorial Review: Age of Extinction Optimus Prime (Leader Class)

Just recently the new toys of Transformers Age of Extinction has been launched. Being an avid fan some of my friends and I went to the launch sale at midnight last Friday (Saturday morning) for the launch. I'm not collecting the movie lines but as a fan of Optimus Prime I want to get the Leader Class and the Voyager Class Optimus Prime. This review here is on the Leader Class Optimus Prime.

Age of Extinction toys come in all new style packaging. Aside from the artwork, on the box is just plain simple vertical Transformers writing on the left side with plain red font and white background. There's not even a big writing of Age of Extinction except under the 4/Decepticon logo. Basic rectangular box.

On the back it has the picture of the figure in robot and alternate mode (as usual). Some biography and info. And apparently now it shows you how many steps are there from you to transform the figure. In this case 20 steps.

On the right side and left side of the box. That's it. Simple. Also on the bottom. Red and white are all you see

In Box View

This time around Hasbro doesn't use the annoying string like material to tie the figure. They have a found a more convenient way for people to take the figure out from the transparent packaging. Only a few sections uses the old bind type.

The instruction manual. A little improvement on the manual. Using the actual toy picture as reference for easier view and understanding to transform the figure.

Accessories





Optimus Prime comes with a shield and the sword this time. No blasters. As depicted in the trailers and promo pictures, Optimus Prime's designs now are loosely based that of a Samurai (we know Drift has that Samurai look too). So because of that there is no big blasters for Optimus to shoot the Decepticons. The sword is made of soft plastic but not that soft. However it still can be bent. The shield however is one solid hard plastic.







Robot Mode

All new design of the toy. No remolds or old parts of the previous three movie Optimus Prime are used in this new one. Also it is very much different than the so called "First Edition" AOE Optimus Prime that was released earlier this year. From the views here you can already tell that this Optimus is not difficult of sophisticated enough to transform. From the side and back view you almost can't see Optimus at all. A lot of large pieces cover Optimus' body.

stiff looking Optimus

As usual Hasbro will be the one with lack of paint jobs compare to TakaraTomy version. The grey part on his upper chest should at least have some colour or just a little silver paint would do. But the main chest piece is nicely done. Chrome silver, red and blue. Optimus' main colour scheme. But still there should more paint jobs like on the shoulder and the biceps. The grey is not even grey paint but rather the of the plastic itself. Unpainted plastic. 

Weird pose? Yeah. Reason I posed him like this just to show a few points of articulations. You have the normal shoulder, elbow, hip, knee joints. The side piece of his "samurai" armour can be moved so that there will be no limitations to the hip articulation. The front crotch piece also can be moved to avoid limitations moving the hip forward.  Shoulders, hips and knees are on ratchet joints. So get use the sound click-click-click when playing with him. :P

The elbow can be bent at 90 degrees. The elbow is on a ratchet joint. Unfortunately this time there are no joints on both arms. Bummer. The forearm and hand is one solid piece. The thumbs can move to make it easier for us to put his sword in his hands. If you can see there is a small peg in his hand to attach the sword to make it more firm.The forearm also can be rotated 360 degrees. The head is on a ball joint. He can look left and right no problem but looking up is a bit limited due to his head design. 

Posing Abilities.

Here are some of the pose he can do. Despite some limitations, he can do some nice poses. He also has a waist articulation so posing him is much more fun.

       

   

 everybody wants to do this kind of pose nowadays :)

The head is nicely sculpted. You can see a lot effort is put to design this small head. But again unfortunately lack of silver paint. The new Optimus has lots of silver on his head but this Hasbro version sticks to his old blue head colour scheme.







Size Comparison (Robot Mode)

We keep seeing the size of the toys shrinking. Well AOE is no different. AOE Optimus is a little shorter than the first movie Optimus. 

There you go. Look how small he is compare to his previous counterpart of Buster Prime from ROTF. 








Alternate Mode














Obviously a semi-truck. A redefined and slightly futuristic look. The design of the truck is nicely done. The truck mode doesn't show any of the robot parts except from underneath. Great paint jobs and nice chrome smokestacks, front grill, sidestep and gas tank (is it a gas tank on the side there). The downside of the alternate mode is that the back part of the truck have too many hollow area. Granted the hollow are is made due to its transformation but it would be nicer if it can be covered.

It used to be a red cab with some blue paints but now he is a blue cab with minor red paints. The yellow windscreen and window doesn't really work for me. I would prefer a semi-transparent or solid black. Reason is that when in robot form that are will be on the back of his legs instead of his chest like the norm. So there is nothing to show for when he is in robot mode. Unfortunately the front grill on my figure has smudges and not shiny. There is still the tiny Autobot logo on the top middle of the grill but it's not painter red so you hardly can see it. Nice Autobot insignia on the side of the truck. But I would prefer it on the roof of the cab or add another on the cab. The logo on the side of the truck will be on the side of his hip when in robot mode. It it was on the roof it would be on his shoulder in robot mode. 

The sword can be stored underneath the truck and the shield can be attached on the back part of the semi.

Size Comparison (Alternate Mode)
 

Side by side here with the first movie version of Leader Class Optimus Prime. A tad bit smaller. No comparison with ROTF Optimus as I think we all already know how it would look like. And I'm lazy to transform it too. Also worth noting that rubber tires are on this figure. 

Accessories Storage (Robot Mode)

The sword can be stored on the back. From the picture above you can see there is a small holder for you to slide in the sword. It is the same piece that you use to store the sword underneath the truck. The shield you can only attach to the side of his arms. No place to put on the back.

Overall this figure is a decent looking toy. It has all the basic articulations it needs (except the wrists) and still enjoyable to play with. However the cosmetic on it is lacking and from some angle it is an eyesore. If you are an Optimus Prime fan I would still recommend you to get it but if you would like just one version of Optimus Prime from the movie universe, I think everyone agrees to opt for ROTF/DOTM design. 

Starting from this review onward I will make a rating base on the figure. 
  
Robot Mode: 6.5 out of 10
Alternate Mode: 7 out of 10
Cosmetic: 6.5 out of 10
Play-ability: 7.5 out of 10 

That is all for this time. Until next time, Till All Are One!