Beast Machines Blast Punch Optimus Primal

Prelude: This is, of course, the Japanese version of Blast Punch Optimus Primal and to be honest, I have no idea what he's called exactly in the Beast Wars Returns series (Japan's name for Beast Machines). Convoy? Beast Convoy? I have no idea. So I went with the American name and profile text. I hope you can give forgive me. If not, oh well...

Robot Mode: Unlike the Deluxe Optimus Primal of the Beast Machines line, who managed to look pretty much nothing like the TV character from the series, this Mega-sized version of Optimus Primal here does manage much better. The colours might be a bit too bright and cheery, but otherwise he's got the look of the Maximal leader down pretty pat. The figure is also nicely sculpted with a lot of nice details and the posability is mostly very good.

I say mostly because of the arms. Primal's arms look very nice, but their bulkiness somewhat restricts their posability, as he can only bend his elbows a few degrees. He does have individually sculpted fingers and a separate thumb, though, which makes up for that somewhat. The left arm also contains the gimmick which gave the figure it's name: The Blast Punch. Primal's left arm has a trigger which causes it to extend quite a bit and with enough force to knock over other figures. It also contains a blue missile, though when the missile is in you can't twist his wrists.

Additionally Primal has his trademark jetpack on his back, which can flip out from a hidden compartment. So all in all a very nice-looking, well-sculpted and overall satisfying robot mode. One of the best Beast Machines robot modes I've seen so far.

Alternate Mode: Optimus Primal once again transforms into a gorilla, a techno-organic-looking one in this case. The differences to the robot mode are few and quickly told. A different head and chest plate, shortened legs and... different fingers. Yeah, different fingers. Primal's robot mode fingers slide in, which causes his beast mode fingers to slide out on the other side of the big brass knuckles he wears. Then you flip in the robot thumb and flip out the gorilla thumb. The difference between robot fingers and gorilla fingers being... finger nails. The gorilla has them, the robot doesn't. Oh, and the robot has these round thingies on his finger joints, too, which the gorilla doesn't. A lot of work for some very subtle differences. Make your own decision on whether or not that's a good thing.

Apart from that there is little to tell. The gorilla can utilize the Blast Punch gimmick, too, and posability is pretty much the same. The gorilla head is nicely sculpted, though the lack of pupils makes it look a bit eerie. Still, a nice beast mode with a lot of attention to (certain) details. No real complaints, though the fingers thing creeps me out a bit.

Remarks: Beast Machines is not exactly among the most-favoured toylines in Transformers history, mostly because many of the figures (if they appeared in the TV series at all) do not hold all that much resemblance to their TV counterparts. Such was the case with the first Optimus Primal of the line. Thankfully the second try yielded better results and gave us a figure that is both a good toy in itself and a pretty close match to the character we saw on TV. And while the resemblance is not quite as close as it is with the third attempt, Air Attack Optimus Primal, it's close enough and the figure is at a better scale to interact with the rest of the toys. So all in all a very nice Optimus Primal figure. If you want a Beast Machines Primal, disregard the Deluxe version and take this one here instead.

Rating: B+

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