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Series: Beast Wars 10th Anniversary
Allegiance: Maximal
Categories: Deluxe
Year: 2006
Captain of the Maximal research vessel Axalon, Optimus Primal was forced into the role of a warrior in the Beast Wars. He rose up to become one of the greatest heroes in the history of Cybertron. His fate is tied in some fundamental way to that of the mad arch-villain Megatron. Optimus Primal knows this, and understands that it is he and he alone who must pursue Megatron across time and space in order to put a stop - once and for all - to his evil plans.
Robot Mode: There is no denying the resemblance to the original Optimus Primal in robot mode. More the TV show version, actually, rather than the toy one, seeing as the head is a lot more detailed (including the mouth instead of a solid faceplate). The robot is very posable and the detailing is overall very nice. One big complaint, though: His only weapon is the big hoverboard-thing he carries. It looks cool for him to carry it like a surfboard under his arm, but to make it into a weapon he needs to activate it with his Cybertron-style Cyberkey, flip out the blade, and aim it somehow. No matter how you do it, it looks over-sized and somewhat ridiculous. They should have given him some kind of shoulder or arm cannon like the original had. Still, despite the weapon flaw, a good robot mode.
Beast Mode: While the robot mode emulates the original Optimus Primal, the beast mode clearly pays homage to the Transmetal version. Not so much because of the gorilla itself, but rather because of the hoverboard gimmick. Speaking of which, this is another small complaint I have. Only the gorilla can really use the hoverboard, as the robot doesn't have knobs in his feet to properly fit on it. Anyway, the gorilla itself is techno-organic looking (sort-of a cross between the original and the Transmetal version) and the sculpt of his head makes it look like he wears a Samurai-style headband. The ape is pretty posable and offers little room for complaint, but personally I don't much like it. It tries for too much and accomplished too little.
Remarks: While this figure is a tribute to the original Maximal commander from the Beast Wars series, the design of the figure and especially the gimmick put it more firmly into the Cybertron line of toys. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, Cybertron has some great beast-formers, but Optimus Primal is not one of them. He looks great in robot mode and the gorilla is okay, but the hoverboard gimmick pretty much goes overboard for me and drags the figure down considerably. They should have given him a proper weapon and made him a homage to ONE Optimus Primal instead of trying to mesh TWO of them.
Rating: C+
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