Titanium Optimus Prime (War Within)

Series: Titanium
Allegiance: Autobot
Year: 2006

Deep within Cybertron, in chambers long lost and longer forgotten, two of the mightiest warriors the universe has ever seen battle for supremacy in a struggle that will forever define the future. One is a leader newly made, a simple archivist infused with the power of the Matrix and pushed unwilling into greatness. The other is an ancient warrior, washed in the oil of fallen foes, whose plans have been years in the making.

Here, at the very heart of their home world, the power of the Matrix flares into life as none before have witnessed, and both warriors are given glimpses of what will be. They see themselves, ages hence, locked in a strange echo of their current struggle. They see the wasteland their war will make of their world, and the long chain of Spark-less shells in their wake. They see the shape of things to come and know that what they fight for is not just victory, but the future itself.

Robot Mode: When I read the first issue of Dreamwave's War Within series, I thought that their version of Optimus Prime might just be the coolest-looking Prime ever. That opinion hasn't changed. War Within Prime looks fantastic in robot mode. The big chest, the powerful arms, the long legs, the classic Optimus head, everything fits together into a kick-ass package. Look-wise this Titanium figure doesn't have to take a back-seat to anyone.

Once you get past the looks, though, War Within Prime does have some drawbacks. The figure isn't terribly stable. The arms tend to loosen from the shoulders if you move them too much, the lower body and the upper body's connection isn't the most stable, either, and the hands tend to slide back into his forearms. Prime's posability is quite good, if a bit restricted in the hips. As a weapon Prime carries his familiar blaster rifle. It fits well into his hand, but removing it from there takes some doing.

So to sum it up, War Within Prime features a fantastic look, no doubt about it. Now if the designers had just put a little more effort into making him more stable and have the various parts interlock a bit better, he would have been a straight A in robot mode. As it is, he is good, but with definite room for improvement.

Alternate Mode: I'm really of two minds about Optimus' vehicle mode here. The front half of it looks pretty cool, no doubt. The rear half, though... there is very little done to disguise the fact that these are in fact the robot's legs. Plus there is some design problem here as well, as the cockpit doesn't properly close with the front of the vehicle's main body. Might just be a problem with my figure and not a general thing, but it does add to the figure's engineering problems. So all I can say about this vehicle mode really is, look at the front half or leave it in robot mode.

Add-Ons / Extras: The double package Optimus Prime came in also contained a special edition of War Within issue 5 with a new cover image.

Remarks: The War Within comic book series from Dreamwave was the first official Transformers story in any medium set before the Transformers' coming to Earth (not counting the occassional flashback). It showed how archivist Optronix was given the Matrix of Leadership after Sentinel Prime's death and became Optimus Prime. Though this was not the Optimus Prime we all knew and loved. He was a new and inexperienced leader, who at first advocated abandoning Cybertron to the Decepticons rather than fighting a losing war.

The Titanium series gave shape to this comic book character and does so as a mixed blessing. The figure looks incredibly good in robot mode, I just love it there. It's quickly apparent, though, that the Titanium figures are not meant for kids to play with, but rather for adults to collect. There are several engineering problems and the vehicle mode seems more like an add-on rather than a fully developed shape in its own right (to be fair, we never did get much of a look at it in the comic books). So bottom line: A very nice figure to look at and put in your display case, but if you actually want a figure to play with, you probably should look elsewhere. I'm more of the display case guy, so Prime get's a good mark from me.

Rating: B+