Combiner Wars Battle Core Optimus Prime

Robot Mode: Battle Core Optimus Prime is a white repaint of the earlier Combiner Wars Optimus Prime, who came in the traditional red and blue. The head is a new sculpt, though, which according to Hasbro was influenced by Star Convoy, but which kind of reminded me more of Prowl, actually. I had this fan canon ready in my head where Prowl began to influence Optimus after they combined, making him a puppet much like he did Kup in the pages of the IDW comics, but apparently that was just a strange idea of mine. Anyway, BC Prime is mostly white with some grey and several golden highlights. Looks nice overall, though a bit plain.

Despite being a rather bulky guy, Optimus is nicely articulated and has no problems pulling off poses. He has quite a rucksack on him (inside of which the head of the combiner is hidden), but it doesn’t affect his balance. He comes with two rifles, one of them resembling the classic Optimus rifle, the other looking a bit like an engine with a long exhaust pipe. He can either wield them separately or combined into one long rifle. So overall, a nice robot mode. A bit boring, certainly, with the mostly white coloring obscuring quite a few sculpted details, but bottom line: not bad.

Alternate Mode: Optimus transforms into the familiar cab-over-engine semi truck that serves as his alternate mode in roughly 75 percent of all cases (gorillas and long-nosed trucks making up most of the rest). The truck is mostly white with grey parts and golden stripes at the sides, featuring a decent amount of detail work. Some of it gets lost for lack of color distinction (such as the side view mirrors, for example), but overall it’s a pretty decent truck.

It’s only from the back that the truck doesn’t look that good, as the bulky panels hiding the combiner head are jutting out from the back of the cabin and, at least on mine, don’t close properly in this mode. Plus the combiner’s hip plate is also visible here. Not a completely bad thing, but somewhat sticking out. Finally, the only way to store the weapons is to plug them into the back, which looks... well, not that good. So overall a decent truck mode, but far from the best Optimus truck ever.

Combiner Mode: Battle Core Optimus forms the torso of the Optimus Maximus combiner, whom I’ll review separately. I didn’t originally intend to get the other members of that team, hence the pics above with Optimus using the Protectobots as limbs, but I’ve since reconsidered.

Remarks: It was a given that there would be a new Optimus Prime figure as part of the Combiner Wars and that he would be a combiner torso, so no surprise there. It was a bit of a surprise, though, when Hasbro almost immediately brought out a second, mostly white Optimus Prime figure using that same mold, and that this guy would be the official torso of the Optimus Maximus combiner, not the familiar red-and-blue Optimus from the first wave of CW toys. Optimus in the comics has remained red-and-blue when he combined the one and only time, so it really looks like this figure here served no other purpose than to put yet another Optimus toy on the shelves.

The real purpose of this toy, though, only became apparent after Reprolabels brought out not just one but three different sets of upgrade stickers for this guy, enabling you to turn him into either a white Ultra Magnus, a Nova Prime, or (as I have chosen to do, see below) Thunderclash. That’s my reason for buying him, anyway, and the only way I can recommend him over the red-and-blue version. So if you’re looking for a combining Optimus, take the red-and-blue one. If you want Thunderclash, Nova Prime or Ultra Magnus to combine, though, get this one here and buy the reprolabels.

Rating: C+ (as Optimus Prime)

 

Thunderclash is the greatest Autobot who ever lived, an inspiration to all. His mere presence on the battlefield usually suffices to drive off any and all Decepticons. Wise, inspirational, yet also approachable. Considers helping a young Autobot pass his medical exams or making sure that the Autobot Code is grammatically correct just as important as winning a large campaign. Funded the Thunderclash School of Heroic Arts, whose alumni include such Autobot heroes as Countdown, and even briefly carried the Autobot Matrix of Leadership for Optimus Prime. He is simply the greatest in all ways and all things. What a guy!

Remarks: This toy was meant to be Thunderclash. It’s just lacking the appropriate amount of insane 90s funkadelic stickers, which can easily be remedied. Add lots of color here and you have Thunderclash, the uber-competent, uber-good, uber-nice Autobot leader from the Turbomasters era. Okay, the head doesn’t really look like Thunderclash much, but Renderform is already on that and my new Thunderclash-head is preordered. Will add pics once it’s here. (Update: It's here now!) So bottom line: you need this toy to turn it into Thunderclash. Because he’s Thunderclash and he’s the bestest, the greatest, and you need him! Don’t question it, just get your BC Prime, your stickers, and preorder at Renderform. Join the Thunderclash Academy for the Heroic Arts, Class of 2016.

Rating: B+ (as Thunderclash)