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Series: Legacy
Allegiance: Autobot
Category: Pulsecon Exclusive Set
Year: 2022
Prelude: What do you do when a bunch of time-travelling jets deliver a dying dock worker to your doorstep? Why, you give him the fabled Matrix of Leadership and turn him into a warrior tasked with saving the entire planet from a genocidal warlord, what else? To celebrate this iconic scene from the Transformers myth, Hasbro delivers the “A Hero is Born” set, containing Alpha Trion and some dude called Orion Pax. I wonder what became of him? Let’s say go!
Alpha Trion: Seeing as I’ve just recently reviewed Studio Series 86 Sweep and Scourge, I think we can get by with just talking about the differences of this retool here. Alpha Trion has received both a new paintjob, as well as a new head mold, both modelled after his appearance in the G1 cartoon. He comes in white, purple, and burgundy and his head with the white beard is a pretty close match to the cartoon character. He carries the same blaster as Scourge, just in purple, and also comes with an extra accessory.
Alpha Trion comes with a Vector Sigma orb on a clear display stand, as well as the Key to Vector Sigma, which can be inserted into the orb. It’s a nice extra, harkening back to the G1 episode “They Key to Vector Sigma”, and I think this is the first time Vector Sigma was (officially) available as a toy apart from a Botcon set from ages ago.
Alpha Trion never transformed in the cartoon, the only time we saw him with an alternate mode was in some IDW comic, where he became some kind of ground vehicle. Here, of course, he becomes the same kind of spaceship as Scourge, which is okay. This figure will probably never leave robot mode again anyway. So bottom line: a nice retool, taking a good figure and turning it into an entirely different character. Very nice.
Orion Pax: Like his package-mate, Orion Pax, too, is a retool of a Studio Series 86 figure, in his case Studio Series 86 Kup. So again, we’ll just talk differences. Orion, too, received a new paintjob and a new head mold, again modelled after the character’s appearance in the G1 cartoon. Orion’s new head is a very good match for the cartoon character and he comes in the cartoon-accurate blue and red colors, too. He carries Kup’s Musket Laser and Energon dispenser, too, just in different colors. And, of course, you can remove his arms and legs, just like with Kup, to show him in a state of disassembly.
Orion transforms into the same kind of futuristic pickup truck as Kup. Much like Alpha Trion we never saw Orion transform in the cartoon, but the vehicle mode does fit, given who he is (or becomes, rather), as well as his job as a dock worker.
We’ve had several Kup figures become Orion Pax before, so it’s not really much of a stretch, but it works nicely. While I am not the biggest fan of the SS86 Kup, he does make for a nice Orion Pax figure overall and his head is a much better match to the cartoon figure than Kup’s. So if you wanted a (mostly) cartoon-accurate Orion Pax? This one here is it.
Remarks: Sorry for the rather short double review, but there isn’t really a lot I can write about these two figures that I haven’t already written about Scourge/Sweep and Kup. The set is, of course, a homage to the G1 cartoon episode “War Dawn”, where the Aerialbots travel back in time to witness the transformation of wounded dock worker Orion Pax into Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Of course Alpha Trion was also responsible for using Vector Sigma to create the Aerialbots in the first place in the double episode “The Key to Vector Sigma”.
To sum it up, it’s a very nice set, taking two good figures and transforming them into two classic characters that you don’t really see that often (at least when compared to others). Personally I got the set mostly for Alpha Trion, Orion Pax was just an extra for me.
Rating: B+ (Alpha Trion) and B (Orion Pax)
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