Generation Toy Gorilla

Prelude: Most Third Party companies do an Optimus Prime figure sooner or later, but in recent years we’ve seen quite a few Optimus Primal figures, too. One of the first was Generation Toy, who gave us Gorilla, a more-or-less Masterpiece sized version of the Maximal commander. Ready for some monkey business? Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Gorilla’s robot mode is clearly intended to be Beast Wars Optimus Primal as he appeared in the first season of the TV show and wave 1 of the toy line. A mostly black (or dark grey, rather) robot with white thighs and several white, silver, gold, and red details, Gorilla strikes an impressive figure and stands at about Leader-Class size. He’s a good deal taller than Masterpiece Optimus Primal, so I am not quite sure what scale (if any) he is supposed to be, but suffice to say: he’s big.

Despite being a 2018 toy, Gorilla feels more like an old-school Third Party figure from around 2010 or so. It’s hard to describe, but if you’ve been collecting 3P toys for a while, you probably know what I mean. Relatively sharp angles, plastic that feels brittle but isn’t, joints that sound wobbly, but aren’t, you get the gist. Gorilla is a pleasure to look at, featuring many details and just rocking the early Optimus Primal look. He even includes the flight jets Optimus had in the show on his back. He can also pose quite well, including ankle tilt, ab crunch, and individual fingers. Like I said, some of the joints feel a bit weird, but nothing has worn out or doesn’t properly support a pose.

Two things differ a bit from the original Optimus Primal toy. One, the general look. The Hasbro toy and TV character featured quite a few organic elements, even in robot mode, but there are none to be found here. Gorilla appears as a purely technological robot, no furry parts or other organic elements to be found. And second, the weapons. He does carry Primal’s familiar swords (which can be combined into a bigger one with a separate hilt piece) and has the shoulder cannons, which unfold from his backpack, but there are no arm cannons and no skull-shaped morning star, either.

Unfolding the shoulder cannons is a bit of a hassle, as you have to partially disassemble Gorilla’s backpack in order to get them out (or back in). The swords can attach to the sides of the backpack for storage and Gorilla comes with two different mouth plates, one showing his lips and one solid, just like we saw on TV.

So bottom line: a very nice depiction of Primal’s first body in Beast Wars, but at a weird scale and with a somewhat weird design choice to completely forego the organic elements.

Alternate Mode: Gorilla’s transformation into alternate mode follows the same basic pattern as the original toy did, but with quite a few extra steps to get certain plates lined up correctly and properly fit everything together. Again, a stark reminder of the early Third Party toys, especially in the ways that there is very little tolerance in how everything has to come together to properly fit and close up. It’s not necessarily a difficult transformation, but a step or two can get a bit frustrating at times.

The resulting gorilla (you saw that coming, did you not?) is, again, purely technological in nature, not an organic-looking element to be found anywhere. He looks great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a weird design choice still. The transformation nicely changes the figure’s silhouette, as Gorilla looks broader now, has longer arms, shorter legs, and a big, boxy head. The figure retains (most) of its articulation, just the hip and upper leg movements are a bit restricted due to the rearrangement of parts. He can still pull off all sort of ape poses, like chest-pounding, walking on all fours, the works. The swords can still attach to the back and you can fold out the shoulder cannons in this mode, too, if you want.

Not much more I can write here that the pictures don’t tell better. A really cool-looking robotic gorilla. The resemblance to Optimus Primal’s gorilla mode is a bit diminished, of course, given the different design, but otherwise: nicely done.

Remarks: Not much I can write about the character of Optimus Primal here that I haven’t already written elsewhere. Despite the similarity in name, he established himself as a completely different character from Optimus Prime, a different kind of leader, and has since become a cross-franchise player himself. 

Generation Toy’s version of the Maximal Leader is a great-looking figure, but with some strange design choices. The entirely technological look and the large scale make him something of a stand-alone item, as there is no other Beast Wars figure I know of who really fits with him in either look or size. There is a white version of him out there, too (Great White Ape, a Beast Wars Ultra Magnus of sorts), but that’s pretty much it for Generation Toy’s foray into the Beast Wars world, I believe. 

Bottom line for this figure: a pretty cool stand-alone figure. I got mine for a bargain and a local fan meet-up this year and I’m happy with him, but again, he doesn’t really fit anywhere. So if you are looking for a cool third party Primal figure, this one is worth a look, but not really a candidate to build a larger Beast Wars cast around him.

Rating: B