So here we are in the third instalment of the Prime Wars Trilogy and the latest toyline is Power of the Primes!  This toyline will be filled with combiner groups like the Combiner Wars and smaller characters that can attach to bigger characters like in Titans Return.  However a new gimmick – Evolution – is being trotted out for arguably the two most well known leaders in Autobot history – Optimus and Rodimus Prime!

For those that don’t know, before he because Optimus  Prime this inspirational leader was a much humbler character named Orion Pax.  Likewise before he because Rodimus Prime, this headstrong leader was a less-than-humble Hot Rod.  Once given a matrix both of them got bigger, stronger, wiser and a kick-ass trailer!

We’ve had a plenty of Hot Rod and a few Rodimus Prime toys over the years.  Likewise we’ve had a few Orion Pax toys and you could fill a real life truck trailer with the amount of different Optimus toys there have been.  But this is something new – we are getting these characters combined.  That’s right, Orion and Hot Rod can become their matrix-infused selves with the help of transforming trailers – let’s have a look!

Robot Modes – The Primes!

Both these characters are really big and chunky.  I don’t mind this, I think a bit of bulk suits both characters quite nicely.  Both are well proportioned and able to perform a decent amount of poseablity.  It’s a shame Rodimus Prime’s arm’s don’t come forward further as to hold his rifle in both hands he has to hold it almost perfectly horizontally.  Also his (what would you call it – a ‘crest’?) yellow fins look too small on his big frame.  Optimus resembles his Powermaster incarnation a bit more than his original incarnation but given his trailer makes up the bulk of his body, this is forgivable and perhaps even to be expected.

Both characters carry a Matrix of Leadership within them in their Prime modes.  Optimus’ one resides in his chest as to be expected, however Rodimus looks like he is trying to digest his.

Robot Modes – The little fellas

Hot Rod looks quite nice and looks pretty much most other incarnations of the character from recent years.  Here the yellow fins are quite proportional.  The Orion Pax toy looks more like he did in the original G1 cartoon than any other Orion toy I have seen to date – the screen dominating his chest piece and the sculpted head going a long way towards doing so.  The larger rifles from the bigger bots split in half to become two guns apiece for their precarnations, which works well for Hot Rod in particular.  Once again there is decent poseability here and the proportions are nice.

The only thing – why do they both look so serious and miserable?  If I remember they were both pretty happy characters before being dumped into their leadership roles.

Prime Vehicle Modes

Optimus Prime

Always nice to get an Optimus’ sporting a trailer.  The back of the truck cab has a lot of kibble and looks frankly bollocks from the side and back but the front view is fine.  It lacks the big grey smokestacks that the robot has – it’s odd that the robot mode has truck kibble that is not used for the actual truck.  The trailer looks quite good and you can imbed his rifle in the middle.   The toy rolls and mauvers well.

Rodimus Prime

There have only been a handful of Rodimus Prime toys so not that many with trailers.  Besides the Masterpiece version I think that this is the best of the lot of them vehicle wise.  The Cybertronian Winnebago is faithfully represented, though there is a fair old gap between the overhang of the trailer at the front and the vehicle underneath.  When transforming into this mode one needs to make sure that you get every tab in nice and tight before moving on to the next step, otherwise the next set of table will not align properly.  Getting the tab from the bottom of the trailer into the top of the car is very hard to get tight.

Precarnation Vehicle Modes

I won’t even bother with Orion Pax’s here since he doesn’t have one.  It’s simply Optimus’ truck cab without the trailer attached.  A bit disappointing, I know he didn’t show an alt-mode in the cartoon on which he is based but it has been widely accepted since then that he turns into a Kup-esque vehicle.  So let’s look at Hot Rod.

To get Hot Rod into his vehicle mode all one needs to do is remove the trailer and reposition the arms/doors on the sides of the vehicle – that’s it.  But nevertheless it works and it’s a good sized alt-mode, looking a fair bit bigger than most deluxe versions of the character in recent years.

Overall

Look, these aren’t perfect toys.  The backpacks on the Prime modes that carry their precarnations are fairly bulky and Orion really could have used his own alt-mode.  It also would have been nice if the trailers had battlebase-modes for the smaller bots to use.  However these are fairly minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things.  These toys trot out a very clever idea with the Evolution concept – makes one wonder if they could somehow make a Megatron that turns into Galvatron or a Bumblebee that turns into Goldbug.  Both kids and older fans of the original series are really going to get a lot of enjoyment out of these figures!  Well done Hasbro – a fantastic start to your new toyline indeed!

Got anything to add to this review?  Would love to read it in the comments section below! 

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