When I received my Kickstarter Yolopark AMK Pro Megatron back in the Fall, I was genuinely impressed. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it wasn't bad overall the value proposition was excellent. So of course, I eagerly preordered his Autobot counterpart, Optimus Prime. The time between ordering and delivery was much shorter, but for some reason it took MONTHS before i could even preorder it on the Yolopark page.
So, for whatever reason, the slip cover has made a comeback. I mean, it's a nice touch and all, but I wish they had thrown some of that packaging money into the actual trays. Yes, those black things. One of the most fascinating things about the packaging is that the trays are so flimsy I swear the plastic trays you get with cookies are sturdier.
In terms of contents/parts, Optimus Prime is more or less tied with Megatron, but mostof his parts are actually used for the construction of the figure itself. Outside of the Base/Stand, the only other accessories are his Ion Blaster, an Energon Axe, Megatron in gun mode, and of course the Matrix of Leaderhip.
Fully assembled, you get a figure that resembles the cartoon aesthetic, which is of course kind of the goal of these. These set don't transform, and as such are effectively the same as the R.E.D. line. There's some die cast components, about the same as Megatron if IIRC, highlighted in Blue in photo of the back of the box.
Like on the show, both Megatron and Optimus Prime are basically the same size.
The Matrix of Leadership can of course fit into the chest cavity. It's a bit of a pain getting the chest doors to open. There's some nice detailing within the cavity.
Another neat feature is that this figure brings back Optimus's wrist communicators, though sadly unlike MP-1, there's no actual pictures of other bots on there. Both arms feature said communicator as I'm pretty sure it was cheaper this way to manufacturer, rather than making the other arm a unique mold.
From an articulation perspective, Prime is equally good as Megatron. Well, technically he's slightly better, but I'll explain more in a bit. Overall, the same joints are present on both figures, which includes the double jointed elbows and knees, standard ankles (need a bit more maneuvering to get them to function) and thigh twist. along with shoulders with hidden swivels for arm crossing and the usual bicep swivel and wrists with extra articulation due to an extra panel. Head articulation is pretty standard as well, and there's a slight ab crunch/back arch/side tilt due to the use of a ball joint at chest level.
So while Optimus did technically lose some toe articulation, he more than makes up for it with the new hip articulation, which now features an additional hinge that moves the leg further away from the hip in order to achieve more range of motion or just to extend the leg. There's a decent number of poses that benefit from the addition of such a joint.
Paint Applications are beautiful overall. With the exception of the Base/Stand, I think that every visible surface is preprinted in a nice metallic or glossy paint. There are also smaller battle damage/general wear effects on the figure, and they look great. No areas of masking errors or overspray observed. But I did notice that the paint on knuckle was a bit thick, sticking to some moving parts and resulting in a paint chip when the fist was close for the first time.
Build Quality wise, things are pretty solid. There aren't any joint or finish issues, but there are a few general annoyances at shoddy tolerances, which can cause assembled parts to be hard to mesh together. I also found that Megatron and the Matrix didn't quite fit into the hands properly.
Overall, a solid figure. Whether you're a fan of the Megatron, or perhaps you're looking for something for the general action figure collector, this figure (and line) are a good fit for you. These figures beat the pants off of the R.E.D. stuff, but it's still relatively simple stuff in comparison to the ThreeZero line up. As far as a good value figure, presuming you find a place that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to ship these to you you're probably not going to do much better in the licensed main Transformer arena. If you're a fan of the G1 designs, then these two figures should already be on your list.
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