Review:10302 by Dorek

BS01 Reviews

10302 Optimus Prime

Review: 10302 Optimus Prime

Autobots, transform and roll out! Er, "convert" and roll out, if you believe the instruction booklet; apparently there are some trademark legalities to writing out the word "transform". Nonetheless, after decades of belonging to a competitor that shall not be named, LEGO has finally acquired the rights to produce a Transformers set. Does it live up to the expectation? Transform and find out.

The Box

Optimus Prime is a big boy, no doubt about it. Maybe not quite as big as Voltron or similar sets, but appropriately tall and heavy. One interesting thing about the box is the absence of Optimus' alternate mode on there. Not that this is necessarily standard for Transformers toys (granted I haven't bought those in many a year), but one might expect a more holistic advertisement of what the set is if possible. Then again, I suppose the brand alone speaks volumes. All that said, the back illuminates the transforming feature, along with the host of goodies that the set comes with.

The Bits

Twelve bags total, over 1500 pieces. There's nothing particularly new from what I could tell; anything unique to the set is due to the prints. It's actually quite interesting how unassuming the parts are; with a lot of modern day LEGO sets, you have a lot of fancy shapes and colors, but Optimus keeps things fairly classy with his red and dark blue.

The instruction booklet itself bears mentioning. A lot of LEGO's premium sets have instruction booklets that include neat little details, historical tidbits and the like. I'm a 90's kid, so while I knew of Transformers, my primary entry point to the franchise was Beast Wars; thus, a lot of the iconography and presentation that I take as a given have quirky origins, so just learning these as I built was a nice treat. (Even if you don't buy the set, check the building instructions online, it's worth a read!)

The Build

One advantage Optimus has over other LEGO mechs (and really, even other Transformers) is that his core design is, by nature, blocky, so it translates really well to the brick format. Optimus rarely uses sloped bricks, and even when he does, it's usually the step-type ones (beveled, I guess?), rather than the curves. The chest piece also does some nifty work with the hinge plates to get Optimus' mighty pectorals in the proper place.

The waistline, however, leaves a bit to be desired. It's perhaps a necessary sacrifice to ensure transformation mobility, but it's the weakest part of the build and tends to come undone rather easily. An axle running through would have worked wonders, but alas.

The legs end up faring much better; the shaping is on point, the colors really pop with the clash of grey and dark blue, and they're all securely attached. Unfortunately, Optimus continues the LEGO trend of having little to no knee joints to speak of. I was, initially, hopeful; the thighs end in a ball joint, after all. But while they give Optimus some much needed stability (especially with some cool rubber half-stops that plug into the feet), I can't help but wonder when we're going to get proper poseable mechs. It's a step up from Voltron, to be sure (that one can't even move ANY part of its legs) but it feels like we're a step behind where we should be when it comes to full poseability. It's at least on par with Monkie Kid. Maybe by the time we hit the inevitable Gundam set the technology will have advanced.

The overall chassis builds to an imposing figure. Interestingly enough, we've done very little in the way of "transforming", so it's fun to see where the build will take us. The front part of the cab includes a... I'm not really sure what to call it when it's not a license plate, to be honest. What's interesting is that Optimus is supposed to have two different license plate things, one for his robot mode and another for his truck mode. The instruction booklet, unfortunately, doesn't seem to cover if there's any why beyond a visual look. Since they make you manually swap out the plate part, it's a bit of a nuisance, and one I don't really bother with.

Optimus has some cool hands as well; initially I had misplaced the plate that binds the fingers together so I thought he had individually articulated fingers, but it becomes more of a mitt when all's said and done. I don't mind that so much, but the fingers could have been nice too. Which brings us to the elbows; anybody who has purchased the set may have noticed that the elbows, unfortunately, do not support the weight of Optimus' arms (even without his weapons). It's a real shame; the click hinges seem strong enough, but when you plug them in, they tend to just... sink after a while. Hinders the posing, which was already hampered by the lack of knees. I'm slightly torn on the face sculpt; I think the pieces overall work together, but something about the eyes make him look a little dopey. Then again, his eyes do tend to be close-set in most media, so maybe I'm overthinking it.

In addition to the weapons, Optimus also has some fun accessories; an Energon Cube, the Matrix of Leadership (which sits neatly in the chest compartment), and a jetpack. The jetpack sits a little oddly on his back, almost like an illegal connection, but mostly it's to make the removal not so cumbersome. The weapons, though, are the real star; you might think the orange axe iconic, but apparently it only appeared once in the original cartoon! Wild. The blaster is even cooler; as an homage to the original toy (which didn't have any of these accoutrements, save the blaster) it can attach to Optimus in his vehicle mode.

Which, of course, brings us to the real test: for all the quibbles in constructing the toy, it was always going to live or die based on how well it transformed. Does it work?

Thankfully, yes! It's not perfect, but then again, that's half the fun; anybody who has ever bought a transforming toy knows that there are some finnicky bits. Aside from the aforementioned waist issue (which tends to come detached from time to time), Optimus does take a bit of wiggling to get all the parts nicely aligned. But the key thing is it's not difficult or frustrating; once you have the motions down, it becomes incredibly easy to reform whenever you fancy a change in appearance. His truck mode doesn't even seem too bare (although releasing a trailerbed accessory would be divine), especially with the blaster incorporation.

The Brass Tacks

Did we like this set? Yes	What We Liked: • Cool, iconic look that nails the source material • Fun, not too challenging building experience • Transforming feature is breezy
	What We Didn't Like: • Lack of poseability - arms are floppy, no knee joints
	Other Comments: "Transform(TM) and Roll Out!", come at me Hasbro --Dorek

Optimus Prime is a really cool set. Much like Voltron, my complaints are more conceptual in nature. He absolutely embodies the iconic Transformers character that people are familiar with, but beyond being made of LEGO, it's hard to say what he does differently; you could purchase an Optimus Prime toy from any retailer that ultimately does the same thing, perhaps even better. So while the transforming novelty may be a treat for LEGO fans, one wonders if Transformers fans would be as impressed. Still, despite these reservations, I have no trouble in saying I enjoyed the build and the final product, and would be happy to see more from the theme; just maybe with some fine tuning.