Monday 31 August 2015

Optimus Prime (Armada, 2002)


After 4 years of Beast Wars Transformers and with Beast Machines introducing vehicle Transformers once again, the Transformers series was heading back to its roots. In Japan, Takara released Car Robots in 2000 along with the first of many reissues, Convoy / Optimus Prime. In my opinion this was one of the best series to be released so far. The figures had good articulation coupled with real world vehicle modes (the Autobots anyway). The following year this series was released by Hasbro called "Robots in Disguise". By 2002 the series had run its course and Takara had only been releasing reissues after the Car Robots series. 

The series to follow was Transformers Armada - a joint venture between Hasbro & Takara. In theory this sounded good however what came out in my opinion was a step back from Car Robots / Robots in Disguise, though it finally gave the fans a Unicron figure.

Monday 17 August 2015

Optimus Prime APS-01U



In April this year, Hasbro Asia released a second leader class Optimus Prime in their "Asian Premium Series" APS-01U Optimus Prime Ultimate Edition. I wouldn't say it necessarily improves upon the previously released APS-01 Striker Optimus Prime; it is different enough with darker colours and it comes with all the accessories which have previously been available with this figure as well as a few new accessories and a big price tag.