Whoever is in charge of these licensed Mr. Potato Heads really needs to be given more money.  I mean really.  Darth Tater, Spud Trooper, Spider-Spud, Optimash Prime.  And those are just the ones that I own. 

 

 

Notice anything extra-awesome about this guy?  That's right, he's styled after G1 Optimus Prime.  In other words we're talking about the 1980's cartoon, not the movie.  Pretty bold choice considering that any kid that has seen the movie but not the cartoon is going to say, "Hey, that's not what Optimus Prime looks like."  That's OK though, because this one's for us, and we know what Optimus is supposed to look like.

 

 

Oh, and did I mention that it comes with a tiny Optimus Prime truck?

 

 

Here's a size comparison. 

 

 

 

 

Take the effort that was put into Optimash and turn it into half-assedness, and you'll have what was put into this set.

 

How 'bout we start with the right side of the set, 1984 Optimus Prime?

 

 

Looks pretty cool on first glance.

 

 

 Not an exact copy, but it stays within the spirit of the original design.  Let's see what he looks like in truck mode.

 

 

Not too bad, but I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the blue thing on the top.  Let's take a closer look.

 

 

What the fuck?  Is that his head?  That's the sort of thing you expect from Happy Meal toys and $2 D-list characters from the clearance aisle.  This is Optimus Prime.  He deserves better.

 

Fuck.

 

Let's move on to the 2007 version.  maybe that one will be better.

 

 

 

Hold on.  Just one second.  I need to check something.

 

  

 

Yep, just like I thought.  The movie Optimus Prime doesn't have half a truck strapped to his back.  That's just plain lazy.  For the sake of completeness, here's what he looks like in truck mode.  It's actually not bad, but it hardly makes up for the robot mode.

 

 

If these guys wanted to do this right they would have done a re-issue of the original Optimus Prime toy, identical  to what you would get if you were to take the DeLorean back to 1984.  They could have left out the trailer to save package space if they wanted.  They would have taken this reissue and packaged it with a proper movie Prime with the same transformation system as the big version of the toy.  They could have charged upwards of fifty bucks and everyone would want one.  Hell they could probably get away with asking for a hundred.  

 

Instead they left us with a $17 crap set.

 

Enough of that though.  We have a bit more awesome to talk about.

 

 

Yes, that's exactly what it looks like.  A plush Optimus Prime, or as the pun-happy folks at Hasbro like to call it, "Softimus Prime."  I love the pun-happy folks at Hasbro.  I can only assume that with this and the Mr. Potato Head someone wants younger kinds growing up with an image of Optimus Prime that matches the one in our heads.  But I digress.  This plush is indeed "more than meets the eye."  Don't believe me?  Look down about a quarter inch.

 

 

 

You can transform him into a truck by turning him inside out.  Can you think of anything cooler?  Didn't think so.

 

Oh, and while it falls out of the scope of this article I think you should know that you can also get Slumberbee.  I don't have one yet, but I will.

 

 

I've only told you about a few of the Optimus Prime toys available.  If you have one of the dozen or so other toys currently on the shelves, go ahead and tell us about them in the forum.

 

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