Review; Beast Wars Reissue Optimus Primal

 As I have said time and time and time again, Beast Wars to me is the Transformers series. Beast Wars was my first real introduction to the Transformers series and to this day has always made up the majority of my collection. I think my love of beast wars comes from how great the old toys were back in the day. In my youth I had a G1 Starscream, Hot Rod and Powermaster Prime which, let's be honest, where bricks. 

Don't get me wrong, I still want this

So today we take a look at one of the main Beast Wars cast and leader of the Maximals, Optimus Primal.

I've said it before and I will say it againn, I live for this classic Beast Wars packaging. It is just a pure nostalgia hit that gets the serotonin flowing. on the front we have a small picture of the toy robot mode and an arrow letting you know that it turns into the Gorilla inside the packaging. on the left of the box we have a beautiful art piece of Optimus Primal in his robot mode and I love it.

Back of the box we have the Beast Wars logo along with the rest of the wave mates in this reissue toyline, which is a nice nod back to the old days, unfortunately I have all the toys in this wave. On the back we also have Tech Specs and a bio for Optimus Primal. Deserving of the role of Leader of the Maximals, Primal has all 10's for his stats.

Out of the box, we have with beautifully moulded Gorilla mode. This mode, unlike it's wave mates in this line, is actually quite well articulated. This primarily comes down to how the toy transforms and the arms and legs are reused for the Robot mode. 

In this mode Optimus Primal has a gimmick! There is a lever on the back that when pressed, has Optimus Primal beating his chest in true Gorilla/King Kong fashion, I nice touch to have with the toy.

Transformation is a fairly simple matter, the waist rotates and the robot mode toes fold down, the fur on the upper arms lift up to become shoulder pads, the the Gorillas face lifts down and flips over to become the chest piece. That's it, you're done.

The robot mode is beautiful. It is Optimus Primal, this is what I have wanted for a very long time. Compared to the original release I believe that this version has been coloured more to look more like the show counterpart. So a darker black is used on the fur and a darker blue for the helmet.

Articulation wise Optimus Primal's head is on a ball joint with full rotation and can look up. For the arms he has fully rotating arms and elbow bend slightly greater than 90 degrees. There is rotation at the elbows but you will be fighting the mechanism that activates the chest pounding gimmick mentioned earlier. Due to transformation there is waist rotation legs can lift fully forward to the side and front but are limited at the back due to were the back ends. Knees have a slightly greater than 90 bend and due to transformation there is a bend in the foot.

Being a vintage toy, Optimus Primal here comes with gimmicks. His left arm can pop open and reveal a hidden blaster which can fire 2 of the missiles included with the toy. On the back of the toy, awkwardly placed below the lever for the chest pounding, is a button that when pressed reveals the shoulder cannons, which can also fire the missiles included. Of course Optimus also has the gimmick of a Mutant Mask, which in the fashion of the Mutant Mask, is the default head when transformed. Unlike other Mutant Masks, Optimus Primal's is simply changed by rotating his head

Accessory wise Optimus Primal comes with two blades that can be stored under the flaps that hide the shoulder cannons. These can be used as two separate swords or can placed on either side of one of his hands to form a dual bladed sword. Optimus also comes with a skull faced mace, which has a handy storage location of inside the right arm.

Overall this is a great toy and I would highly recommend it to anyone, whether they be vintage collectors looking to complete a collection, G1 collectors that skipped Beast Wars, New collectors interested in seeing how far the new toys have come or even live action movie fans interested in seeing the roots of this new character set to appear in the upcoming Rise of the Beasts movie. This is an amazing toy to hold and I am glad to have it in my collection.

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