Dave's Transformers Kingdom Rant: Voyager Wave 1

Optimus Primal (Gorilla)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/OptimusK

Wave-mate is Cyclonus...and the Voyager Scourge is a Studio Series toy,
so we're back to the Revenge of the Fallen days of splitting up characters
between Generations and movie-based lines.

CAPSULE

$30 price point.

Optimus Primal: Pretty good and mostly show-accurate robot mode, with
two alternate beast modes (a more realistic-pose gorilla and a more bipedal
version similar to the animation model). A bit on the small side, though.
Recommended.

RANT

Packaging: Same size as Earthrise Voyagers, but with the basic style of
Kingdom Deluxes. The box art uses the "Ark on top of a volcano" background,
with robot mode on the angled side and gorilla mode on the front. The fused
Maximal/Autobot symbol is used on the package and in the instructions, and
the cave painting symbol on the back is a gorilla handprint.
Oddly, the instructions have a sort of third mode. There's robot,
anatomically more-or-less-accurate gorilla mode, and then 12 steps to get
from that to a "guy in a gorilla suit standing straight up" sort of mode.
The card I got was the Ark, same Fate as I got on Blackarachnia.

MAXIMAL: OPTIMUS PRIMAL
Assortment: WFC-K8
Altmodes: Gorilla, Gorilla With Human Posture
Transformation Difficulty: 22 steps (robot to gorilla), 12 steps (gorilla to
upright gorilla)
Previous Name Use: BW, BMac, BWX, Uni, RB
Previous Mold Use: None

Packaging: Same minimal-plastic packaging seen in Deluxes with the
golden disc background. Six ties (including a double-tie around the waist)
hold the robot to the back of the tray, while the swords are held to the side
of the tray by three ties (one on both hilts at once, one each on the
blades).

Note, the toy is based fairly closely on the cartoon interpretation, so
it lacks the mutant face battlemask of the original Ultra class toy, and also
can't hide the swords completely in gorilla mode. There's the forearm
blasters seen in the cartoon, but not the flail stored in the forearm (which
is where Paleotrex comes in..."Give me your face! Second thought, give me
your entire head and part of your spine!").

Robot Mode: Very close to the 1990s animation model, although it kind of
slides into the uncanny valley a little. Mostly in that the head is a bit
too big. Color-wise, it's pretty close, just missing a few red bits (most
notably the hip joints), and for some reason they decided to make the
faceplate white instead of silver or gray. The black is actually black,
instead of the dark gray that the show favored. There's a fairly large gap
at the collarbone area, if you rotate the chest panel to close if then a
bigger gap opens in the abdomen.
Barely over 6" (15.5cm) tall in black, white, red, gray, and dull blue.
A faintly metallic blue-gray plastic is used for the head, the shoulder
weapons, the forearm blaster barrels, the hip joints, the toes, and the
pistons connecting the toes to the shins. Light gray plastic is used for the
hands, heel spurs (beast toes), and chest panel. The rest of the toy is
black plastic. (There's two different kinds, the sort mostly used in hinges
glows green under UV. It's also the collar area under the head.)
The chest is painted in two shades of metallic blue plus silver, and a
few bits of red on the "not an Arc Reactor" bit. The faceplate is white, and
molded with the mouth visible. Red eyes, silver forehead tablet and
antennae. The outer faces of the upper arms are painted white and bright
red, although a couple of circle details are left white instead of the red
seen in the animation model. The front of the pelvis is painted silver with
dark metallic blue circle details. The fronts of the thighs are painted
white (and already scraping off in places near the hip joint), with red
kneecaps. The tops of the toe pistons are painted bright reed. Gray paint
(good match to the plastic) is used on the torso flanking the gray plastic
bit. Black paint is found on the furry bits of the backs of the hands and
the heel spurs. The blades of the swords are painted silver.
The neck is a somewhat restricted ball joint, the waist is a smooth
swivel. The shoulders are universal joints (the shoulderpads can fold down
for beast mode, but are snapped solidly in place for robot mode). Upper arm
swivels, hinge elbows that leave pretty big gaps. The wrists turn (but if
there's any flash on the joint, they can rotate right out of the sockets),
and the fingers move as a single unit on a hinge. Universal joint hips with
swivels right below them. The swivels are very restricted by the thigh
details, though, and as mentioned earlier there's paint scraping already
going on. The knees are weird due to the transformation schemes, but have
single hinges that are meant for this mode. The ankles have double hinges,
but can only really wiggle a little in any direction. The shoulder launchers
are hinged and can go between straight up and almost straight forwards, but
they can't be stowed without making several transformation steps to open up
the torso.
The forearm weapons are fairly clever. Rather than have a big gap for
prying them open, there's a push-through button on the opposite side of the
forearm. Once pushed out, they have a bit of range on a hinge, which gives a
little more flexibility regarding what Fire Blasts can be attached, but the
ones with flatter bases (like Firedrive's) won't fit at all.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs regardless of how the fingers are posed, and
that's basically it for 5mm sockets. There's plenty of gaps on the soles of
the feet, but none will fit a 5mm peg. There's a 3mm socket in the back of
the pelvis, but the butt flap normally plugs into it. Each shoulder launcher
ends in a 3mm stud, and there's two 3mm studs on each wrist blaster. The
swords have tabs on the sides of the hilt for storage on the back, they're
not quite Fire Blast size, but they'll do the job. Not that the Lionizer
Fire Blast looks right on those.

Transformation: Going from robot to gorilla is mostly a matter of
copying the stock footage...turn the waist all the way around and collapse
the legs at the knees, snap the shoulderpads down over the robotic bits of
the arms, etc. The torso is a bit trickier, as you have to fold the shoulder
roots out a little and then open up the torso via a hinge in the small of the
back. The entire collar area pulls out so you can swap the heads, and the
gorilla head needs to be pointed backwards while in robot mode. It's only
when the heads piece is pulled out that you can stow or deploy the shoulder
launchers.
I know they're not terribly proud of the back end and its gappy nature,
but the instructions really should've shown a clear view from the side to
make it more obvious how the hind legs needed to be positioned (the knees
have multiple joints, so it's not obvious that you just bend the knees 90
degrees on the regular robot mode hinges...all the extra joints are for
gorilla suit mode). I did eventually figure it out. Once you get the legs
into the right position, there's only a little bit of the white paint from
the thighs visible.
The instructions don't even try to pretend the swords store in this
mode, but the box back renders do show them tabbed to the back.

Beast Mode: It's a reasonably good gorilla with something approximating
a realistic posture with knuckles used for support in quadrupedal walking. A
few gaps here and there, although being mostly black helps with that. Of
course, if you put the swords on the back, it tends to hurt the
versimilitude. "Oh, just your everyday dual-wielding gorilla...been getting
more of those in response to poachers. Nature adapts."
In this pose, it's 3.5" (9cm) tall and 4.5" (11.5cm) long, almost
entirely black and gray. The only new plastic is for the beast head, which
is black. The black paint on the hands and feet remains visible, as does the
gray paint on the chest. The new chestplate is unpainted gray plastic. The
face is gray with burnt orange eyes that either have intentional black pupils
or got chipped somehow (the pupils are a bit ragged).
The arms retain full articulation, but the legs are pretty much stuck in
position other than a little shin rotation. Turning the arms too much
reveals the robot arm details and paint, and it can't sit like a gorilla.
The head can look back and forth a bit, as well as looking down. The hands
can still hold some things (like the Paleotrex mace) while knuckle-walking
and the swords can be stored on the back, but no other real connection
points.

Gorilla Suit Mode: This isn't just standing up the gorilla mode, there's
a couple of steps using all those extra knee joints to get the upright
posture while keeping the robot thighs under the buttflap. The instructions
do probably show more steps than are necessary...the extra space would have
been better used showing clear side views. Here's some views from front and
side: http://www.dvandom.com/images/primalupright.JPG
This is basically the show-accurate beast mode, since Primal tended to
stand upright rather than on all fours. The colors are the same as beast
mode, it's just a matter of being fully bipedal, making it 5.75" (14.5cm)
tall. The arms now have better useful range of motion, the legs are still
fairly fixed as there's no thighs to speak of (the relevant bits are folded
up under the butt). The head can't quite look straight forwards, and the
face lacks the flatness of the animation model. Still, credit for making the
effort.

Dave Van Domelen <dvandom@eyrie.org> wrote:
> Dave's Transformers Kingdom Rant: Voyager Wave 1
>

> Gorilla Suit Mode: This isn't just standing up the gorilla mode, there's
> a couple of steps using all those extra knee joints to get the upright
> posture while keeping the robot thighs under the buttflap. The instructions
> do probably show more steps than are necessary...the extra space would have
> been better used showing clear side views. Here's some views from front and
> side: http://www.dvandom.com/images/primalupright.JPG
> This is basically the show-accurate beast mode, since Primal tended to
> stand upright rather than on all fours. The colors are the same as beast
> mode, it's just a matter of being fully bipedal, making it 5.75" (14.5cm)
> tall. The arms now have better useful range of motion, the legs are still
> fairly fixed as there's no thighs to speak of (the relevant bits are folded
> up under the butt). The head can't quite look straight forwards, and the
> face lacks the flatness of the animation model. Still, credit for making the
> effort.

I just can’t get past the furry diaper. He looks like you still have to
spin him at the waist to reveal the right crotch or something.

On Saturday, May 8, 2021 at 11:22:55 PM UTC-4, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> Dave's Transformers Kingdom Rant: Voyager Wave 1
>
> Optimus Primal (Gorilla)
>
> Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/OptimusK
>
> Wave-mate is Cyclonus...and the Voyager Scourge is a Studio Series toy,
> so we're back to the Revenge of the Fallen days of splitting up characters
> between Generations and movie-based lines.
>
>
> CAPSULE
>
> $30 price point.
>
> Optimus Primal: Pretty good and mostly show-accurate robot mode, with
> two alternate beast modes (a more realistic-pose gorilla and a more bipedal
> version similar to the animation model). A bit on the small side, though.
> Recommended.
>
>
> RANT
>
> Packaging: Same size as Earthrise Voyagers, but with the basic style of
> Kingdom Deluxes. The box art uses the "Ark on top of a volcano" background,
> with robot mode on the angled side and gorilla mode on the front. The fused
> Maximal/Autobot symbol is used on the package and in the instructions, and
> the cave painting symbol on the back is a gorilla handprint.
> Oddly, the instructions have a sort of third mode. There's robot,
> anatomically more-or-less-accurate gorilla mode, and then 12 steps to get
> from that to a "guy in a gorilla suit standing straight up" sort of mode.
> The card I got was the Ark, same Fate as I got on Blackarachnia.
>
>
> MAXIMAL: OPTIMUS PRIMAL
> Assortment: WFC-K8
> Altmodes: Gorilla, Gorilla With Human Posture
> Transformation Difficulty: 22 steps (robot to gorilla), 12 steps (gorilla to
> upright gorilla)
> Previous Name Use: BW, BMac, BWX, Uni, RB
> Previous Mold Use: None
>
> Packaging: Same minimal-plastic packaging seen in Deluxes with the
> golden disc background. Six ties (including a double-tie around the waist)
> hold the robot to the back of the tray, while the swords are held to the side
> of the tray by three ties (one on both hilts at once, one each on the
> blades).
>
> Note, the toy is based fairly closely on the cartoon interpretation, so
> it lacks the mutant face battlemask of the original Ultra class toy, and also
> can't hide the swords completely in gorilla mode. There's the forearm
> blasters seen in the cartoon, but not the flail stored in the forearm (which
> is where Paleotrex comes in..."Give me your face! Second thought, give me
> your entire head and part of your spine!").
>
> Robot Mode: Very close to the 1990s animation model, although it kind of
> slides into the uncanny valley a little. Mostly in that the head is a bit
> too big. Color-wise, it's pretty close, just missing a few red bits (most
> notably the hip joints), and for some reason they decided to make the
> faceplate white instead of silver or gray. The black is actually black,
> instead of the dark gray that the show favored. There's a fairly large gap
> at the collarbone area, if you rotate the chest panel to close if then a
> bigger gap opens in the abdomen.
> Barely over 6" (15.5cm) tall in black, white, red, gray, and dull blue.
> A faintly metallic blue-gray plastic is used for the head, the shoulder
> weapons, the forearm blaster barrels, the hip joints, the toes, and the
> pistons connecting the toes to the shins. Light gray plastic is used for the
> hands, heel spurs (beast toes), and chest panel. The rest of the toy is
> black plastic. (There's two different kinds, the sort mostly used in hinges
> glows green under UV. It's also the collar area under the head.)
> The chest is painted in two shades of metallic blue plus silver, and a
> few bits of red on the "not an Arc Reactor" bit. The faceplate is white, and
> molded with the mouth visible. Red eyes, silver forehead tablet and
> antennae. The outer faces of the upper arms are painted white and bright
> red, although a couple of circle details are left white instead of the red
> seen in the animation model. The front of the pelvis is painted silver with
> dark metallic blue circle details. The fronts of the thighs are painted
> white (and already scraping off in places near the hip joint), with red
> kneecaps. The tops of the toe pistons are painted bright reed. Gray paint
> (good match to the plastic) is used on the torso flanking the gray plastic
> bit. Black paint is found on the furry bits of the backs of the hands and
> the heel spurs. The blades of the swords are painted silver.
> The neck is a somewhat restricted ball joint, the waist is a smooth
> swivel. The shoulders are universal joints (the shoulderpads can fold down
> for beast mode, but are snapped solidly in place for robot mode). Upper arm
> swivels, hinge elbows that leave pretty big gaps. The wrists turn (but if
> there's any flash on the joint, they can rotate right out of the sockets),
> and the fingers move as a single unit on a hinge. Universal joint hips with
> swivels right below them. The swivels are very restricted by the thigh
> details, though, and as mentioned earlier there's paint scraping already
> going on. The knees are weird due to the transformation schemes, but have
> single hinges that are meant for this mode. The ankles have double hinges,
> but can only really wiggle a little in any direction. The shoulder launchers
> are hinged and can go between straight up and almost straight forwards, but
> they can't be stowed without making several transformation steps to open up
> the torso.
> The forearm weapons are fairly clever. Rather than have a big gap for
> prying them open, there's a push-through button on the opposite side of the
> forearm. Once pushed out, they have a bit of range on a hinge, which gives a
> little more flexibility regarding what Fire Blasts can be attached, but the
> ones with flatter bases (like Firedrive's) won't fit at all.
> The hands can hold 5mm pegs regardless of how the fingers are posed, and
> that's basically it for 5mm sockets. There's plenty of gaps on the soles of
> the feet, but none will fit a 5mm peg. There's a 3mm socket in the back of
> the pelvis, but the butt flap normally plugs into it. Each shoulder launcher
> ends in a 3mm stud, and there's two 3mm studs on each wrist blaster. The
> swords have tabs on the sides of the hilt for storage on the back, they're
> not quite Fire Blast size, but they'll do the job. Not that the Lionizer
> Fire Blast looks right on those.
>
> Transformation: Going from robot to gorilla is mostly a matter of
> copying the stock footage...turn the waist all the way around and collapse
> the legs at the knees, snap the shoulderpads down over the robotic bits of
> the arms, etc. The torso is a bit trickier, as you have to fold the shoulder
> roots out a little and then open up the torso via a hinge in the small of the
> back. The entire collar area pulls out so you can swap the heads, and the
> gorilla head needs to be pointed backwards while in robot mode. It's only
> when the heads piece is pulled out that you can stow or deploy the shoulder
> launchers.
> I know they're not terribly proud of the back end and its gappy nature,
> but the instructions really should've shown a clear view from the side to
> make it more obvious how the hind legs needed to be positioned (the knees
> have multiple joints, so it's not obvious that you just bend the knees 90
> degrees on the regular robot mode hinges...all the extra joints are for
> gorilla suit mode). I did eventually figure it out. Once you get the legs
> into the right position, there's only a little bit of the white paint from
> the thighs visible.
> The instructions don't even try to pretend the swords store in this
> mode, but the box back renders do show them tabbed to the back.
>
> Beast Mode: It's a reasonably good gorilla with something approximating
> a realistic posture with knuckles used for support in quadrupedal walking. A
> few gaps here and there, although being mostly black helps with that. Of
> course, if you put the swords on the back, it tends to hurt the
> versimilitude. "Oh, just your everyday dual-wielding gorilla...been getting
> more of those in response to poachers. Nature adapts."
> In this pose, it's 3.5" (9cm) tall and 4.5" (11.5cm) long, almost
> entirely black and gray. The only new plastic is for the beast head, which
> is black. The black paint on the hands and feet remains visible, as does the
> gray paint on the chest. The new chestplate is unpainted gray plastic. The
> face is gray with burnt orange eyes that either have intentional black pupils
> or got chipped somehow (the pupils are a bit ragged).
> The arms retain full articulation, but the legs are pretty much stuck in
> position other than a little shin rotation. Turning the arms too much
> reveals the robot arm details and paint, and it can't sit like a gorilla.
> The head can look back and forth a bit, as well as looking down. The hands
> can still hold some things (like the Paleotrex mace) while knuckle-walking
> and the swords can be stored on the back, but no other real connection
> points.
>
> Gorilla Suit Mode: This isn't just standing up the gorilla mode, there's
> a couple of steps using all those extra knee joints to get the upright
> posture while keeping the robot thighs under the buttflap. The instructions
> do probably show more steps than are necessary...the extra space would have
> been better used showing clear side views. Here's some views from front and
> side: http://www.dvandom.com/images/primalupright.JPG
> This is basically the show-accurate beast mode, since Primal tended to
> stand upright rather than on all fours. The colors are the same as beast
> mode, it's just a matter of being fully bipedal, making it 5.75" (14.5cm)
> tall. The arms now have better useful range of motion, the legs are still
> fairly fixed as there's no thighs to speak of (the relevant bits are folded
> up under the butt). The head can't quite look straight forwards, and the
> face lacks the flatness of the animation model. Still, credit for making the
> effort.
>
> Overall: It's a bit small for a Voyager, and could stand to have a few
> more paint apps, but all things considered it's a pretty good update of the
> character.
>
>
> Dave Van Domelen, notes Primal looks really short next to Cyclonus.