I didn't get into the Beast Wars series. It started just about when I stopped watching much television. Cheetor was purchased on a whim and I liked it so much that I decided to get Optimus Primal. Since I missed the original release, I went with the Supreme Commander edition.
Except for a few obvious robot parts on the back of his legs, Optimus Primal is nearly kibble free in beast mode. He looks great as an upright gorilla, but I'm not able to get him into a more traditional gorilla stance. I couldn't achieve the box art stance without mis-transforming his shoulders and crotch. Even then, his rear feet wouldn't sit quite right. I wished he had the same kind of painted texture that Cheetor has.
Transformation to either mode is pretty easy. There seems to be enough clearance in his torso for the gorilla head, but I do worry about scraping it. Although there is not much to do with his arms, thankfully his legs feature a few more steps. I was worried that his transformation would be too simple.
I think I prefer how he looks in beast mode, but his robot mode is pretty neat. He has a light-up feature for his eyes, but batteries are not included. I like the piston detail in his shins. If only they weren't only decorative. He has flip out shoulder and wrist cannons. I can't help but think that I should have gotten the original version for the metallic paint applications.
His gorilla and robot heads are on ball joints. He can look up but not down. His shoulders are on hinges and ratcheted swivels, allowing him to raise his arms out and up to 90 degrees. His shoulder pads are on ratcheted hinges. They are independent of his arms so you have to move them back down yourself. He swivels at his biceps and wrists. His single-jointed elbows let him do almost a full curl. His thumbs are fixed and the rest of his fingers are single-pinned. His pointing fingers articulate separately from the rest. In beast mode, he has no waist swivel, has severely limited range of motion in his hips, and lacks thigh swivels and knee joints. In robot mode, he has a ratcheted waist swivel. His hips are on ratcheted universals that allow him to do the full Van Damne. He also has double-jointed knees that curl well past 90 degrees. The top parts of his knee joints are ratcheted. His ankles are on swivels and hinges. His toes and heel spurs are on separate hinges.
His accessories include a double-bladed staff, a pair of swords, a mace, an alternate robot face, a beast face, an alternate gorilla face, a storage peg, and a box of bananas. While the staff and swords have plenty of line work, there is not a lick of paint on any of them. The morning star at least has an interesting design with the chain and spiked skull. All the weapons use Masterpiece-styled tabs that just don't work that well. His grip is tight enough to hold the handles in place despite that. I had difficulty putting on the beast face and actually almost cracked it in half so decided to put it away. I think the pegs are crooked on mine, preventing them from going into the holes on the back of his head. The gorilla face is easily swappable, but I am concerned about stripping the screw. The storage peg lets him store his weapons on his back. The box contains small bananas in a bunch. They can separate into individual pieces.
I'll be displaying Optimus Primal on my Beast Wars shelf next to Cheetor and Leonidas. This was another impulse purchase since I don't really have any attachments to the Beast Wars cartoon. I don't have the original version to compare in hand, but judging from pictures I think I would have preferred that one's metallic paint applications and textured gorilla fur. Still, I do like this figure. Here's to hoping that Megatron will be announced soon.
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