#chainclaw

If you’re reading a review of a Transformer, I think it’s safe to say you know who Optimus Prime is, so let’s skip over that part. Instead, we’re gonna just dive into the figure itself. Optimus is part of the “Beast Alliance” line of figures, which focuses on kid-friendly figures that interact with little robot animals (mostly Maximals, but one Predacon) that become weapons and armor. The “Beast Weaponizers” subline that this particular Prime is part of consists of figures whose animal accessories become weapons, much like the Rhinox figure we looked at in the last review.

Optimus looks like pretty much what you’d expect. He’s very, VERY heavily based off the original Optimus, but with the realistic detailing that the movies are known for having. The paint job’s very basic, and is, again, what you think of when you think of Optimus Prime. There’s a lot of details sculpted onto his entire body that weren’t painted in, but that’s honestly fine. If they’d painted all the sculpted details in, it would have been a mess. So while the look is definitely one we’ve seen a million times, that’s definitely better than an eye-melting mess of colors just for the sake of doing something different.

Bro found a look that works and stuck with it.

In vehicle mode, Optimus looks almost identical to his G1 design. You know the look by now: red cab, blue back, black wheels, smokestacks. It’s a design we’ve seen a million times and there’s nothing particularly eye-catching about it. It’s ok, but it’s not exciting.

Seconds before running over a bunch of Decepticons while playing 80′s rock.

The transformation’s very straightforward and easy, partially because it’s one that most Optimus Primes have: fold head down, rotate body, fold arms back, and lift legs up. Thrilling. I don’t really have anything else to say about this part, because it’s something we’ve seen a million times.

In terms of articulation, Optimus is great. He’s highly posable, and the waist articulation he has as part of his transformation really pays off here. He’s got very decent articulation, which makes him a lot of fun to play with and pose. Something else that this figure has that I like is a pair of supports that fold out from his feet. This deals with most balance issues you could have with this figure, especially after you give him an accessory.

Speaking of accessories, this brings us to Prime’s only one. Optimus comes with Chainclaw, a mechanical wolf who folds into a chainsaw that Optimus can hold. Chainclaw looks pretty great. His silver and ice-blue color scheme look really cool on him and make his red eyes stand out, and his sculpted fur gives him a wild, beastial look that makes him feel like the hybrid of animal and machine you’d want from a Maximal. My one complaint is his tail: he hasn’t got one. There’s a little nub that reminds me of my childhood dog who lost her tail before we got her, but that’s about it. I know it’s to make it easier to transform Chainclaw into his weapon mode, but it’s still a weird look.

“I’ll give you my heart. In exchange... show me your dreams.”

The chainsaw mode’s a bit lacking, honestly. It looks like a stretching dog with a chainsaw sticking out of its ass, which is… certainly a look to go for. Aside from what can only be described as “the downward dog pose gone horribly wrong,” the paint and sculpting on Chainclaw’s weapon mode really serve the figure well. It’s clear effort was put into this toy, and the colors are very easy on the eye. An additional detail I like is that, since the colors don’t match Optimus or any other figure in the line, you can easily give Chainclaw to any other character as an accessory without it being an issue, which makes me think of some of the Mini-Cons from “Transformers: Armada” and how they could go with any bigger figure without issue.

Something about this just feels painful to look at.

Chainclaw’s articulation is limited to running poses, and that’s about it. Since most of his body was made to hide the chainsaw blade, there wasn’t room left for dynamic poses with the figure. The entire figure is based around turning into a weapon, so any articulation he has is a part of that.

To transform Chainclaw, you fold down the handle in his chest so Optimus can hold it, move Chainclaw’s front legs to hide the sides of his face, and fold his ass down so it and his rear legs are under his body and his chainsaw blade is out. It’s a quick transformation with no complications. Now, on first glance, it looks like his legs are blocking part of the handle, so Optimus is only holding him by the tip. However, upon closer look, you can see that the handle is sculpted so that only part of it can be held at all, and it’s held pretty firmly. Chainclaw can also be plugged into holes on both of Optimus Prime’s arms, but that connection’s a bit looser.

"Aaah! Chainsaw! The great communicator!"

My big complaint with this toy is that, when Optimus is in vehicle mode, there isn’t really a great place to store Chainclaw. You can peg him into the sides of the vehicle, but it just looks off. Maybe if you plug weapons into both sides, it would look better, but as is, it’s a lopsided look.