DotM Voyager Prime and You: A Manifesto on Fun

texanba Temmuz 25, 2022

Dark of the Moon's Voyager Optimus Prime and You

(or: A Manifesto on Fun)

If there's one toy that's been absolutely blasted for being "not very good" from the Dark of the Moon line, it has got to be the new, updated Voyager Optimus Prime mold, the third of its kind. The first was, well, the first, but still good. The second one, Battle Blades Optimus Prime (also used by the ever classic Space Prime), is widely considered to be one of the best Optimus molds ever done. I agree, it was pretty great. But this blog is not about these, it's about the third, shelfwarming, yet to me, charming version of this iconic character in this size class. (Note: I'll be using Fireburst Prime, the redeco. I have the same feelings towards the original coloring, sans the axe, for obvious reasons).

So this is a side shot of truck mode. Probably the best view you're going to get of the vehicle mode, but honestly, truck mode isn't why I like this toy so much. In fact, truck mode deserves a lot of the crap that it gets. The back is practically hollow. The front, well...

Symmetry is good. Symmetry that leaves a gigantic crack down the middle of every major part? Yikes. While this isn't really as bad in person, man, if you get up close, it's somewhat... jarring.

That said, I would really, really like the Takara trailer for this to show up here at some point. Given the fact that Michael Bay has cared more than Hasbro about including Optimus' trailer in regards to Dark of the Moon is bothersome. FUND IT. MAKE IT. I WILL BUY IT. CAPS.

The next part I'd like to talk about is the transformation. This is why I love this toy.

Yeah, imagine that. Loving a Transformer because it can transform.

This is where my biggest gripe with every RotF and earlier Movie Prime (sans the Legend and Fast Action Battler) comes in. The transformations for most of those toys are: Unintuitive, not user friendly, borderline illogical, overly complex, and just darn right not fun.

Yes, not FUN.

DotM Voyager Prime is Fun to transform. Which is why I love it.

Screen accurate? Nah. Cool looking? That's a matter of opinion. Fun to play with? Absolutely.

The transformation is really great, I can't say enough. Things go where you think they should go. There are tabs for things that go where you think they should tab. No panel massage. The arms will tell you if you did it right or not, because if not, the front end will be crooked. That's just how to Transformer.

We can make it more fun though. We have the technology.

This version comes with one thing that easily beats out the original: an awesomely badass weapon. It may not be the biggest axe ever, but it looks pretty damn cool, and hey, if you don't like the idea of close range weaponry, the axe transforms into a gun.

That said, the axe is flimsy. I took the spring out of mine and it fixed all but one problem, that being the fact that one of the tabs on mine broke the first time I used the spring action out of the box. Ugh. Oh well. It ends up not being a huge loss.

All this said, I'm done gushing now. This is my favorite mainline DotM toy. Hands down, no question. Megatron and Shockwave look great, but their alt modes and transformations are boring. Skyhammer would be better if he wasn't so... drab looking. The deluxes are the deluxes. Until they become backpacks.

I'm nowhere remotely close to the first person to have done this, but infinite kudos to who figured it out that Laserbeak can become badass wings for Voyager Prime. And just because I love Armada...