Movie Voyager Prime, Defender Prime review

[Yuyuyami]

I found this guy at Target yesterday. I had planned on getting this mold for the past two years, but I never got around to it until now. Every time prior I had seen the mold something threw me off. Sometimes the figure was posed badly in the packaging, sometimes I had something else I wanted, sometimes I just couldn't justifying buying any figures and I was just window shopping. Honestly, I wish I had had this guy from the very beginning. He has some problems, but they're nothing a decent modder couldn't easily fix. In fact, I'll also describe the fix I made in the review, so you, too, can have an awesome Voyager Prime if you want.

 

Alt Mode:

 

I have the Defender Prime variant, so the colors are quite muted on mine. It's not a bad, thing, though. The subtlety of the deco is actually quite striking. Nothing is too much or too little. This won't necessarily be true for the other repaints of this figure, but I thought I'd mention how much I like the colors on this version.

 

Prime is a somewhat stylized Peterbuilt tractor, you know what kind he is. I say stylized because it has some slight differences from the screen appearance and the other toys, mostly in the roof of the sleeper, which is now also a wind vain, due to its upward angle. For the most part it's a good alt mode, though the back of the sleeper is exposed and the bed is a bit too wide and the wheel wells too narrow. Mine did have a slight stability problem that might have just affected mine. The problem is that peg that holds the front of the stuck stable was too small, so the front was floppy. I fixed it by beefing up the peg with superglue and putting superglue on the hinge to tighten it. Otherwise, it's an extremely solid vehicle that balances well: unless the surface is uneven, it won't wobble.

 

I give the alt mode an 8/10. The exposed back of the cab is a little too much to give it a perfect score, but it works well.

 

 

Transformation:

 

When I first took this figure out of the packaging, I thought it was OK. Then when I started to transform it for the first time, I realized just how awesome this figure is. The whole mechanism for the lower legs is pure genius in that it does a LOT of transforming, but you only have to do a couple flips to do it. It's complex, streamlined, easy to do and impressive. The rest of the transformation is OK, but the legs are what make the transformation shine.

 

Right here I'm going to talk about the modification I recommend doing to this guy. There's a problem with his robot mode that requires a slightly different transformation and some extra parts glued on to fix. The problem is that the swing bar that puts his legs under his torso does not lock into anything but the head piece, which also locks into nothing, so the whole assembly is floppy. The solution is to NOT rotate the swing bar all the way flush with his torso so that the swing bar will be tightly wedged against the head piece. I recommend, to keep the posture of the figure as natural as possible, gluing some small slivers of plastic to the front of the head piece so the assembly will wedge together sooner and the separation of the torso from the swing bar will be minimal. This will keep the two pieces solid as long as the swing bar is not allowed to go all the way into its intended position, so you will need to glue some stops onto the side of the swing bar, right above the pelvis. I used the tips of the fingers on Movie Deluxe Payload's grabber. Depending on how large the stops are, you might also need to take off Prime's shoulder panels (for alt mode), which I recommend doing anyway, since they get in the way and don't add anything.

 

Without pictures, I know this is hard to visualize without the figure in hand. I'll try to get a camera soon and then I'll update the review.

 

Back on topics, I found Prime's transformation delightful. It gets a 10/10 for being awesome.

 

 

Robot Mode:

 

Like I mentioned earlier, I have the Defender Prime variant. In robot mode the colors are extremely different and much more vibrant, which is an interesting change from the minimalist alt mode. Defender Prime has an excellent deco.

 

Assuming the fix I talked about has been done and all the joints are tight, Prime is an absolutely epic figure. Many people complain about his backpack, but it doesn't throw him off balance and I see too many similarities between it and Animated Leader Magnus's "Might Chest and Upper Body of Glory." I think a cape would look fabulous on this guy.

 

No matter the pose, Prime look impressive and expressive, especially with his smokestacks at full mast. What makes this guy so good at looking awesome are three things:

 

1. His poseable heel spur. It allows him to have some amazing prone poses and makes most stances look extremely natural.

 

2. He has pectoral articulation so he actually can cross his arms over his chest, not just pretend.

 

3. Wonderful light piping that makes him look alive, even in the darkest room that still has light.

 

My only gripe with this figure is that his knee pads pop off easily. You have to know how to grab his lower legs when posing him to keep his knee pads from screwing up. It's not as bad as I make it sound and they go right back on, but I wish they had been pinned, though the inner mechanism prevents that.

 

Overall, it's an excellent robot mode and it deserved a 10/10 for being epic.

 

 

Summary:

 

I like this figure more than RotF Leader Prime because of how many more poses he can pull off and how elegant he is. Leader Prime is a good stoic figure. Voyager Prime is an EXCELLENT action figure.

[UltraConvoy]

Great review and yes, get us some pics on what you talking about :)

He is not a bad mold and He is a pretty solid toy. I actually like Him. I don't have a Defender prime and this is the reason.......... :grr

 

So how many repaints we have of this guy so far? I have 6 in my collection and counted 7

[Liege Evilmus]

I have Robovision Prime both opened and sealed, and yes it is a good figure. I just couldn't see myself getting it as many times as they offered it.

 

I will say though that suprizingly Defender Prime looks good in hand. If I find it on clearance one day I just might. Also since it is almost 'nude' I can see repainters wanting this version.

 

I do look forward to the Unite For The Universe import. Otherwise I'm glad I never went overboard on this figure, and just got him the one time (twice)

 

It is a good figure, and I believe everyone should have 1.

[Yuyuyami]

This is one figure that I wouldn't mind as an army builder, especially with how many variations there are.

 

I'd call them the Prime Corp and pose them doing all sorts of Power Ranger-esc group poses. That'd be so cool.

 

Also, aside from the paint, they could all have different variations in the parts I use to make the torso solid.

[The Variable]

The main reason I don't have this figure is because of the truck cab backpack, not to mention if I'm to get one movie Prime, it may very well have to be the Leader class version.

 

And now that the Voyager is getting updated, I don't know what to do~! If I had any skill in painting, I'd probably get this version and turn him into Ultra Magnus (ie. toss him in a bucket of white paint then fill in red and blue details where applicable :D) then use the new version as Prime himself.

 

In the meantime, I created a foam board Energon sword, and attached it to Animated Voyager Prime, and have him on my desk delivering sweet justice to that jerk Sentinel.

[Yuyuyami]

The backpack on this figure ain't bad at all, it actually looks quite regal is you picture it as sexy ornamentation instead of a useless growth. Also, it doesn't make him hard to stand at all.

 

And I want pictures of the new Voyager Prime.