Found this figure at US retail two days ago. Mine also has this same issue. Please take note that this piece of plastic is very thin. I heated it up and attempted to straighten it out a bit and a bad stress mark immidately appeared across it. I am always very careful with my fixes and I used very little force before the mark was caused.

It's also worth noting that removal of this piece allows Optimus to tilt his head several degrees downward in robot mode

This figure is far from perfect but I like it a lot and it will hold me over until Takara's vastly superior version drops.

 

Perhaps I'll just leave it then - it actually seems to have straightened out slightly after being in truck mode for a day or so. Probably got warped due to careless packaging.

I'll likely get Takara's Ginrai as well, but as an updated PMOP this guy is very good.

 

Not a big fan of the overlapping shoulders though.

 

Few seconds with a hair dryer can get rid of stress marks, too.

 

Here a picture with one of his old guns. The other is in some other box and I was too lazy to look for it. But at least you can compare the two guns in this shot. The grey does not really match. The old guns are less bright and I think I prefer the open barrels. But once I found the second gun, I'll have another look at it.

 

The grey of the dual shoulder cannons varies between the original PM Prime, Japanese version and reissues.

 

I didn't see if anyone mentioned this yet, sorry if it's been discussed. I was fiddling with him tonight and I realized something odd about his trailer door/shins. It looks like they were originally molded to slot together jigsaw-style, and then the top was remolded to prevent them from sitting together that closely.

I can't take a good picture of this, but hopefully a quickie is enough to show what I'm talking about:

 

I think I will be using Powermaster Optimus Prime's old weapons when I get Super Ginrai for Christmas.

 

Sadly the articulated hands mean that TR Optimus can't hold 88 PM Prime's guns.

5mm hand holes for me every time.

 

i noticed that too, but isnt that where the leg panel wraps around and tabs in?

 

Oh, maybe. That makes more sense.

 

the grey plastic photographs well but i really hate the brownish tint in person, ugh.

 

Finally had some time to fiddle around with this guy. To get the main negative out of the way- it is annoying how his lower legs interfere with each other. Besides that though, I love all the detail in the sculpt and he's a nice burly looking fellow. His truck mode is more impressive to me than Magnus thanks to the more solid trailer and he really does invoke fond memories of the original figure.

Overall, I like him. Not the best Prime ever made, but worth the money. I will still be getting the Takara version though- I really like the new hands and the feet should help with the legs.

 

Saw Powermaster Optimus Prime at one of my local Walmarts for the first time this weekend. He was an easy pass for a couple of different reasons.

1) The eyes are way too close together and almost give him a cross-eyed look:



2) There is a blue strip of plastic that forms the bridge of the nose (circled in the picture below) which is on the Headmaster helmet just above the faceplate and looks completely ridiculous for several reasons:



A) The headmaster already has a nose bridge which is painted silver. The blue plastic piece doubles it up and looks stupid because it sits so far away from the Headmasters nose and is highly noticeable from different angles. It makes Optimus look like he has two noses. (see pictures below):







B) The way blue plastic nose on the Headmaster helmet frames the eyes makes them look even more cross-eyed.

C) At the very least, the blue nose on the Headmaster helmet should be silver. It clashes with the silver part of Optimus' face and looks so bad in person.

 

optimus can have as many noses as he likes. unless you think you're in a position to judge a giant space robot who came back to life.

 

Does anybody else have a problem where the legs like to lean to one side due to hip ratchets not lining up properly? It's not a big deal on mine but annoying when standing him up.

Other than that and the eyes never quite lining up with the helmet, I'm quite fond of them. They are the only leader not to feel oversized since they are supposed to be in armor. Transformation feels more complicated too.

 

I can't like this figure, I'be tried... bought it about 2 hours ago and returning it tomorrow. It just seems so cheap, even compared to original. (Have the original and encore god ginrai). No real power master, the head master gimmick seems odd with this figure. No Transforming CAB, and the "Base Mode" looks like it is a "fan mode" thingy. Just adds some knees and elbow to the original and it blows this POS out of the water. How hard is it to make a decent power master optimus or a god ginria. Currently working on a custom as I feel Takara will not be talking another version of this guy for awhile. I don't mind the look of the figure, I am not a "It must look G1" type of guy. He just seems far less innovative then the original. Even Takara's version that looks G1 doesn't do it for me. In my eyes, he's the same as Hasbro's version. And they are both the same as Ultra Magnus.....

 

That's strange because that's one of the things I really like about it. I think it looks so much better than the awful Hasbro gray we've been seeing for years. All in all, I'm surprised by how satisfied I am with this figure. The base mode is crap but I love the other two modes. When I look at his bot mode I totally see the G1 box art. In a good way.

 

no swirlies, i'll give it that.

 

So you opened it and then you return it again? What kind of store does take back opened toys just because you noticed you don't like it, AFTER you opened it? Why would they do that? They can't sell pre-owned toys in a store.