Just picked this guy up and with the free Toys-R-Us battle blades while I was in Japan. I have to say, as my first Leader OP mold ever, Striker Optimus Prime really does impress! Was on sale and cost 6999 Yen (roughly $90 USD -- pricey, yes, but beats the $129.99 BBTS markup not to mention the $59.99 Exclusive Battle Blades preorder on top of that -- yikes!). Also grabbed Cyberverse Soundwave and Deluxe Skywarp too. =)
Shame he can't wear Jetwing backpack, but ROTF Leader Prime mould is so awesome I'll gladly keep multiple. I wish I had more storage space though. Can't wait to get mine. *fidgets*
As has been pointed out, that would look very weird because it's a totally different color blue. You'd lose as much in looks as you'd gain.
They wanted to know if they could do that, I gave them a method, and they still nitpicked. Anyway, I think the jetpack will cover the odd colored parts.
It's kind of a peg joint type of thing. And you have to slide the piece up on the peg during the transformation anyway. I've never pulled them completely off (and don't really plan to), but apparently it can be done.
I tried it last night. My Jetwing's peg-joint-thing is so tight that it looked like it was stressing the plastic to try. So I didn't try any further. That back part has always used relatively weak plastic... And it may be that they used stronger plastic in the joint on this version to stop the rotating section from coming off. Someone braver than me is gonna have to try.
Knowing this, I would just keep Jetwing Prime and Striker Prime if I were to have both. Striker's deco blows away Jetwing Prime's but that Jetwing pack looks cool as hell. So personally for me, there would be reason to keep both.
