So what inspired me to go out and buy this toy - an Optimus Prime which looks little like any other Op before him - instead of a version painted exactly like what's in the film ?

Well for a start I'm not keen on the film's colour scheme. Blue & Red in the combination they have makes it look too busy with too much going on at once. The original looks a mess. This is new for an Optimus, with a unified colour scheme all over and it appeals to my eye more. They'll be an authentic Movie Op for me when I get the Voyager w 08 Concept Bumblebee. It's a repaint and I love a good repaint. *AND* it's exclusive to a store in the UK that's got here before America. Sorry chaps.

Op comes packaged in robot mode. A small ammount of manipulation is required before he's completely robot, mainly folding out his heel spurs which automorphs the feet into place as well. There's shoulder armour that covers the sides of the upper arm but personally I like these folded out to the sides in a look reminiscent of RID Optimus Prime. His hands have fingers jointed at the top knuckle and a ball jointed thumb. Although there's no weapons he can hold there's a missile launching cannon on his right arm that folds forward from along the outer edge of the lower arm which in turn extends a double gun barrel underneath the right arm. In theory these should be worked by a slider that extends the gun barrel and they probably are - the toy is just designed for someone with more manual dexterity than me ! Both forearms have a panel folded underneath them - on the right arm it's attached to the missile launcher and contains the gun and get locked in place when they're deployed. On the left the panel just hangs there and droops.

There's a double bending elbow so the arm can be bent up to the shoulder with a swivel joint in between. The arms fold out to the sides at the shoulders as well as back and forwards at the shoulder joint. The arms also fold backward at the shoulders on mine because the panels they're attached to do not lock into place very well. The head turns, there's a universal joint on each hip, a swivel above the knee which in turn bends in the correct way and ball jointed ankles. Balance is generally good though he has keeled over once or twice as I've fiddled with the top half of the toy. There's no sound effects as such in this mode but if you push down on the head so the chin recesses below the line of the top of the body you'll get a nice noise and light show as it springs back up. He can kneel down to fire on one leg but it's a sort of stretched pose and you'll need to fold up the lower of the 2 wheels on the upper leg to achieve the pose. The knees are limited by a post sticking out the back of the knee joint. I can't see a reason for it here and in fact I wonder if it's meant to be round the front of the knee instead. Removal would give the knee an extra 30 degrees of movement !

I mentioned the colours at the top: The armoured bits of Prime are a teal blue colour - very nice - with the exposed pieces in grey. There's lots of black detailing. Simple, almost monochrome but it works for me, and puts me in the mind of Armada's Night Attack minicon team - see http://www.tfu.info/2003/Mini-Con/Fetch/fetch.htm and the linked team members. In fact I look at this toy and this it would have been a nice touch to sneak a couple of minicon hard points in.

TF - Involved but quite obvious. I didn't need the instructions. Then it's always better going to vehicle mode from robot. Start by pushing down the head till it locks in place (1). Fold/slide the guns back. Fold back the underside of the forearms and fold the hands in - clever design means the flaps should pop open to receive them. Un-attach the wheels covering the back of the upper leg and fold them down via some hinged panels so they're at the back of the lower leg, Pull back on the waist and fold it back 90 degrees so the front of the waist is pointing downwards and the legs are pointing back. Now bend each of the legs so the point downwards. Fold down the grey pointed panels onto the shoulders, and cover these with the blue panels that form the armour for the sides of the upper arms/shoulder pads. Fold the forearms up so where the hands would be is level with the shoulders and lock the forearms on to the upper arms. Unfold the doubled up panels on the knees, and swing them down and forwards via their attachments. Swing the panels out backwards from the middle of the backpack kibble and then swing the panels down 180 degrees. Swing both halves of the remaining backpack down 90 degrees which should allow the panels to pass through under the folded up arms and beside the hips - they may need some help ! Fold the waist back the remaining 90 degrees and lock. Fold the legs down 90 degrees under the toy and take the back wheels with them Fold both panels that were under the forearms do they're pointing out the front of the robot and fold the entire arm sections back to form the rear of the cab and the middle of the flatbed of the truck. Fold down the back of the heels spurs and swing out to the sides which folds up the feet. Making sure the lower half of the knee panel is above the knob on the foot fold the lower legs forward so the back of the knee panel lock above the ridge on the robot chest. Fold back the paired wheels on each side to form the outer edge of the flatbed. Fold the loose panels up to form the sides of the engine.

1 - when reversing the TF and you come to this step (last) omit and instead press the button on the lower chest to automorph the chest and reveal the head.

Resulting truck mode is big and solid - mainly the blue of the armour, but with some grey visible underneath at the sides and on the front grill - which is mounted with a tinsy Autobot logo. Smokestacks are a very bendy plastic. You can sound a horn noise by pressing a button on the top of the cab - and you probably will during TF ! Some silver flame detail is visible on the front of the truck in a silver grey which matches the plastic used for the grill - where the blue is on the usual Op. There's then a black wash - yellow on the main version, followed by Teal Blue all the way back - which is a mixture of first red, then red flames and then blue on the Movie Op. Simpler and more effective for it.

Some might say this is an ultra Magnus but the colours don't match. There have been hints of teal in Nemesis Prime/Scourge/whatever before now but to be honest the colours are the other way round to those toys where black was the main colour. This produces a feeling of a subdued Optimus Prime for night/stealth operations and I like it.

Honest opinion: Buy this one instead of the Movie version and get the Movie colours on the Voyager in the 2 pack with the concept Bumblebee.

 

Got mine today

When I first saw pics of Nightwatch Optimus, I was looking forward to it. Mine arrived from BBTS today, and just now I got a chance to open him up and transform him. I already have regular Leader Class Prime.

Nightwatch is a tiny disappointment; at least for me. Most of the negative factors I have concern vehicle mode.

First, I admit the issues with vehicle mode could be restricted to mine. But, it don't hold together, or quite as tight as regular Prime. Those pesky hood sections, for one; don't together as well. When transforming him, the right-side hood piece (that is attached to the battery holder) was very difficult to snap into place. It went in, with pressure, but not as easy as the left side, or regular Prime.

Second, is the paint scheme. What may not be clear or obvious until you look at him side to side with regular Prime, is the fact that there are no flames on the cab past the hood and front fenders. There are none on the roof, and none on the doors going back onto the sleeper section. Not only that, but there is a silver stripe down the middle of the hinged hood sections, that look like they were put there solely to make it look more different than regular Prime.

My remaining aesthetic issues are apparent in robot mode. Part of the visual appeal of regular Prime (to me), were the contrast between the dark blue and the bright red. With Nightwatch Prime, you lose that, because everything that was either blue or red on regular, is all Nightwatch blue on this one. There's none of that contrast between the blue knees (the hood sections) and the red fenders next to them.

There are good parts, though. The turquoise paint on his shoulders and on the front of his upper legs at the joint looks good - I just don't see why they felt the need to put stripes of it on his head.

Okay, one good point... anyway, don't get the idea that I hate the toy. I don't. He just looks a little too monochrome to me, compared to the visual awesomeness of red/blue regular Prime. He's growing on me a little more as I hold him in my hands writing this. I'd think he'd be an adequate consolation prize if you can find him but not regular Leader-class Prime.

Final score, pulled out of nowhere - 7.5 out of 10, only because regular Prime is a tough act to follow. (I'd give him an easy nine.)

 

In my mind this is more of an Ultra Magnus than it is a Prime. The colors ........just do not scream prime. And admitadly I do like the colors more on N/W Prime than I do Optimus.

 

There's a difference between UK/Jap NW Prime and the Hasbro release. Mainly, we got light all-spark blue on it.

 

We know this already. Whats your point?

 

Thanks for the cool read.

I didnt care much for him at first, then saw him in the store (and broke of course) and thought he looked pretty badass.
I hope he's still around by the time I have enough extra to buy him.

The colors may not be 'Prime' , but it's a superb toy, with a sweet paintjob.

 

I recently broke down and bought this guy. My initial reaction from seeing photos was 'Nah, already got the mold'. Then I saw it in person, and it was 'Mmmmm... maybe when it goes on clearance', and then he burrowed into my brain and whispered 'Buy me now!' until I couldn't fight it anymore.

Part of what attracted me to this mold after seeing it was that it very well COULD be a different character. The colors are so unlike Optimus, or any other repaint of Prime before him.

I was initially worried that this repaint would be short on details, with small details that were painted properly on the original glossed over with a single color here, but not so. They did a good job of using different colors of teal and gold highlights. What's interesting is they brought some details out that the original mold glossed over, while glossing over others, which emphasizes different parts of the mold. They quite obviously wanted him to look different.

Some of the BEST detailing is undoubtably on the head. While the original Optimus was straight Blue and Silver, Nightwatch uses a flatter silver-grey, and adds detail, like the lighter blue stripes on the head, bringing out some of the ridge detail, and adding teal to the vents on the side of his face, which were originally filled in. He also has dark streaks under each eye, reminiscent of the greasepaint used by human special ops under the eyes. Given this is supposed to be a stealthy Optimus, I thought that was a really nice touch. He looks how you'd expect a stealthed bot to look: Subdued.

In vehicle mode, his color scheme is much more solid and one-color, with just a splash of flames and a little black appearing around the hood to break things up. Again, subdued, but they did a pretty good job of giving him some contrast so he doesn't look completely like a teal blob.

The quality of the mold appears identical to that of my first-run movie Optimus, without that frustrating tolerance degradation you sometimes see on repaints. He's tight, the gimmicks work great, and the paint apps aren't sloppy or inconsistent. If anything, they're better than my movie Op.

I would hesitate to call this guy an Ultra Magnus... the colors really aren't any more Ultra Magnus than they are Optimus Prime, which is part of what drew me to him. He's got his own style, and could very easily have been his own character. He definitely looks MEANER than Optimus, but not in an 'I'm another evil Optimus!' sort of way. He's sort of what you'd expect the Rig from Crackdown to look like in robot mode.

The Leader Optimus mold has always been a very solid design (If not exactly movie-accurate) and this is a very solid paintjob. If you haven't gotten Leader Op yet, get him in these colors. If you have, give this one a look-see.

I'll post some pics of him later. Personally, I'm really digging this guy.

 

I felt the same way when I bought Nightwatch Op. At first I was like no way to another Prime repaint. Until I saw him in person. Damn, another fool parted with his money.

 

I'm joining the club. I resisted for a few weeks, but after seeing it EVERYWHERE and totally loving the color scheme and the metallic paintjob, I could resist no more.

Not much else to add to what's already been said. The Leader Prime mold is by far the best toy in the entire line IMO, so no complaints there. The only nitpicking I'll do is just mention some of the swivel joints used in the transformation (mainly the sides of the truck nose that swing around and fold up on the toy's back) are very loose. But that doesn't affect the actual toy at all. I'm very glad I finally gave into temptation. Though my bank statement has plenty of reasons to argue otherwise...

 

I love it, had no reservations at all about getting it and was extremely happy when I did. I may get another one. It's more Nemy than Prime to me.

 

Well, I picked up another Nightwatch Prime for my nephew's birthday this week. He'd asked for Leader Optimus for Christmas, but my brother said no, so I bought him Deluxe Brawl. He enjoyed it, and hasn't broken it, so he should be able to handle Optimus.  

Mine's grown on me even more over the weeks. I blame part of my comments to the low light I was viewing him under before.  

 

I can't find a separate feedback thread for Takara's version - is it better than the Hasbro one? Does it have chrome?