Take my advice guys...either wait for the AUSP whatever super edition of DOTM LDR Prime coming up, or go without a movie prime at all.

This mould ain't worth the cash, regular or armour knight. It probably has the best paint out of all the mass released toys that takara has put out, but the mould itself is not that hot.

 

This conversation is for people who want a representation of AOE Optimus.

I'd assume most, if not all, of us already have some version of the RotF Leader figure. So that's moot.

And this AOE Armor Knight Leader has more love put into it than some people give it credit for. It's a fun figure in its own way. Aside from the movie-accurate deco and remold for the robot mode, it's got a perfect truck mode, with perfectly-placed (yet not overdone) chrome and even rubber tires. I went back and forth on whether to buy Armor Knight, and am SO happy I finally caved.

 

Not worth the cash as in secondary market prices or retail? Just curious.

 

I LOVE rotf Prime. He's a masterpiece. But he's not very fun to play with. Armor Knight is awesome looking AND he's really fun. I transformed my rotf Prime once every few months even when he was new. After owning the hasbro AoE leader Prime, then getting Armor Knight Prime, I still mess with him and transform him every couple days.

But you're right Southtownkid, this thread's for AoE AK Prime discussion.

 

This.

RotF Optimus is an engineering marvel. Almost unparalleled. But he isn't that fun. Like you, I barely transformed him even when he was new. And when I rebought the mold in a premium version, I barely even touched that one, as nice as it was to look at. Too expensive compared to my fear of breaking it somehow.

But I've been messing with Armor Knight Optimus on a daily basis ever since I bought him. Posing, transforming, changing the face... he's just FUN. The only real improvement I wish they could have implemented in the remold is one extra fold in the backpack to get it more out of the way of the leg and waist articulation. Just one more fold and the figure would be near perfect as far as I'm concerned. And it's already much better than I thought it was going to be.

 

Aftermarket.

I've made it perfectly clear in my post that this paintjob has a lot of love put into it, personally rank it as the best takara paintjob, but the mould is terrible.

It has a fun transformation, but that's it. Robot mode articulation is so restricted from the waist down [he has all the right joints, but they all bump into each other], the tab handle of the sword is not deep enough so he can't really move his arm without the sword being bumped out of the place, and the perfectly rectangular truck bed on the back of his frame eschews his silhouette/form worse than I though it would.

Furthermore, the two gas tanks halves/truck bed that ends up on his back are made of so thin plastic you can squeeze them to a breaking point by just applying pressure with your fingers.

This is the FOC Takara Bruticus situation all over again, just with much better paint---there's only so much a good paint app can do to a bad mould.

 

And that right there is half the fun of a Transformer in the first place. And that's also something the RotF Leader doesn't have. Soooooo...

It's your opinion the mold is terrible. Not everyone agrees with you. The restriction of the waist articulation is tragic, I agree, but otherwise, I don't agree with your complaints. Mine has no trouble holding the sword in any position, I can still get enough twist in the waist to get good poses, and the truck backpack messes up his silhouette LESS than I thought it would.

 

I know brother, isn't this thread a focal point of opinions of people who have the toy?

Not everybody can agree and not everybody will sing praises for it. I can definitely attest to the immaculate paint job and ease of transformation [although they could so something more with how the arms end up in a whatever position by the gas tanks], but I'd be lying if I said that it has any other redeeming qualities.

Again, my opinion. Not trying to start an argument.

 

Definitely understandable and I value your opinion. I have ROTF leader prime, HFTD battle hook prime, DOTM striker and DOTM Jetwing, so I've learned to not expect this to be up there with them. When I saw the Hasbro leader in package I was pretty surprised at how much smaller it was.

I'm still tempted for this since it is the best AOE leader Optimus to get so far but it's not a priority. I HATE hindered articulation!

 

Completely agree. I was really hoping for a little improvement on the backpack situation, but as it is it's well worth the price for an upgrade over the hasbro one.

And not to sound like a broken record, but the paint job is one of the best on ANY figure I have, TF or no. The blues and reds pop with the perfect amount of shine and metallic twinge, and the silver is so evenly and perfectly applied... even the weird-ass orange of the sword/shield is exceptional. Bright and neon-looking but not offensive to the eye, and just dim enough to not make it seem like a kid's toy.

Plus, I LOVE the head sculpt. The face design was the biggest improvement over dotm Prime IMO. The rest of the design was a little too streamlined for me, but this is the face/head he should have had from the very first movie.

 

But looks amazing as the Black Knight. The sword and shield have a glowing effect. The eyes, so sinister. He just became the favorite Optimus Prime in my collection.