I'm going to assume most people have some version of this mold by now, so I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I do want to warn people about some things with this figure. Beast mode with the original Ultra Optimus Primal, and Legend Commander Optimus Primal. Looks pretty good. Good plastic colors, good paint apps. Sure, there's white bits showing and it's still not a show accurate beast mode, but there's really only so much you can do. It looks good. But... His face refuses to stay clipped into position. It doesn't click, it doesn't lock, just a tiny bit of friction keeps it in place, so it wobbles on down a lot. Okay. Minor issue. Let's transform him. Damn it. Okay, yeah, if you have the mold, you know this can happen during transformation. But this happens pretty much every time I transform it, because the ridges that held the face piece on those gray arms are just completely gone on this version of the mold. The whole piece pulls off with zero effort, and just the normal upward motion for transformation is enough to pull it off. Still, overall not a major problem. Robot mode with the original Ultra Optimus Primal, and Legend Commander Optimus Primal. Looks really good! He has the updated head mold from the anniversary reissue from years back, and since I missed out on that release, the new head and chest piece were my main motivation for getting this. He doesn't have the detailed eye paint of that release, just flat red eyes, but I can't really complain. He just looks so damn good. And the face piece does lock into position in robot mode. Buuuuut... The brown plastic quality is pretty bad. It bends under very slight pressure, unlike the original release which is nice and hard. My original doesn't have any stress marks on it, this new figure has (admittedly pretty small) stress marks on the shoulder pads and the launcher hinges on his back after the first transformation. The shoulder cannon back flaps don't secure as tight as they did originally, and can be easily pushed off the latch without ever touching the button, and you can hear them wobbling and clicking against the rest of the back when you move the figure around. In short, he just feels wrong. I'd compare the feel of the brown plastic to Generations Rattrap. But it's only the brown plastic. Everything else is solid and great. It's really odd. I like the previous anniversary paint job of this figure a hell of a lot more, but this one still looks really good. Still, I would not tell people to pass on him if they're interested in him. I don't regret my purchase, I just wish he was built better.
I preordered this and takara legends rattrap and sorta regret it. Unfortunately Anime export completely ignored my requests to cancel so oh well, ill ship them with my mp21
