So I found this while browsing around TFWiki and just had to give it a shot. In 2014 Sentinel Toys released a trio of Transformers for the 30th anniversary of the series. All 3 were Optimus Prime molds colored as Optimus, Nemesis and Ultra Magnus (white optimus). It looked intriguing and amazingly detailed for the size, so I took the plunged, dropped $20 on ebay and picked on up.



Here's a general shot, Prime and his blaster included. Overall height is approx 4". The mold colors and paint apps are pretty flawless. No bleeding at all. The plastic is semi-soft, which is great for avoiding small parts snapping, which is very important. All the waist pieces are swiveling flaps. The ball joints are well fitted, but if they do pop are a little difficult to get back in place. Being so small it's somewhat nerve-wracking to try to do so as well.



As you can see, the poseability on this fig is pretty amazing. Depending on your definition, you'll find at least 16 points of articulation.



The arms have 2-point ball joints at the shoulder, a rotation joint at the bicep, 2-point pin joints at the elbow and a ball joint on the wrist. The elbow joint has a backstop that stops backwards movement so it only has 180 degrees of rotation.



The legs have a ball joint at the hip, 2-point pin joint at the knee and ball joint on the ankle. It also has a ball joint connecting the torso to the waste.



Finally the head is on a ball joint as well.



Here is another shot showing the articulation. Very strong selling point. It has better articulation that most Deluxes, helped along particularly well by the double ball on the shoulder and the double pins on the elbow and knee.

Now if you're wondering "where does the pen come in?, well they worked it in in an amazing way that is both extremely important for the figure, but also somewhat limiting for the pen.



I didn't do pics of the transformation because there are a lot of small steps that would be lost in translation. However,you can see the legs split, the arms fold over and the head drops down into the torso. if you look near the waist area you can see the 'waste flaps' flipped up to lock it into place so it doesn't swivel in pen mode. The blaster clamps between the legs, you can see the barrel poking out, which comes off to reveal...



The pen tip! As I said, this makes the figure itself great in Robot mode because they avoided adding "pen exclusive" kibble, which would look offputting. But on the flip side, this means the ink reservoir is likely VERY small. But we're talking a kitschy toy here, this isn't going on anyone's desk as their go-to pen. There is a small screw on the back of the blaster which might facilitate refill if you really want to use it constantly as a pen.



As a great afterthough, they included a cap-peg on the back of the torso, to avoid losing it, should you actually want to use the pen.



Here's a final look at it in pen mode. It's not completely ergonomic, but comfortable enough. All the pegs and tabs and flaps make the pen mode VERY solid, with no extraneous joints moving around as you write.

Overall, the figure was WELL worth it, I am loving it. The transformation sequence is pretty involved and sometimes requires a steady, deft hand. The ink is likely short lived and excessive transforming could begin scraping the paint apps or warping the plastic.

But overall this is a fantastically detailed figure with amazing poseabilty and will have a prominent place on my shelf for a while to come. Now I just have to convince myself that I don't need to spend $60-80 on the more rare Nemesis version.

 

You just sold me on this guy. Especially when you said it is $20 off eBay. Always wanted it but at release it was to pricy.

 

Yeah, the 2 alt colors are more pricey, but this one hit a good point.

 

Got my pen in and I'm dissapointed. My pen was full of QC issues. The left right arm is super loose and falls off on its own. It looks pretty warped and stressed out. The right hip has a pin put in backwards so it can tab in right for pen mode and out of box the right ear piece was really stresses.

Besides the QC issues this is a really cool figure.

I contacted the seller off eBay. Hope I can get a better replacement.

 

FYI there are tons of knockoffs of this out there, so the cheap ones you're seeing on EBay are very likely KOs.

Regardless, I have a KO and love it. He leads my Legends size Autobots.  

 

Could you stand him next to a GI Joe or other 3 3/4 inch figure to get a sense of scale?

 

I made a thread for this guy two years ago, but whatever

microman kicker

 

loving this… which i was lucky enough to find and grab off eBay given how old a figure this is. even though it's a KO with loose head locking & pen/gun cap, which i almost lost falling off unknowingly, it was well worth the purchase. which wasn't much as i managed to find one cheap!   with a little polish, i managed to get both to hold a little better.

proportions on this is really out of wack being so skinny/lanky, but it's so much fun to pose! wish i could find the other two colours to add, particularily the black nemisis.

 

I always wanted one of these just wasn’t enough into oddball releases at the time to pick one up.