As with many of you, I'm disappointed that they didn't do something with the backpack, but I'm very pleased with what they DID do and since I only have the hasbro mold and I love it, I'm getting this guy.

I'm interested to know if they did anything to the shield though. It's great that both forearms have a shield plug now, as he did have it on both arms in the movie. I am also hoping that they at least added a way to fold the gun barrels away, since I actually liked the look of the shield more when it didn't have the gun barrel sticking out (and the shield mold is really nice as is, it'd be even better with this simple addition). Plus it would make it look better when it's stored in vehicle mode, since it sticks so far out from the back of the truck as of now. And maybe there's a way to store it on his back, too?! One can dream.

 

Agreed. That would have been perfect.

 

New pics are quite good! Wait for more pics because it's unclear what's about face but I very like all the rest! Want not opaque sword still 

 

Even if they were to make a new AOE Leader Optimus that doesn't have much kibble and a backpack on him there's no way they're going to make a transforming AOE Optimus toy that's accurate to the movie that isn't going to have some form of kibble and such. I'm sorry but you're coming across as someone who focusing too much on the negatives of a figure and not enough on the positives on it.

Also you seem to be bashing the AOE line for doing some of the same type of toys and gimmicks that the past movies did. The past movies toys had their share of gimmick toys in the past for little kids including ROTF.

 

I reckon the people who buy a certain Transformer are genuinely interested in the figure.

Criticize figures and company behaviour all you like, but there's no reason to act condescending towards fellow fans.

 

It's because this time the company decided informing buyers about the transformation would involve less than 20 steps is a good marketing strategy. The designers were stuck in the predetermined number of steps for each figure.

 

Most buyers are parents and kids who couldn't care less for kibbles and accuracy.

 

So Takara is working on every part except what needs it the most. Mmmmkay. I have my finger on the cancel preorder button, but I am willing to wait for more images at least. A video would be grand.

 

It's as good as this mold will ever get.

Nice retooling on the hands but it still won't change my opinion on this mold.

 

Looks like waiting on buying a leader class Prime until seeing what this was going to look like has payed of nicely.  

And for those still complaining about the backpack, retooling the backpack would most likely require so much re-engineering of the core figure that it would be more cost effective for Takara to just make a new mold.

 

I miss the good old days where repaints and remolds were actually Other Characters! Not the same one with big middle fingers to the consumers plastered on the front of the box...

 

You could just do what I do in situations like this, don't rush out and buy the first version of the mold that comes out and wait to see if a premium style redo of the mold (i.e. this) comes out. That way if a premium version does come out, you can get that and skip the others. It it doesn't then you can be assured that what is already out is the best you're going to get and ether buy it or don't.

As for me, I have yet to get any version the leader class mold and this one looks like the best we're going to get for at least a couple of years.

Also, I bet you dollars to donuts that Takara is going to do the same exact thing with the Leader Grimlock mold.

 

I should say Re-Sculpt.
They didn't even bother to add 1 or 2 steps in the transformation process like do something in Prime's long shoulder pads at least.

 

Not necessarily disagreeing, but I will say that
Starting with my third transformers line (it was cybertron, I was like 7 at the time) I wanted the most accurate versions possible of every character I got. I even passed up the Starscream vector prime two pack because the colors were wrong on Starscream.

 

He complains about nearly everything as far as I can tell.

 

I don't think this is as bad as people have been complaining about. The mold never bothered me, its the paint apps that did. Takara skipped out on the arm flames, which is the reason I skipped on that one too. But if they get that on this one, then it's a must buy for me.

 

Remember the days of automorph and mechtech? How i miss those on the current AOE toys...

 

Really? I was always under the impression that the general opinion of the forums was that automorph and mechteck were ignorable and unnecessary at best and intrusive to the figure at worst. That's not my opinion on the subject, I just think that they worked when they worked, didn't when they didn't, and figures that don't have those gimmicks aren't worse because of that.

 

I don't know about automorph, that really didn't affect the figures much, all it really did was take a step or two out of transformation. But yeah that seems to be the general consensus on mechtech.

 

yeah, I think I might make this version of AOE Leader Prime into an 'Action master' toy minus the backpack..