Takara TLK-15 Calibre Optimus Prime



Sorry everyone for the crappy pics, I'm without a camera and forced to take the shots on my phone.

Here's a quick review of the new Optimus Prime figure exclusively released by Takara, Calibre Optimus Prime... Or "Calibur Optimus Prime" if you go by the box, but I'm 99% sure that's not a word and is just a bit of Engrish nonsense.

Before I start I just want to quote the box:

... Okay.

Anyway, Calibre Prime is a retool of the previously Takara exclusive AD31 Armor Knight Optimus Prime, which was released during their Age of Extinction line. That in turn was a retool over the original Leader Class Optimus Prime, brandishing a new sword and shield and retooled head, chest and arms. I previously skipped over this release because while the figure was a huge improvement over the first Leader Class and had a beautiful deco, it still had that obnoxiously huge backpack which I couldn't overlook.



Enter Calibre Optimus Prime, who has completely retooled his backpack to make it absolutely removable and also has the ability to transform into a huge shield. On top of this, Prime has his sword redeco'd to be more accurate to the film and a brand new huge axe. The removal of the backpack makes Prime look far more stream-lined and far more accurate to his movie look, which is truly impossible to properly recreate on a transforming figure thanks to his complete lack of any visible truck parts in robot mode.



Prime is loaded with articulation, including much appreciated wrist swivels, allowing him to pull off a variety of excellent poses. Armor Knight's premium deco is carried over to the figure and he looks beautiful and epic in nearly every pose he does. Unfortunately for me, in what may be exclusively an issue with my figure, the right hand has huge difficult slotting the axe into the pegs inside his hands and his left hand's slot seems too narrow to properly fit either his swords or his axe properly in. Its a little frustrating! Prime holds his shield by pegging it into his forearm like his old AOE shield, versus actually holding it in his hand. To pose him properly you often have to move his arm into really awkward positions to have it look good from the front, luckily the shield is massive (almost too big for him, but there's a reason for that later) so any awkward arm positions are hidden completely.



On top of his excellent articulation and deco, Calibre Prime carries over Armor Knight's face-changing gimmick, allowing you to pose him with or without his Battle Mask, a much appreciated gimmick that I wish more Movie Primes had! Not even my beloved Buster Prime is able to do this. To swap his face, you simply flip his whole face up by the chin and then rotate it around, changing which face faces the front before snapping it back down. When my figure was first opened it was really stiff and I was terrified I was about the break the toy by doing the gimmick, but once I did it successfully the first time the hinge seems to have loosened and it is far easier. Unfortunately my figure's masked face has a slight paint defect on it, but its ignorable.



Prime can store his shield and weapons on his back via slots and pegs. The instructions claim that he can carry all three of his normal weapons on his back at once, but I've found the Temenos Sword pushes the shield off whenever its put on as well. Due to the sword being completely painted silver, I decided not to store them together, as when I force the shield on, I can imagine the silver paint will be scraped off.



Calibre Optimus Prime looks as good as he can in robot mode using the old mold. I think ultimately the new Voyager is the better mold in many regards and I would've absolutely loved to have seen what Takara and Hasbro could've pulled off using a whole new tooling showing the advancements made between the two movies. I wouldn't have minded a slight backpack if it meant less massive shoulder panels and hip skirts, but as a second retool of a previously average figure, this figure is beautiful! Definitely the definitive version of AOE/TLK Optimus Prime.



First Release versions of the figure also come with an awesome extra; Prime's Energon sword from Dark of the Moon! The sword plugs directly into his hand and looks very nicely proportioned to Prime himself. It has a peg on its side which to be honest I can't quite find the purpose of. It is too small to plug into his back and also too small to plug into his forearm, unfortunately meaning you cannot replicate his arm blade his used in his fight against Galvatron in AOE.

TRU in Japan also included a golden version of his AOE shield which I really wish I got, but unfortunately no online retailer provided it and the aftermarket price for it is insane.



Combined with the axe, Optimus Prime is given his weapon set from Dark of the Moon which he used when fighting Sentinel Prime. Both accessories look great, although I personally which the axe's handle was grey. I definitely suggest if you're on the fence with this figure get it now so you don't miss out on this awesome accessory.



Scale-wise Calibre Prime is slightly shorter then TLK Leader Class Megatron, which I think is a pretty darn good scale! Megatron didn't seem quite as massive as he did in previous movies, so this is the closest two scale figures of the characters we've gotten. They look great together and definitely complement one another on the shelf.



Released on the same day as Prime is MetaColle Squeeks, who looks adorable next to Prime as well! Maybe he's a little too big for Prime, but I'm happy with this trio of figures to represent the rather terrible TLK on my shelves.


Transformation into truck mode is quick and simple, the main problem revolving around lining up all the panels on either side of the cab, which is quite a frustrating experience. Above is a look at the truck mode without the shield, to give you an idea of how much of Prime is made up of the shield. However, it should be noted that Prime is completely transformable from robot to vehicle and back with the shield still attached. If you find partsforming offensive and don't mind him having a backpack nor have a desire for a shield, you can leave it connected and completely ignore it. Although I'd suggest getting Armor Knight in that case.



Prime looks pretty great in Vehicle mode, with a generous amount of chrome on his grill, smokestacks, visor and hub caps and tons of paint across the board. Wheels feel plastic to me but that is definitely OK by me! My biggest problem is the lack of pin-stripes, which to me are what makes a Movie Prime feel perfect. The blue pin-stripes on my Buster Prime from the Jetfire two pack make it the most aesthetic Movie Prime we've gotten in my eyes.



Sword and Axe are easily stored underneath the truck, which has no impact on his ability to roll.



To give an idea of scale, here is with the previous film's Deluxe Class Bumblebee. Looks pretty good to me, although the truck may be slightly over-sized.



Now comes what was the deciding factor for me to buy the figure. Outside of the Temenos Sword, all of Calibre Optimus Prime's accessories are actually designed to be used with the Revenge of the Fallen Leader Class Optimus Prime! Hence why his Axe and Shield seem a little too huge for him, as the ROTF Leader is far bigger.



The shield is equipped to ROTF Prime via a fold out clip that attaches to the metal bar on the Leader's forearm kibble. Unfortunately this results in the same issue as Calibre Prime where most poses need his arm in an awkward to position to face forward, but like with Calibire Prime the size of the shield easily hides it.



The instructions tout the accessories as designed for MB-11 Optimus Prime, but any version of the ROTF work. As I do not own MB-11, I'm using Jetwing Optimus Prime from DOTM and Buster Optimus Prime from ROTF. Both look awesome with the figure, although versions of the figure from DOTM which lack the integrated arm blades carry the shield slightly better as poses don't constantly flip out the swords.



With the shield, axe and First Release Sword you have all the best melee accessories that Prime used in DOTM! He looks great with them, the sword and shield combo from when he fought Shockwave at the start of the film and the sword and axe combo from when he fought Sentinel Prime at the end of the film. This release is truly an awesome upgrade to the best Movie toy we've had and it just makes him keep getting better.



The instructions also tell you to pull the end off the axe and flip the handle around before reconnecting it when giving it to ROTF Prime, which allows Prime to hold it lower down the handle. Either look great to me in action poses.

Final Verdict:



Calibre Optimus Prime is a really fun figure and definitely the definitive version of Prime in his AOE and TLK body so far. He may be a parts-former but it truly does result in the closest look we can get to his kibble-less movie form. Buster Optimus Prime to me is still the definitive Movie Prime, but this guy actually does a whole lot to make him better! If you have any version of the movie mold, pick him up! And if you don't have a good enough representation of this version of Prime, then definitely pick him up as well! I definitely recommend this figure, but I do suggest to get him fast as the Energon Sword is an awesome addition you don't want to miss.

 

I've said it before but I'll say it again. This is a good way to go for this toy. There is no way to make this Optimus design work as a transformer unless it's a shell former, parts former or some other cheat. At the very least for The last knight they realized that wearing half the truck on his back wasn't acceptable any more.

 

I don't want to want this, but I kind of want this.

 

fuck... that is DEFINITELY one of the most adjusted close combat style shape to survive this insanity, but i still can't bring myself to like it

 

You'd better be sure in there!! XD

 

You beat me to this review, but it's much nicer than I would have managed. I didn't catch the flip-around axe handle either!

 

Great review, this is definitely the best version of Optimus new body we've gotten.

Also, could you post a size comparison of Caliber Prime and the Rotf leader?

 

Something I forgot to mention, but Calibre Optimus Prime (as well as Leader-class TLK Megatron) has a Tamashii Stage-compatible port on his back, meaning you can put him in dynamic poses. You can recreate that Toys R Us banner that depicted something far more exciting than anything that happened in the actual movie, for example.

 

Sure! Calibre is much smaller.

 

Thanks for the review! If this had come out in 2014 I'd be all over it, but as it stands my DMK-03 and Voyager Prime (after a ton of painting) are the primes for me right now.

I only keep my armor knight Prime for the vehicle mode right now.

 

Wait, I ordered my copy from HLJ and it did have the chrome shield, but yours didn't? Where did you order yours from?

Edit: Also, since Optimus now has a two places to put his sword in truck mode, you can place the bonus sword at the back of the truck mode. Speaking of which, the bonus sword can't plug into the holes on Prime's forearms, meaning you can't emulate the old "pop-out" function

Also, here's an interesting realization I have about this figure: The acronym for this figure is "COP." Police officers are also referred to as "boys in blue," which is also accurate for Optimus since his redesign emphasizes blue, a color that denotes loyalty. Combine that with COP's largest accessory, and primary gimmick, being his shield and this toy reinforces that Optimus is a protector. It even extends to COP's entire arsenal. The chromed versions of Temenos sword and upcoming Calibur axe simply replace the figure's stock versions, whereas the new Vector shield adds something new to the figure. In Japanese swordsmanship, samurai would carry two swords, the katana and the wakizashi. The wakizashi was smaller sword meant for defense, so even the bonus sword fits.

This also reflects Prime's character arc- in the original trilogy, Optimus was a warrior, building a massive arsenal and probably had the biggest kill count of the films. Then Prime's faith in humanity was shattered thanks to Cemetery Wind, and he decided to protect his remaining Autobots and leave humanity to its fate. Cade however restores Prime's faith, acknowledging that humanity is pretty lousy, using himself as an example, but those faults can lead to amazing accomplishments.

 

Mine was from Amiami.

 

Dont' suppose this guy is still in stock anywhere...

 

HLJ.com

 

He gets a plus over voyager Optimus from the images I've seen: he's painted to look like he's from the movie. As much as I love the voyager prime, I don't want to go out of my way to paint the head and put flames on his chest just to make him screen-accurate. How does Calibre Prime compare to voyager Megatron?

 

Where can I get MetaColle Sqweeks? Perfect scale-wise with the other characters. And can the limbs be removed? Could I plug in Premier Sqweeks' blaster on him? Lol XD

 

If I may ask, how does he compare to KO Oversized TLK Megatron?

 

HLJ still has Calibur Optimus Prime in stock. I bought it from HLJ and it included the gold chromed Vector Shield, which is a pleasant surprise.

 

So did mine, HLJ seems to be adding the shield to their shipments.