It’s an old trick of mine and easy to mess up. Basically you hold the flame near but not on the plastic, ideally so you warm it but not burn it. Once it has softened you can run a wet finger over the area and it regains some of its sheen. I do the same for dealing with flash marks left from the factory sloppily taking parts off a sprue. Doesn’t always work depending on the softness and translucency of the plastic so your mileage may vary.

 

Anyone else have a backwards shoulder on theirs? It causes the shoulder armor in bot mode to sit at a downward angle instead of flaring up. Here you can see there's a extra large gap between the body and the arm.



I need to pull that entire pin out and flip the arm but I don't know how.

 

well it goes through the shoulder pad and through the arm you'd be better off just exchanging it at the store. It's not like it's too hard to find at Target or Walmart

 

I got it from Hasbro Pulse so we'll see how much trouble they give me.

 

I got a jet fire from them and it had some issues and they replaced it no problem

 

anybody run into this issue of him breaking in half?

 

Whoa, how did that happen?

 

Found this pic on a review on amazon. Design flaw? havent handled the figure out of the box.

 

Ah I see peaugh has a primal review out.

 

peaugh breaks toys in his reviews? This I have to see.

 

Baltmatrix smashes them with hammers

 

It's not beyond imagining, it's really hard to pull the chest apart to rotate the head around so I could see someone snapping this thing in half I thought many times I was snapped the shoulders off trying to get it open

 

Mine is just like yours. Unfortunately is that kind of figure that you have to avoid messing with.

 

He should have some holes in the place of his rockets instead of just molded vents

 

Finally we have a proper Generations update of the Boss Monkey in all his furry Season 1 glory, not the mechanical body that the Power of the Primes version was or the ugly mess that was the 10th Anniversary figure. Unlike the Masterpiece version, Primal sports molded gorilla fur that gives both his robot and beast modes a very interestingly realistic texture. (Part of me wonders, just for the heck of it, what it would've been like if Hasbro actually gave him soft-goods fur in an attempt to capture beast mode realism in the way they did Beast Megatron's dino skin.) Articulation is above the standard War for Cybertron Trilogy fare thanks to 'butterfly joints' on his shoulders, and Primal manages to have ample ankle articulation despite the 'pistons' connecting his feet to his calves looking a bit restrictive. You may want to exercise caution on the hips, however, as the white paint on the thighs chips very easily. My own figure has fallen victim to this too, though the photos below don't show it well. Now, some criticism has been sent his way from the fact that he's actually a bit small for a Voyager, but I respectfully disagree. The engineering packed into this guy makes him more than deserving of his price point - he may lack accessories other than his two swords, which puts him in a visual disadvantage against someone like Studio Series Hot Rod, but you can see where the engineering went when you open him up and discover his gimmicks. Opening hands in a Voyager is a rarity that makes him that much more expressive (particularly in ape mode), and the flip-out shoulder cannons and arm cannons are amazing. The arm cannons even have individual joints! Not to mention he didn't need that much accessories anyway, because the only places he can put them are in his hands. The rest of his body lacks any COMBAT ports, obviously for a clean and organic beast mode.



Transfomation is smooth and simple, with the hardest obstacle being the very first step. (You have to figure out where the seam that opens the torso up is, and apply a LOT of force on it while making sure you don't accidentally break anything.) Obviously, there's no big challenge in converting a humanoid robot into a humanoid ape. The resulting gorilla is very realistic, particularly moreso compared to the animation-inspired Masterpiece version. Like fellow Deluxe-sized-Voyager Studio Series Hot Rod, however, his alternate mode is where Primal stumbles. Don't get me wrong, the gorilla mode looks GREAT! He can assume either bipedal or quadrupedal stances depending on if you want your ape to be more realistic or more cartoon-accurate, with slightly tweaked leg transformations. The arms have great range of movement inherited from the robot mode, and his head can move up and down. As mentioned before, the opening hands make him a more expressive gorilla. However, I have some gripes with the gorilla legs. In either configuration they're mostly static except for some forwards-backwards movement, which hinders his ability to assume dynamic, King Kong-style poses. The beast mode toe articulation could have helped him balance better despite this... if they'd only bended up instead of down. It'd make him a good surfer maybe (surfboard accessory with 5mm posts for his feet, anyone?) but a bad poser. Primal's beast mode is one of those times you can tell a mode was mostly designed for display, not play.



Kingdom Optimus Primal is a much-awaited update of a beloved character, and the toy mostly lives up to that vaunted fandom standard. He'll look good posed next to Beast Megatron and the other Kingdom Beast Wars cast... as long as he's in robot mode. The ape mode, however, could have used some better hip articulation... though I suppose I can't expect too much from a mass retail figure.

 

Got tired of not finding this figure in stores. Good thing Amazon finally had this in stock. Should arrive tomorrow. Now if only I could find Rattrap and Megatron.

 

Did you notice that the swords fits better in his hand with the concave part forward?
Which, coincidentally, is how he uses it in the fight with Dinobot in the first episode.

 

Megatron wanted two.

 

I saw primal wearing paleotrex like in the poster on an instagram post that for the life of me I can’t find anymore.

I tried it out myself and I think this setup does a half decent job of illustrating the look. Savage primal.

I absolutely love this figure and I didn’t think I would at all.
.

 

So after getting this guy in hand I can honestly say he's just a glorified deluxe. This guy is small, I knew he would be smaller than most voyagers but I didn't expect this much. Also his chest seems floppy, is there a way to lock it in place?