This figure turned out a lot better than expected despite the holiday deco. Tricranius blast effects used in this pic. Holiday Optimus Prime is a redeco of the long rumored 'Amazon' Optimus Prime, which never saw an official release. The HOP figure is overall a brand new mold with some reused parts. The Ion Blaster and trailer are reused from the Earthrise OP mold. The deco looks great in person. There is lightpiping for the eyes. The holiday deco is painted on well. No significant paint scuffing issues noted during transformation. The transformation is also much more satisfying than transforming Laser OP. Edit: There are NO shared parts for the main figure. The matrix is also new molding and does not fit 5mm pegs. The articulation is great as par for Optimus figures. Head is on a ball joint. The shoulder can rotates 360 degrees although the backpack may get in the way. There are bicep swivels. Elbows bend 90 degrees. Hands rotate at the wrists and are on ball joints like Laser OP. No articulated hands here, unfortunately. Waist rotates 90 degrees. The hips go forwards, backwards, outwards at 90 degrees. There are thigh swivels near the hips. The knees bend just shy of 90 degrees. There are full ankle tilts inward. I fully expect Hasbro to milk this mold and do plenty of redecos...and we will buy them too. The package is a lot smaller than expected. Not much bigger than a voyager box. Bot Mode: The colors and deco just pop in person. Rear view: His candy cane Ion Blaster is a nice touch. The matrix is in clear green with other colors painted on. Alt Mode: The new truck design looks pretty good in-hand. Another view: Yet another view: There is a new adapter piece on the trailer that is removable: The only significant negative is the inside of the trailer. Completely bare white and boring looking. A little bit of red would have gone a long way. Overall: Highly recommended. Will buy the inevitable redecos as well.
Comparison Shots: Earthrise versus Holiday trailer. Same molding with different deco except for the additional trailer port connector on the Holiday trailer. Another trailer view: Open trailer view. The Holiday trailer is too plain. The ER trailer was also rather plain but at least there were 2 different grays used. Would've been nice if Roller (from Centurion set) was also included. Bot Mode comparison. Left to right: Netflix version of Earth Optimus Prime, Holiday Optimus Prime, Laser Optimus Prime. The HOP figure itself is a completely new mold with no reused parts from the other 2. Finally, HOP has NO parts from the Siege OP mold. The only shared molding is from the Ion Blaster and trailer from ER OP. HOP's forearms appear to act similar to Laser OP's forearm transformation scheme, but HOP's forearms are fully newly molded parts. HOP features a thin style matrix like Laser OP but is also differently molded (and unfortunately not compatible with 5mm pegs). Alt Mode comparison. Top to bottom: Laser, Netflix with ER trailer, HOP. Without trailers, Laser is longest, then HOP, and then ER mold. HOP has the cleanest alt mode for an OP figure in quite some time. Even the rear view is clean without major bot kibble seen. Left to right: Laser, Netflix / ER, HOP. Seeing the matrix in the rear window is actually a nice touch. No robot legs seen here.
I got mine today, and overall it's pretty nice. I agree that the solid white trailer interior is a bit offputting, and I continue to not care for the airlock/shield ramp look. I was never happy with the Earthrise trailer till I got Nonnef's kit. When I first started transforming him to robot mode, mine came apart at the waist mushroom peg, then off came a leg as well, so I initially wasn't super impressed with the build quality. Once you get him transformed there is a piece that locks in place over the three pegs so there isn't a problem after that, but it would have been nice if they could have curved the slots in a bit to help secure the peg until then. On the other hand I wasn't using the instructions and was pulling at things in the wrong order. Once I knew how everything goes and transformed him back and forth again, I had no issues. He's nice and solid in both modes, though my cab has a tendency to gap a tiny bit when the rear panel is all the way in. I was impressed by the engineering, especially since this is a far cry from the typical Prime transformation. It's complicated, but not hard once you figure it out.
I'll admit that this looks really good. I'm just not sure if I need a holiday themed Prime in my collection or if I want to wait for the inevitable repaint into more traditional colors.
Can we get a profile shot? I would like to see how far back the shoulder joint is. The Ear mold has a weird shoulder joint that makes the arms somewhat stubby aimed forward, unlike the Siege one that is more natural. Same. I'd rather get the mold as an established character. Really hope that comes true, as it looks quite good overall.
I dunno guys.. My Family completely embraces my collecting, and I kinda put some TF or toy out for each season..This Halloween I has my BW Bugs and MP Arachnia as decorations, for example... I totally can see this prime in my collection..I would have NO problems with boxing it back up and keeping it with the Christmas decorations. I KNOW this will be repainted..and Ill buy whatever that is.. But..its freakin Christmas.. I love it.
Got mine today, and I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised. The bot is a rather complex with interesting engineering. He is a bit lanky in his proportions, but is a really good design. I particularly like the Christmas deco. The paint work imitates a Santa suit very well. It's a shame he doesn't come with a hat and bag to finish the look. The gun painted as a candy cane is really clever, but the paint is pretty sloppy honestly, but it's not a deal breaker. The trailer is fine, and if Nonnef releases his kit in a deco that matches halfway, I'll get it for sure. I am really curious what Toyhax will do for the trailer. The bot is very well painted and doesn't need much from them, but they could really make the inside if the trailer something special if they use their imaginations as well as usual. Honestly I am shocked how much I love this new mold, and the concept as a whole. I hope we will see more festive options in the future.
Going to add various comparison photos to the 2nd post soon. The arm is the same length as ER OP but looks longer since HOP has a thinner chest profile along with the shoulder joint being more forward. His arms don't look 'stumpy' in person.
I’m still bummed this wasn't released as "Amazon Prime"... name puns aside, I'm sure the cardboard brown/white or maybe light blue/white or maybe even orange/white color scheme would've been much easier on the eyes than "candy cane acid trip Prime"... I just hope this mold gets reused again after this for something with more subtlety or class to its design scheme than this so then I can get rid of this as soon as that happens. I like the look of the Volvo mold, and want one in my collection, but I'm pretty turned off by these colors...
I like what I see. Just wish they included SOMETHING for the trailer...hell..even stickers for the interior sides showing autobots in elf suits building toys.. or little plastic figures of G1 bots in elf suits.
I love the colors and theming of this thing and was really excited to get it. It's a really neat figure, but my copy has a lot wrong with it. First off, the matrix just straight up wasn't included. Not in the chest, in the box, in the trailer, or wrapped in tissue paper. Next up, the back panels on the arms are two copies of the left side, which at first doesn't seem like a big deal but it because of this it can't sit flush in vehicle mode. Which means it can't sit flat in vehicle mode. I might be able to just hack away at it and fix the issue though. And last but not least, I got a big 'ol paint scratch smack dab in the middle of the white line on the chest. Despite all that I still really like this figure. Really different and unique transformation for an Optimus, and I'm always a sucker for a Prime with green windows
Got mine and I'm pretty impressed. The transformation is very fun and unique with some very surprising engineering. I love how clean the truck mode comes out and especially that the truck bed actually looks like a truck bed. Really hoping we see this mold more. One nag on my copy, the trailer doesn't close up nicely at the front. Everything stays tabbed but the gap is unsightly. Not sure how or if I can do anything to remedy this.
That reminds me. I was going to post about that and forgot. I partially fixed ours. There's 2 issues: the main trailer halves are slightly bowed / warped and there's a new defect in the drone base hinge which prevents the hinge pin from being fully seated. So, even if there was no bowing, the knurled end of the pin is jutting out and prevent one trailer half from being flush. The hole for the unknurled side is oval shaped, so the pin end doesn't go through. I fixed ours by unpinning and reversing the pin orientation. Forced the pin to go through the oval side first to open up the oval end. Now our pin is fully seated. The pin is a standard 2mm diameter pin. Push out with a 2mm or smaller pin punch just enough to pull out with pliers. Then use the flat / smooth metal side of the pliers to push the pin back in and flush from the other side. This will also help prevent the pin head from scratching the trailer.
