Is there a special way to flip them up as I am finding it difficult to flip them up and I don't want to break him.
"I am OPTIMUS PRIME!" Um, no, not that I'm aware of. I usually try to carefully force them out from the top. There's a peg that fits laterally toward prime's sholder, as I recall, so you have to kind of force it medially. It may also be the opposite, he's not in front of me. Very frustrating, and seemingly easy to break...
If you mean detaching the chest pieces for transformation, I pry them from their posts with my fingers near the stacks underneath the cab roof pieces (blue with red flames). Seems relatively easy to do so with no apparent risks of anything breaking *touch wood* OR if you meant flipping the entire section up for the epic "I.... AM OPTIMUS PRIME!!!11!!1" then I wouldn't use the "belly flap" to do so as it seems to be made of thin plastic and I do foresee plenty of broken belly pieces in the stores later on. Since the belly piece pushes up a red piece beneath his belly to activate the sound + mech alive, you can achieve the same by gently tilting his head back - which I find more comfortable doing. Hope this helps!
I don't pull the panels all the way up. Pull them two-thirds up, and pull out. It works for me, and I was scared to try that at first too, cause I felt the same way you do.
I get them about half way up and then push the tab part in towards the center of his chest. Seems to work for me.
