Studio Series #106 - Optimus Primal
“It’s a fight you want? You got one. ”
One of The Best Toys This Year!
Studio Series Optimus Primal adds to this year’s ranks of excellent action figures. Honestly, I didn’t think we’d get much better than Legacy Armada Universe Optimus Prime or Studio Series 86 Ultra Magnus. But here we are with another dynamite leader class Studio Series figure.
ARTICULATION IS HALF THE BATTLE:
Let’s start with where SS Optimus Primal truly excels: articulation and angles. In robot mode, Primal can pull off poses taken straight from the blockbuster movie. And with his incredibly slim silhouette, he looks good from just about any angle.
As an amateur toy photographer, camera angle has become just as important to me as posibility. If a toy only looks good from the front, then that severly limits the range of personality and action a figure convey. And I want to show off a figure from below, above, or from behind.
It also gets stale after a while if a figure is only ever staring back at you. Sure, there are times I want a viewer to lock eyes with a figure, but I want it on the character’s own terms. Other times, I want a figure to be looking at something outside the frame or outside the shot. I think that gives the viewer freedom to imagine what else is part of the scene.
However, it’s SS Primal’s beast mode, a big ol’ gorilla, that shows some weakeness in terms of articulation. As such, the toy clashes slightly with his onscreen counterpart from the Rise of The Beasts movie.
Most of Optimus Primal’s screen time is in beast mode. He’s either delivering exposition or swinging through trees. It’s only in the final act of the movie when the Autobots and the Maximals team up do we catch a glimpse of Primal in robot mode. So, it would’ve been nice to have added articulation in the legs and chest to experiment with the dynamic range of action and emotion we got to see in the movie.
I guess, then, he succumbs to the curse of many Beast Wars toys. Since their inception in the 90s, beast modes have always had limited articulation. In Primal’s case, nothing is necessarily breaking the bank, but his hind legs lock into place and from some angles he doesn’t have the “heft” we saw on screen.
Thankfully, his beast mode head has superb range of motion and an articulate mouth that, while goofy at times, allows the toy to emote subtly. The same cannot be said, unfortunately, of his robot mode where his head is limited to a swivel.
SS Optimus Primal brings the power of the Primes from just about any angle!
A HAND CRAFTED FEEL:
Sculpting is important, but no matter how detailed a toy gets, if there is not enough paint or shadows to make the intricacies pop, then sculpting doesn’t matter. Usually, my biggest complaint of any Studio Series figure is a lack of pop where it counts.
Because of his leader class budget, there is a fair amount of paint on SS Optimus Primal and an exquisite amount of depth and texture to every part.
Either in beast mode or robot mode, Primal feels hand crafted with not only the small mechanical details in every nook and cranny of his sculpt. Primal’s asymmetrical paint job also gives a little extra battle-damage flair that really elevates him from what you expect from a mass retail figure. In short, he feels and looks premium in hand.
My favorite thing about this figure at the end of the day, however, is this attention to extreme detail in the gorilla head sculpt. You can see all the individual panels that shift with his facial expressions. And his eyes sink back into his head, allowing him to scowl from the right camera angle. Without a doubt, it’s the most impressive Maximal head we’ve got especially when he stares back at you with attitude.
Does the rest of his body match the face? Not really. I still appreciate the fleshy and furry details etched across his body. But at times it does feel a little cartoonish. That is the price we have to pay for glossy plastic.
You know when you’ve made monkey mad.
MAXIMIZE!
Admitadly, I’ve been a little skeptical of the Maximals in Studio Series. There is a trope in the transformation sequences: the beast head swivels or accordians into the chest cavity, swapping places with a smaller robot head. It gets a little old three figures later as with Primal.
But what Primal accomplishes that Studio Series Rhinox and Cheetor don’t is the illusion of mass shift. As a gorilla, Optimus Primal looks and feels bulky as a gorilla should. He’s got all this muscle, curve, and thickness. It’s absolutely glorious.
Once is he in robot mode, he’s like a brand new toy. The engineering on this toy really moves parts in clever ways to transform the silhouette. Yet, the engineering is simple, fun, and addicting.
After a week, I had transformed Primal at least a couple dozen times in between projects. It’s one of those rare, super fluid transformations that isn’t going to frustrate because a part isn’t clicking into place or a small nob of plastic is hindering the swivel of a part.
For the most part, then, I think the designers used the leader class budget wisely to balance play value, transformation, and details.
FINAL VERDICT:
Maybe it’s my 90s kid Beast Wars bias speaking, but I do think that out of all the Rise of the Beasts Studio Series toys to release, it’s the Maximals who’ve remained the most consistently excellent. They’re a really cohesive group of banger figures of which I recommend highly.
But SS Optimus Primal takes the cake. He’s everything you want from a toy: style, substance, play value. So, if you’re on the fence with this one, let me push you to the side of pick him up as soon as possible. I imagine a couple months from now, he will be hot on the after market (as is the case with many SS figures these days).
