Does this release use foil stickers? I don't know when Hasbro wised up to those.
I've said it before but the problem with POTP, to me at least, is that it just didn't have a single focused gimmick (or nearly entirely focused) gimmick like the preceding two lines did so it just came off as 'not entirely sure what it even wanted to be'.
Combiner Wars obviously focused on combiners and all the Voyagers could become combiner torsos, the Deluxes could become arms or legs for the combiners, and the new mold Legends (and their repaints) could become weapons or just become like chest armor for the combiners. Only exceptions to the gimmick were the redecos of T30 Legends toys and the Leaders.
Titans Return had the Titan Masters and I'm pretty sure every figure released during the line could interact with them in some way. Even those triple changing Legends-class versions of Blaster and Soundwave's cassettes had pegs so Titan Masters could attach to them, even if they couldn't be seated inside them like the other Legends toys.
But then Power of the Primes was like...OK so we still got the Titan Masters from the previous line but now they come in little Pretender shells and called Prime Masters and they're supposed be the Thirteen so they don't have faces anymore they just have the symbols of which member they are instead, so even though they're otherwise identical to Titan Masters, you can't use them as heads (unless you wanna give a dude a really freaky face - more power to you if you want to). Uhh well Legends dudes are basically the same as in TR, so you know the Prime Masters can still ride inside them. And Deluxes and Voyagers are combiners again and the Deluxes can wear their hands as like chest armor that you can plug in the Prime Masters into because ??????????? and you can also basically do that with the feet that come with Voyagers but they attach to the arms instead of forming chest armor. Also the Voyagers come with a thing that's like that Prime Masters except it's all one solid piece that's compatible with the hands and feet too if you want that's meant to go in the chest of the combiners (obviously Prime Masters and Titan Masters can fit too wow) AND then also the Leaders are Deluxes that combine with armor toe become a Prime and wow they come with Matrices and you can remove the central part of the Matrix and use it for all the other things I previously mentioned and also stick a Prime Master/Titan Master or whatever the things that the Voyagers came with in the Matrix instead WOOOOOOOOOW.
God what a fuckin confused mess of a line POTP was.
Combiner Wars obviously focused on combiners and all the Voyagers could become combiner torsos, the Deluxes could become arms or legs for the combiners, and the new mold Legends (and their repaints) could become weapons or just become like chest armor for the combiners. Only exceptions to the gimmick were the redecos of T30 Legends toys and the Leaders.
Titans Return had the Titan Masters and I'm pretty sure every figure released during the line could interact with them in some way. Even those triple changing Legends-class versions of Blaster and Soundwave's cassettes had pegs so Titan Masters could attach to them, even if they couldn't be seated inside them like the other Legends toys.
But then Power of the Primes was like...OK so we still got the Titan Masters from the previous line but now they come in little Pretender shells and called Prime Masters and they're supposed be the Thirteen so they don't have faces anymore they just have the symbols of which member they are instead, so even though they're otherwise identical to Titan Masters, you can't use them as heads (unless you wanna give a dude a really freaky face - more power to you if you want to). Uhh well Legends dudes are basically the same as in TR, so you know the Prime Masters can still ride inside them. And Deluxes and Voyagers are combiners again and the Deluxes can wear their hands as like chest armor that you can plug in the Prime Masters into because ??????????? and you can also basically do that with the feet that come with Voyagers but they attach to the arms instead of forming chest armor. Also the Voyagers come with a thing that's like that Prime Masters except it's all one solid piece that's compatible with the hands and feet too if you want that's meant to go in the chest of the combiners (obviously Prime Masters and Titan Masters can fit too wow) AND then also the Leaders are Deluxes that combine with armor toe become a Prime and wow they come with Matrices and you can remove the central part of the Matrix and use it for all the other things I previously mentioned and also stick a Prime Master/Titan Master or whatever the things that the Voyagers came with in the Matrix instead WOOOOOOOOOW.
God what a fuckin confused mess of a line POTP was.
It's a completely unchanged rerelease, even down to the packaging.
Nemesis Prime is still by far the best use of that PotP mold.
I only wish that it had the Star Convoy version of the small bot, though. But the spiky mohawk was a nice touch.
I only wish that it had the Star Convoy version of the small bot, though. But the spiky mohawk was a nice touch.
POTP’s gimmick leans too hard towards the roleplaying realm, which isn’t a big hook when there was next to no fiction for it. Hell, half the combiners don’t even have names.
Titans Return has this sort of, but even if we ignore the in-fiction power ups, Hardhead with Chromedome’s head looks significantly different compared to giving Abominus new Jordans. Apart from that, the vehicles could accommodate titan masters, giving an extra play pattern. Overall, POTP came across as microwaved leftovers of the Prime trilogy.
Titans Return has this sort of, but even if we ignore the in-fiction power ups, Hardhead with Chromedome’s head looks significantly different compared to giving Abominus new Jordans. Apart from that, the vehicles could accommodate titan masters, giving an extra play pattern. Overall, POTP came across as microwaved leftovers of the Prime trilogy.
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I have both the PotP regular release and the Star Convoy. They're both really good toys.
I mean, I can see it making sense to rerelease him. He's a big, imposing looking figure that has great shelf presence. He's a very good looking Prime.
It seems to be selling very well too.
I mean, I can see it making sense to rerelease him. He's a big, imposing looking figure that has great shelf presence. He's a very good looking Prime.
It seems to be selling very well too.
I'm in agreement that POTP was a very exciting line with some great concepts in it, but it turned into a messy catch-all that's the least cohesive of the trilogy.
It feels a lot like "let's throw in all the leftovers from CW/TR", from Titan Master types, to Legends class vehicles that could carry them, to combiners. The most unique thing to POTP was the Evolution play pattern, which iirc was also the last real "leader characters are enormous because leaders" thing of the modern era before cartoon-scale became a thing with WFC onward.
This is interesting in hindsight given the next trilogy essentially did do a reboot in a whole different direction. I wonder if the plans for that came in around the time they were laying out POTP so they decided to just cram all the remaining stuff into the trilogy closing line. (And then POTP ended up being shorter than the previous lines, shunting some releases off to Selects and canceling others iirc)
This Optimus is a pretty neat release (but i too prefer the Nemesis Prime), and there's a nice thematic link to One that helps make its reissuing make a bit more sense. Also it's still the 40th, so between this and the Earthrise reissue the anniversary year is bringing lots of Optimus love.
It feels a lot like "let's throw in all the leftovers from CW/TR", from Titan Master types, to Legends class vehicles that could carry them, to combiners. The most unique thing to POTP was the Evolution play pattern, which iirc was also the last real "leader characters are enormous because leaders" thing of the modern era before cartoon-scale became a thing with WFC onward.
This is interesting in hindsight given the next trilogy essentially did do a reboot in a whole different direction. I wonder if the plans for that came in around the time they were laying out POTP so they decided to just cram all the remaining stuff into the trilogy closing line. (And then POTP ended up being shorter than the previous lines, shunting some releases off to Selects and canceling others iirc)
This Optimus is a pretty neat release (but i too prefer the Nemesis Prime), and there's a nice thematic link to One that helps make its reissuing make a bit more sense. Also it's still the 40th, so between this and the Earthrise reissue the anniversary year is bringing lots of Optimus love.
Nemesis Prime and Star Convoy were great uses of that mold, which is why I bought them instead of the regular Prime version.
I only have the Rodimus Prime and Optimal Optimus molds from the Evolution part of the line, so it isn't as though a reissue like this doesn't speak to me on some level.
Of course, Earthrise and now SS86 have all but completely swept that under the rug...
Of course, Earthrise and now SS86 have all but completely swept that under the rug...
Those would get my attention, though.
I always thought that they'd end up making a Powermaster Prime version of the mold. They had the guns from the Nemesis version and the remolded cab robot from the Star Convoy version. It was right there. It wasn't my IDEAL Powermaster Prime, but I would have bought it.
I really could have done with a Powermaster/Super Ginrai over the Star Convoy. Would have been an easier thing to match -- Star Convoy has entirely different proportions and an entirely different aesthetic in both modes, while PMOP is basically a suped-up G1 Optimus altmode AND robot mode, generally same boxiness and all. And turning the cab into an "Optimus robot mode, just back-to-front" is essentially Ginrai already. I guess between that and Super Megatron (not to mention the huge overhauls that were the Seacons) all the retooling magic got used up.
(The TR PMOP, for all its flaws, does set a bit of a high bar, doing all it does at Leader class. I think in some ways it wears the mold better than Magnus. I wouldn't be opposed to a Commander that's basically that, hollowness and all, with better arms/hands and feet, a transforming cab, Powermaster, and the correct rifles and double-cannons.)
(The TR PMOP, for all its flaws, does set a bit of a high bar, doing all it does at Leader class. I think in some ways it wears the mold better than Magnus. I wouldn't be opposed to a Commander that's basically that, hollowness and all, with better arms/hands and feet, a transforming cab, Powermaster, and the correct rifles and double-cannons.)
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They chose not to because they had just recently already done Powermaster Optimus in Titans Return. Somewhere, it was said that if they hadn't done Powermaster Optimus in Titans Return at all, they would have done in him Power of the Primes since the Leader class gimmick in that line was more fitting of Powermaster Optimus than normal Optimus. But they simply didn't have that foresight at the start of Titans Return when they decided to do Powermaster Optimus for Titans Return, which was decided in the first place because of how Titans Return was a big celebration of the 1986-1988 era of G1, and the original Powermaster Optimus was the Optimus toy of 1988, so it only made sense to them at the time to do the 1988 Optimus in the line that celebrated 1986-1988. And then when POTP rolled around, they realized only then that, in hindsight, it would have been better to hold off on Powermaster Optimus until POTP when the Leader class gimmick would have been perfect for it. But they still wanted a big Optimus toy in the Leader class, so they went with normal Optimus instead. Hindsight's a real pain, sometimes.
Doing PMOP that would have kinda run counter to the whole "Matrix turning schlubs into Primes" gimmick, but ironically would have recontextualized the others into how I see them now, anyway.
i.e. I view my Rodimus Prime as more of a Powermaster OP style form for the character, rather than Hot Rod turning into Rodimus Prime.
i.e. I view my Rodimus Prime as more of a Powermaster OP style form for the character, rather than Hot Rod turning into Rodimus Prime.
Heh, their having to do normal Optimus with Orion as the smaller form might have been where they got that "Matrix to Primes" gimmick idea from in the first place.
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I sold my POTP Rodimus (but imagined it was Hot Rod cosplaying as his post-matrix self via technology) and instead I'm happy with Primal Prime (and his "I've returned from the core of Cybertron and been reborn as the same toy in my original colours" version), but only due to the add-on kits (which I wished had replaced mini-Op with extra parts). I'm also happy with (SG) Rodimus Unicronus, Nemesis Prime and Star Convoy.
I too wish they had used the OP mold to make PM OP (plus a new version of Apex/Powerbomber and Hi-Q) and recoloured OO into Primal Prime.
I too wish they had used the OP mold to make PM OP (plus a new version of Apex/Powerbomber and Hi-Q) and recoloured OO into Primal Prime.
I honestly believed that one could get a Star Saber out of POTP OP, sure a lot of retooling to the trailer and cab but it was do able in my mind! The Rodimus, its a ok, not really that great, neither Rodimus or his SG repaint are on my current displays, in storage, Optimus Primal is on display with the DNA upgrade kit on him, thou him along with OP & Star Convoy had some gap filler parts added to them, its around the time of the Prime Wars trilogy that hollow gaps started to become more notable and they are slowly getting worse! One of the tragic figures from the Prime Wars trilogy, had to be Galvatron, the guy just can't seem to get a break after G1, outside of a BW2 villian, he was mostly repaints then, when he finally got his first figure based upon his G1 self, he got bumped from a voyager class to deluxe and the figure suffered for it (Universe)! In TR, they nearly had a prefect verison, if they just not decided to make him a headmaster/Titan Master and have a flipping face mask that barely does anything for his look, not to mention how his arm cannon cannot be on the side of his arm when you want to use the lower arm! Then he gets hit with mistakes at the factory with his WFC trilogy appearance, thus it legacy that finally did him some justice, but he just can't seem to catch a break, I'll grant that they did a fanstastic retool of the TR mold into Super Megatron, its almost a completely new figure, taking a ok mold and making it fanstastic!
I'd love for them to give us, say, a Leader Star Convoy... Then retool it into "RID2015 Universe" Optimus Prime or something. Big pluses if they somehow also gave us Micromaster Hot Rodimus and then Aerobolt.
Star Convoy is a fun design.
If you've never handled the original or the reissue, it's a treat.
If you've never handled the original or the reissue, it's a treat.
So I got Studio Series '86 Springer
Which I know isn't part of this line BUT getting him made re-arrange some of my Wreckers and I just gotta say... I know he's not strictly the Prime aesthetic... but Legacy Bulkhead is FUN.
And seeing as I never cared about the names on boxes (Shockblast, Solar Storm Grapple, Tankor instead of Octane, etc...) I can get over that his box says "Prime Universe" and just enjoy him as a G1 take on a character who was awesome in Animated and Prime.
Which I know isn't part of this line BUT getting him made re-arrange some of my Wreckers and I just gotta say... I know he's not strictly the Prime aesthetic... but Legacy Bulkhead is FUN.
And seeing as I never cared about the names on boxes (Shockblast, Solar Storm Grapple, Tankor instead of Octane, etc...) I can get over that his box says "Prime Universe" and just enjoy him as a G1 take on a character who was awesome in Animated and Prime.
I kinda dig it but I'm waiting for a character that looks better wearing it. So far for Bulkhead and Breakdown I prefer the originals. I'd try to repurpose the Breakdown (if only to justify the cost of the 2-pack; mainly getting it for Windsweeper and friends) but no ideas there.