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Old 05-08-2019, 01:28 AM   #1
imfallenangel
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Optimus Prime Studio Series 38

Well, I finally found him and took him home.

First impressions: He's absolutely a nice looking figure, in both modes.

Articulations
Fairly well executed:
  • Pros: especially the legs and feet.
  • Cons, arms have limited movement due to kibble on the shoulders and forearms, but still manages a good range of movement.
Weapon looks fantastic.

Transformation leaves almost no kibble in either mode except for what's mentioned below. It can be hard to get the parts to align perfectly and not have pieces pop off. It is not overly complex but complex enough to be a bit of an annoyance.
  • Robot mode: some kibble in the back (backpack) but not too bad, the worst of it is that it does block the arms' mouvement, but most of the annoying kibble is on the arms and shoulders
  • Truck mode: the back of the cab has a very annoying "backpack" from the legs.
Tabbing and quality control:

Where there's a lot of issues
  • Robot mode: the legs parts barely hold together. The right arm does NOT stay on!
  • Truck mode: the "backpack" left side panel does not snap together correctly and ends up with it looking badly. The "hidden" gun location doesn't hold it well, fells more like it just happens to fit in this location than being though out and planned to do so. Very hard to align all the parts to get the "perfect" squareness of the cab. The leg sections underneath (that holds the gun) do stick out a lot more than they should.
Final thoughts:

I think he does look great, that he can be a fairly fun figure but he could have, should have been better with better quality control and a few adjustment.

My figure might be the one odd out, but as it's the one I have, I have to state the following:

He can be hard to get transform perfectly, lots of parts simply do not align well, parts do not snap in the connectors, and simply pop out or are flimsy.

The plastic used is inconsistent, with the red being a better grade, solid plastic, the blue being the harder type that I fear could snap easily, and the gray parts that are softer and tend to be misshapen, as almost all the bad connections are with the gray parts, including the arm that won't stay.

The biggest problem is that the right arm just will not stay on, I tested using the left arm on both sides, and that one clicks/snaps in correctly so it's not the body connector, it's the right arm that simply has a defect.

Comparing it with his Siege counterpart, and it does look similar but different as Siege and SS should, with this SS looking much more realistic than the more cartoonish Siege. BUT still, the Siege does hold his own in many ways... like SS is the roughed up fell down a rocky hill version, while Siege has that fresh 3 piece suit Sunday's best look (compared).

Verdict:

I could have lived with a few of these defects, the legs part, the backpack section, that won't snap correctly...

BUT...

the arm that will not stay on, it's simply not acceptable for such a figure.
  1. the other defects of the multiple parts that don't fit correctly, will not lock in place correctly, including a mention of the feet that are very difficult to arrange during transformation and feels like they could easily break.
  2. the cab's backpack kills the truck's niceness and they hide an empty hole and OP's head.
  3. they go with ensuring that there is a trailer hitch but yet again... no trailer?! The movie very clearly showed a trailer... enough with the trailerless OP already.
So I am sadden but these several issues are making it so that I will end up taking it back for a refund.

I had been hoping to find him for a bit now and was really happy to finally find him.

I may get another later on if I see him again, possibly on sale, and hopefully be able to review it and compare if the same quality control issues are common for this figure.

Last edited by imfallenangel; 05-08-2019 at 01:32 AM.
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Old 05-08-2019, 08:54 AM   #2
The7thParallel
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Re: Optimus Prime Studio Series 38

My arms are both tight with zero problems.

I think this is one of the best OPs ever made and he has pride of place in my collection and on my shelf. You may have just gotten a bum copy. This thing is insanely good.
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Old 05-08-2019, 11:19 AM   #3
joelones
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Re: Optimus Prime Studio Series 38

Agree with OP. Most anticipated SS figure for me and most "in-hand" disappointed figure. Leg/foot tab mechanism is terrible, plastic "feels" lackluster and albeit inspired transformation, it's extremely fiddly and not pose-able friendly. Oh well, back in the box you go.

Last edited by joelones; 05-08-2019 at 11:22 AM.
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Old 05-08-2019, 08:16 PM   #4
Metrotitan
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Re: Optimus Prime Studio Series 38

SS-38 is amazing... maybe 3rd party has spoiled you, but for a main-line Voyager Prime, he ranks among the best.
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Old 05-09-2019, 12:17 AM   #5
imfallenangel
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Re: Optimus Prime Studio Series 38

Quote:
Originally Posted by The7thParallel View Post
My arms are both tight with zero problems.

I think this is one of the best OPs ever made and he has pride of place in my collection and on my shelf. You may have just gotten a bum copy. This thing is insanely good.
That's what I said in my post, I really believe that I did get a bad one, it does look great, I don't have more than a few OP, and I've been very picky about which figures I get, and he does rank on par with the others I have (in terms of look)... the failings of this figure that they could have worked a bit more are as I stated, the arm and shoulder kibble and the cab's packpack could have been worked on a bit more, and the legs parts pegs should be better, I can't even be sure that they're connected correctly on mine.

Quote:
Originally Posted by joelones View Post
Agree with OP. Most anticipated SS figure for me and most "in-hand" disappointed figure. Leg/foot tab mechanism is terrible, plastic "feels" lackluster and albeit inspired transformation, it's extremely fiddly and not pose-able friendly. Oh well, back in the box you go.
I find him to be a mix of Siege and Leader POTP (and movie styled for details), I cannot say that it's a bad figure at all, it's very nice, BUT it does have some serious issues that I can't overlook, which could have been engineered better fairly easily and would have made him as perfect as he could have been. The backpack for example (robot) does a huge amount of blockage for the arms movement, and kills the waist turn.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Metrotitan View Post
SS-38 is amazing... maybe 3rd party has spoiled you, but for a main-line Voyager Prime, he ranks among the best.
Nope, no 3rd party for me at all, got some KO in the combiners to complete some missing sets, but as I said, he is very nice, but he is not perfect, mine has a lot of quality control issues, and most of the negatives I've mentioned could have been addressed in development...

Again, the vibe I get with him is like they were going with "ok guys, we have this figure looking really great, there's a few things left that could improve him and he'd be pretty perfect, but what the heck, he'll sell like this so let's call it a night".

Compared to a lot of previous lines, absolutely, he's one of the best looking OP out there... especially for the movie versions, he's absolutely the best OP in my opinion. But I shouldn't be holding a copy that's falling apart like this... I really wanted to love this guy, but with this amount of lack in quality control, it kills it for me... I can't even transform him without parts coming off, especially his arm, and others being very hard to position correctly.

How can they do such a figure that screams both amazing quality and appearance while having absolute crappy design faults? I don't know, but they did it.
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Old 05-09-2019, 01:06 AM   #6
imfallenangel
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Re: Optimus Prime Studio Series 38

And here a few pictures, though there's already so many online.



The much hated version, which I will never understand as I always absolutely loved it for two reason.... 1) so freaking easy to transform and still looks better than many other figures, 2) this is a great G1 cartoon looking version, very well articulated... the worse part, he's small (but so much fun to play with) and no trailer.



And the arm that comes off, over and over during transformation, at least 5 times.




When Primes unite...and gets his arm back on.



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