Transformers: Armada, for the most part, sucked. It was an interesting experiment; the Mini-cons were a neat idea, and I'm glad they've been carried over into subsequent lines. But all of the fiction, cartoons and comics, made me wince because it was so awful. And the vast majority of the toys were clunky, horridly-designed bricks that had much more in common with the later years of G1 (in terms of posability and realistic alt-modes) than those of the Beast Wars, Beast Machines or Car Robots lines that preceded them. I'll grant that there are reasons for the general drop in quality, which mostly had to do with the financial burden of including Mini-cons with every figure. And there are exceptions, of course; Unicron is one of the most awesome Transformers figures ever. I know that there are fans who love Armada, but they're just wrong. Love makes people crazy, or so they say.

There are two Optimus Prime molds from Transformers: Armada. The "Super Base" Prime, the one with the auto-transforming trailer, was pretty typical of Armada. But the Supercon-class Optimus Prime, which hit stores the following year, was actually a nice little figure.

Bigger Doesn't Equal Better

The main problem with the larger Armada Prime was that it's trailer-combination gimmick essentially ruined the smaller mode (which I'll talk about more when I review that figure). Since the Supercon version of Optimus Prime is the same basic robot mode, but doesn't have to make the same compromises, it is free to me much more posable, and far more interesting.

Not Just a Truck, A Futuristic Truck!

Armada Optimus Prime was the first Autobot leader in seven years whose alt-mode was a red truck with a separate trailer it could haul. And one of the wonderful things they did for Supercon Optimus is that they made him compatible with the larger figure's trailer. He can't combine with it (thank goodness), but he can haul it. And while the size disparity is a little comical, it's nothing like that of Star Convoy's teeny tiny truck and massive trailer.

Correspondingly, Supercon Prime's vehicle mode is simply a smaller version of the larger figure, a 'futuristic' red cab-forward semi truck. There is some black paint across the front grill and bumper, which does a pretty decent job of simulating road and exhaust filth that trucks tend to accumulate. Depending on the version you have (more on this later), the truck has either silver or yellow headlights, and some have an autobot symbol on the hood. Personally, I prefer the one I have (the one in the photos), because the silver carries a nice muted look. Furthermore, I've always thought that faction insignia visible in alt-modes were a rather silly way of betraying the whole 'robots in disguise' aspect of Transformers. Though this version that doesn't have the symbol on the truck's hood doesn't have one anywhere on the entire figure, so it's easy to see why they made that modification in later releases.

Bendy!

Supercon Prime's robot mode is simply fantastic. This toy is so dynamic, so posable, and so expressive that it's almost impossible to believe it was released in the same line as this guy.

This Prime can exhibit a lot of emotion, solely because of his ball-jointed head, that is surprisingly unique among Transformers. Supercon Prime is the only Optimus Prime figure that can pull off any look other than leaderly; this guy can be pensive (head angled about 10 degrees down, looking slightly to one side), inquisitive (head cocked at an angle, looking forward), or hopeful (head angled about 10 degrees up, looking slightly to one side) just by moving his head a tiny bit. If you turn his head 90 degrees first, he can look almost straight up, which I'd describe as an 'Oh shit, look at that bomb/lightning bolt/meteor/very small rock that's about to smack right into me' look.

Supercon Prime is, as stated above, amazingly posable, particularly considering that the only ball joints on this figure are his elbows and head. The transformation joints in his shoulders allow for all kinds of cool arm positions. There's a swivel at his waist, and all three pieces of his 'skirt' are hinged so that they might be moved out of the way for dynamic leg positions. His knees have swivels as well as ratcheting joints. Unfortunately, the lack of ball joints at the hips limits Prime's leg movement quite a bit, and the joints that are at the hips seem to be really loose, so it's kind of difficult to stand prime in some of the more dynamic poses he's capable of.

The design of Armada Prime, at first glance, seems a huge departure from the classical Optimus Prime design, in that it does away with the chest windows, one of Prime's most recognizable features. But really, except for that, nearly every design element of G1 Prime is carried over to Armada Prime. The heads are essentially identical, the color schemes are a near match, and even though Armada Prime doesn't have chest windows, his truck grill makes up his entire chest, and the blue patches on each side of it invoke the windows without actually being windows. Sure, Armada Prime is a bit chunkier, and has a few bits of gold coloring on his hands, but he's far more of a direct update, a la Classics Prime, than a complete re-imagining.

One interesting thing to note is that while the Super Base version of Prime has a matrix under the grill on his chest, Supercon prime does not, and in fact has what looks like an empty Matrix chamber. If I had been a kid when these toys came out, this would have more clearly echoed the difference between the G1 Hot-Rod and Rodimus Prime toys, which I tended to swap out for each other on a regular basis, because we all know that Rodimus just couldn't keep the Matrix in his chest to save his life.

Over-Run

Super Base and Supercon Prime come with different Mini-cons. This smaller Prime comes with Run-Over, a grey jet who played no part in the animated series, but who serves as a kind of techno-guru in the comics. Over-Run is one of those strange, not-really-antropomorphic Mini-cons, in that he's a perfect little humanoid robot, except he's got this massive jet nose sticking out of his chest. He's also one of the less-posable mini-cons, in that the only functional joints he has are at his shoulders. His legs flip out a ways to the side, but this isn't practical for posing him in any way.

Over-Run is also one of the Mini-cons with a third weapon mode. Essentially, you flip his jet mode over and rotate the tailfin around to reveal a handle, and he's a gun. There's actually some really cool barrel detail on the underside of the jet's nose, so it's not all that unbelievable as a weapon-mode. Also, Over-Run's wings can fold down on either side of Prime's fist for stability in this mode, so he's not flopping all over the place in Prime's hand.

An Infinite Crisis of Primes

There are more variants and extra releases of this Prime figure than almost any since G1. Just during Armada alone, there were three coloring variants released. The first is the one depicted in the images for this review. The second variant is essentially the same, but the silver headlights and cab lights have been repainted yellow. The third is the same as the second, but has a tampographed Autobot insignia on its hood.

Furthermore, the Japanese release of Supercon Optimus is ever-so-slightly different from its American counterparts. Also, Japan enjoyed an additional version, the translucent Crystal Convoy, a 5000-piece limited edition giveaway from Japan's Tele-V Magazine which was supposed to represent Prime's spark/soul after his body was destroyed in the cartoon.

Additionally, there was the obligatory repaint-as-Ultra-Magnus released as part of a Transformers Universe 2-pack (with a repainted Armada Sideswipe, the worst figure ever). Apparently, this version of the toy had a problem with swapped elbow joints, making him impossible to transform, but the problem is easily fixed.

This figure was released yet again, with a red & grey paint scheme, as a filler for the Cybertron line. This new paint scheme may actually be my favorite, but as I only have images and not a real figure to look at, I'll hold off from making that call.

Also, in the Armada line, there is a black, brown & teal Nemesis Prime repaint. This follows in the by now established tradition of releasing an evil version of Prime in black and teal, and adds a strangely inappropriate bit of beige to the mix, on Nemesis Prime's grill, thighs and weapons.
In the Micron Legends toyline, Nemesis Prime was replaced by the straight black and teal Scourge.

Supercon Prime is a toy I've not really given a lot of thought to since I purchased him. At the time, I'd already started to write off Armada, and was really just buying him because he was a Prime. I'm glad I've taken the time to really examine him to do this writeup, because he's now becoming one of my favorite smaller Prime toys.

This is the fifth in a series of Optimus Prime reviews.

Tags: armada commentary nemesis prime optimus prime review transformers

Posted by Dan on March 25, 2008 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)