For those of you who missed out on this short lived series, these Titaniums (not to be confused with the much smaller diecast statues) were roughly deluxe-sized transformable figures that were made of both diecast metal and plastic. They didn’t really follow any set series, as what few figures were released were inspired by every corner of the Transformers Universe. They were, however, a nice nod and wink back to the older fans who remember their Transformers having diecast parts, but the lack of continuity and some serious durability issues made this series a flash in the pan. The first assortment gave us figures inspired by the popular and canon-bending War Within comics, which gave us Megatron, Optimus Prime and Jetfire in their native Cybertronian forms.

In vehicle form, War Within prime is a vaguely familiar looking red, blue and silver truck. Its not a terrible looking vehicle, and I actually like certain elements of the design, but the simple transformation on thid figure makes it easy to recognize most of Prime’s robot kibble in his truck mode, particularly his arms, which are just hanging off the back of what would be the cab.

Prime’s robot mode is a nice recreation of the design from the comic, but the diecast used on this figure causes some cosmetic issues. The sculpting in the diecast looks somewhat primitive when compared to Prime’s plastic parts. The paint job on the diecast is also really questionable. You can see the swirls in his bodyworks and the paint will chip at the drop of a hat. There are places where this figure looks more like a custom fan project then a licensed, professionally made toy.

The biggest issue with these figures in general, and Prime specifically, is the weight displacement. The heavy diecast metal parts are at constant odds with the lighter and flimsier plastic. As a result, the figures don’t want to hold their forms very well and just trying to get Prime here into some different poses usually results in a half-transformed mess. His shoulders flop around and he’s way too top heavy for his own good.

WW Prime comes with two accessories: His blaster rifle and a personalized display stand. The same stand came with all of the Titanium figures, with a separate front piece that featured the robot’s faction symbol and name. It was a really nice extra and accentuated the fact that these figures probably should be considered more as collectibles than actual toys.

At one point I owned almost all of these Titanium figures, but my overall disatisfaction with this line led me to sell them off until I was down to just Prime, and the only reason I really kept him is because I try to collect most of the Optimus Prime toys released, even those that I’m not all that crazy about. These figures were an interesting experiment on Hasbro’s behalf, but ultimately an unsuccessful one, and the only one I really regret unloading was Soundwave, as it was easily the best G1 homage of the character Hasbro has done since. Otherwise, its hard for me to recommend these.