Prime is a Deluxe Class figure, so we’re back to the carded style of package. He comes carded in his truck form, which is pretty ballsy and honest of Hasbro to show you the worst of the two modes outright. Still, it may cool the jets on some Bayformer haters to learn that the modern movies weren’t the first time Prime appeared as an extended cab. Y’all can blame G2 for that. Prime also comes packaged with his energon sword beside him, although as we’ll see it actually serves a purpose in the truck mode.

And there it is, released from the bubble and exposed in all it’s wretched glory. It’s a hideous looking truck with a bizarre patchwork look to it, particularly around the doors. The orange paint on the windows looks awful, the doors themselves angle inward awkwardly, and the arms hanging off the bottom of the doors is just plain unsightly. Let’s not forget the dubious decision to go with a orange tinted clear plastic for the front grill. Even the paint job is miss-matched with the front being black and the rest blue making the toy look like an unfinished prototype. Ugh. I can’t believe any designer at Hasbro held aloft this mess and was pleased enough to release it. I guess it’s all about the robot mode, eh?

Blah. Not so much. Don’t get me wrong, Prime’s robot mode is infinitely better than his truck mode, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly good. If you own the G2 “Laser Rods” Prime or perhaps the more recent Robots in Disguise Scourge, you can see that Hasbro really tried to replicate that design into this Deluxe Class figure. The problem is those two toys are great, this one just isn’t. What’s really strange is the attention paid to some of the little details. The wheels on his legs do this complex little flip up and seat into his legs to get them out of the way. It isn’t at all necessary and you can opt not to do it if you so desire. But why take the time to put that kind of engineering on a toy design that’s so broken everywhere else? Just like his truck mode, Prime’s robot mode looks as if it were patched together from various other Primes.

The head sculpt here is also really weird. It’s sort of like a mix up of Prime from the Bay films with some extra animated stylization thrown in. I don’t know that I completely dislike it, but it feels really out of place on this figure.

About the only thing here that I really do like is Prime’s energon sword. In truck mode it forms the cab hitch and cleverly transforms itself into this neat little sword with a crossguard. I suppose I can give it to one of my other Deluxe Primes or some other figure. It’s a sad statement, because I think Hasbro had some good intentions with this figure, but really dropped the ball on the execution. If you can find this guy at one of the cloesout stores he just might be worth your time, particularly if you are any kind of Optimus Prime completist, but he sure isn’t worth the premium some of the Reveal The Shield toys are commanding online.