Hasbro gets a lot of shit from collectors, some of it most definitely deserved, but I always have to give them credit for continuing to turn out these massive Titan Class Transformers. I don’t know how well they do, since Big Boxes around these parts don’t carry them, not even on endcaps at Christmas, and it’s not uncommon for some of these to turn up at deep discounted clearance at closeout stores after the holidays. Nonetheless, Omega Supreme here is the fourth Titan Class under Hasbro’s belt, and that’s if you don’t include the two big Combiners, Devastator and Predaking. Omega was a G1 toy that I never owned as a kid, so the ability to get him now in an updated version scratches a thirty-five year old itch.
Like all the Titans, Omega comes in a huge, fully enclosed box with some absolutely bitchin’ artwork on the front and some pictures of the toy on the back. This giant box was practically made to be found under a Christmas tree, and I actually considered saving him for my Christmas review this year, but in the end I knew I didn’t have the patience to wait a couple more months. Unlike previous Titans, Omega comes out of the box nearly fully assembled, so you can indeed put him back in the box for storage. That’s a big deal for me, as it means I’m more likely to keep the packaging. This time around, there’s no sticker sheet, and no batteries required, because Omega doesn’t have any electronic features. Normally, I like to start with the alt modes, but in the case of Omega here, let’s begin with his robot mode.
Holy shit, I love this robot mode! Omega’s new look draws heavily from the original toy with elements from the Sunbow animation design as well. His proportions are greatly improved upon, giving him legs that are actually useful and articulated, a separate and distinct torso, and arms that are still pretty beefy, but also more in scale with the rest of his body. I’ve seen a fair bit of griping over the gap between his boxy torso and his hips, but it never bothered me much in the pictures, and it sure as hell doesn’t bother me with the figure in hand. If anything, it’s a worthy trade off to give his legs a wider range of motion for those intimidating wide stances. Familiar design call backs include the yellow panels on his lower legs, the red chest plate, yellow shoulder pylons, and the familiar pieces of track arching up from behind those shoulders. This new design even incorporates the clear panel on the upper chest from the cartoon version, albeit with the panel changed from red to yellow. Of course, Omega also sports the same lack of hands as his G1 namesake, with his right arm ending in a triple fingered claw, and his left arm terminating in a blaster. He’s definitely not your traditional Autobot, as he’s designed to blow your face off rather than shake your hand. And while Omega is not as tall as the previous Titans, Fort Max and Metroplex, he’s still plenty big and beefy, and I think appropriately sized.
From behind, Omega is extremely polished, with no hollow portions or ugly bits. The twin cylinders that form his backpack are a new design element, but I think they look great while incorporating a clever new bit of engineering for his transformation.
The head is heavily modeled after Omega’s old Sunbow design with the sculpted face positioned behind a clear plastic shield. The expression is pretty spot on and the only big difference here is that his eyes are yellow instead of blue. And speaking of eyes, there’s some brilliant light piping going on with those peepers. The “helmet” features the two tubes coming off his “ears” and meeting at the box under his chin. He even has a cannon that can raise up out of the back of his head.
For a big boy, Omega sports lots of useful articulation. His legs have strong ratchets in the hips for front, back, and lateral movement. They’re plenty noisy, but they can support his weight with no problems. There are swivels up in the thighs, the knees bend, and there’s lateral rockers in the feet for those wide stances. The arms can rotate at the shoulders as well as hinge outward, there are swivels in the biceps, and the elbows are hinged. He can pivot at the top of his pelvis, each of the fingers on his claw are hinged twice, and his head can rotate left and right. There’s no doubt about it, Omega is a really fun toy in his robot mode and he can take and hold some pretty cool action poses. I would probably have been totally happy with this guy even if he didn’t transform, but of course he does, so let’s check out his alt mode… but before that, have a look at his little buddy Countdown.
Countdown continues the trend of giving us little robots to interact with our big ones. These are similar to the old Micromasters and more recent Minicons, and we’ve seen a resurgence of these ever since the Titans Return line. Countdown has a very cool robot mode, which includes a highly detailed head sculpt and even a painted face. That’s something we don’t always get in these little fellas. His transformation is extremely simple and his alt mode is a little moon-buggy with a satellite dish on the top. OK… now on to Omega’s alt mode…
Yup, it’s the same style of rocket base as the original toy, complete with rocket, gantry, track, and patrol tank. And while there are some nips and tucks to proportions and other little details, it remains wonderfully faithful. Getting here is pretty easy, which shouldn’t be too surprising since none of the Titan Class figures have had complex transformations. In this case, both arms come out as one piece, with a connection passing through the main body. This piece then transforms into the rocket. The tank pulls out of the body from the chest, similar to good old Power Master Optimus Prime, leaving behind the legs and shell, which form the main building/gantry. I think the biggest surprise for me was the track, which I did not realize would be raised on struts. That’s pretty cool. I also love how solid it is. While there’s nothing attaching the tank or rocket, I can still pick up the base from the main building and the track will come along, all without falling apart. On the downside, the track is a lot more compact than I remember the old toy being and that makes this big tank patrolling around it look a bit silly.
As with past Titan Class figures, Omega’s alt mode is mainly designed to be in scale with the tiny Titan Masters or Power Masters. That makes him the perfect playground for Countdown. He scales well enough to hang out in the compartment of the main building, roll down the ramps in vehicle mode, or hide in the compartments that open up on either side of the base. He also scales exceptionally well with the track when in vehicle mode. There’s almost enough room for two-way traffic. Too bad my Mini-Cons are in storage, because I’d have fun loading this base up with them.
And while the base certainly isn’t designed with larger Transformers in mind, Deluxe Class vehicles, like Ironhide here, can patrol the track pretty comfortably as well.
The rocket trades length for girth (insert phallic joke here), and in doing so, I think it makes for a more impressive display. There’s nothing actually securing the rocket to the gantry, but if you put it close enough to the main building, the yellow pylons look like they’re designed to reach out and grab it. There’s also a hinged ramp on the bottom of the open compartment of the building, but it too doesn’t actually attach to the rocket in any way. Apart from sitting pretty and being able to woosh around the room with some imagination and assistance, the only real feature to the rocket is the opening compartment at the top. It’s big enough to house a small Transformer as a pilot.
The final element, the tank, is a pretty cool piece all on its own. It’s a satisfyingly hefty vehicle with tons of sculpted detail all over. The two side cannon can raise and lower, as can the main cannon. There’s also a smaller gun that can be raised out of the back of the turret for added firepower. He has sculpted faux treads, but real wheels under him to help him roll along the track or the floor.
Finally, Omega does come with some effect parts, which can be stacked together to form a blast effect for either of his arm weapons. These can also be pulled apart and pegged in various spots to look like enemy fire impacting him. I like the idea here, but I’m not real sold on the execution. I think the coloring is a little too dark and the plastic too opaque to really make it look all that great.
I almost wish that I had broken this review down into two parts, because it felt like I didn’t have enough time to gush enough about this amazing figure. It still impresses me to no end that Hasbro is willing and capable of putting out these Titan Class Transformers, and how every damn one of them has been a direct hit. No, they ain’t cheap, but even at $160, Omega feels like he’s at a pretty good price point. He isn’t the biggest of the Titan Classes, but he feels a lot more complex than the two Autobot cities. And the fact that they nixed the electronics on this release doesn’t phase me one bit. I think this guy is libel to make most any Transformers fan happy, and that’s especially the case for me because, as I said earlier, I never owned him as a kid.
FigureFan Zero 