As I got RiD Ultra Magnus and Megatron by quite a few easy bids with reasonable price, I thought it would be the same for Prime. But

I was wrong, totally wrong. I'd failed so many auctions on him including two straight night staying up until 2 AM to make the bid and

the prices always went above my budget easily. It's a bit of frustration and I tried to convince myself that I need patience, but

unfortunately patience is always the least thing I have in my spirit. So later there I saw a Buy-It-Now and I clicked it. I bought a Prime

with a low price but missing all accessories (4 missiles and the tiny pissy gun which I probably don't care that much) and the battery

cab............. Oh! One more thing. I am importing it from UK.

 

After the long wait, Prime has finally arrived through the ashes. First thing, brush the dusts off. Woooooo, UK dusts....... Second thing,

find a piece of plastic to cover the battery. Third, glue the split tire. Now let's start the review.

 

Optimus Prime's alternate mode is a standard Japanese fire truck, very much like this one. Everything looks very realistic except the

robot chest and head are showing on the truck bed which are out of place. But comparing to Cybertron's bloody futuristic fire truck

mode, this is much better. Pushing the button on top of the truck can trigger the electronic sounds and light up the light bar. This

truck is very long and rolls very well. The ladder can rotate to any directions and extend as the real one does. This fire truck is very

good for display and have some play values. Unfortunately giving it too much pressure on top can sometimes break the connection

panel in the middle to split the truck in half.

 

Many people refer the RID line having standard Japanese robot anime sequences, especially like the Brave series and Eldran franchise.

This is very true. Prime's robot mode is a typical partformer: a base robot with parts to attach to power up or combine. He is also

sharing many same characteristics as Brave Police's J-Decker and Duke Fire, even the transformation and combine scheme. The front

cab is Prime's core body, and only part that has some meaningful transformations. He is alreay very big in this mode, taller than RID

Megatron and all the voyager classes. He is very poseable and well balanced but the tiny feet looks strange. In this basic mode, he

some what looks like a gorilla to me, a red one. Can we ignore the attack base, please?

 

By attaching some parts on the shoulder and the hands, he is in the mega mode. To me, this mode is meaningless and awkward.

 

Putting all the parts on, yeah, now is much better, the ultra mode. The ultra mode is like the regular leader class size. He is about

the same height as ROTF Prime and he also looks so much like Duke Fire now, with the big ladder on the back. His feet are the

typical extra boots in most of the Japan robot lines especially can be seen in Brave Series, such as Fire J-Decker here. Still quite

poseable and balance is okay. It would be much, much nicer if the ladder can be detached instead of hanging on the back or put on

the shoulder. He is a beauty for display but is now starting to suffer the balance issue due to the extra weight carrying by the thin

waist. After few poses and limbs movement, the chest armor connecting to the ladder may pop up and have to attach again. He can

also speak and make sounds and his eyes (or almost the entire head) will flash when doing so. Since I missed all accessories, that

fortunately do not make too much differences for me, especially that tiny little gun.

 

Transformation: 6 - For a big size robot but a partformer, his transformation is not as fun (and frustrate) as ROTF Prime.

Fun: 7 - Fire truck mode is fun but not sturdy enough. Robot mode is fun but looks strange. Mega mode and base are meaningless

to me. Ultra mode is really nice for display but not sturdy enough for some play. Many options but not one is perfect.

Display: 10 - A beauty to display and best display in either fire truck mode or ultra mode.

Value: 7 - $15.31 is a reasonable price for missing all accessories and even the battery door, but cost me $22.51 to import from UK.

Overall: 8 - Maybe putting too much expectations on him but he didn't satisfy me as much as Megatron. Also pityingly and

Unfortunately for the ultra mode, the display value is higher than play value.