costco energon optimus prime

next misb - costco energon optimus prime with overload



rear view


enough of movie line & back to familiar territory. today i'm gonna write about another misb item & one of my favourite figure - costco energon optimus prime. i'm keeping this baby misb because its a store exclusive. store exclusive means that an item is only available at a specific store @ supermarket. in this case costco prime is only available at costco supermarket in the us. the loose figure photos taken from internet.
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left to right - armada prime, k-mart prime & powelinx prime


there are 2 other variant or armada prime beside armada (original) and this one - k-mart and powerlinx. k-mart is another store exclusive limited to k-mart supermarket. it comes with powerlinx jetfire and 6 minicons - longarm, comettor, sparkplug, dune runner, iceberg & ransack. it uses the same colour as armada except the cab is coloured gold.
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cab robot mode


matrix of leadership



left to right - corona sparkplug & sparkplug


powerlinx prime is a repaint of grey and red but mass release to the market. it comes only by itself but with corona sparkplug. i was undecided which repaint to pick so i asked by brother to decide. he chose costco because he said the colour scheme made prime looked like a samurai warrior. funny though because some reviews said that this prime looks like ronald mcdonald!.
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cab & trailer



combined with overload


costco prime is packed with costco overload and like most store exclusive both are repaints which means have different colour from the original figures. prime is in burgundy, black and yellow while overload is yellow & red. they are accompanied by rollout and corona sparkplug. this version of sparkplug is gold chromed as apposed to normal yellow plastic, another reason to get this figure. i still don't know why its under the energon line when it is a repaint of armada prime.
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base mode


combined with overload


because its an armada mold prime can combine with armada jetfire & overload (along with their repaints) to form megaweapon in robot, vehicle and base mode. eventhough its on par with leader class the transformation level is only 3. one reason is because of the automatic transformation gimmick of the trailer where it will automatically transform when you transform the cab...a very cool gimmick.
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superweapon mode


combined with overload


because i only have a deluxe version of armada prime i can't actually tell how the toy is. so i'll just summarize a review made by cliffbee (click me to read the review) :

cab
- new cab design
- plastic tires instead of rubber
- no minicon port
- simple transformation
- cab robot mouthplate is move-able
- limited articulation

trailer
- 4 minicon port on trailer
- simple design & transformation
- automatic trailer transformation (battery operated) when cad is transformed

base
- more than 7 minicon port in base mode
- LED light up & sound for console
- many move able parts etc seat, door


giant robot
- limited articulation
- right fist LED light up gimmick
- firing sound gimmick
- 1 minicon port on each shoulder
- blocky design

comeback

now how did that happened?


it has more than a month since i last blogged...way too long. 2 reasons - dengue & exam. on 20/7 i was confirmed of dengue after 4 days of on-off fever. when the blood test showed positive i was warded at tawakal hospital for 3 days. then the doctor gave a 3 day mc starting from 27/7. on the last day of mc i went back to tawakal for a follow up checkup. everything was fine...until i fell into a hole in front of a curry house restaurant behind the hospital which sprained my left ankle and bruised my right knee. that night the ankle begun to swell, causing a burning sensastion and hindered my movement. thus i was given an extra mc.
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then it was the final semester exam 16/8 & 19/8. so i had to focus what limited time i had to study & prepare...hopefully it was enough.
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now that everything is clear & over i can pickup where i left off. this time is rotf leader class megatron's turn. i got the figure about a week or so after i got rotf prime at parkson sunway pyramid. as the introduction was made a few post back i'll go straight to toy review.
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rotf leader class megatron in the flesh...metal



side view



rear view


like prime, megatron is a leader class so he's big & heavy. he looks the same as in the movie both robot & alternate mode. the robot mode the articulation is quite good - arms, head, hips and knees can be moved quite freely so several poses can be made. he also has the mech alive gimmick where his chest & head will light up, the head & chest armour will move & he'll say 'i am megatron!' when the chest button is pressed down. the right arm can shoot missiles and deploy a blade when the black lever is pulled.
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arm cannon



arm blade for close combat


the transformation process is quite simple and straight forward. i was quite disappointed because had hoped it to be more complex and difficult since it was a level 4 transformation. if the right arm is disconnected and the hips rotated crashing and transformation sounds are produced with the head and chest flashing.
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tank mode



side view



rear view


the tank mode is robust and solid. you can roll megatron as there are 6 small wheels underneath the tank's tracks. the turret can be rotated but you need to disconnect it from its base first. being the right arm of megatron the turret can fire a missile with a special treat - it produces firing sound and lights, which does not happen in robot mode...sweet.
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such indecency


now the bad part. personally this is the most ugly looking megatron to date. he looks too alien-like and so disfigured. the right arm is out of proportion while the left is a...bone, devoid of all metal, armour plating, wires & lubricants. the movie version is much better than this & i can't understand why the toy is downgraded. the left hand has only 3 fingers with a very long middle finger. the first thing that came to mind when i saw this "huh? megatron can do 'the finger' sign?" so, so shocking. while the robot mode fails the tank mode shines. the tank looks menacing & powerful which suits his personality.
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overall if you don't mind the looks then rotf leader class megatron is a good toy. nice gimmicks, solid build, good transformation (should have passed as level 3) and a great pair to rotf leader class optimus prime. and of course awesome tank mode.