Hasbro Transformers Beast Hunters Commander Class Optimus Lime 2013

I've been on a roll with good Transformers reviews lately. Springer is an all-time, immediate classic that is often rated as the very best Transformer ever made. The various Commander Class figures that I've looked at have featured great appearances and wonderful articulation. Because of this, I figured while Amazon had the figures on sale, I'd go ahead and grab my very on Commander Class Optimus Prime. Of course, it was a "stealth" mode that just happened to be lime green.. and that really should have been my first hint. Just so you know, I refuse to call this character Optimus Prime. No, this is Optimus Lime. I like to think of him as the Randy Quaid character from the National Lampoon movies.

Optimus Prime is red and blue. I'll say it again. Optimus Prime is red. And. Blue. That I embraced the blasphemy is my own fault.. I really should have known better. Still, it had a unique appearance, without a doubt, and I figured maybe I could just pretend that Optimus Lime was just another character altogether. I would have done that, to be honest, if it were for the fact that this figure sucks monkey doodoo (no offense intended to those that suck monkey doodoo).

Let's start with the "vehicle" mode. This figure is from Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters, when they redesigned Optimus Prime to have a tougher design. It resulted in a.. well.. it's kind of a military Humvee, but not designed off of any real-world vehicle I'm familiar with. This definitely allowed them to take some shortcuts in the toy design, and I don't think that helped them any here.

Worse than the odd design choice, though, is the absolutely crappy plastic. See that dark swirl on top? That's from stress on the plastic, an its not going anywhere. Ever. It will always be there. Many of the parts have stress swirls and discoloration at various points in the figure, and that's just not okay. Even for a smaller, cheaper figure it shouldn't be flawed right out of the packaging.

When transformed, all of the wheels can roll on the ground, but the cab isn't one that I'd enjoy driving in, considering it's angled toward the ground noticeably. The rear of the vehicle is very bare-bones, with Lime's attachable weaponry being the only thing to give it any real personality. He does come with a shield, a sword, and a gun, with the shield and the gun featuring basic design that allows them to have multiple appearances. So, that's something, I suppose. (scroll down for bot mode)

If the vehicle mode is so disappointing, surely the bot mode is better, right? Right? Well, not really. It varies between standard to mediocre, unfortunately. Because the transformation is little more than a Gobot's (fold the legs back, lower the head down, and place the arms at the side) there really isn't a lot of detail or articulation for Optimus Lime. His head is tiny, his shoulders are bulky and get in the way of the articulation, and he is about 50% hollow.

I honestly am not sure what Hasbro was thinking. I mean, this is Optimus Freaking Prime (Lime). You have to get this one right. If you can't get it right, don't release it. Prime was available in at least three different sizes with different decos. There was no reason to release this crappy "stealth" version. Also, how is it stealthy when he's painted with neon green paint? I know I love to pick on Mattel here, and often for good reason, but this is a good reminder that their competitor Hasbro can often make the same, stupid mistakes. The only real plus side to this figure that I can think of is that I doubt a whole lot of people bought him. Given he was about $4 a year ago, I can't imagine it was too popular. If, however, it was very popular, please don't tell me. It's really the only way I can sleep at night.