Transformers Spark Toys Alpha (War Within Optimus Prime)
I think this is the first time I’ve seen a company declare how many steps are involved in the printing of a figure, but 400? That’s a lot of steps, I wonder how come it goes that high?
Set comes with a tech spec bio card.
The good news is the tires are rubber, so they’re kinda realistic. The bad news is that the tires are rubber. Since they’re rubberized, they tend to become sticky over time.
Canopy opens up.
To attach the rifle to the vehicle mode, you have to flip out this tab first.
Based on the designs by Transformers comic artist Don Figueroa for the Dreamwave Transformers: The War Within series (written by Legendary TF Scribe Simon Furman). This series was the first of its kind for re-imagining of G1 characters in their Pre-Earth modes.
Transformers: The War Within was one the best things to come out of the Dreamwave Comics company before it went bankrupt. It featured a serious look at the story of Orion Pax before he became Optimus Prime and the early days of the Cybertronian War with the Decepticons. This concept would later be explored repeatedly in the later IDW Comics runs.
In the Dreamwave story, Orion Pax was a lowly Data Entry bot who was promoted to become the new Leader of the Autobots after the death of the previous Prime at the hands of Megatron.
Prime comes with his signature rifle.
Figure stands roughly 8.25 inches tall and weighs 433 Grams. Despite not having any diecast parts, this figure is very heavy.
The figure comes with an axe. It’s been a while since I read this so I can’t really recall if Orion Pax used an axe in the comic.
Last but not least, he comes with a Matrix of Leadership.
The Matrix is kinda small though, don’t expect him to be able to hold the thing with two hands either to “light our darkest hour”, due to the wide chest design and lack of expandable shoulder joints.
I really love how chunky this guy looks, really captures the look and feel of Optimus Prime from the book. It’s a shame Spark Toys only released this guy and their War Within Megatron (Spark Toys Spartacus) and nothing else I think.
Weapons can be attached on his back.
Overall I love it! It’s a shame this is hard to find nowadays. But the heft and feel of this figure is superb. I’m glad I backtracked this guy.
Gold
