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Transformers: Energon really is just one big homage. To G1, to G2, to GIJoe and GaoGaiGar, to anything and everything they can think of. Sometimes that works out really well. Sometimes, not so much.
Omega Supreme, sadly, falls into the latter category. While, as one reader pointed out, his G1 version was less of a "Transformer" than he was an "Assembler," it was still a cool-looking toy in both forms. Great robot design, nice battle base, dozens of easy-to-lose pieces that make finding a complete OS so hard today... it was wonderful. But now the name and basic appearance has been passed to this new Energon version, and he is found wanting.
The robot form (which is how he's packaged in the stores) looks pretty good - at a glance, the parallels to the original are clear. He's got big shoulder pads, a translucent orange face, a claw on the end of one arm and a blaster on the other. So far, so good, as long as you're colorblind.
Omega Supreme is divided right down the center into yellow and blue halves. Sure, there are red highlights on both sides that provide a bit of continuity, but there's no way around it: OS looks like he was jammed together from two seperate pieces, as if a repaint came out and someone mixed up the halves. Ugly ugly ugly.
The sculpt and detailing is good. Omega Supreme has nice asymmetrical detailing, while keeping an overall balanced look. That's hard to accomplish. Still, it's hard to get past the paint.
And really, is learning to love the color scheme really worth it? Not with the transformation that this toy has. While Hasbro really seems to be trying hard to get away from the Beast Wars- style figures that were just a jumble of arms, legs and parts, OS falls a bit into this trap. You look at the robot and you can see the "vehicle" easily. It's very simplistic: split the body in half, straighten out the pieces and you're done. That's it. A $50 Transformer that's bigger than Unicron, and that's all we get from him.
Just as G1 Omega Supreme split into several different vehicles, the Energon version is actually two separate pieces. The yellow, right side of his body turns into some oddball piece of construction equipment, while the blue left side becomes a battleship.
The construction vehicle measures 16 1/2" long and looks sort of like a bullet train with a huge crane strapped on it - sleek in the front, utilitarian in the back. The sculptural detailing is high, with little tubes and wires running all over the detailed panels. If it wasn't bright day-glo yellow, the detail would probably stand out more.
The battleship is well-suited by its dark blue scheme, and has just as many cool little detail elements as the yellow side, if not more. The bow of the ship has three turrets that turn in unison - two with big guns and one that fires the included missiles. There's a command bridge in the middle, and another rear-facing turret behind that.
Both vehicles have plenty of play value, but they look so bad that Omega Supreme will probably stay in robot form most of the time. The vehicles have alternate "defense platform" modes that really just look like half a robot copping a squat. You can also jam the crane into the rear of the battleship to form one 31" long "Cybertronian Supertrain." Yeah.
The "Omega Supreme" name and the robot's design elements aren't the only G1 features on this toy. The old Headmasters gimmick shows up, as well: OS's head - which already looks like the original cartoon version, with the face behind the transparent orange mask - can be removed and transformed into a separate robot, leaving a smaller, cylindrical head on the big guy's shoulders.
The robot form (he doesn't get a separate name) really looks
like Omega Spreem, a European-exclusive figure that came out at the tail end of the pre-Beast Wars days. An Action Master version of Omega Supreme (with a dumb name), Spreem had some design elements influenced by his progenitor, but no direct copies. In keeping with that, the head robot takes its design cues from Spreem so it still looks like it belongs with its "boss."
Spreem Jr. has six points of articulation: shoulders, hips and knees. A gray panel slides over the Omega Supreme face to conceal it, and in a cool bit of design, turns not-Spreem's back into a duplicate of G1 Omega's head. Minus the gun barrel, of course. This "bonus head" can be placed in specified places on each of the vehicles.
Omega Supreme is hollow, because he doubles as a new set of armor for the unimpressive Energon Optimus Prime. Maybe if the designers didn't have that albatross hanging around their necks, they could have come up with something better. Maybe a G1-inspired paint job would have helped. In any case, this one isn't worth getting until he hits clearance.
-- 09/10/04
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