Optimus Prime

So, what, Hasbro is just remaking old third-party toys now? Hearts of Steel was a 2006 comic published by IDW. Meant to be the first of the "Evolutions" subline (a Transformers equivalent to Marvel's What If--? or DC's Elseworlds or Star Wars' Infinities), it ultimately became a standalone when no others were subsequently released. The premise is simple: G1, but 100 years early. Instead of awaking in the late 20th century, the Transformers awake in the late 19th century, and so their battles - and, more importantly, their altmodes - revolve around the technologies of the time. And although Optimus Prime didn't appear in the "modern day" portion of the story (only the prehistoric Ice Age prologue), artist Guido Guidi had a concept for what he would have looked like, and so that has inspired this toy. Fittingly, Ice Age Optimus looked like Big Convoy, aka a wooly mammoth. So rather than directly referencing Generation 1, Hearts of Steel Optimus's body references things from Beast Wars: a round emblem in the center of the chest, giant horizontal shoulders, things like that. But we also get some more classic features, like angled vents on his shins, some sort of grille on his stomach, exhaust pipes on his shoulders, etc. When this design was made by a third-party group, the chest could open to reveal the Matrix of Leadership, but that is not a feature this official product designed a decade and a half later manages to do. The head is very vintage, with two small tweaks: it's mostly blue, with a silver mouthplate and a crest on the forehead, which is easily identifiable as Optimus Prime. Instead of antennae on his ears, he has tiny smokestacks - because "trains," you see. The choice to give him a slatted visor where his eyebrows would be is harder to explain, admittedly. Steamimus Prime is armed with a rifle that can be held in either hand, and a shield that can plug onto either forearm. The figure stands 5⅝" tall, and moves at the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, waist, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles. The head has a great range of motion, but the legs do get a little limited by the cow catcher skirt kibble hanging in front of them. It's possible they were planning to have an opening chest at one point, because the front panel is a separate piece from the rest of the body, and there's a metal pin (the kind used for hinges on Transformers) running through there to connect the pieces; that serves no purpose on the finished toy, but if the front was supposed to open at one point, its presence would make sense. As a roughly Deluxe-sized figure, Optimus is not particularly difficult to convert: fold the arms up and turn them over, hinge them back at the shoulders, raise the head, move the entire back down, hinge the red panel to the underside, tip the head backwards, and fold the entire section up into the hollow chest before bringing the arms together in the back; rotate the panels from the back of the shins down sideways and hinge them open, swing the feet away, move the lower legs up, and finally swing them up to complete the change. A lot of the steps involve making sure little tabs go into little slots, or else the final product won't actually fit together. Most of the Hearts of Steel Autobots turned into train cars, so it makes sense their leader would be an engine. Guido Guidi designed Prime with a "trailer" of sorts, with the idea being it would be an integral and necessary part of the vehicle mode, much like Robots in Disguise Prime's firetruck mode: the robot alone wouldn't be enough to form a full vehicle. That got changed for this toy, because Hasbro didn't have room in the budget to do the full thing. (But there are distinct shapes on the rear a third-party group could use to make one that attaches, so it probably won't be long.) His shield becomes the roof of the cab, and the rifle opens up so the barrel can fold away and turn it into a smoke stack. There are five rolling wheels underneath the train: two on each side, and one in the center in the front. When Mastermind Creations' Knight Morpher Commander came out, I called it "a version of the character Hasbro will never, ever make," and in this case I'm elated to have been wrong. We've had more than enough Optimus Primes that all look exactly alike (Bumblebee/Beast Wars Studio Series, Studio Series 86, Studio Series Gamer Edition, Earthrise, etc.), so it's exciting to see them do something different. He's only available in a two-pack, but we'd be down for as many Hearts of Steel figures as they want to do. -- 06/24/25 What alternate-universe design do you want most? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.