Optimus Prime

The original Optimus Prime toy started life as the Diaclone toy, "Battle Convoy", created by a team of Takara designers who came on board when the original designer fell behind. This team included Hiroyuki Obara (listed as the sole creator on the toy's patent) and famed mecha designer Shōji Kawamori. The toy transforms into two major components; the first component being a red and blue White Freightliner WFT-8664T cabover semi-trailer truck partially composed of die-cast metal, and the second component being a large silver trailer of currently-undetermined model. The cab transforms into the robot mode of Optimus Prime himself, with the addition of a pair of removable blue fists that plug into his headlights. The fists themselves do not store anywhere in vehicle mode, but can fit easily in Prime's opening chest compartment (originally designed to accommodate two Diaclone driver figures). Prime is armed with a black laser rifle that, due to design, he cannot hold straight. Prime's trailer opens up into his Combat Deck, containing the scout drone, Roller. The interior of the Combat Deck features three pegs that can accommodate Prime's laser rifle, fuel pump and nozzle accessories, and seating for two Diaclone drivers. As its central feature, the Combat Deck features a missile-armed repair drone pod mounted upon a boom lift arm (featuring another cockpit for a Diaclone driver), which can also be extended through holes in the trailer's roof and front-end when it is closed. Situated in the base of the boom arm is a spring-loaded launcher that can launch Roller out of the Combat Deck and into action. Roller himself has seating for four Diaclone passengers, and features a port that can accommodate either Prime's rifle or the fuel pump. The interior space of the trailer allows storage room for one standard Autobot car, which can also be shot forward by the launcher. Optimus Prime was subject to several molding and color variations in his early days. The earliest release of the figure featured larger fists, a gun with a thick, round barrel, a slightly-differently shaped gas pump, grey rockets, a grey Roller, a grey launcher in his Combat Deck, and metal plates in the floor of the Combat Deck (a holdover from the Diaclone version of the toy, to which the magnetic feet of the pilots could cling). In short order, his fists were slimmed down, the gun's barrel was pared down to a more slender form, the gas pump's shape was altered, the rockets and launcher were recast in black plastic, the metal plates were removed from the Combat Deck, and Roller's color was changed to a light blue. Along with Roller's color change, however, the Combat Deck's drone pod also became light blue, and a third running change soon followed that saw it restored to its original darker blue, and Roller changed along with it. These modified components would become the default accessories used by subsequent reissues of the Prime toy would take, though Roller stills fluctuates back and forth between grey and dark blue, depending on how show-accurate each reissue wants to be. The Japanese release of the figure also underwent the changes in weapon shapes, but never featured a silver Roller; instead, their original release of Prime featured a Diaclone-style Roller without the two rear pegs, and the differently-shaped launcher that accommodated him, before a running change switched over to the Hasbro version of the mold. Finally, in some European countries, Prime sported red feet, as opposed to his traditional blue; this version of the figure is also known in some cases to feature a differently-painted forehead crest which leaves the three central indentations unpainted blue. Having been removed from toy store shelves after 1985, Optimus Prime was made available as a mail-away toy in the "Digital Doom on the Highway to Destruction" offer in the US in 1986 to coincide with the Transformers movie premiering that year. He cost $21.50 and 5 Robot Points. He was also offered in 'The Autobots Have A Special Mission For...' mail-away pamphlet and came with a special "Movie Edition Certificate" and a round sticker that read " Movie . Edition . Transformer" with the Autobot symbol in the middle. (This item is considered rare.) Over twenty-plus years, there have been a bajillion releases of this mold, some identical to the original toy, and some featuring significant variants with notably different paint jobs, color schemes, accessories and other pack-ins. We have striven to list all these variants on this page under their respective series; for a quick-reference list of all variants and releases check here. The cab robot has also been used sparingly to represent different characters; outfitted with different trailers, it has become Generation 1 Ultra Magnus and Pepsi Convoy.