Iron Butterfly.

Man, I remember back in 2011 when there was some serious backlash when pictures of Ultimate Optimus here were first released. Everyone took shots at Ultimate Prime here because:

1) He looked worse than the ROTF Leader Optimus.

2) His super mode looked like it didn’t have any posability in the legs.

3) He had butterfly wings.

He still looked interesting though and I ended up getting him pretty soon after he was released as a gift. It’s time for a long overdue review, isn’t it?

Packaging

Vehicle mode

Optimus isn’t perfect in truck mode but he’s certainly not a complete mess. The positives are that he’s not gappy and he’s a screen accurate truck. The negatives are that he’s oddly proportioned, full of panel lines and he’s lacking in the paint department.

This Optimus has something that Bayverse Primes were lacking for awhile though; a trailer! The trailer itself has no gaps and only has a bit of kibble on the bottom but is seriously lacking paint which makes it look pretty drab. On thing that always gets me is that this thing is heavy because it’s packed dense and tight inside the trailer.

For playability, all the wheels roll on Optimus and the trailer. The trailer can hitch onto Optimus and Optimus can turn with the trailer attached. Unfortunately, the trailer can’t open and has no room inside.

Transformation

Honestly, this is the main selling point of Ultimate Optimus. No, not the transformation of the base Optimus. The transformation into super mode!

There’s absolutely no parts-forming in the trailer whatsover.

Robot mode

Optimus isn’t too impressive in his base robot mode. He skipped leg day and spent all his time training his forearms.

All his time.

Optimus’s got some things going for him though. He is more accurate than the DOTM Voyager Optimus and he uses his actual truck windows for his chest unlike the various Studio Series versions of Optimus. But his proportions are way off and are even wonkier than his truck mode proportions.

Optimus has okay posability in this mode.

Super robot mode

Optimus put on his trailer and now he’s a big boi. And honestly, he looks pretty cool. Yes, butterfly wings and all.

The best way to describe the feel I get from this mode is that it’s not Optimus wearing armour. It’s Optimus absorbing stuff to power up to become the final boss of a JRPG and becoming a mountain of a thing.

The main sticking point in this mode is the posability; there’s no knee articulation here.

Gimmicks

The main gimmick here is that he combines with his trailer and like I said earlier, the combination process is brilliant.

Optimus’s other big thing is his big gun. It’s chunky, cumbersome and kinda ugly but man imagining getting hit by this thing is not a pleasant thought. It has some neat details like a face covering targeting module and some electronics.

Like Leader Bumblebee, putting the electronics outside of the main figure helped Optimus out immensely.

Toy or collectible?

Optimus leans more towards toy here. However, with how much he costs these days, that’s up for debate. Ultimate Optimus costs a pretty penny these days.

Closing

Ultimate Optimus was and still is a polarising figure but he’s definitely not boring and is absolutely a fun time. Also, I love him.

If you can find any version of him cheap, I suggest that you give him a shot. For all the vitriol he got, at least he wasn’t just another ROTF Leader Optimus derivative.