"The true key to victory lies in the strength of the mind, not the fist."

Intelligence, experience, passion and skill are all crucial parts of what makes Optimus Primal the proven leader of the Maximal cause.  His metaphysical views play a large role in the methods to defeat Megatron and the Vehicons.  A master at the art of change and ability to actualize multiple mode potential in others. Easily the strongest of the Maximals.  Can punch through most Vehicon alloys with his boastful fist.  Capable of short flights while in Robot Mode, and Beast Mode provides him with formidable speed and strength on the ground. Will stop at nothing to save the techno-organic world of Cybertron and defeat Megatron.

This Buddha Monkey is a show accurate Buddha Monkey.  He is a bulky Buddha Monkey.  He is a grossly under-painted Buddha Monkey.  I love the mold.  I love it to death.  All the details are there and the transformation is neither insultingly simple nor unnecessarily complex.  He poses well.  He looks badass.  He's just terribly, terribly painted.  Now, had I known I wouldn't have found another one in a store, I would have got a second right away.  That was the plan -- to paint one and leave the other in the box or simply just unpainted.  This guy is covered in yellow and it's really hard to get over.  Even the head is mostly yellow, and I have no idea why.  A rush job?  I don't know.  But not even this can mask his badassness.

Robot Mode: He's actually taller than his TransMetal Mega counterpart, and he's sturdier, too.  He doesn't have as many weapons -- just a missile that shoots from the palm of his "Boastful Fist".  This is a really odd gimmick -- you press the left shoulder pad, and his forearm starts winding and winding.  You keep pumping the shoulder until it won't go any more.  Then you press the spark crystal on the side of his arm.  The forearm part rotates ever so slowly, making a REALLY loud gear-ish noise as it winds, winds, winds, until finally the fists pops out almost an entire inch and the missile fires.  Oh man, how I had fun with that during BotCon.  I'd point it at Phil in the panel room as the arm winds down to fire, doing Primal's voice.  "My Boastful Fist will finish you.  Um hold on" -- I pump it up -- "hold on..." -- still pumping -- "Okay, now hold still, this will only take a moment..." -- winding winding winding -- "Don't move" -- winding winding POP!  Right in the nose.  Ah, what fun...  Oh, and he even has a neat little jet pack that pops out of his back.  Definitely my favorite buy of the 'Con/

The transformation is a little Cheetor-esque.  You tuck in the head, rotate the torso until the other head pops out, then you open the chest to pull the head out completely and close the chest behind it.  But it's so much less lame here than it was in TransMetal 2 Cheetor, and less difficult or prone to breaking than Beast Machines Cheetor.  The hands are the most interesting.  I can't even do it justice in text, but the whole hand mechanism is quite interesting and compact.  It's also possible to paint the hand parts in both modes to be more distinct like they should be.  Same with the feet.  Same with most of the toy.  Paint.  Anyway.

Beast Mode: Not entirely in love with it, but it has the most show-accurate Beast Mode head out of all three Beast Machines Primal toys.  Yes, even Big Bad Buddha Monkey Primal.  Press a little blue button on his head and he'll "snarl".  For some reason his nose is red.  It makes about as much sense as the Supreme's pink butt.  Definitely something I'd paint, given the chance.  Really, I think the thing that bugs me the most is the complete lack of elbow articulation in his left arm and it's near non-existence in the right.  Oh well.  It's a small price to pay for a show-accurate toy.  What does a Buddha Monkey need elbows for, anyhow?

"The true key to victory lies in the strength of the mind, not the fist." -- That's easy to say when you have THE Boastful Fist!