"We will win if we believe in ourselves and our unity!"

He is a hero from the future, whose courage, skill and wisdom are needed again, to lead the Autobots in their fight against Megatron and his evil plans for the planet Earth. Wise and strong, Optimus Primal councils Optimus Prime in the ways of defensive combat and serves as custodian of freedom. Helps others find their own strength to keep fighting despite the odds. Brave and intelligent, he believes wholeheartedly in his cause and lights the fires of justice and truth in others.

Okay, enough of that, I need to get going and review this puppy.  So let's start with the mode he came packaged in.

Robot Mode:

Dude, it's Optimus Primal.  No stretches of the imagination, no peering past translucent blue plastic, trying desperately to imagine what he should REALLY look like.  Oh no no no.  This Buddha Monkey is ready for action.  They even got that odd curve to his arms molded right, which I didn't think was even possible to do.  And he's HEAVY.  Remember how Supreme Cheetor, much like Nightscream, had the plastic quality of a thick pea soup?  This guy's so sturdy and thick that if you hit someone over the head with him you could kill them.  Seriously, this dude should be categorized as a lethal weapon.  Maybe that's one of the reason's he wasn't initially released.  Biggest gripe, perhaps, is that his monkey mode butt is plainly visible behind his head -- so even with the newest and last Beast Machines toy the trend of having a Maximal's head come out of its ass is unbroken.  But, as Trae said, it can act as a "head rest" in case he gets tired... or something.  I won't even comment on that.

Ah, the sounds.  This is an interesting but potentially annoying gimmick.  To activate any sounds in any mode you have to press his chest.  A soulful cry will emit, followed by the sound of his *supposedly* pulsating spark.  Don't do anything and it'll go away after a few seconds.  But... go ahead, press his head.  He makes three sounds (all with Gar(r)y Chalk's voice, of course): 1) Some kind of sound to accompany an attack or... something... 2) For some reason he shouts "Maximize!" rather than "I am transformed". 3) He cries, in a really pleading tone "The Seeds of the future lie buried in the past", saying it in such as way as one might if no one believed him.

Firing his "flying power pizza" launcher while the sounds are on, and he will emit some energy firing sound.  But the best one is if you deploy his rockets.  A rocket sound fires up.  And it doesn't go away.  All of the other sounds do, but the only way to turn this off without running down your battery is to press the button that deployed the rockets again.  But that's not all.  His right arm, the one that doesn't swivel at the elbow like the other one does, is home to a gimmick that is much like Supreme Cheetor's, only done far better.  Pull back on the upper arm and let go.  Primal will make a punching noise.  I know, pretty useless, but unlike Cheetor the arm isn't COMPLETELY useless aside from that.  It actually holds a pos if you bend it at the elbow.  But the shoulder?  Not so much.

Transformation:

I don't normally talk about this because I believe that if you A) aren't smart enough to figure it out on your own, or B) don't look at the instruction booklet when your resourcefulness has failed you, then you probably should own a Transformer.  But this guy has so many little intricacies like the Beast Wars toys of yore that I have to point out several things to make your life easier.

1) The robot head only swivels around one way, to the toy's left.  It only turns 90 degrees to the right.  Any farther and you'll break it off.

2) The shoulder / forearm pads don't just hang in the air -- there's a small tab that hooks on to the forearm in Beast Mode, or slides into a small divet in the top of the shoulder in Robot Mode.  Of course, if you want to use his punch gimmick or bend the arms in Beast Mode you *do* have to detach this.

3) Like many Optimus Primals of yore, the hips swivel around in Beast Mode, but don't swivel the abdomen section as well.  This is on it's own joint, but I don't know why since it stays in place with the rest of the upper body in either mode.

4) The chest pulls out and flips around, which reminds me a lot of those Battle Damage He-Man and Skeletor figures that Mattel made all those years ago.  You can tell if you have it done right of the Maximal symbol etched ever so finely into the chest area is right side up.  Like the head, this too swivels only one way.

5) Perhaps the most interesting, but remains untested by me.  The intructions say to bend back the upper body in Beast Mode.  Now, if you try to do this it feels like the toy will snap in half, but I've been told by many that if you grip the two halves of the toy firmly and force it, there won't be a problem and it'll get easier afterwards.  The only drawback is that his robot mode head pops out of his belly.  I personally leave it where it is.

Beast Mode:

There's no mistaking it.  He's definitely the Buddha Monkey.  There's lots of molded fur all over that was plainly evident in his Robot Mode, but I must admit to just realizing something -- I've had this guy for two weeks now and I just now noticed that the brown of his organic furry parts and the brown of the smoother robots parts are subtly different shades.  This in some small measure makes up for the gross lack of paint on much of the toy.  The central torso area is most evident of this when in this mode.  The whole thing is molded in a strange beige that doesn't necessarily look *bad*, but you know would look fine if molded in the same brown as the rest of the fur.  Come to think of it, there are a lot of color changes between this version of the toy and the prototype, the hands being one noticable example.  Much of the yellow was taken out, thankfully.  He would have reminded me too much of his Blast Punch counterpart otherwise.  Speaking of which, the similarities between the two are remarkable, but that dissertation could fill an entire article (and in fact eventually it may).

Conclusion:

He's the best supreme toy ever made, but since there have only ever been two this isn't too difficult of a thing to claim.  He is leaps and bound better than Cheetor in every aspect.  Gimmicks were kept down, atriculation was better represented.  Size was well utilized.  Transformation is surprisingly complex yet [mostly] intuitive.  Plastic quality is greatly improved.  In fact, the only transparent / transluscent bits are in the rotating chest piece and the forearms.  The darker plastic in the forearms definitely make this trait barely noticable.  I like the effect.  And the electronics are a very nice touch, especially considering they got Gar(r)y Chalk to reprise his role one last time.  And the sounds are really crisp and clear, something that I wasn't expecting for electronics in a toy.  Too bad the quality suddenly drops for no apparent reason in Armada, from what I hear.  But anyway, about THIS toy...  It's really heard to rate this guy.  Compare him to other Primal toys, and it's easy to see he's one of the best.  In fact, he rivals Optimal Optimus in supremacy.  One of the big differences of course is that this guy actually looks like a monkey.  That, and his colors aren't an eyesore.  And he's bigger.  Definitely a Supreme and not a Super.  The detailing is at *least* on par with something I'd expect on this scale.  Little about this toy lets me down.  But he's not perfect, and therefore I can't give him a ten.

I could have covered so much more and bored you all to death, but that's why there's more reviewers than just me.  I have to leave them SOMETHING to talk about!