Review – Transformers: Power of the Primes “Vector Prime”
Hasbro’s newest Transformers, the Power of the Primes series (find at Amazon.com*), continues where the Titans Return left off at retail, and this time we’re watching as the Pretenders return to mainstream Transformers toys. You know what’s best of all? The Power of the Primes series continues the playability and fun of Titans Return; so far, I’ve transformed all five of the toys I have opened without the need for instructions. This is great news!
Prime Master Robot
Up first, at the core of the package, we find the Vector Prime* inner robot, the Prime Master Transformer that this particular toy is titled at retail. The same size and transformation design as the previous Titan Master small robots, the Prime Master toy at least has some paint apps to the little robot face. The paint apps aren’t nearly as nice as on the Takara Head Master robots (review here), but there are at least paint apps.
Decoy Armor
Hiding the Prime Master inside, the Metalhawk decoy armor* is the Pretender-like little robot that’s also packed with the toy. You have to snap on the large barrel to the Pretender shell, and unlike the eighties shells, this one hinges open rather than snaps open, but everything about the design is a hell of a lot of fun and I am happy to see Hasbro finding ways to keep expanding on the smaller robots in the Transformers series.
The Metalhawk decoy armor* has limited articulation — swivels at the shoulders — but the addition of Targetmaster transformation to the Pretender concept makes things just a tad more entertaining. And once transformed into a gun, the Vector Prime* inner robot can be plugged into the gun as a power block or seated on the weapon in little robot mode. It’s a pretty simple toy design, but it is awesome and fun!
Closing Thoughts
When the Power of the Primes series (find at Amazon.com*) was first announced, I was worried that we were losing the fun of the Titans Return. For no reason at all, I instantly assumed that Hasbro’s designers would revert to their puzzleformer ways and produce complicated, unfun designs packed with ball-jointed nightmare concepts. I am happy to see just how wrong I was. These new toys continue the fantastic fun of Titans Return, and I now can’t wait to get more of the robots opened and into my hands.
I think the POTP line is one of the smartest things that Hasbro has ever done with Transformers. It’s a line that has enough fun play value to stand on its own, yet it folds in and embraces the previous two lines, Combiner Wars and Titans Return, to make the whole thing into one titanic and cohesive toy line. I’m giddy over the whole thing!