So, I’ve done a couple of reviews on my favourite faction’s leader, Megatron, perhaps it’s time to look a the opposition. He’s had a new toy released recently, tied with a very successful take on the Transformers franchise. Probably one of the most successful ones in recent years.

Actually, I think this is a good way to try something new. DOUBLE REVIEW AND COMPARISON. Let’s have a lot at the two most recent takes on the optimal one. Considering these are probably the best takes on their respective franchises for some time.

So here we have two takes on the classic Optimus Prime G1 mode, one obviously taking far more cues than the other. Siege Prime is essentially how your ageing brain remembers what your original G1 prime looked like. He does a great job or taking the G1 design and updating it enough to be a fully self-contained robot with modern toy making technology being used to great advantage. He’s also got great proportions, especially in contracts to the other faction leader. Siege Megatron looks like a big bulky bruiser, all upper body strength with his wide barrel-chest, like a wrestler or heavyweight boxer. Prime meanwhile, has a more Mixed Martial Arts frame. The strength is all there, but more evened out. The colours are lovely and vibrant, even accounting for the Siege “battle damage”. And honestly, that head sculpt is the best I’ve seen on pretty much any Prime toy for years. He also has just the right amount of detailing to keep him interesting, unlike some Siege figures where it’s like someone went a bit overboard with the dremmel, such as Shockwave.

As for the rest of his looks, his head sculpt is the quintessential Prime head. It’s just perfect. I can see someone having problems with the short smokestacks, but honestly, you should be used to that by now. The arm kibble is a little annoying, but I’ve seen worse ways to handle it on non-Masterpiece figures and it doesn’t get in the way of his articulation, which like all Siege figures, is fantastic. Full waist, knee, ankle, arm and swivels all over. Accessories wise he comes with his gun and a pretty cool transforming shield/axe. And since he’s a Siege guy he has all the ports for the liens weapons or weaponizers like Sixgun. So you can make Gunimus Prime.

Studio Series 38 Prime (now SS38 because I can’t be arsed typing the full name constantly) besides the obvious aesthetic differences, does have one advantage over its Siege counterpart. A higher budget. Since the SS voyagers cost more than other voyager sized toys,  they get a bit more to work with. Not necessarily in terms of paint, as this version of Optimus he has a lot more separate parts, a more involved transformation and, and a more sculpted, mechanical detail. And it works wonderfully.

This is what the movies should have been all along if you ask me. Now that’s not to say the other movies designs are bad (well some are) but a lot of them never really felt like their characters. The more skeletal version of prime never really worked for me, mainly cos it took them a long time to work in toy form. Even then the best versions of them always leave a little something to be desired, as the Evasion Mode Optimus from Age of Extinction, while cool still felt off to me. This guy? Oh boy, does he look cool, if a little busy. There is a lot of sculpted detail here. Not as much as some voyagers, but it’s enough to make me think that this could work in a live-action setting, which is entire;y the point. Hell, it even has similar arm kibble to the Siege guy.

He does have a lot more moving parts to him but still has pretty much the exact same amount articulation as the Siege guy. However, since he’s mainly made of panels, stuff gets in the way of each other a lot more than on the Siege guy, especially around the waist. The backpack, while not as noticeable as on  Siege Prime, does actually get in the way of his legs backwards motion as well.

Speaking of the legs, they look skinnier than the Siege’s, they’ve got roughly the same mass because of the wheels. They’re essentially “constructed” from the rear of the truck, rather than being a solid piece with flipping wheels ala other Prime. It’s quite a feat of engineering actually but does make him feel a little less solid in that area.

And that head sculpt! Like, I said the Siege guy has THE quintessential Prime head, but this one is just so bloody nice. With sculpted vents, nice bits of silver detail on his “cheeks” and even has parts of the side picked out as robot-ears. I honestly can’t decide which is better.

Wait, SS38 has longer smokestacks. WINNER.

All joking aside I really do like him. In terms of aesthetics, I’m not a huge fan of the duller colours used compared to the more cartoony Siege prime, but it works in this context.

Accessories wise he comes with a gun. It’s a nice gun. I like it. But there’s not much more I can say about it. It feels more like an actual gun made to look like Optimus’ Ion Blaster. Good, but maybe a smidge generic.

It might just be me, but he also feels a little more anime-esque, and as such looks are really good next to Maketoys Rioter Despotron I last reviewed.

Now the transformations on both these guys are fun. They’re both more involved than you think…and I gotta say I prefer Siege’s. It’s relatively simple yes, but it’s fluid. Nothing gets in the way of anything else, and it’s fun. SS38’s has some of the same steps, but you kinda disassemble the whole thing and put it back together to form the truck. It’s not a bad one and is as I said, far more involved than the Siege’s, but it’s more widely because of that, and it’s easy for parts to bump into each other.

Still, when you get right down to it, it becomes a bloody good looking truck.

These both look great. But let’s face it, the Siege guy is trying to convince you it’s a space truck. I mean yeah you have that hover mode, but it’s a G1 cartoon truck with extra headlights. It’s a good truck mode, but if you want a more realistic one, the Studio Series has it in spades. All those panels that get in the way in bot mod and make the transformation a bit of a faff make one excellent looking truck.

So honestly I like both of these guys. Despite their similarities, I don’t feel daft for owning two flat nose G1 styled voyagers. They bring enough differences to the table that I can enjoy both of them. If I had to choose, the Siege guy would edge it slightly for me due to the brighter colours, and slightly less annoying transformation. But I’m glad I have both. They’re equally good at doing their own thing despite both being very much the Robot Dad we all love.