These figures were recently re-released as part of Takara Tomy's Encore line, but got a remarkably poor reception due to a whole long list of QC problems, either due to shoddy assembly, the quality of the plastics used, or simply the age of the mold. It's a real shame, as it was an expensive set and its release deserved to be a real event, but not such an infamous one. So let's have a look at the original RiD Omega Prime...
What's instantly apparent in this gestalt is that it clearly - and perhaps unsurprisingly - prioritises Optimus Prime. The base colourscheme, particularly in the limbs, closely follows the RiD Optimus mold, adding only a few accents on the lower legs that reference Ultra Magnus. The chest, despite the visible parts coming from Ultra Magnus, are enough of an Optimus Prime reference to complete the picture of his dominance in the gestalt - the bumper in particular does a fair job of representing Prime's traditional chest windows, with the outer panels and the embossed, golden Autobot insignia doing a more than passable imitation of movie Optimus Prime.
The distribution of bulk is pretty bizarre - the chest sticks out much further than is initially apparent so that, the massive, winged backpack (the location of Ultra Magnus' electronics) along with the large panels on the open-at-the-back lower legs brings his overall proportions into similar territory to the G1/Diaclone-derived Autobot cars. The waist, groin and thighs, even with Ultra Magnus' chest plate masquerading as a slightly larger groin plate, is disproportionately small - the size of his thighs isn't really the problem, though. The real issue is how close together his legs are at the top, and the fact that they are clearly intended for a much smaller robot.
His arms, meanwhile, are equally bizarre. The upper arm is basically Optimus Prime's shoulders and biceps with flaps of Ultra Magnus wrapped around them. The forearms are at least half of Optimus Prime's forearm, with the remainder enclosed within Ultra Magnus' inverted forearms. It's cleverly done, but the forearms end up about three or four times the size of the upper arms, and his hands are down at his knees. In all honesty, his proportions do make him look awkward, even if he's not an utter jumble of parts. Interestingly, while his forearms and lower legs are transformed parts of Ultra Magnus, his hands and feet are entirely unique to the gestalt, with the latter sitting on the end of dedicated joints and featuring toe articulation that is independent from transformation.
The bright colours are eyecatching, and it's not instantly apparent that the range of colour comes as a result of him being made up of two separate robots. Similarly, the level of sculpted detail all over him is very impressive, and stays mostly coherent. One particularly cool sculpted feature is the Autobot insignia on his forearms, seemingly created from several levels of armour panelling. Paint is used quite sparingly so that, aside from the dramatic blue/silver/gold chrome of his massive chest plate, he seems pretty sober. The detail on his arms stands out well enough, despite the creamy-white plastic used, but I can't help thinking a dark wash would improve things dramatically. Silver is added to his grey groin plate, the hands appear to be wearing red fingerless gloves, the shin armour makes use of a combination of Optimus Prime's red, silver and metallic blue along with Ultra Magnus' cyan (which blends remarkably well with Prime's metallic blue from some angles), silver and grey, with the blocks of yellow and red on either side of what was Magnus' kneecaps.
One obvious downside to the way this combines is that all of Optimus Prime's armour is utterly redundant to Omega Prime. That being said, it can be plugged together into its 'Battle Station' configuration, so they're not completely wasted... just not used by the gestalt. Similarly, Optimus Prime's dinky handgun is of no use to the gestalt, but Ultra Magnus' enormous multi-cannon, Blue Bolts, really comes into its own. Combining the two robots trips a switch inside Ultra Magnus that changes the sound effects that apply to each configuration. When the two parts of the gestalt are first pegged together, pressing the red button on the underside of the backpack yields a speech sample that says "Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus... Combine!". Adding Blue Bolts to the lefthand socket only and pushing the button causes the sound of the larger cannon firing three times in succession, while using the righthand socket causes a ripple of gunfire from the Gatling-style gun. Plugging in Blue Bolts in its multi-cannon configuration - via the set of four pegs atop the spring-loaded missile launcher - brings the coup de grâce: Omega Prime exclaims "Omega Fire!" before the report of a single blast - so powerful it comes with its own echo effect - sounds out. All of these sound effects are accompanied by Omega Prime's eyes flickering into life, illuminated by the light below Omega Prime's head, on the back of Ultra Magus' cab.
The head sculpt, as one might expect, is very much an upgraded Optimus Prime-looking thing - even moreso than the Battle Mode head sculpt on the individual figure. Molded in red plastic, with cloudy translucent eyes (somewhat yellowed with age, I noticed) and silver paint on the beard-like battlemask frame, the forehead panel, the vented central crest and the smaller vents either side. The antennae rigs on each side are mostly gold chromed, with dark grey 'ears' on which the antennae rotate. It's a really good sculpt but, to be honest, the red LED that illuminates the eyes really dates the toy. The character in the TV show had the standard Autobot blue eyes and, while I gather even the Encore version has red eyes, a white light behind translucent blue eyes would have looked better, whether illuminated or not. Without the light, his eyes blend into his red helmet, though they do appear slightly darker.
On the whole, Omega Prime pegs together very securely - two pegs on Optimus' shoulders slot into sockets inside Magnus' cab, then a pair of tabs inside Magnus' cab click into slots in Optimus' chest. The only weakness is the slider joint inside Optimus' chest that gives the gestalt a little extra upper body height.
Being a fairly sizeable figure - about 28.5cm (11.5") to the tips of his antennae - and encumbered with two sets of electronics, Omega Prime can be an absolute pain to balance, let alone pose dynamically. Optimus Prime's leg joints - particularly the hips - are far too weak for the task, and he tends to tip backwards even without batteries (though, since he only needs two AAA batteries, they're not exactly adding a great deal of weight). The upper arms are surprisingly stiff, so they're able to support his new, bulkier forearms, but they can be difficult to move without causing something else (usually the legs) to collapse under the strain. He retains Optimus' waist articulation and, since the new groin plate is a little further forward than that of Battle Mode Prime, it has slightly greater range... though it does throw his balance off. He even - technically - has some ab crunch... and it can come in handy for balancing him, by putting him into a pelvic-thrusting superhero pose to counter the backpack. The fact that he has a good range of ankle articulation would be more of a bonus if he had some kind of heel spur - the weight of his backpack isn't really supported by the feet at all so, once he starts falling backward, he's almost impossible to stop. The hands, meanwhile, are ball-jointed at the wrist, with hinged thumbs and a single hinge running through all four, joined fingers. There's even a 5mm port on his palms, in case he can wield someone else's weapons. Since the LED which illuminates his eyes is embedded in the body rather than the head itself, there's a great range of motion at the neck - seemingly a ball joint, as he can look up and down slightly, turn a full 360°, and even manage the tiniest bit of quizzical tilt.
In a way, I'm quite glad I left writing about this toy until after the ill-fated release of Takara Tomy's Encore God Fire Convoy, even though that has made it more than 7 years after I wrote about his components. The fact of the matter is that you can fork out almost £300/$380 (even up to £630/$800 from some eBay sellers) for the QC nightmare Encore set with a bonus giant sword... or you can pay substantially less for the two component figures from the original RiD/Car Robots toyline - anything from about £50/$64 to £70/$90, depending on the seller and the condition of figure, slightly more for Takara version, particularly if boxed. If you're lucky, you end up paying 1/3 the cost of the new figure and - while you're missing out on is more vibrant plastic colours, a wider selection of voice/sound clips and an unwieldy plastic sword that looks dangerously fragile - at its core, it's basically the same toy with surprisingly similar (ie. not great) joint tolerances, but far better quality control. I bought these two around the time they first hit shelves, so it only cost me in the region of about £50/$65 to complete Omega Prime!
And, honestly, in spite of the looseness of the joints, I can easily recommend picking up the two individual RiD/Car Robots figures in preference to the Encore set. While I like the more vibrant colours of the re-release, the chrome has been replaced by metallic paint... and don't believe what you may have heard about the fragility of the chrome - I've had these for more than 15 years and, aside from a little fading of the blue chrome on Ultra Magnus' bumper, it looks as good now as it did back then: no flaking whatsoever. The well-designed electronic features are pretty cool, and the fact that Omega Prime's features are wholly unique to him is a huge bonus. The only thing to watch out for on the older figures is the state of the tyres. Since they're all rubber, they will be prone to perishing with age, and I noticed several of mine had started to split.
If I ever get round to doing a rundown of the best toys in my collection, I'm pretty sure Omega Prime will be fairly high on the list.
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