This probably should have been posted a little closer to the 40th Anniversary
date, or at least to my write-up of
Earthrise Optimus Prime
- the most recent G1-style Prime toy in my collection to be packaged
with a trailer... Then again, I should probably have got to this oddity -
and its two mass-released contemporaries - far sooner than I have,
since I bought it eighteen years ago.
Hybrid Style was a very short-lived, utterly Convoy-centric line which aimed to be 'Miniature Masterpiece', but ultimately failed to find much favour among fans. Only two molds were created - a remake of Galaxy Convoy (because Galaxy Force was in full swing at the time) and this G1 version, because there always has to be a G1 version. Subsequent to this 'vanilla' version, two black repaints were released, one of which was only made available in China.
Given that I own G1 Optimus Prime, Takara's MP01 (and, later, the Hasbro version of MP10), it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that I'd acquire the Hybrid Style version of the original Autobot leader... Though I confess that I had some reservations from the start, due to its small size and some rather tepid reviews online at the time.
