Lego built an $170 Transformers Optimus Prime that actually transforms
Optimus Prime is officially a Lego set, and not just in statue form — with 19 points of articulation, the Danish brickmaker has created a 1,508-piece Optimus Prime G1 action figure you can actually transform.
OK, yes, you’ll still need to do that conversion yourself — it’s no walking, talking robot like the $750 self-transforming Optimus Prime we played with last year. But for $169.99 this June 1st, the Lego version is a lot more affordable and doesn’t require electricity just to stand.
Speaking of which, Optimus stands 13.5 inches tall, then folds down into a 27-inch long semi truck — and comes with instructions and pieces to build his ion blaster, translucent orange Energon axe, jetpack, an Energon Cube, and “the Autobot Matrix of Leadership which can be stored in the chest chamber.”
Based on the many, many easily enlarged pictures I will share with you immediately below, it’s a slick-looking build, with very few exposed studs, but still enough brick-like construction to easily be identified as Lego. I could definitely see other G1 Transformers going this route if it sells… and after that, might there be some Lego Transformers games in our future? Stranger things have happened.
At the very least, we need Optimus Prime’s trailer next. Though for this one, I suppose I could build my own?
Lego writes that “[T]his is one of the first times a LEGO set has been able to convert between two models, without the need to rebuild.” I’m curious which other ones qualify! I’m a big fan of Lego’s retired Pirates of Barracuda Bay, which lets you build an shipwreck island and easily piece together the whole pirate ship from those parts, but it does take a tad to unfurl the sails, shake off the overgrowth, and repurpose the cannons and crew.
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By the way, Hasbro tried its own knockoff Lego to build some Transformers years ago. I hear it didn’t go so well, so it’s nice to see the companies working together this time around.
Optimus Prime is officially a Lego set, and not just in statue form — with 19 points of articulation, the Danish brickmaker has created a 1,508-piece Optimus Prime G1 action figure you can actually transform. OK, yes, you’ll still need to do that conversion yourself — it’s no walking, talking…
