TEMU Optimus Prime: More Than Meets the Eye or Less Expected?

In this episode, we unbox and review the Optimus Prime Autobot leader available through TEMU to see how does this reprint and knockoff measure up? Let's find out.

I have been a fan of the Transformers since the first three-part mini-series, More than Meets the Eye. I loved everything about it, the fact that they were giant robots, the fact that they transformed, the fact that Optimus Prime had the coolest voice ever, and yet strangely similar to the narrator from Voltron. Anyways, I had a ton of Transformers toys when I was a kid, but the one my parents never quite hooked me up with was an OptimusPrime figure. Recently, I've seen ads pop up on my feed for TEMU and their transforming toys. One of them looked to be a spot-on replica of Optimus Prime, and after I got a coupon that would bring him down to only $32 I decided to take the plunge.

Shipping wasn't terrible, about 2 weeks. And let me be clear here, while I bought through TEMU, it was a third-party reseller providing these, very similar to an eBay reseller. It was wrapped in an orange and white TEMU bag, and overall very well packed.

When I open up the bag, the box art, the figure, everything pretty much blew me away. I know this is a knock-off, I know Takara and Hasbro are not reprinting this specific toy, but man this looked terrific. The one thing that threw me off a little bit was the box art on the bottom of the box looked very faded compared to the rest of the box. But everything was here, the window to view the figure, Optimus himself, the epic battle on the back of the box between the Autobots and the Decepticons, the tech specs were here, and it even had a Hasbro trademark logo!

Taking it out of the box, a few things were pretty obvious right away. The paint on the front of Optimus' chest did not quite match the red for the arms and the rest of his body. They were just a little bit off. Also, none of the details came pre-applied. I wasn't expecting that.

Going through and transforming Optimus for the very first time, everything went together smoothly until I got to his left arm and head. The left arm had a lot of slop in the shoulder joint, it just flopped around. Meanwhile, his head was the exact opposite, as it flipped around it got tighter and tighter. Things got worse in the parts fitment department when I went to attach Optimus' hands. The right hand was okay, but the left hand fell out extremely easily. Like I could not put Optimus' blaster in his left hand, the toy would just not hold his hand. That's a bummer.

Turning my attention to Roller and Optimus' trailer, this was much better. The command center transformed beautifully, and the spring mechanism to launch Roller was terrific. The rockets were there for the main module in the command center, however, the left rocket was considerably more difficult to insert than the right. Both fired as normal, however.

Why it RoX:
- Only $32 after the coupon
- Looks like new old stock
- Decent shipping time
- Dox art is spot on

What could be improved:
- Fitment of the models pieces are not great
- The reds do not match Optimus' body
- Typos in the manual
- Bottom of the box art looks faded
- Makes me feel really old

Should you buy one?
At the full list price of over $60, this is a hard pass. With discounts, coupons, and promotions I was able to get this for about $30 and that's about the value of this. I have to figure out what I'm going to do with Prime's left hand, it just will not stay in place. And the rotation of the head I am hoping will free up over time. I'm looking forward to going through and applying the decals, and making Prime truly look like the supreme Autobot commander. I know this isn't a legit Hasbro or Takara re-release, and part of me doesn't care. But man, I'd love an original Optimus Prime again.

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