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Zob's Thoughts on Mr. Potato Head Optimus Prime and Grimlock
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Zobovor
Apr 26, 2015, 11:33:46 AM4/26/15
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There was only one left of these at work, and we're not going to be receiving any more of them, so I figured I'd better snag it. I haven't been collecting any of the smaller-scale Potato Head toys, but this was a cute novelty, and I have long suspected that if I go too long without buying a new toy, I will die. (Obviously, it's too dangerous to put this theory to the test.)
Curiously, this is branded as both a Mr. Potato Head toy and a Transformers: Rescue Bots toy, so Hasbro is really covering all their bases. The Playskool and Hasbro logos are both in evidence. Oddly, they've abandoned all attempts to come up with clever potato-themed alternate names (so this is Optimus Prime, not "Optimash" Prime). I guess this means we'll never get an official Deva-Tater.
A few years ago, Hasbro redesigned all their full-scale Mr. Potato Head toys. Previously, they were assembled using a pair of shoes or feet, but the newer editions have a cup-shaped base designed with feet and "pants" for the characters. This arguably allows them to produce various costumes for the licensed editions that are slightly more true to the source material (Hulk has purple pants, for example), but the modification bothers and surprises me... partly because I'm a purist and I have change, and partly because the Toy Story films have made the older Mr. Potato Head design so iconic.
Anyway. Optimus Prime's potato base is the same size as the small "Hero Mashers" figures (no, not the action figures with removable parts... Hasbro is using the same trademark for a series of tiny Potato Head toys). The eyes, nose, and ears are permanently attached to the potato and painted; the mouth is sculpted into the potato and makes no pretense of being a faux removable part. The pieces would likely be choking hazards if they actually came off.
To build Optimus Prime, you slip a helmet over the top of the potato (it's got slots on the sides to allow the pink ears to still poke out); there's a blue base serving as his feet and pelvis. There's also an intermediate piece that fits between the potato and the feet, also cup-shaped and incorporating Optimus Prime chest windows and a pair of arms (all one piece). The design is heavily influenced by the G1 cartoon design, massively super-deformed but still managing to include some iconic sculpt elements (the triangles on Prime's forearms; the four mold-release pin marks on the back of his helmet; the cartoon backpack which includes those rounded cylinders on either side). Some of the paint choices are a little weird (the horns on either side of his helmet are inexplicably painted silver; he has a pair of wheels on either foot but they're blue like the rest of the piece) but overall this is the cutest piece of G1 Prime merchandise I'm ever likely to own.
He's actually got two points of articulation, since the potato can pivot and swivel with respect to the upper torso piece, and the upper torso piece rotates with respect to the feet. So, already more play value than, say, the combined form of Raiden. His hands are designed to grasp accessories, but the only weapon that this set comes with is the flame breath for Grimlock. I guess it makes an okay sword.
Unless I'm very much mistaken, Grimlock exists as a unique four-inch potato not shared with another toy. The full-scale Potato Head bodies are closer to six inches, and there's also a relatively newer five-inch version (I believe it made its debut with the Star Wars Artoo Potatoo [sic] toy, but I'm not an expert on such matters). The four-inch potato body is closer to the size you'd actually expect a real potato to be. It even has a faux trapdoor in the back, so I guess you can pretend to store parts inside of it?
You can attach nine or possibly ten parts to the potato to build Grimlock. He has two gigantic dino feet (separate pieces), a tail (the tail also has peg-holes on either side to attach accessories, though I'm not sure what would go there), a cupped neck piece, two dino arms, and the dino head (which is technically two parts, so that the jaw can open), plus the aforementioned flame breath accessory that fits inside his mouth. He's also got a saddle that goes on his back. There's a final translucent orange piece that Optimus is carrying as a shield in the package; it also fits on Grimlock's chest, and it sure looks like it belongs there.
Grimlock's got around eight points of articulation (his arms and legs pivot; his tail is on a slot so it can slide up and down to some degree; his arm assembly can rotate and slide up and down a bit; his head can swivel and his jaw opens). To allow Prime to ride on Grimlock, you have to detach Prime's feet, and his upper body just connects to Grimlock's saddle. It's a little disturbing.
Like Prime, Grimlock's design is strongly influenced by his G1 look... which in itself is kind of weird, since the whole "Prime riding Grimlock" thing is obviously inspired by Age of Extinction. I wouldn't have bought this toy at all if it had been styled after the movie versions of the characters. I guess in some ways, the G1 styling makes sense (fans who grew up on the show are old enough to have kids now, and they're the ones buying these for two-year-olds). They very clearly started with the Grimlock toy from 1984 as a starting point; it includes details on the sides of his legs, and the shape of his dino head, that are unmistakably inspired by the G1 toy. Again, the color choices are a bit odd (the "screws" holding his dino hips in place are red; there's a random red stripe on the top of his dino tail) but it does help add some color, and red stripes aren't completely out of place on Grimlock (the toy's design doesn't include the part of the upper dino body where the red stripes would normally go).
You can't really play up the interchangeable aspect of Mr. Potato Head toys with this set (Prime doesn't have arm holes, so you can't stick Grimlock's dino arms on him, for example). Really, you'd need another small Hero Masher Potato Head toy to switch parts with, so you can give Prime a Spider-Man mask or Bumblebee's legs or somesuch. It should be theoretically possible to take a full-sized Potato Head body and build a large-scale Grimlock, though he wouldn't have the hole on his back to accommodate the saddle. You'd have to stuff Optimus inside the trapdoor and pretend it's a Diaclone pilot's seat.
Oddly, there is also a small-scale Hero Mashers version of Grimlock on the market, which includes a traditional Potato Head face but wearing the top half of Grimlock's dinosaur mode head as a hat. Very strange.
My kids are growing impatient with me (I told them they could play with this after I was done reviewing it) so I guess I'd better let them have at it!
Zob
Curiously, this is branded as both a Mr. Potato Head toy and a Transformers: Rescue Bots toy, so Hasbro is really covering all their bases. The Playskool and Hasbro logos are both in evidence. Oddly, they've abandoned all attempts to come up with clever potato-themed alternate names (so this is Optimus Prime, not "Optimash" Prime). I guess this means we'll never get an official Deva-Tater.
A few years ago, Hasbro redesigned all their full-scale Mr. Potato Head toys. Previously, they were assembled using a pair of shoes or feet, but the newer editions have a cup-shaped base designed with feet and "pants" for the characters. This arguably allows them to produce various costumes for the licensed editions that are slightly more true to the source material (Hulk has purple pants, for example), but the modification bothers and surprises me... partly because I'm a purist and I have change, and partly because the Toy Story films have made the older Mr. Potato Head design so iconic.
Anyway. Optimus Prime's potato base is the same size as the small "Hero Mashers" figures (no, not the action figures with removable parts... Hasbro is using the same trademark for a series of tiny Potato Head toys). The eyes, nose, and ears are permanently attached to the potato and painted; the mouth is sculpted into the potato and makes no pretense of being a faux removable part. The pieces would likely be choking hazards if they actually came off.
To build Optimus Prime, you slip a helmet over the top of the potato (it's got slots on the sides to allow the pink ears to still poke out); there's a blue base serving as his feet and pelvis. There's also an intermediate piece that fits between the potato and the feet, also cup-shaped and incorporating Optimus Prime chest windows and a pair of arms (all one piece). The design is heavily influenced by the G1 cartoon design, massively super-deformed but still managing to include some iconic sculpt elements (the triangles on Prime's forearms; the four mold-release pin marks on the back of his helmet; the cartoon backpack which includes those rounded cylinders on either side). Some of the paint choices are a little weird (the horns on either side of his helmet are inexplicably painted silver; he has a pair of wheels on either foot but they're blue like the rest of the piece) but overall this is the cutest piece of G1 Prime merchandise I'm ever likely to own.
He's actually got two points of articulation, since the potato can pivot and swivel with respect to the upper torso piece, and the upper torso piece rotates with respect to the feet. So, already more play value than, say, the combined form of Raiden. His hands are designed to grasp accessories, but the only weapon that this set comes with is the flame breath for Grimlock. I guess it makes an okay sword.
Unless I'm very much mistaken, Grimlock exists as a unique four-inch potato not shared with another toy. The full-scale Potato Head bodies are closer to six inches, and there's also a relatively newer five-inch version (I believe it made its debut with the Star Wars Artoo Potatoo [sic] toy, but I'm not an expert on such matters). The four-inch potato body is closer to the size you'd actually expect a real potato to be. It even has a faux trapdoor in the back, so I guess you can pretend to store parts inside of it?
You can attach nine or possibly ten parts to the potato to build Grimlock. He has two gigantic dino feet (separate pieces), a tail (the tail also has peg-holes on either side to attach accessories, though I'm not sure what would go there), a cupped neck piece, two dino arms, and the dino head (which is technically two parts, so that the jaw can open), plus the aforementioned flame breath accessory that fits inside his mouth. He's also got a saddle that goes on his back. There's a final translucent orange piece that Optimus is carrying as a shield in the package; it also fits on Grimlock's chest, and it sure looks like it belongs there.
Grimlock's got around eight points of articulation (his arms and legs pivot; his tail is on a slot so it can slide up and down to some degree; his arm assembly can rotate and slide up and down a bit; his head can swivel and his jaw opens). To allow Prime to ride on Grimlock, you have to detach Prime's feet, and his upper body just connects to Grimlock's saddle. It's a little disturbing.
Like Prime, Grimlock's design is strongly influenced by his G1 look... which in itself is kind of weird, since the whole "Prime riding Grimlock" thing is obviously inspired by Age of Extinction. I wouldn't have bought this toy at all if it had been styled after the movie versions of the characters. I guess in some ways, the G1 styling makes sense (fans who grew up on the show are old enough to have kids now, and they're the ones buying these for two-year-olds). They very clearly started with the Grimlock toy from 1984 as a starting point; it includes details on the sides of his legs, and the shape of his dino head, that are unmistakably inspired by the G1 toy. Again, the color choices are a bit odd (the "screws" holding his dino hips in place are red; there's a random red stripe on the top of his dino tail) but it does help add some color, and red stripes aren't completely out of place on Grimlock (the toy's design doesn't include the part of the upper dino body where the red stripes would normally go).
You can't really play up the interchangeable aspect of Mr. Potato Head toys with this set (Prime doesn't have arm holes, so you can't stick Grimlock's dino arms on him, for example). Really, you'd need another small Hero Masher Potato Head toy to switch parts with, so you can give Prime a Spider-Man mask or Bumblebee's legs or somesuch. It should be theoretically possible to take a full-sized Potato Head body and build a large-scale Grimlock, though he wouldn't have the hole on his back to accommodate the saddle. You'd have to stuff Optimus inside the trapdoor and pretend it's a Diaclone pilot's seat.
Oddly, there is also a small-scale Hero Mashers version of Grimlock on the market, which includes a traditional Potato Head face but wearing the top half of Grimlock's dinosaur mode head as a hat. Very strange.
My kids are growing impatient with me (I told them they could play with this after I was done reviewing it) so I guess I'd better let them have at it!
Zob
Zobovor
Jan 7, 2017, 11:32:31 AM1/7/17
to
On Sunday, April 26, 2015 at 9:33:46 AM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> Oddly, there is also a small-scale Hero Mashers version of Grimlock on the
> market, which includes a traditional Potato Head face but wearing the top
> half of Grimlock's dinosaur mode head as a hat. Very strange.
Almost two years later, I got the other two Transformers characters in this assortment. They finally went on clearance so I picked up the tiny Mr. Potato Head versions of Bumblebee and Grimlock for $2.50 a pop.
> Oddly, there is also a small-scale Hero Mashers version of Grimlock on the
> market, which includes a traditional Potato Head face but wearing the top
> half of Grimlock's dinosaur mode head as a hat. Very strange.
Which means that I could build a tiny G1 Grimlock potato riding a gigantic Grimlock potato, if I wanted to be totally ridiculous. And if I could remember which box I stuffed the gigantic Grimlock potato into.
Zob (how are you holding up? Because I'M A POTATO)
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