This is Challenger from Unique Toys. These guys have really stepped up their game. Their early work was ok, but nothing special and had some quality and packaging issues. I liked their take on the Predicons, but they were not up to par with other third party sets at the time. Although they are now selling for less than $200 for the set, which I think is worth it. They put out a few nice Masterpiece scale toys, including some nice triple-changers. Then they made a set of really great Terrorcons. In a market where third party combiner prices are dropping, Unique Toys’ Ordin is still at full price. It is a great set and to me was their masterpiece, showing that they are ready to compete with the leaders of the third party market. Unique Toys has made good decisions about what toys to produce and continues to improve in quality and engineering.
On to Challenger, or Optimus Prime from The Last Knight. He comes in a box with plastic insert, instructions, stat card, shield, sword, forearm stabby-thing, alt Nemesis head, Nemesis face w/o battle mask, Prime face w/o battle mask, and a bonus set of accessories including human size staff, transformer size staff and dagger.
To attach the alt head, you must remove the other head using a screwdriver. The alt faceplates may be popped on and off.
Truck mode is nice. There are a few seams that take some work to get right, but when you have it correct, it all fits nicely together. The part that took me a while to figure out was the exact placement of the hips. Once they are set correctly, the legs and all the panels will set into place nicely. The doors can open, but there is no space behind them.
Here is a deluxe size Bumblebee for size comparison. In vehicle modes, the sizes are just about right. But in robot mode, Prime seems to get bigger, while Bumblebee gets smaller.
Challenger transforms by turning inside-out. First you turn his chest inside-out to make the cab, then you turn his legs inside-out to make the frame. The transformation is fairly intuitive, once you have done it by the instructions once. Again, the hardest part is getting the hips in just the right spot in truck mode.
His hands are impressively articulated. He can store the small staff in his chest, like in the movie.
Here are some full size looks at him.
His articulation and accessories make him fun to pose. In some poses, he looks so good that he could be mistaken for a statue, instead of a transforming toy.
Price-wise, he is on par with Hasbro/Takara mass releases of the Masterpiece line. Maybe even a little cheaper. The detail and paint applications are spot-on. The biggest drawback to Challenger is his dead eyes. The rest of the robot mode looks so good, that I just expect to see glowing blue (or purple) eyes. I have not been a big fan of movie Transformers, but this guy makes me reconsider. He is by far the best movie Optimus Prime out there. All the Hasbro Leader class versions are garbage compared to this. The closest might be Caliber Optimus Prime, but even then, he has massive truck kibble on his feet and back. The Nemesis version of that mold fixes the back kibble by taking it off and making the back of the truck into a giant shield. Anyway, Challenger beats out all the others in quality, price, transformation and accessories. I highly recommend getting Challenger, though he will put the rest of your movie transformer collection to shame.
Robot mode: 10
Vehicle mode: 10
Posability: 9
Playability: 10
Durability: 9
True to movie: 10
Overall: 10
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