Evenings two and three
Legs
Picking up where I left the previous night the build proceeded somewhat naturally to the thighs. I followed the instructions obediently and didn't optimize by building mirrored bits at the same time. I was in no rush.
The thighs were pretty quick and unsurprising to build. Most worries I got came from the stickers and their alignments. His shanks, on the other hand, were much more complex, espeially those chromed cooling vents were pretty neat.
In this photo I had the right lower leg already build and attached, its left sibling was spread all around the table, somehow arranged by colours and types. I had no time or interest in proper knolling.
Here we had the legs without the feet and wheels. The progress was rapid and enjoyable, and I, like I've said, was smiling sillily all the time. Even without his feet he stood nicely and steadily, despite the flimsy look.
That's how far I got with my second building session. On Wednesday I proceeded to assemble the feet. This time I went for a parallel build as these were identical. For a brief moment I thought these could be posed more, but they had twin ball-joints for sturdiness, not posability.
For the posing needs I'd just need to order that Masterpiece Optimus v3. Ahem.
Somehow I couldn't remember off the top of my head if the G1 toy had fuel tanks or not (I checked, yes he did but they were solidly in place) but this one had them. Their 90° rotation was checked by the little "I wonder what these are going to be for" details in the legs.
Sixpack
Comparing these next to photos you could tell that I had originally attached the drive light pieces into the upside-down set grille. I noticed it when I was trying to attach the bumper piece but the claw/bar connections didn't just align decently.
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Having assembled this chunk the right way, Optimus' sixpack clicked in place just as you expected and the front of the truck folded nicely into the sides of his torso. I really couldn't wait to check how the transformation was going to work.
Arms
Work on the arms started from the shoulders. These sturdy boxes got cool chromed exhaust pipes that were just as distinctive as the ones in the toy. Luckily (or sadly?) these didn't spin around on their attachment point.
Building these mirror images was quick and getting them in place just increased my excitement for getting the robot finished.
The hands were neat and four-fingered: three plus a thumb. Of course you could've left the dark blue 3x1 flat bit off from the fingertips, to allow for a pretty cool degree of articulation. But as the left/rightmost fingers were pretty lightly attached, I didn't believe they'd stay in place for much playi I mean posing.
Again I really didn't even remember that the G1 Optimus had stickers on his front-facing forearms, but according to a quick image search the originals were much more hectic. These printed tiles were subtle and worked, in my opinion, wonderfully.
Head
Once again I was too excited to build something and forgot to take any in-progress photos. I just wanted to see how the build worked in the end. His hatholder was much larger than I had expected, but the robot himself wasn't small so scale-wise it was just what it should be. When I finally installed it, of course.
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"Who dares defy the might of Megatron?"
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Accessories
For me a sign of a good toy has been that in addition to the thing itself there were accessories from maybe short bit in one episode of the cartoon it was based on. And that's how it was.
The Matrix of Leadership
First of all I build the Autobot Matrix of Leadership that Prime carried in his chest cavity. I didn't immediately try if he could handily hold it, but it looked like it should be doable.
Energon Axe
While building the Metal Earth Models Optimus I was yearning for an Energon Axe, and now I had one. Of course this meant that in the near future my silly photos was going to contain a scene from More Than Meets the Eye, pt2's duel on the Sherman dam. I mean, I already had Megatron with his Energy Flail solely for this purpose.
Ion Blaster
Optimus' Ion Blaster was pretty stylish. On the first quick try I didn't find a handy way how to get it to stay nicely in his hand, but again, I had time to try things out.
Jetpack
Again, the jetpack was seen in maybe one episode but still, it was amazingly cool and fit like a glove. The rocket nozzles could be adjusted by some milliradians so they weren't completely static, but didn't offer much posability. The style overruled here, it was fantastic.
Data plaque
The final important detail was the traditional data sheet that told us kids who was the best in which category. This dude was clearly overpowered with his numbers.
The full accessories collection
Lastly I collected the little bits into a group photo. There wasn't much to say about the alt mode's register plate slab, nor was the Energon Cube anything too complicated, so I showed them here first. The funny detail with the Energon Axe was that in order to wield it the arm had to be popped off and the wrist turned around. But that's how it was in the episode itself: replacing the hand, so no real complaints here.
Alt mode
Now, with everything else out of the way, I started transforming my robot into a truck. Or a semi-trailer truck, if I remembered my terminology correctly. This didn't take two and half a minutes even on the first try.
First the legs locked into each other, then the hand-arms rotated to the sides, the sixpack plates were spread out and pulled forwards, the torso was rotated 180° and the head got flipped away. Hands rotated and the thumbs turned out of the wa, then the legs were turned backwards. From the arms the ladders were flipped completely out, then the arms and hands were turned into the cabin so that the hands formed the front wheel wells. Finally the cooler/radiator grille setup / front mask was dropped down to cover the openings. Then the ladders were laid along the hull, the fuel tanks rotated to be more natural and the feet were flipped to provide the rear lights.
As an ultimate wonder-detail the handle-folded Ion Blaster had a space in the back just between the legs. It wasn't tightly attached as far as I fooled with it.
Magnificent! It was truly a great object. Of course, someone who knew their stuff had already built a theme-matching trailer and all. Someday soon the details were going to be shared with those of us with a bit less time and spare pieces, I sincerely hoped.
