Actually, it was Hot Shot that was intended to be called Bumblebee, but Hasbro was unable to secure the trademark until 2006. Seibertron's owner somehow came into possession of the Armada series bible and sold it years later (neither he nor the buyer ever scanned it). There's a photo of "Bumblebee's" page on the tfwiki.
@@TRDQ Yeah, basically they couldn't use the name in Beast Wars because then it'd be what's called a "descriptive" trademark. You can't trademark a name for something if the name is just a literal description for what that thing is. Like, Ford couldn't release a line of cars named the Ford Car, because then they'd be able to declare that anyone calling their cars "cars" is infringing on Ford's trademark. But it's okay to call it the Ford Mustang, because it's clearly a car, not a horse, and therefore anyone calling their car a Mustang clearly is trying to horn in on their action. Bumblebee is kind of the same way. He's a yellow robot who turns into a car, so calling that "Bumblebee" is clearly something Hasbro made up on their own, and if anyone released a toy car named "Bumblebee", that'd clearly be infringing. But if they tried doing it with a toy bee (or a toy that turns into a bee), that'd be descriptive, because it'd be essentially declaring that they own the exclusive rights to make toys named Bumblebee that are based on bees.
It fucking sucks when your toy breaks. I remember having RoTF Rampage as a kid, and I loved him and cherished him, and made up stories about him having a redemption arc and rejecting the Decepitcons, and then his arm fucking broke off. Which fucking sucked, because I loved Transforming that kid. He was a lovely bulldozer. Miss my lad.
Armada was the show that introduced me to Transformers as a kid, and I'm pretty sure the fact that my parents let me watch it and Energon counts as child abuse. I still admire the gusto it had to just say "Fuck your G1, we're just gonna do whatever we want, make new characters, make new lore, it's a new millenium baby". Luckily this will never happened again and we are safe in a world where we get G1 regurgitated our way every day, and the only thing Unicron Trilogy gets is a bit of resigned and disgusted acknowledgement from Hasbro. Also, I miss Tidal Wave, he was my baby.
I am more than certain you can buy a replacement arm piece on one of those 3-D print sites. I know a lot of Armada prime’s parts are on that site. Also, for those Who don’t want to put up with gold plastic, by the Japanese version of this toy. They use yellow instead of gold, which may not be as shiny, but it’s a hell of a lot more durable
I remember getting this Prime one Christmas when I was a little kid, blew my absolute mind that his trailer did all that stuff. Granted, I was too stupid to understand that it did all that self-transforming guff but man, what an incredible piece. Then when I got a certain airborne lad who could do other stuff with prime...what. a. rush.
god what a lovely lad. shame about the arm but honestly im just impressed about like, everything. I grew up with RID2001 leftovers and the other 2 unicron trilogy lines so i never really saw this before and man, that auto transformation is just a fantastic sight to behold. great video!
The big chunky simplicity is my favorite part of older TF toys. All they need is just a couple more joints for posing about and they’d basically be perfect.
i came in expecting some fun down memory lane now i'm immeasurably depressed about the fact that time will eventually catch up to everything i hold dear. great video though!
Laughing like a drain at those auto-transform features. Pure class! Sort of thing to make yeh feel like a kid again. Incidentally Gavin, you might want to drop a line to Dave over on the 'Toy Polloi' You Tube Channel. The guy is a miracle worker with repairing and replacing toy parts. Can't recommend him enough.
This is one of them lads I ignored when it came out cos I was all about the Alternators a G1 reissues and these new Masterpiece things that were happening. 20 years later and Alternators give me headaches to transform and my MP1 Optimus has a few broken flaps on him. G1 reissues are still cool though. I didn't even know this Armada guy had the auto-transformation thing until a few months back. That's how little I looked at those ranges like the disgusting sycophant I was back then. These gimmicks were rad and we just don't see anything approaching that now. Such good stuff.
If I remember correctly, Hot shot and Sparkplug were supposed to be Bumblebee but Hasbro didn't have the trademark for the name, hence why Bee isn't present in any cartoon from BW era until Animated
Man I love this figure! I remember getting him when I was young and got into transformers with Armada! Some old transformers were built like tanks. Nostalgic memories and good times! Love it! :')
The reason why name spark plug and not Bumblebee was because years ago down the line they lost the trademark licensing for Bumblebee until 2007 and then all was right with the world with Transformers maybe even better.
The toy that got me into Transformers. If you get the Takara version, you don't have to worry about gold plastic, and the colors will be more show accurate! Also, his faceplate did move in the game, so that's cool
This is why I love this channel. Every other review I’ve watched of this toy, it’s always in amazing shape and it’s shown off like a holy grail, and that anybody can find one in such great condition! (They’re lying.) Meanwhile, Gavin rolls up like “yeah, mine’s broke, ignore it, just have fun with what’s left, yeah?” And you know what? I did have fun, so good job!
Not enough people give RID01 optimus the time of day. I scooped him up for cheap without the armour/ back end cause I just like the character and even the smaller robot mode is BRILLIANT
I've owned this figure for as long as I can remember and I never knew it had that auto transform feature! When it happened in the vid I thought you'd done some trick... I need time to digest this...
I haven’t been actually speechless at anything in ages let alone a fuckin RUclips video but I think the wind actually left me when the trailer started auto-transforming. MAD shit, this is such a cool toy
Wow, I didn't know that this figure also suffered from GPS, how unfortunate. 2:55 at that time they had not yet recovered the name of Bumblebee, that is why characters like Hotshot were born
In armada they were gonna put bumblebee in the show, but because they couldn't get the rights to that name, we got hotshot instead. And for a little easter egg kinda deal, they made sparkplug somewhat resemble bumblebee.
This is my first ever transformer! This was my gateway drug into the franchise. Didn't realize GPS was an issue with him til a few years ago. Same thing happened to mine's arm, but his super mode's head spaghetti also broke, as well as a couple gold minicon ports. Such a lad though.
I know this is really old comment but really all the gold parts broke? Not just the arms like in the video? So many people are divided on whether or not it has GPS and its confusing (Id like to get the figure). The wiki even states that its not GPS and that its more the joint itself, but if all the gold parts deteriorate, maybe it is GPS?
@@krustywalker9927yeahh, pretty much all the gold plastic snapped on this guy for me. Though that’s the thing, it snapped, not crumbled like most cases of GPS, so I’m not sure if it’s actually the culprit or not.
I had this and megatron and hotshot as a kid damn good toys and my favorite childhood show i still have them in full working order on my computer shelf i was 4 when i got him and im 24 now so even us growing up with them are gettimg up there in age
I was 12 when this guy came out, was sooooooo much fun back then....when it worked yes. Batteries were always hard to come by in my house so was very hit or miss having some to get the motor stuff to work, light up fist was nice but I don't think the sound effects with the chest button ever worked .
Wow, now THAT'S auto-morphing! 😄 I appreciate the creativity ingenuity, but I'm so glad I don't have that version of the toy (smaller stand-alone is fun though). That auto-transforming would be a headache for little-young me; and before you say "just take out the bat-" but I like the OTHER electronics!
Fun fact, this toy doesn't suffer from GPS, it's just a poorly designed section of the transformation when going into supermode (although the gold is probably more fragile compared to the other versions of the mold as I've only ever seen the gold one break, though it's not GPS because the break doesn't show the signs for it.)
This was my first Prime toy. I still have him, but his trailer probably doesn't work any more. I would always just transform it by hand so the gears are almost certainly stripped.
@2:52 Hasbro lost their trademark to Bumblebee in the early 2000s. (they got it back in 2006 for their Classics Bumblebee toy) *Fun Fact: Hot Shot was originally named Bumblebee (ya know Yellow car, kid appeal type, etc.) but they didn’t have the trademark at the time, so they named him Hot Shot instead!!
I'm sure the batteries in mine have to have corroded by now; I sincerely hope I can clean them out but it's unlikely it still works (to say nothing of the robot/cab's batteries)
0:24 This exact same thing happened to mine a few weeks after I got it for one Christmas. The joint itself was S U P E R tight, I feel like if it wasn't for how insanely tight it was it wouldn't have snapped off.
+TDRQ- Gavin Spence I keep my Optimus in shape, he's in storage as hasbro will no longer deal with him due to his age and being from 2002 with electronics ahead of his time if my Optimus has been exposed to aerosol's, would I be able to restart his electronics (as I ripped the door on my figures battery compartment open where he can only be grabbed at on both cab and trailer with pro grade tools) or would he be a whole unit replacement at that point (where I'd buy him again) as I only am missing his smokestacks for the truck, as they'd be guns in robot mode? To keep your Optimus in shape do not move him beyond what is instructed in his instructions, no more than halfway up in horizontal default position when the toy is in super mode, very little movement in robot mode as the arms have a limited range of motion where its no more than horizontal or straight up and down as anything beyond that point will break his arms off like with your example all movement will be in his right arm to properly relay signals into the cabs IR sensor, move once trailer opens to base mode, move arm again trailer goes to super mode, move arm again it will pack everything up movement can only occur in both arms at a limited range of motions, you need to know what they are at all times when performing certain maneuvers improperly wired Optimus prime figures will spontaneously combust and catch on fire as soon as you move his right arm to relay any signal to the IR sensor to open the trailer, which means cab and trailer will blow up and go on fire along with wherever you are in the house at either part of it, all of it or both it is not recommended to transform trailer manually as it will grind its teeth and it will be a whole unit replacement on all of it again
Oof. I'm lucky by comparison that my Armada Optimus is only missing one Super Mode head antenna due to GPS. TFNation 2019, the year I met Thew and Benscollectables in person.
Hasbro couldn't trademark bumblebee at the time. Hotshot was orginally going to be bumblebee. Hotshot was later replaced with bumblebee in transformers animated.
my friend had one of these when we were kids. today there is much better third party variants of this toy, was looking to get one before I saw the price tag.
Yea, this is bouth wierd, and quite an AWSOME toy. And as for "NOT a Bumbelbee" thing. They wanted to use the name, on the guy we known today as Hot shot. But the cath was, they didn't have the trademark right's for the name at the time... Unthill the year 2007, or to better put it, TF them movie 2007.
1:473:48 *O_o!* After all these years, I... I never knew it could do _that!_ I never got this toy because I didn't like anything that _Armada_ Optimus offered up (I didn't know about Gold Plastic Syndrome at the time, and I was not aware this guy had it as well); he's really the only incarnation of OP that I actively dislike. But up until I watched this video, I had _absolutely no idea_ this toy had a motorized auto-transformation, let alone one that was controlled by a -fuckin'- _radio signal!_
Armada Optimus doesn't have GPS, as far as I know. If he did, you'd be able to snap off the plastic just by flexing it a bit. You look at the plastic and it's covered in stress marks; that's plastic that's been bent out of shape forcibly. The problem is that his elbow joints are really badly designed. Because of that, trying to move his arms in anything except very specific ways is placing a ton of stress on the plastic.
@@timprimetal5380 The trick in that case is to try snapping a part again. If it cracks in half easily (and I mean _real_ easily), it's GPS. If it bends and stresses, it's regular plastic.
I swear we’re either going to be getting Armada, Energon, or Powermaster Optimus Prime as a Commander class Energon fits with the size and combiner gimmick but Armada and Powermaster/ Ginrai are more iconic I feel like it could be Powermaster/ Ginrai because it’s going to be the exact year that Victory takes place (2025) very soon (they didn’t do it in 2020 which is when Master Force took place) but this also leads to another divide, is it going to be Ginrai, Deathsaurus, or Liokaiser…
His arms actually don't have GPS. They break because of pressure applied when transforming them into super robot mode incorrectly. You have to move the blue joint first, then the red joint. Otherwise the pressure will tear the arm in half
The gold plastic of his elbow hinges isn't the infamous delicate metal-flake stuff and is normally very hard-wearing; the break also shows damage consistent with repeated stress rather than materials failure caused by GPS (I should know what that looks like - I have G2 Slingshot). I suspect that either the pin joint seized a bit and led to abnormal strain, or a previous owner kept trying to bend the arm a way it's not supposed to bend. Also, you could have just bagged the burst batteries in that first one for later disposal and then cleaned up the mess with diluted lemon juice.
@@TRDQ Oh yes, *clearly* better to go through the hassle of returning and replacing a figure than to do an easy clean-up job. Truly going that route saved you bother.
@@TRDQ No. If you'd just cleaned the stupid battery box - which is again, easy and quick (and frankly something more people buying used toys with electronics need to know how to do) - you would have had a working, intact Optimus there and then, and could have called it good. And never had to deal with the one that broke on you in the first place.
@@ZeldaTheSwordsman Actually. You don't know how badly corroded it was, how much damage was done to it etc. Also if I'm buying something that's said to be in great condition - and I see that mess, it's going back. Seller doesn't get away with that. I'd rather put it back in the box, have it picked up for delivery (takes five minutes to set up) and get a refund than get the lemons out, deal with leaked batteries and scrub away - with no guarantee it'd work anyway. So...yeah stop being a pain.
Man, toys may look more detailed and realistic now, but play-ability has went out the window. Back then, if your transformer didn't have 2 alt mods or combined with another bot, it wasn't cool enough.
The reason why he is called sparkplug because they weren't able to use bumblebees name due to trademarks to the name were lost.
It was lost, and them the year 2007 happen , and everything changed...
Interesting
Actually, it was Hot Shot that was intended to be called Bumblebee, but Hasbro was unable to secure the trademark until 2006. Seibertron's owner somehow came into possession of the Armada series bible and sold it years later (neither he nor the buyer ever scanned it). There's a photo of "Bumblebee's" page on the tfwiki.
@@TRDQ Yeah, basically they couldn't use the name in Beast Wars because then it'd be what's called a "descriptive" trademark. You can't trademark a name for something if the name is just a literal description for what that thing is. Like, Ford couldn't release a line of cars named the Ford Car, because then they'd be able to declare that anyone calling their cars "cars" is infringing on Ford's trademark. But it's okay to call it the Ford Mustang, because it's clearly a car, not a horse, and therefore anyone calling their car a Mustang clearly is trying to horn in on their action.
Bumblebee is kind of the same way. He's a yellow robot who turns into a car, so calling that "Bumblebee" is clearly something Hasbro made up on their own, and if anyone released a toy car named "Bumblebee", that'd clearly be infringing. But if they tried doing it with a toy bee (or a toy that turns into a bee), that'd be descriptive, because it'd be essentially declaring that they own the exclusive rights to make toys named Bumblebee that are based on bees.
@@TRDQ Yeah, his design became Hot Shot, I'm not joking, Ratchet became Red Alert, but He was still Ratchet in Japan
It fucking sucks when your toy breaks. I remember having RoTF Rampage as a kid, and I loved him and cherished him, and made up stories about him having a redemption arc and rejecting the Decepitcons, and then his arm fucking broke off. Which fucking sucked, because I loved Transforming that kid. He was a lovely bulldozer. Miss my lad.
The same exact thing happened to me but with RoTF Scavenger, when it broke the entire figure just fell apart
@@fleshhuman4522 well he’s still Better off than he was in the show. In the show he can’t move anything :/
I had the same issues with the two masterpiece cassette birds both of their left jet packs had broke off
*Unrelenting churning of 2000’s era transformers engineering*
“Fuckin’ hell”
😂
You can buy a junker of any of this toy's repaint and swap out the broken hinge with some non-gold plastic! The powerlinx cab goes for cheap!
my stupid brain liberates the happy chemicals when gavin uploads
Armada was the show that introduced me to Transformers as a kid, and I'm pretty sure the fact that my parents let me watch it and Energon counts as child abuse.
I still admire the gusto it had to just say "Fuck your G1, we're just gonna do whatever we want, make new characters, make new lore, it's a new millenium baby". Luckily this will never happened again and we are safe in a world where we get G1 regurgitated our way every day, and the only thing Unicron Trilogy gets is a bit of resigned and disgusted acknowledgement from Hasbro.
Also, I miss Tidal Wave, he was my baby.
I miss shockwave too...
SHOCK! WAAAAAVE!
Shock. Shock. Shock.
honestly we need MORE originality these days. getting real tired of the same 10 characters being released every year or two
I am more than certain you can buy a replacement arm piece on one of those 3-D print sites. I know a lot of Armada prime’s parts are on that site.
Also, for those Who don’t want to put up with gold plastic, by the Japanese version of this toy. They use yellow instead of gold, which may not be as shiny, but it’s a hell of a lot more durable
I remember getting this Prime one Christmas when I was a little kid, blew my absolute mind that his trailer did all that stuff. Granted, I was too stupid to understand that it did all that self-transforming guff but man, what an incredible piece. Then when I got a certain airborne lad who could do other stuff with prime...what. a. rush.
god what a lovely lad. shame about the arm but honestly im just impressed about like, everything. I grew up with RID2001 leftovers and the other 2 unicron trilogy lines so i never really saw this before and man, that auto transformation is just a fantastic sight to behold. great video!
The big chunky simplicity is my favorite part of older TF toys. All they need is just a couple more joints for posing about and they’d basically be perfect.
I had this toy when I was a child and I learned TODAY that the trailer was supposed to auto transform. . .
This review is just hilarious! Love it
Hey, at least only the arm broke, and it didn't set on fire (unlike a certain other reviewer's copy)
Link please?
@@BlitzkriegOmega Look up Baltmatrix's review of the figure. He talks about his experience with it.
I had never seen Armada Prime's trailer actually *do the thing* before, and I was thoroughly gobsmacked. Wizardry.
Transformers RID Big Boy Week sounds like my ideal week
i came in expecting some fun down memory lane now i'm immeasurably depressed about the fact that time will eventually catch up to everything i hold dear. great video though!
Laughing like a drain at those auto-transform features. Pure class! Sort of thing to make yeh feel like a kid again. Incidentally Gavin, you might want to drop a line to Dave over on the 'Toy Polloi' You Tube Channel. The guy is a miracle worker with repairing and replacing toy parts. Can't recommend him enough.
Oooh I might!
This is one of them lads I ignored when it came out cos I was all about the Alternators a G1 reissues and these new Masterpiece things that were happening. 20 years later and Alternators give me headaches to transform and my MP1 Optimus has a few broken flaps on him. G1 reissues are still cool though. I didn't even know this Armada guy had the auto-transformation thing until a few months back. That's how little I looked at those ranges like the disgusting sycophant I was back then. These gimmicks were rad and we just don't see anything approaching that now. Such good stuff.
Oh man, I completely forgot about the auto-transforming legs bit! So awesome to see it again.
I had no idea this monstrosity was automated like that.
You are a dedicated individual.
Badass amount of stuff going on for this guy.
Big boy week is the best idea you’ve had yet
Just came across this channel, so glad I did. Very unique and refreshing review style. Very enjoyable to watch. Good job!
If I remember correctly, Hot shot and Sparkplug were supposed to be Bumblebee but Hasbro didn't have the trademark for the name, hence why Bee isn't present in any cartoon from BW era until Animated
Awesome reviewer, clearly covered all the features succinctly, only 5 minute video with heaps of jokes too
Definitely going to watch some more
Man I love this figure! I remember getting him when I was young and got into transformers with Armada! Some old transformers were built like tanks. Nostalgic memories and good times! Love it! :')
The reason why name spark plug and not Bumblebee was because years ago down the line they lost the trademark licensing for Bumblebee until 2007 and then all was right with the world with Transformers maybe even better.
The toy that got me into Transformers. If you get the Takara version, you don't have to worry about gold plastic, and the colors will be more show accurate!
Also, his faceplate did move in the game, so that's cool
This is why I love this channel. Every other review I’ve watched of this toy, it’s always in amazing shape and it’s shown off like a holy grail, and that anybody can find one in such great condition! (They’re lying.)
Meanwhile, Gavin rolls up like “yeah, mine’s broke, ignore it, just have fun with what’s left, yeah?” And you know what? I did have fun, so good job!
Got this feller alongside RiD01 Prime for a tenner. He's brill! Though not as brill as his RiD01 one. Or his Cybertron one one
To be fair, cybertron Optimus is basically a perfect toy. It has literally everything.
Not enough people give RID01 optimus the time of day. I scooped him up for cheap without the armour/ back end cause I just like the character and even the smaller robot mode is BRILLIANT
Hey, at least it didn't burst into flames. The trailer's been known to do that.
I heard that this guy can randomly burst into flames, call that a HOT new toy
I've owned this figure for as long as I can remember and I never knew it had that auto transform feature! When it happened in the vid I thought you'd done some trick... I need time to digest this...
Best TF vids around, thanks Gav
I haven’t been actually speechless at anything in ages let alone a fuckin RUclips video but I think the wind actually left me when the trailer started auto-transforming. MAD shit, this is such a cool toy
Wow, I didn't know that this figure also suffered from GPS, how unfortunate.
2:55 at that time they had not yet recovered the name of Bumblebee, that is why characters like Hotshot were born
Turns out I own this one! But only the front cab bit because I bought it for a quid from a random box of junk at a toy fair
I had this toy, but I’m not a fan of battery powered gimmicks, so I literally Never knew about that wild auto-transformation feature.
I had this toy as a kid played with it all the time... I had zero clue the trailer could do that..
Oh man I miss this toy, sure it's brick when combined in it's super mode. But I had a lot of fun playing with this toy.
In armada they were gonna put bumblebee in the show, but because they couldn't get the rights to that name, we got hotshot instead. And for a little easter egg kinda deal, they made sparkplug somewhat resemble bumblebee.
This is my first ever transformer! This was my gateway drug into the franchise.
Didn't realize GPS was an issue with him til a few years ago. Same thing happened to mine's arm, but his super mode's head spaghetti also broke, as well as a couple gold minicon ports.
Such a lad though.
I know this is really old comment but really all the gold parts broke? Not just the arms like in the video? So many people are divided on whether or not it has GPS and its confusing (Id like to get the figure). The wiki even states that its not GPS and that its more the joint itself, but if all the gold parts deteriorate, maybe it is GPS?
@@krustywalker9927yeahh, pretty much all the gold plastic snapped on this guy for me. Though that’s the thing, it snapped, not crumbled like most cases of GPS, so I’m not sure if it’s actually the culprit or not.
I'm really sorry his arm broke but it definitely made for some great one liners in the video. Thanks for sharing
I had this and megatron and hotshot as a kid damn good toys and my favorite childhood show i still have them in full working order on my computer shelf i was 4 when i got him and im 24 now so even us growing up with them are gettimg up there in age
Wow! That auto trailer transform feature was impressive
I never had a problem with my Armada Prime, but I was also even older than Gavin when he came out, so he mostly just sat on a shelf.
I was 12 when this guy came out, was sooooooo much fun back then....when it worked yes. Batteries were always hard to come by in my house so was very hit or miss having some to get the motor stuff to work, light up fist was nice but I don't think the sound effects with the chest button ever worked .
What a lad I gotta find one Gav!
Local Comic shop got this in last week and I nearly bought it, in for a steal too! May go and pick it up if it's still around.
I didn't know the trailer did that! I'll have to dig that out.
Wow, now THAT'S auto-morphing! 😄
I appreciate the creativity ingenuity, but I'm so glad I don't have that version of the toy (smaller stand-alone is fun though). That auto-transforming would be a headache for little-young me; and before you say "just take out the bat-" but I like the OTHER electronics!
You are severely underrated.
Fun fact, this toy doesn't suffer from GPS, it's just a poorly designed section of the transformation when going into supermode (although the gold is probably more fragile compared to the other versions of the mold as I've only ever seen the gold one break, though it's not GPS because the break doesn't show the signs for it.)
This was my first Prime toy. I still have him, but his trailer probably doesn't work any more. I would always just transform it by hand so the gears are almost certainly stripped.
I always wanted this figure
Still do to this very day
@2:52 Hasbro lost their trademark to Bumblebee in the early 2000s. (they got it back in 2006 for their Classics Bumblebee toy) *Fun Fact: Hot Shot was originally named Bumblebee (ya know Yellow car, kid appeal type, etc.) but they didn’t have the trademark at the time, so they named him Hot Shot instead!!
I'm sure the batteries in mine have to have corroded by now; I sincerely hope I can clean them out but it's unlikely it still works (to say nothing of the robot/cab's batteries)
0:24 This exact same thing happened to mine a few weeks after I got it for one Christmas. The joint itself was S U P E R tight, I feel like if it wasn't for how insanely tight it was it wouldn't have snapped off.
I came for classic toy reviews, but I stay for the Batman Returns references.
You may be the only person who noticed this
👍 Good Job
Ooooh, like Sparkplug Witwicky. I only just got that.
Is this the Optimus that can spontaneously set your house on fire sometimes?
Yeah this one is funny as hell, best review yet imo
I had this as a kid and NEVER KNEW about the automatic trailer thing. I feel so ripped off but it was also my fault at the same time, Christ.
I wish i still had mine from when i was a kid
+TDRQ- Gavin Spence I keep my Optimus in shape, he's in storage as hasbro will no longer deal with him due to his age and being from 2002 with electronics ahead of his time
if my Optimus has been exposed to aerosol's, would I be able to restart his electronics (as I ripped the door on my figures battery compartment open where he can only be grabbed at on both cab and trailer with pro grade tools) or would he be a whole unit replacement at that point (where I'd buy him again) as I only am missing his smokestacks for the truck, as they'd be guns in robot mode?
To keep your Optimus in shape do not move him beyond what is instructed in his instructions, no more than halfway up in horizontal default position when the toy is in super mode, very little movement in robot mode as the arms have a limited range of motion where its no more than horizontal or straight up and down as anything beyond that point will break his arms off like with your example
all movement will be in his right arm to properly relay signals into the cabs IR sensor, move once trailer opens to base mode, move arm again trailer goes to super mode, move arm again it will pack everything up
movement can only occur in both arms at a limited range of motions, you need to know what they are at all times when performing certain maneuvers
improperly wired Optimus prime figures will spontaneously combust and catch on fire as soon as you move his right arm to relay any signal to the IR sensor to open the trailer, which means cab and trailer will blow up and go on fire along with wherever you are in the house at either part of it, all of it or both
it is not recommended to transform trailer manually as it will grind its teeth and it will be a whole unit replacement on all of it again
thank you gavin, now i never have to buy this toy and regret my purchase
Oof. I'm lucky by comparison that my Armada Optimus is only missing one Super Mode head antenna due to GPS. TFNation 2019, the year I met Thew and Benscollectables in person.
That piece is definitely on Shapeways. It may not be exactly the same, But at least your rest easy knowing that your toy is complete again.
In B4 all the comments about how they couldn't use the name Bumblebee due to trademark troubles.
I still hold out hope to finally get some new versions of the armada, animated and maybe prime designs.
Yeah, those elbows made me begrudgingly part with mine a few years ago. Didn't want to see it snop
Hasbro couldn't trademark bumblebee at the time. Hotshot was orginally going to be bumblebee. Hotshot was later replaced with bumblebee in transformers animated.
my friend had one of these when we were kids.
today there is much better third party variants of this toy, was looking to get one before I saw the price tag.
This is an old grail of mine. Hope they make a new version of him soon
Yea, this is bouth wierd, and quite an AWSOME toy. And as for "NOT a Bumbelbee" thing.
They wanted to use the name, on the guy we known today as Hot shot. But the cath was, they didn't have the trademark right's for the name at the time...
Unthill the year 2007, or to better put it, TF them movie 2007.
And then ur table gets lit on fire
I have energon armada optimus repaint that comes with a yellow overload, the first optimus prime figure i ever got as a kid
I took the batteries out of mine so quick after I got him xmas of '02 I genuinely forgot what all the electronics did.
Can't wait for Legacy armada prime
1:47 3:48 *O_o!* After all these years, I... I never knew it could do _that!_
I never got this toy because I didn't like anything that _Armada_ Optimus offered up (I didn't know about Gold Plastic Syndrome at the time, and I was not aware this guy had it as well); he's really the only incarnation of OP that I actively dislike. But up until I watched this video, I had _absolutely no idea_ this toy had a motorized auto-transformation, let alone one that was controlled by a -fuckin'- _radio signal!_
I got one new in box and so far so good, the main problem with the arm is the design.
Armada Optimus doesn't have GPS, as far as I know. If he did, you'd be able to snap off the plastic just by flexing it a bit. You look at the plastic and it's covered in stress marks; that's plastic that's been bent out of shape forcibly. The problem is that his elbow joints are really badly designed. Because of that, trying to move his arms in anything except very specific ways is placing a ton of stress on the plastic.
Mine did the same thing, and he's also lost his head spaghetti and two gold minicon ports.
@@timprimetal5380 The trick in that case is to try snapping a part again. If it cracks in half easily (and I mean _real_ easily), it's GPS. If it bends and stresses, it's regular plastic.
I swear we’re either going to be getting Armada, Energon, or Powermaster Optimus Prime as a Commander class Energon fits with the size and combiner gimmick but Armada and Powermaster/ Ginrai are more iconic
I feel like it could be Powermaster/ Ginrai because it’s going to be the exact year that Victory takes place (2025) very soon (they didn’t do it in 2020 which is when Master Force took place) but this also leads to another divide, is it going to be Ginrai, Deathsaurus, or Liokaiser…
His arms actually don't have GPS. They break because of pressure applied when transforming them into super robot mode incorrectly. You have to move the blue joint first, then the red joint. Otherwise the pressure will tear the arm in half
Incorrect
They did not havebthe rights to the name bumble bee. Hot shot was meant to be called bumble bee
Gold Plastic Syndrome can be really disarming.
you might be able to get a 3d printed replacement part
The gold plastic of his elbow hinges isn't the infamous delicate metal-flake stuff and is normally very hard-wearing; the break also shows damage consistent with repeated stress rather than materials failure caused by GPS (I should know what that looks like - I have G2 Slingshot). I suspect that either the pin joint seized a bit and led to abnormal strain, or a previous owner kept trying to bend the arm a way it's not supposed to bend.
Also, you could have just bagged the burst batteries in that first one for later disposal and then cleaned up the mess with diluted lemon juice.
Or I could have returned it because fuck that
@@TRDQ Oh yes, *clearly* better to go through the hassle of returning and replacing a figure than to do an easy clean-up job. Truly going that route saved you bother.
@@ZeldaTheSwordsman glad we agree
@@TRDQ No. If you'd just cleaned the stupid battery box - which is again, easy and quick (and frankly something more people buying used toys with electronics need to know how to do) - you would have had a working, intact Optimus there and then, and could have called it good. And never had to deal with the one that broke on you in the first place.
@@ZeldaTheSwordsman Actually. You don't know how badly corroded it was, how much damage was done to it etc. Also if I'm buying something that's said to be in great condition - and I see that mess, it's going back. Seller doesn't get away with that. I'd rather put it back in the box, have it picked up for delivery (takes five minutes to set up) and get a refund than get the lemons out, deal with leaked batteries and scrub away - with no guarantee it'd work anyway. So...yeah stop being a pain.
entropy win every time
The way the trailer reacts to the transformation of prime is a pretty cool concept. The execution is a little off though.
I think the Japanese micron legends Optimus doesn’t use the gold plastic and uses yellow painted plastic
Kinda looks like lazer prime but dosent at the same time
And yes, shame about Sparkplug's upgrade...
They didn't call him Bumblebee because Hasbro lost the trademark.
DAMN YOU GOLD PLASTIC!!!
MY HOLY GRAIL BECAUSE I WORSHIP GIANT INSANE SUPER ROBOTS
Idk why they don't throw in some gimmicks in the modern figures
Man, toys may look more detailed and realistic now, but play-ability has went out the window. Back then, if your transformer didn't have 2 alt mods or combined with another bot, it wasn't cool enough.
I have the Costco version thats in an ugly grayish black and yellow.
Wish hasbro would rerelease the unicron trilogy figures instead of the IMO shit g1 toys.
I own this thing and I didn't remember the auto-transformation gimmick, if I even knew about it at all.