As the vanguard for the new Titan class, Optimus has immense pressure to make a good showing. So how does he stack up?
Star Optimus is a big boy clocking in at around 16 inches. He’s mostly a bright candy apple red and a deep blue with little glitter bits mixed in. Really nice colors in hand. The headcrest will be yellow and unpainted gray plastic out of the box though. While the knees are fully painted yellow, it could have used another coat or two since the blue is partially bleeding through, giving the yellow there a slight green tint compared to the yellows on other parts of the figure.
He has decent articulation with ratcheted shoulders, hips, knees and elbows, waist, wrists and ankles. Head can swivel and has a special joint that lets him look down. None of the ranges are particularly wide and an ab crunch would have been cool but it’s adequate.The ankles while theoretically having almost 90 degrees of tilt are hampered by the shape of the lower legs.
Optimus comes with Hot Rod who is way better than the previous core class. Disappointingly, mine has some major paint errors as you can see on his right shoulder. He’s got swivels at the head, shoulders and knees and ball joints for hips. He’s pretty good.

Also he’s way bigger than the previousy released Micromasters, what gives?

Altmode is standard Hot Rod fare. The weird spoiler slots are an eyesore but he rolls well and isn’t missing any obvious paint detail.

Optimus’ vehicle mode is a gigantic space teuck. No obvious robot parts are visible but annoyingly, the wheels have a tendency to not all touch the ground at the same time. He has the two articulated turrets up top and that’s about it.
for accessories, he comes with the big black gun that can store on the roof. It’s a 5mm peg but has an additional tab to secure his grip. It comes with a clear blue bullet that you can load into the side but I dunno why it’s removable at all since it doesn’t do anything else.

Optimus comes with two sets of the Jetfire effects in yellow and a set of the Omega Supreme effects in orange, with two extra tips. This baffles me since they bothered to mold duplicates but not enough for the double barreled turrets. They can simulate double blasts but they’ll be at an angle.

He also has a new blast effect that is blue and depicts i dunno a charge shot or something. It looks god but the attachment to Star Optimus’s gun isn’t very secure. It actually works better on other toys. That said, it’s cast from a significantly harder plastic than the other effect parts and is a lot heavier.

The micro trailer is visible above and it’s a box on wheels. not sure what it adds to the set since Hot rod can store directly in Optimus. The cab can be removed and flip put some cannons, I guess. Not much to write home about.

Optimus keeps the Zodiac in his chest. I don’t know what it is does I was never into Astrology. It’s a shiny clear blue bauble with a 5mm peg on the bottom. The pedestal is removable which is good since the wheel well parts collide with the gray part when closing the chest. Nothing major but it means the thing will not stay centered. of note, Hot Rod’s supposed to be able to sit in the chest but it’s stupidly fiddly and my hands don’t fit into the space so I didn’t bother.
The pedestal can be used as a handle to make the blast effects lightsabers I guess.

Everything fits into his shins which is nice.

base mode’s pretty bad because it’s the robot mode sitting down. No new features are revealed aside from the shins opening to reveal parking space. It’s really not good.arms are not trying at all.

the weapon platform’s the stand out. It’s formed by the detachable tread parts on the back of his shins. The gun is linked to the blue dial to its left and if you spin the dial, the turret will also spin. There are tabs to secure Hot Rod since he isn’t actually holding on to anything.

The gun can detach and be held as a gun. Nice option.
Overall a really nice toy with good deco, decent articulation and a lot of features. It’s a good start to the new Titan class.

Hands are 5mm but finding appropriate weapons is going to be a challenge given his size.

I really like Hot Rod’s being able to drive into his foot. Gives Daimos vibes.