Caltrops: Optimus Prime

More than meets the eye in this impressive Lego set

You may or may not be aware that today is Prime Day. I am not talking about the day your packages arrive, but a day dedicated to the strongest and wisest transformer of them all: Optimus Prime. I literally cannot remember a time where I was not infatuated with the big red Autobot leader. He was smart and gentle when he needed to be but never shied away from a fight when the reason was just. He was always there to brighten my day.

I present Optimus Prime.

Lego Set #10302. 1508 Pieces. Released in 2022.


Optimus Prime was one of my first obsession’s as a kid, along with a few other robots and monsters from space (Voltron, Godzilla R2-D2 to name a few, and they could each get their own article). Lego dropped a bomb on my obsessive nature by announcing a Lego Optimus Prime set. A transforming Lego set at that. Imagine that. It was going to launch in time for me to get it, build it and put together some glamour shots for the only Prime Day in my book, so, yeah, that had to happen.

He stands 14″ tall at top of his stylish antennae

Lego Optimus took me approximately six streaming Simpsons episodes to build. The instructions were clear and comprehensive. The pieces were broken up into 10 large bags, each including one or two smaller bags within. I was not missing any pieces and I ended up with a handful of extras for those little pieces that are most likely to end up missing on the floor and being sworn at.

On top of his Blaster, Prime can be armed with his energy axe by un-arming him of his hand; you pop his hand off, and fold down the connector piece to insert the melee weapon. Prime also came with a badass jet-pack that he borrowed from Jetfire in an episode of the show.

The Matrix of Command. In Lego form.

I am glad I got this set. Assembling a childhood icon (Optimus) with another childhood icon (Lego) made this semi-adult quite happy. It was a treat to build something that didn’t have to be painted after as well.

He is here to protect us, so the least we can do is remember him once a year – Copyright Hasbro

There is little doubt in my mind that I will end up publishing an article about my time with Transformers over the years, more specifically in regards to Optimus himself and show of my pared-down collection.

Until then, Happy Optimus Prime Day!

[This post was originally published at Otherverse Games & Hobbies]



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Tyson

Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man

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