Optimus Prime's cab is mainly black with a chromed radiator, some red paint round the top of the cab which slopes down at the rear - obviously the robot arms - to take up nearly all the flatbed. It's not the best Prime cab design. Mounted across the back of the cab's flatbed is a white missile launching gun. Why do Prime's gun in white ? It should be black or, as per other toys this year, a clear Energon colour (Jetfire, Rodimus, Hotshot). A Minicon port is found on either side of the cab. The cab makes one of several noises each of which refers to one of his drones - see bellow. An additional button on the side of the toy makes a transforming sound.
Optimus Prime tows a trailer that contains four numbered drones which each form a limb for his combined mode:
Drone 1 is a fire engine in orange with a grey extending ladder and a pair of water sprayers that move to the sides mounted above above the cab. Should have been red - Fire Engines are red ! In limb mode he has a hand.
Drone 2 is a white helicopter with spinning rotor blades. There's lots of white on Prime and it matches too well making him look slightly lopsided colour wise when used as an arm. He too has a hand.
Drone 3 is a yellow drill tank. This screams RESCUE FORCE to me !!!!! Drill revolves in tank mode and forms the limb end in arm mode.
Drone 4 is a blue submarine. In arm mode it has a claw.
The trailer looks a bit like a car transporter - surely that's more an Ultra Magnus thing ? A Minicon port is found on either side of the trailer. The only problem with it being a car transporter is the hatches for the drones don't point out the back in trailer mode - they point up. To deploy the drones the trailer must be disconnected and folded forward onto it's front - surely it would have been better to take the traditional approach of allowing them to be deployed down a ramp at the back of the trailer while it was connected. As it is Drone 2's deployment is done via a platform that folds out the side of the container.
Cab transforms to robot mode by swinging the arms round to the sides, folding the legs down from under the flatbed, folding the head up from the cab roof and folding the flatbed against the back of the toy. Feet fold out the end of the legs and hands slide out the arms.
The Prime robot mode looks fat due to the bulky body. The use of a standard Prime head - albeit with a mouth on the US version - red on the arms and blue on the legs does help to make you think Prime when looking at it even if the main chest has no red at all ! The knees bend, the hips move, the shoulders - one with a spark crystal, the other with an embossed Autobot symbol - turn and allow the arms to raise at the sides, the elbows bend and the hands are 5mm peg holes so will enable him to use all standard size weapons. The single robot is a nice solid toy if a little unspectacular.
As mentioned above Optimus can combine with his limbs - fold the feet in, slide the hands into the wrists, fold the chest panels out to the sides revealing what must be his matrix - complete with diode that lights up when the noises are sounded - and fold the helmet up onto his back. All 4 limbs can be used as arms or legs with the back of each limb fitting on to the end of Optimus' existing ones. Leg limbs need the front of the vehicle bent up to form a foot, while arm limbs need the back of the vehicle bent back to form a shoulder and possibly some panels on the front folded back to reveal a hand/claw.
The result is a nice big, solid toy with lots of posability answering a major criticism made of Armada Op's combined mode. It's more a fun toy than a collectors one somehow with both the cab and robot looking a little odd in places which maybe could have been impooved by making the cab red instead of black. The less said about the trailer the better. The drones are fun, but suffer when used as multicoloured limbs in combined mode. Also they are just drones - having small vehicles/limbs that transformed into robots, like the Scramble City or later Energon combiners, especially if they were familiar Autobots like Prowl, Ratchet, Jazz and Wheeljack (Personally I think this was the original intention with the Protectorbots/Defensor). Prime has never been used as a combiner core with other robots forming the limbs, this is the closest we get.
Optimus Prime was available in Japan as Superlink toy SC-01 Grand Convoy. This version has no electronics and a faceplate instead of the molded mouth.
There's a mold variation - some have a mouth, others have a faceplate - see Dave van Domelen's Energon Page for details.
Optimus Prime uses his combining system to link with two other toys. The first is Wing Saber. Wing Saber breaks into four pieces - upper body and arms split down the centre while each leg comes off. Then with a little transforming you end up with limbs that can be combined with Optimus' smaller robot just like his drones can. There are two Prime/Wing Saber combinations. The first - using the upper body parts as arms and the Wing Saber's legs as Prime's Legs - results in a robot that's got the traditional "red arms & body with blue legs" Prime look while giving Prime a pair of wings. The second gives a slightly less traditional blue arms and red legs but does add huge cannons onto Prime's shoulders. If you want Optimus Prime then you really need Wing Saber to unleash the toy's full potential. Unfortunately due to circumstances retold at length elsewhere (In the Ironhide Review for a start) the Voyager assortment was cancelled in the UK before this toy came out. The US version commands a considerable premium nowdays. But it is possibly one of the few high priced Energon toys that is worth owning.
Optimus Prime also combines with Omega Supreme (and it's repaint Omega Sentinal). Remove Supreme's Headmaster Minicon, pull the toy in two down the middle of the body and fold the panel the neck joint is on up and to the side to form a molded missile launcher. Transform Prime's robot into cab mode but raise both the head and the helmet. Place Optimus into the chest cavity on one side of Omega Supreme's body then lock other side of the toy round Prime. A number of panels then fold out from Omega Supreme's body allowing Prime's drones to be attached but I don't think they add much to the combined form - ecept, maybe, mounting the drill on his wrist like an oversized Drillbit Minicon. All Optimus really does in this mode is give Omega Supreme a new head so if you've got Omega Supreme you're not missing out on much and if you've got Optimus you're not going to get anything out of this combined mode without liking Omega Supreme itself as a toy.
There's also a Grand Scourge colour scheme used as a repaint of a smaller kit model version of this toy which could be used for the larger toy.