You can’t resist Optimus Prime. He died in the original 1986 Transformers animated film, resurrected twice in the third season of the G1 cartoon, and in the decades that have passed, he’s become the coolest convertible semi-truck ever. Robosen made the awesome automatic G1 Prime last year, and just like the cartoon, he’s back and rebuilding to be better, stronger, faster, and cheaper. Say hello to Elite Optimus Prime.
First things first. If you missed the launch of Robosen’s original Flagship Optimus Prime in April 2021, yes it’s a legit working robot that walks, talks and transforms. It is built with more than 5,000 component pieces and 60 microchips and uses 27 servo motors to move. That includes driving and driving in vehicle mode, pacing in robot mode, and changing between the two. There’s light, sound, and Prime even speaks to you in Prime’s voice, because the legendary Peter Cullen recorded the same 80 phrases as usual.
The new Elite Optimus Prime has all the same features as the Flagship model, right down to smartphone or voice control. It has the same number of parts, performs the same actions, and looks just as good while doing it. Actually, it looks a little better, because the Elite is slightly smaller, more compact and lighter. In robot mode, it stands 16 inches tall compared to 19 inches for the Flagship Prime. That means Elite Prime is changing faster, moving faster, and frankly, it makes us want to part with our money many faster to get it.
On that front, there is more good news. While the Flagship Optimus Prime Robosen sells for $1,200, Elite Prime now available for $699. Some may find it expensive, but there are also people who are thinking of dropping $25k on a Mario Kart watch. And we’re pretty sure the watch can’t do the hero pose.
“We are excited to bring the lighter and more compact Optimus Prime to fans of the franchise,” said Sean Tang, director of Robosen USA. “The re-engineered scale offers smooth and fast conversions, making the Elite Optimus Prime even more agile and fast, which we are happy to bring back to all of our fans and customers, through our collaboration with Hasbro.”
Looking for more retro 80s car content? Check out the Knight Rider special episode from Chatting About Carsavailable below.
