Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece Review | MP-10: Convoy [Optimus Prime] from The Transformers “Generation One” Animated Series

My greatest treat this last Christmas was unboxing Takara Tomy’s acclaimed MP-10 Convoy - a literal masterpiece of a toy that my parents had imported from Japan, using the Internet to achieve what they could not in 1988. That year, my poor old mam scoured just about every major toy shop in South Yorkshire in search of the original Convoy (Optimus Prime to us in the Western World), oblivious to the fact that it had been discontinued by Hasbro, who were pushing a brand new Transformers toy line following the much-loved Autobot leader’s death on screen. That Christmas, Santa brought me Ultra Magnus.

Takara Tomy’s Masterpiece series is aimed squarely at the now fully-grown men who grew up playing with Transformers. Meticulously engineered to be as poseable and TV-accurate as possible, the range’s transforming action figures plug the gap once filled by childhood imagination. This Optimus looks almost exactly as he did on screen in The Transformers; his appearance is close to flawless. To see him stood beside his G1 and G1 Powermaster predecessors is to wonder at a child’s ability to suspend disbelief - the 1980s toys bore only the crudest of resemblances to the Cybertron commander, while the Masterpiece is exactly that.

 

And the Masterpiece’s functionality is breathtaking. Legs that bend would have been an improvement on the Powermaster iteration, but the Masterpiece is so damned flexible that everything from head antennae to individual fingers can be manipulated. This guy can nod, shake hands, point. He comes with a vibro-axe that, once attached, seems to grow straight out of his arm, just like on TV. He not only has a solid back, but a solid back in which his fold-up blaster can be stowed. Best of all though, in a beautiful nod to The Transformers: The Movie, his chest opens up to reveal a die-cast chamber housing a bejewelled Autobot Matrix of Leadership. The trade-off for this little wonder is the loss of a truly glass-like appearance for the truck windows that make up the robot’s chest. I’d have been tempted to tint them to hide the chamber beneath.

In alt-form, that famous red truck cab is more detailed than ever before - there’s even room to insert the set’s small Spike Witwicky action figure into the driver’s seat. One slight blemish is the robot head, which can be seen hanging upside-down and back-to-front from the roof of the cab like a high-tech alternative to fluffy dice. I certainly don’t remember that on the telly. Again, tinting the windows would have effectively solved this, though admittedly it would have taken something away not to actually be able to see Spike at the wheel.

The alt-form trailer gleams, and can be opened to reveal not only Roller but also various weapons stations; banks of Spike-scaled computer terminals; and even what can be transformed into a vertical regeneration chamber for the proto-form Prime. It boasts more features than the Powermaster’s battle station alt-form, and that’s really saying something.

If this toy has a weakness, it’s that it’s not really fit to be used as such. The transformation process is involved and laborious; a stark contrast to the original’s delightfully straightforward change, which could be effected in less than the time it took to make the commensurate noise. I don’t see this as a major issue though as, doubtless, these Transformers are clearly intended as display pieces rather than snot-and-toybox fodder.

What bothers me more is the figure’s apparent frailty. Poseable fingers are great, but one of them nearly gave me a heart attack when it fell off; the same applies to a small part of the cab’s silver livery, which came away during the transformation. Both were re-attached with ease, fortunately, as modern Transformers have almost as much in common with LEGO as they do their often stiff and breakable ’80s ancestors, but it’s still something of a cause for concern as an inadvertently removed finger could easily be lost – it’s only a few mm thick, after all.

Takara Tomy’s beautiful and sturdy black box proclaims this Masterpiece as the “PERFECT NEW MODEL” Convoy, and it’s hard to disagree. What I have here is a truly optimal Optimus; a phenomenal toy that I don’t need to put on rose-tinted specs to enjoy, as the wonder that I remember so well is all here now, in the flesh – or, rather, the metal.