Movie Optimus Spychanger..."GASP!"

Yeah, that's right. I bought a movie figure. But it isn't really a movie figure. Technically it is a movie repaint of an existing Robots In Disguise figure. And it was a total impulse buy; I was just browsing eBay the other day and I happened to come upon it. I didn't really know a whole lot about it but I thought it would be something cool Flywheels would like, but upon checking his Shmax page I discovered he already owned it. Big surprise (he has, like, everything). But the seller had it for half off at what seemed to be a pretty reasonable price especially for a Japanese exclusive so I bit the bullet.



From what I have been able to learn this figure was available exclusively at Lawson's stores in Japan and only with a pre-order of the first Transformers movie (2007) on DVD or HD-DVD (loool, HD-DVD!). It isn't a bad repaint either, it evokes movie Prime's style while using a figure based off G2 Laser Optimus Prime. That brings up the question of where exactly this figure came from and unfortunately it is a little convoluted.

So back in 2001 when Robots in Disguise (RID) debuted in America Hasbro released all the Spychangers that were part of the original lineup of the Car Robots show in Japan. Then as the line went on Hasbro created more Spychangers based on other characters in the RID show including X-Brawn, Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus. They also released a spychanger of Scourge, who himself was actually a black repaint of Generation 2 Laser Optimus Prime that was re-purposed for the show. So we get a brand new Spychanger, but he is a small version of another figure that was based on a prior incarnation. Then a couple of years later we get this figure again, but it is repainted in Generation 1 Optimus Prime colors as a KB exclusive. So I believe this is actually the third time we've seen this particular mold, but it makes a great choice for a repaint because 1) it is obviously Optimus no matter what color you paint it and 2) it is small enough for a giveaway.

Here with KB exclusive Prime

Again, technically it isn't really a movie toy, it is just another Robot In Disguise :)