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Day 363: Air Attack Optimus Primal

The Beast Machines line was suddenly cancelled in 2001 for a variety of reasons -- including that the overproduction of Star Wars toys for The Phantom Menace left Hasbro reeling, prompting them to close down Kenner, and rethink their Transformers line. As a stopgap solution, they imported Japanese Transformers toys (in an echo of how the toyline started in the first place), turning the Car Robots line into Robots in Disguise for 2001. A few toys designed for Beast Machines made it into the Robots in Disguise line, even though the narrative of the series didn't really allow for it. 

So here's Air Attack Optimus Primal, a massive Maximal toy released exclusively to Toys R Us in 2002. He turns from a robot into a techno-organic gorilla. He is extremely well articulated, down to each individual finger being poseable. He has battery operated LEDs, and voice clips of Gerry Chalk, the Optimus Primal actor from Beast Machines. 





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