There is a lot of silver paint present on this figure and the paint applications are excellent overall. The kibble gun which makes the figure stand out is easily packed away and when it is undeployed it takes the place of the fuel tanks of the normal ROTF OP.
Ok down to business. Articulation wise he is limited by the shoulder kibble trapping against the swords and forearm kibble restricting his arm movement. His feet restrict his leg poses as they will only pivot backwards. Overall his articulation is less than the 07' movie prime provided but still reasonable when compared to the articulation of leader jetfire and megatron.
Rating:- 8/10 {-4 for articulation problems, + 1 for kibble gun, 1+ for excellent paint job}
Transformation:-
The japanese instructions add in some photos of how to do the more complex parts of the transformation making it interesting but not infuriating.
Rating 9/10
Vehicle mode:-
And here we are. Oddly for a japanese figure there is crappy and annoying soft rubbery plastic smokestacks present. Other than that he rolls well and has a rubbish vehicle sound button. (That is mentioned in the instructions of buster prime) The lights are clear plastic on the chromed front grill, I would have liked them to be painted but thats a minor complaint when compared with the very detailed paint scheme.
Rating 9/10
Extra
And we come to the 'combined mode'
This is not a figure selling feature to me as plainly it sucks. {This is the offical configuration. I would have preferred a deluxe two pack of specially designed combining jetfire and prime rather than them turning leader jetfire into a glorified flight pack.} Doing this combination removes all of the little articulation that prime possesses in his legs.
To me this combination adds nothing to this figure at all.
Final rating {robot 8/10, transformation 9/10, vehicle 9/10} 8.6/10
Final notes:
While this prime is a decent leader class figure he is not the amazing figure that many made him out to be. The inherent design flaws of the figures arms that restrict there movement cripple the playability. Buster prime is an improvement over the standard version as the extras {the gun and excellent paint apps} make it more bearable.
