When I first saw this figure I was wondering if it was even possible to make reprolabels for it given that it has tons of textured surfaces allowing for very little spots to lay flat stickers.
A few months later Toyhax proved me wrong and showed how again how a seemlingly great figure could be enhanced.
This version of Optimus Prime is a great rendition to the TLK Optimus.
Personally, I am a bigger fan of the traditional movie Optimius with some truck kibble visible here and there,particularly the windshields, so this "knight" look with shoulder pads and no truck kibble didn't attract me.
But I must say that I'm surprised by the mold, the ingenieous transformation and poseability of this guy.
Truck mode is great, it has a good amount of paint apps and enough detail that I could be OK with it, if it wasn't for the lack of hubcap paints, which is an unavoidable constant lately.
A truck is a truck is a truck, just like we've seen countless times in movie OP before. The transformation borrows from other tricks in the past hiding arms, torso and head neatly in the cab.
Reprolabels
This set is labeled as having 3 sheets, and I got it and checked I counted 3 pieces and it seemed fine, but it is actually 4 sheets +1 of alternative stickers!
I was missing the sheet with stickers for robot mode, but Toyhax's support team was excellent enough to send me a replacement no questions asked!
There is a lot of tiny stickers on this set. Many of them are pieces that go to cover bigger panels such as the shoulder pads which are 4 stickers each, or each arm has 6 stickers. Legs are in similar count and the chest plates also have lots of pieces.
Make sure this is not your first reprolabels set to apply. I found this to be quite difficult with lots of tiny stickers and I needed to make consistent use of two pliers to help place the stickers.
Do dry your hands and clean your figure throughly before starting, wear gloves if possible!
Many of the stickers go on curved surfaces, so you will need to make sure that you follow the curve to get all the surface adhered.
There are several sections that gave me trouble with this section.
The arms, the chest and feet stickers gave me lots of trouble sticking on all sides of the surface, the back hand has tiny areas that go between the knuckles that just wouldn't stick.
The feet red detail didn't want to remain put on both places, I'd recommend first doing a hard fold and then trying to stick it, else it wants to remain flat.
The sword and shield also get stickers, these are the easier ones to apply.
Truck mode is way easier than bot mode by far!
I also painted the hubcabs with Moltow chrome markers chich helped complete the look.
The stickers here add lots of subtle but very welcome details. The small chrome parts over gray amd shiny front cab really shine.
On every set there's always some sticker that has me doubtful if I should do it or not, here it was the replacement flames on the sides.
Honestly, the original flames were fine with me,, but after applying these the change was minimal but the higher contrast and more vibrant blue did improve things.
Conclusion
Honestly, I'd recommend against buying this set.
As much as it helps the fiture, the stickers are difficult to apply, but after that they keep unsticking and the fits are microns bigger than the surface which means that you could rub the figure the wrong way and pull a sticker out.
As beautiful as it looks, I feel that this set turns your toy into a statue, I do not feel confident at all manipulating it without fearing stickers becoming undone and throwing a not very cheap stickers investment.