Generations: "Thrilling 30" Orion Pax!

12.26.2014 – In the original cartoon Orion Pax was a dock worker and in other media like from the Dreamwave and IDW published comic books he’s known as an archivist. It depends on which form of media you followed but overall he would became Prime. But the version that depicted in the Deluxe Class released Generations toyline commemorating 30 years of Transformers is based on the Spotlight comic book by IDW Publication. But there’s more than meets the eye who is Orion Pax…

There were a few versions of the story how Orion Pax came to be what everyone as Optimus Prime. But there is no definitive origin but rather it’s up to you how to paint what character he was before he came the bearer of the Matrix of Leadership. There were some variations of his name too. But no need to add those to your confusion all you need to know Optimus Prime’s former life either as a dock worker in a storage yard with his girlfriend Ariel and best friend Dion in the original cartoon.

In other media like the comic books there were many depictions of the character too. But the current holder of the license, which is IDW that publishes the comic books, would be best suited to follow since the print companion with the figure Hasbro recently released is originally the Transformers Spotlight featuring the character.











Thirty Years of Generations

This is one of the first waves Deluxe Class Generations released with a new packaging in late 2013. Along with Orion Pax, Hasbro released also a new version of Bumblebee (which later will be retooled into Goldfire, originally “Goldbug” and Nightbeat), Trailcutter (formerly “Trailbreaker” which was retooled into Hoist), and Megatron (based from IDW Publication).

The packaging now has a comic book companion as mentioned and has a variant cover that is uniformed to other figure that came after. It’s now larger than the previous ones released from 2010 to 2012. It’s like how Hasbro gave the same treatment to their other brands like G.I. Joe, Marvel Universe, and Star Wars.

Its one of the most attractive and well-packaged Hasbro products that still carries some elements of what a Transformers Generation 1, which differentiated from its other products and very much still recognizable by long time fans.









Orion by its Name

Orion Pax has been released in toy form twice but the first one was an e-Hobby Japan Exclusive that accompanied the reissue of Kup with his Targetmaster partner. The retooled version using this mold was released as “Orion Pax” with “Dion”. Since the Kup reissue also included mini-bot Wheelie and both figures, where repainted based from the G1 original cartoon episode.

But after that release there were no more versions of the characters until in 2010 when Transformers Collectors Club released Dion as part of the 2010 membership subscription using the TF Universe 2.0 Armada Hot Shot mold. Orion Pax won’t have a new mold until late in 2013, which eventually became part of the Generations toyline commemorating “Thrilling 30” years of Transformers.







Robot Mode to Non-Earthly Truck

The robot mode is well designed and still carries some elements from the original G1 cartoon series, but its now well streamlined having now more relations to the character featured in the Transformers Spotlight comic book series. Orion’s face is more serious than cartoony and it has light piping effect for those blue eyes.

However this version on review has a minor factory defect that his entire face was not glued properly that’s why sometimes it keeps falling off. So if you have encountered this problem just be careful not to lose his face or you would have a “Faceless Pax.” The figure comes with his signature blaster an a battle axe, which probably was inspired from the TF Animated cartoon that carried over to having some of the Optimus Prime figures carry a secondary weapon.

Transformation to vehicle mode isn’t that difficult the instructions show less than 10 easy steps. But for long time Transformers fans the manual is only back up to the most difficult transformations and rarely being used for a point of reference.

In vehicle mode Orion Pax appears more of an “Earthly vehicle” but this Autobot did not reach the Terran planet not until he became “Optimus Prime” in the original cartoon. Though in the comic book accompanied with this figure states that he missed his “mouth plate” and that are an interesting part of the story. But overall its unnoticeable that Orion Pax would look like a truck from Earth.





Size Comparisons among itself

For a Deluxe Class size figure this one is smaller than the previous figures designated in this price point. If you put Orion Pax side by Side with Dion he’s under scaled for a Deluxe Class figure and his scale is way off from other figures that also came along with the first wave.

Even side by side with the Voyager Class Classics Optimus Prime his appearance is WAY smaller that you can now design intricate details without compromising its price point and that’s why Orion Pax looks much smaller than meets the eye.







Overall Relevance

Orion Pax is one of the good figures but he’s not perfect like other Generations released characters they have their own flaws. For this one it was the scale that looked smaller than your conventional Deluxe Class price point. But the details and new design would make this figure jump off the toy shelf not only because he was Pre-Optimus Prime. But the history of that character made this somewhat a must have.

Not entirely a hot character in the first wave that had Bumblebee, Megatron (Stealth Bomber), and Trailcutter that was released last year. But definitely in some stores he immediately gets sold out second along with Bumblebee and Megatron, which leaves Trailcutter as the leftover.

“Thirlling 30” Orion Pax is a Deluxe Class figure released as part of the Transformers celebration and it’s retailed at PhP 849.75 pesos and available in Philippine local markets nationwide distributed by Playkit.

3.5 Out of 5 Robot Points.