Encore Omega Supreme brings me much joy

[onslaught86]

Encore Omega Supreme.

I had this holy moment when I sat down and opened the enormous box with its enormous tray. I already have an almost-complete G1 Omega w/tatty box, so the toy itself wasn't anything that new to me, yet he's so vastly different from the Action Figures that make up the entire TF lines these days that it made him quite the treat.

I'd been paying this one off for a while, since he was an Unbudgeted Expense. When I got my first Omega years ago, I did the same thing, and was oh-so-happy when I carried his huge box home (I was sixteen, I think). This time I walked for an hour across town to another collector's place and picked him up, along with a Pile Of GoBots including Super Spay-C, Warpath, Super Leader-1, and Blue Leader-1. And a slightly busted Psycho, Psycho is awesome. And two Defendors! Yay! I digress. After said walk, I lucked out and caught two busses in quick succession, getting me home in 15mins and only a few odd looks for hanging around in the bus exchange with a giant Transformers box under my arm.

Omega Supreme is a proper High End Toy. You guys ever get that with toylines? The regular figures are, well, regular figures. Of a certain size and price point, and fiddly and easy to cart around should you so wish. Yet the higher end stuff, the playsets and the like, would theme the whole play pattern, or even provide a setting. These wouldn't be the sort of thing you'd get with pocket money, they'd be the kind you'd get for a birthday or christmas, they'd have a ton of parts and take ages to figure out. Omega is That kind of toy. The bajillion (Metric bajillion, we're talking) pieces that make him up don't scream Shoddy Legoformer, they scream Playset.

Now, we just get larger action figures. Movie Leaders are fun and all, but it's not like they encourage you to purchase smaller toys to interact with them in the same way a playset does. Alas.

While I easily recalled the transformation from robot to parts, and had to disassemble him to put him in the box and get him home, the transformation to rocket base had slipped my mind, and made figuring him out oodles of fun. The base is larger than I remember it being, and the changes for the reissue are largely good - more durable by far, takes AA batteries instead of 9V, and he now has a face with eyes and a nose. Said face kinda detracts from his overall Omeganess, as there's a certain something about his faceless robotic glory. It's the nose that does it. Better than an empty head, mind you. I always liked Zob's custom Omega with a Blurr face.

Base mode is great, with a long, oval track for the chunky tank to drive around. The coolness of a slot car set combined with a rocket and a tank! The tank drives and spins, and this big base set made of several pieces all manages to combine together into a very solid and fluid robot design, which then alters the same mechanism used to drive the tank to make the robot walk. Exceedingly clever piece of work to this day, I'm so glad his reissue became possible with the advent of the Takara-Tomy merger.
Walking robot also marks him as less Action Figurey. It's very retro and awesome, with the mechanical whirring and his slow plod forward, shuffle shuffle shuffle. My cat was unphased, disappointingly. The clicky clacky ratchet joints, the giant gun and claw, everything about Omega's design is space-age retro-futuristic win. He's like something you'd find on the moon if it were the 1960s (Or 70s, given his grey/yellow/orange colours).

One thing I didn't previously notice is his official alternate transformations. Y'see, Omega comes with all these track pieces for his nifty base mode, and robot mode normally only uses two. You can also use four, for larger backpack wings, or all of them as a sort of )( wing design. But the intstructs note they can form a circle above his head, making it look like he has a stargate on his back, heh. Omega Supreme summons reinforcements from his back. That rules. Best of all, and serious kudos to the designers here, the packaging works well with the parts that are optional for robot mode. You can stow them nicely in the tray, and they specifically designed the tray so that the pieces you leave in there are sitting on the bottom, as several nearly-indentical parts stack, yet some of these are used and some are not. The ones that are not are on the bottom of the tray. Yay.

I started a similar ranty rant yay this toy rules thread when I got my original, yet he's really one that warrants it. I only wish more kids could experience this behemoth, and lose his many yellow clips, and love him to death. If you've never played with an Omega Supreme, do yourself a favour and track this one down.

[Dominic]

I am tempted by the Sentinel recolor. If not for the (incorrect) Autobot sigil on the chest, I would have caved by now.


Dom

[onslaught86]

I would've been keen for that one too, had they used the fantastic pre-TF colouring, and not the blah white/blue of the Guardian Robo. Just get the original, he's an excellent and impressive piece of work in any colour scheme.

[Onslaught Six]

I'd kill for a Mechabot-1.

[BWprowl]

On a related note, I recently got the other old mold acquired in the Takara-Tomy merger (and one of my Holy Grail TF toys), Sky Lynx. Reading this makes me want to review mine.

On-topic, this review makes Omega sound like worlds of awesome, '86. I've always kinda wanted one, but reading about all this crap that he does just clinches it. I'll have to start setting aside money, which won't exactly be easy with all the ROTF stuff I still need to buy...

[138 Scourge]

This guy blew my mind back in '85. He was a pile of parts, but it was so much fun to take him apart from one mode and put him back to the other. I'm kinda surprised I never figured out the circle-behind-the head thing, but then, there was no Stargate back then. Also, it was great fun to pick up his debut comic on the stands and see him slaughter half the Decepticons. Not even in an angry way, just a "This is what happens" way. There's an Autobot for ya, right there. Man, I miss my Omega Supreme somethin' fierce. I suppose it's off to BBTS for me, then.

Nice haul, m'man. Congrats. Very good review, too, since now I'm craving one of these. Craving, I say!

[onslaught86]

On a related note, I recently got the other old mold acquired in the Takara-Tomy merger (and one of my Holy Grail TF toys), Sky Lynx. Reading this makes me want to review mine.

On-topic, this review makes Omega sound like worlds of awesome, '86. I've always kinda wanted one, but reading about all this crap that he does just clinches it. I'll have to start setting aside money, which won't exactly be easy with all the ROTF stuff I still need to buy...

Hmm, I've been meaning to get an Encore Sky Lynx too. I don't desperately want him, since the lack of robot mode and large footprint make him a pain in the rear to display, he takes up far more space than he should. How is the Encore? Good plastic and sticker quality, mould degradation, retooling of electronics etc? I do love that they've retooled the electronics on all reissues thus far, Galvatron's are easily the most impressive.

That said, Omega Supreme's not breaking with ridiculous ease is a pretty big selling point.

This guy blew my mind back in '85. He was a pile of parts, but it was so much fun to take him apart from one mode and put him back to the other. I'm kinda surprised I never figured out the circle-behind-the head thing, but then, there was no Stargate back then. Also, it was great fun to pick up his debut comic on the stands and see him slaughter half the Decepticons. Not even in an angry way, just a "This is what happens" way. There's an Autobot for ya, right there. Man, I miss my Omega Supreme somethin' fierce. I suppose it's off to BBTS for me, then.

Oh yeah, it's fantastic that Omega got a very fitting character to match his toy. He's always been consistently awesome, too, with fantastic lines like "Talk: Excessive. Time: Limited," and "Sarcasm: Not Appreciated."

I should snap a pictsy of the stargate on his back, it's pretty cool.

[Onslaught Six]

Hmm, I've been meaning to get an Encore Sky Lynx too. I don't desperately want him, since the lack of robot mode and large footprint make him a pain in the rear to display, he takes up far more space than he should. How is the Encore? Good plastic and sticker quality, mould degradation, retooling of electronics etc? I do love that they've retooled the electronics on all reissues thus far, Galvatron's are easily the most impressive.

I don't own Sky Lynx, obviously, but is there any way one could position several smaller Autobots underneath him in a display? I've currently got Ratchet and G1 Prime on my G2 Prime trailer in my G1 display, so something similar could maybe be done.

Oh yeah, it's fantastic that Omega got a very fitting character to match his toy. He's always been consistently awesome, too, with fantastic lines like "Talk: Excessive. Time: Limited," and "Sarcasm: Not Appreciated."

He continues with the I AM OMEGA SUPREME bit in AHM 12. Go go preview pages. God, just seeing those alone made my day. <.<

[Skywarp408]

He's a bunch of fun. I got my original one for quite a bit 5 years ago. He is worth it.

[andersonh1]

I love this figure. I still have my original, which I got for Christmas back in 85. I ended up replacing the center tank section a few years back because I'd left the batteries in and the acid had ruined the connections. But otherwise the figure's still in good condition. I think it's almost unique among Transformers figures in the way all these pieces come apart to form the tank, rocket, rocket launch pad and track, which the tank can drive around on. Awesome.