If this looks familiar and you've seen this before online, don't rub your eyes. You're probably right!
UPDATE!
My creation here is now an official product under Educiro/Pangu, available on sale in amazon.com. Please click on my amazon affliate link below if you are interested to get one (or 10) on your own!
PROLOGUE
I started building my first Optimus Prime using LEGO when I was a child back in the late 80s / early 90s. Few days before I published this article, I made a special blog entry (link below) regarding my journey of building Prime in my childhood , with some very interesting photos.
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
I think I started this project around the year 2019. In that same year, I also kept myself busy with some other LEGO projects, and started experimenting with building Transformers using official LEGO sets too. So project Prime v4 was pretty much sidelined.
I think I posted just ONE sneakpeek of this project in my instagram back then, but I'm too lazy to fetch it and put it here. And IG is cumbersome when it comes to browsing and locating older posts from many years ago.
By the way.... follow me on instagram if you have not already!
THEN...2022 HAPPENED...
In this year, I was commissioned to build Optimus Prime . Finally, an incentive to encourage me to complete this project once and for all. This creation eventually becomes one building block product named Pangu 13014 (below). I shall call it PG13014 for the rest of this article.
Photo above showed the final product , still boxed (that I purchased for keepsake)... with the prototype of Prime v4. Back then, I don't have all the right parts to complete it .. so the creation was a bit off colored.
A YEAR LATER (THAT'S 2023)
I think the prototype of my Prime v4 have been kept hidden for far too long, so I decided to complete him using the right colors and published this blog entry.
I seemed to have lost the prototype rifle designed for PG13014 , so a different one was built hastily just for this photoshoot.
I discovered that one smokestack from my prototype had gone missing as well , probably rolled under the drawer. To prevent the risk of my back hurting from searching and retrieving it, I decided to update the smokestacks with slightly different parts.
I have decided to spruce up this creation to be slightly different from PG13014. They're barely noticeable in cab mode, really.
TRANSFORM!
Fuel tanks helped to secure the legs, now unlatched to release knee joints.
Robot Mode
One difference compared to PG13014 is the the yellow-red streaks on his legs I applied to pay homage to Powermaster Optimus Prime.
PG13014 has light gray thighs overall, compared to my dark gray here.
Note how the fuel tank halves were positioned to secure the knees for standing straight poses. They can be swivelled out of the way for other dynamic leg poses later on.
How a hinged plate was applied to lock the waist. When unlatched... the waist swivel is released.
Opening windshield revealing the matrix of leadership.
MORE POSES
With Gun
I think I'll let the photos do the talking from this point onwards.
Footnotes
Powermaster Prime is my favorite version of Optimus Prime toy (below), so it's just natural I made a Powermaster Trailer for this Prime v4 to be merged with.
Unfortunately, this trailer failed to reach production as an official building block toy product, due to unknown reasons.
However..... not letting my effort go to waste, I have started Project Powermaster Optimus Prime version 5 few months back, that will include this trailer design. I can't wait to finish and publish it so that I can move on to clear my backlogs of pending LEGO projects.
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