Last April, the Transformers brand and luxury car company Bingo Sports announced a collaboration as part of the Transformers’ 40th anniversary. It will come in the form of Bingo Sports Optimus Prime, an extensive retool of Studio Series “Age of Extinction” Crosshairs. Its robot mode is based on Optimus Prime’s appearance in the same film while the race car mode will be based on a Corvette C7 GT3-R. I was under the impression this will be one of those harder-to-get Japanese exclusive figures but I guess it isn’t as solicitations are now open, from the usual sources, to pre-order this figure.
Here’s a more neutral view of Bingo Sports Optimus Prime for both robot and vehicle modes, and we can see in the former how Crosshairs’ trench coat motif translates to this Optimus Prime design. It’s probably not intentional, but the use of this mold looks like a callback to how the original figures of Age of Extinction Optimus Prime is infamous for its back kibble. I know we might be getting an updated figure for the Studio Series line but until then, this is the most modern rendition of the design.
Since Optimus is a retool of Crosshairs, he also comes with Crosshair’s weapons, seen here as a pair of blasters. Besides this, he also comes with a special weapon — the race car spoiler turns into another blaster as well. And this time, it has the branding of Bingo Sports all over it. It totally looks unwieldy and obnoxious as a weapon, but as a promotional item, I guess it works.
If you also have any of the Transformers GT figures released a while back, then Bingo Sports Optimus Prime in vehicle mode should display well with those other race cars. It has the same flame deco reminiscent of Optimus Prime’s design from the Michael Bay movies. The windshield pieces are made from translucent smoke gray plastic and you can clearly see Optimus Prime’s torso piece folded inside. You can also see the rifle component of the “spoiler blaster” mentioned earlier. In vehicle mode, it appears to be some large extension of its muffler.
As I mentioned previously, if there was a chance some retailer would pick this guy for international release, then I’ll gladly get myself a copy. And now that it is going to be sold at the usual sources, then count that purchase as guaranteed.
Transformers ✕ Bingo Sports Optimus Prime
December 2024 / ¥6,189
Order via HobbyLink Japan
