Review: Hasbro Transformers Age of the Primes Deluxe Class Solus Prime

“Activate your Alt Mode”

Transformers: Age of the Primes is a current sub-line of the Transformers: Generations series from Hasbro, replacing the Legacy line and launching in 2025. The series focuses on the original, mythical 13 Primes, and their artefacts, as well as their descendants, following the established sizing principles with the releases falling into Deluxe, Voyager, Leader, Commander or Titan class. 

Solus Prime is a Deluxe Class release and was part of Wave 1 of the Deluxe Class Transformers that launched the Age of the Primes collection. Solus arrives in a squared window box with dark colouring overlaid with the bold red of the Transformers logo and the duller gold of the Age of the Primes. This gold colouring is used to confirm the character name as well as the step change to convert it from robot to vehicle mode. 

The front right quadrant of the box front, and the left-hand spine carries an image of Solus wielding her Forge Axe. The right-hand spine is an image of the Primes as golden statues lined up with their artefact symbols above. The panel shows three Primes, including Solus, but also Alchemist, so the image is the same on both of these Deluxe releases. So while the image is part of a larger semi-circular line-up of The Thirteen, the boxes themselves do not line up side by side to create this montage directly. The back of the box illustrates Solus Prime in both robot and vehicle mode, repeats the steps to convert and shows her Forge Axe accessory. Upon opening, Solus Prime is in robot mode and held into a backing tray by way of a numerous collection of plastic stretch ties - there is no plastic inner tray as we see on other Hasbro lines. 

Solus Prime has a long history in the Transformers universe, including in the IDW comics, the Prime Wars Trilogy and Cyberverse cartoons, and recently in the Transformers: One movie. As a Deluxe Class, she stands at around 5.5 inches tall (14cm) with purple armour, silver component parts around the arms, chest and on the head, and accented gold panels across the figure. She incorporates a three-part ‘skirt’ piece in front of the articulated legs, while her shoulders feature two larger enhancements at either side to further enhance her height and profile.

(scaled alongside Deluxe 86 Bumblebee and War for Cybertron Voyager Optimus)

Arms, legs, and head are all articulated, allowing Solus Prime to be posed in a number of options, both neutral and dynamic. Due to the design of the Transformers and their conversion features, the joints can come across as loose in places, but this is not necessarily a weakness, as it enables a smoother transformation to the alternative mode. The joints are all capable of holding any posed position, including standing positions with the skirt also moving with the legs to support. 

Solus Prime comes with her Forge Axe artefact, which is made up of three different parts - a shaft, a head, and a pommel. In order to place this in either of her hands (it fits both), you need to remove the head and slide the end of the shaft into the hands. 

Transformation to vehicle mode is 28 steps in total, detailed in the included instructions using the usual pictorial format, which can take some getting used to for novices such as myself. There is plenty of resources online that will help with conversion, and my experienced son, who collects Transformers in some depth, commented that this was one of the more challenging ones he had done with quite a lot of smaller components and adjustments that can pop off or out of place as you work. 

The final result is a Cybertronian Armoured Car with a hot-rod inspired front grill, gold windows and exhaust ports. The vehicle sits on four black treaded wheels, which all move so you can wheel Solus Prime around and into battle. 

The Forge Axe can be stowed in vehicle mode on the side of the car, and you can also flip out a small hinge in the Axe head to give it a fixing to the top of the vehicle so it appears to act as a cannon. 

The Age of the Primes line is very much themed around the collection of The Thirteen and therefore Solus Prime looks fantastic lined up with the other releases we have access to, including her Deluxe counterpart, Alchemist Prime from Wave 2.

Alchemist Prime is available at Hasbro Pulse for £24.99 plus shipping. Thank you to Hasbro Pulse UK, who provided this figure to us free of charge for review purposes.

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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...

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