WFC Optimus Prime ITF01 Abyss Red

One shall stand, one shall be cut in half!

Presenting ITF01 Abyss (Red variant) - a knock-off (KO)  of the War for Cybetron (WFC) Optimus Prime.

We had a discussion with a fellow collector a few weeks back about why we never reviewed the Weijiang KO Optimus Primes. We said that we actually liked them, but there was just something... fake about them - despite the fact that they were really well made. They just felt fake.

Happily we had a great experience with the Alpha Pack Spark Toys ST01 War Within Optimus Prime and even the Toy World Botcon Exclusive Orion both of which do not "feel fake" at all, or we would have given up completely on 3rd party Transformers.

So here are our thoughts on the ITF01 Abyss - red variant - knock-off of the War for Cybetron Optimus Prime.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP


We have to say off the back that this is one of the nicest boxes we've ever seen. The ITF01 Abyss red variant comes with a marked hard-cardboard carrying box. Check out the interior! It has padding strips! Hasbro and Takara don't do that :)


The blister pack of the ITF01 Abyss Red is a bit confusing though. It reads "The image Abyss, is the absolutely evil leader of Cybertron, under his leadership, numerous planet energy have been looted. There is no limit to his ability and ambition." Google translate at its best. Now before your kids ask you why Optimus Prime is a bad guy, the company that made this first made the  ITX01 Abyss - Oversized Shattered Glass WFC Optimus Prime, then they made a blue variant, then they made this red variant. They were probably testing to see if anyone would go after them for Copyright infringement.

WFC Optimus Prime ITF01 Abyss Red

WHAT'S TO LIKE ABOUT THE OVERSIZED WFC OPTIMUS PRIME ITF01 ABYSS RED VARIANT?

FIRST: If you did not physically have this present in front of you, and were just to look at the pictures, the ONLY way to distinguish it from a Takara WFC Optimus Prime armed with a Corbot V WFC Battle Axe is the fact that the manufacturers corrected the tendency of the WFC Optimus Prime to fall backwards by a pair of fold-out stabilizing tabs to the back of his feet.

SECOND: Another modification the manufacturers made is with regard to the eyes of the ITF01 Abyss Red variant. We don't quite know how it does it - or if we're imagining things - but his eyes do seem to be glowing. Normally we would have Photoshoped his eyes to ad a glow, bu we didn't have to. They're glowing.

Here's the size comparison between a Takara WFC Optimus Prime armed with a Corbot V WFC Battle Axe  (variant) next to the ITF01 Abyss Red variant with the axe that came with him.

ITF01 Abyss Red and the Takara WFC Optimus Prime with Corbot V Axe

The color similarity is more evident when you transform them into car mode:

ITF01 Abyss Red and the Takara WFC Optimus Prime 

ITF01 Abyss Red and the Takara WFC Optimus Prime 

Here's the ITF01 Abyss oversized WFC Optimus Prime from behind.

WFC Optimus Prime ITF01 Abyss Red

See the tiny tabs at the back of his feet? They keep him up.

Here are those glowing eyes that we mentioned:

THIRD: Since this figure is an oversized version of an existing Transformer, then you already know that the articulation of this particular figure is not that great. But he does look great:

WFC Optimus Prime ITF01 Abyss Red

As with the Corbot V Battle Axe, you can also split the axe into a smaller one-hand axe and of course don't forget his rifle:

Let's end what we like about him with how much of a Big Daddy he looks like with the other WFC Optimus Primes:

WFC Optimus Prime ITF01 Abyss Red

WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THE OVERSIZED WFC OPTIMUS PRIME ITF01 ABYSS RED VARIANT?

FIRST: Out of the box the ITF01 Abyss red variant could barely move. It honestly felt like the joints were going to break, ALL of them. As the shoot progressed the joints got looser and looser. Frankly if you continue playing with him we have a feeling that he'd end up as loose as a rag-doll eventually.

SECOND: The WFC Optimus Prime is one of the hardest Transformers to transform. So. You can imagine how hard it was to transform a really stiff ITF01 Abyss. This will be the last time we ever transform him. He's off to the display wall.

Half-way while transforming him we found out that he'd been damaged in the transformation. So if you have him, please keep in mind that the Abyss' paint job can be scored.

THIRD: His gun. There are two things wrong with the ITF01 Abyss Red variant's gun. First is that it is the same size as the regular sized WFC Optimus Prime's weapon. Second: The rifle folds just like the regular WFC weapon, however it does not lock in place when it is extended - hence the visible blue tack that you can see holding it in place.

FOURTH: It would have been nice if the Abyss came with the Dreammakers Chest Clam upgrade.

That's about it.

The Oversized WFC Optimus Prime ITF01 Abyss Red variant is not available on Amazon as of this time - nor is is available on TFSource.  This particular ITF01 Abyss was borrowed from a friend here in Fairview and set him back around PhP 2,000  (Roughly US$ 41.66).

We' like to close with a special shout out to the people at Reprolabels who sent me a set of embossed Autobot stickers/insignias of various sizes for free. I finally used them. Thanks so much!