Right! I remember noticing that. Cheeky Takara. "Allright, you. If you're going to steal our engineering, we'll steal yours. What're you gonna do? Sue us?"
Wei Jiang Commander was my first upscaled KO and it literally changed my collecting life. I was absolutely blown away, it was such an awesome High School graduation present and to this day I still find myself eyeing it on the shelf, even now that I have a really nice MPM Prime KO AND Threezero OP. I think I got a vid somewhere where I was shocked unboxing it for the first time. Great vid as always man!!
I have Commander, and OS KO Challenger, standing either side of Magnificent Mecha 01, and while those first two are gorgeous figures, MM-01 is just something else. MM-01 almost makes Commander look a bit cheap and pathetic. I still love commander, but if you want a really premium Optimus in that updated but still G1 inspired look from the Bumblebee movie, MM-01 is just the best.
The Wei Jiang MPP-10 trailer fits both Commander and MM-01. I have a metal Autobot insignia on one side with a Decepticon one on the other, for my M-01B.
@@reichstein011 I refuse to buy the 'upgrade kit' for MM-01, as those parts should have been included with the figure for the amount it cost. So my MM-01 is in Earth mode standing next to Cyber Era CE-01 King Bee Knight (Bumblebee film Bumblebee in Earth mode), with Tactics Waistcoat Freedom Leader in Cybertron mode standing next to TMT-01 B-127 Cyber Bee (Bumblebee film Bumblebee in Cybertron mode). I like that Freedom Leader came with lots of weapons, two with lights and sounds, an LED in the head and the parts to convert him to Cybertron mode. Yes, MM-01 is a better figure, but I still really like Freedom Leader. The light up base that plays Bumblebee film quotes is very cool, too.
Seriously. I was collecting MP 07 movie Decepticons and got impatient waiting for Brawl, so I got their upscaled and enhanced KO of the old Leader toy ("Armed Cannon"). It's honestly so good, I might have to pass on the official one because this one is just that good.
iirc there's a Japanese version of Evasion Mode that's basically 90% rust and I kinda dig the look. They even gave it a proper faceplate and man it just...I love it. Though personally, I think I would have preferred the Rusty one's head on the Blue/Red Deco and the super detailed head on the Rusty version. Also, there's a Leader Class Optimus in the Bumblebee Mainline that's literally just Evasion Mode?
There was also the Movie the Best version, which I got as my one. It's more or less what you're describing as what you'd have preferred, being the red/blue colors with the faceplate, and a far more accurate deco to movie Optimus.
"Also, there's a Leader Class Optimus in the Bumblebee Mainline that's literally just Evasion Mode?" RIGHT! They upscaled it and gave it more paint and a few more transformation steps, and a transforming gun. And they called it something pretentious like Ultra Special Commander Gold Secret Premium Edition Prime.
The original color Commander was my first third party daliance with Robots That Are Completely Not The Transformers and God did I love it. Props to the original Evasion Mode, it is such a solid toy, but those colors REALLY turned me away (and I didn't want that guffed up gray repaint either) so I scrounged up the change to get Commander and holy butts was it my favorite figure for a while.
He actually did "peel it off his corpse. After he grabbed Megs' shotgun in Dark of the Moon and used it to blow Sentinel's brains out, it's the same gun he shows up with at the start of Age of Extinction when he has this body. No clue why he kept Megs' gun tho
I once ordered that Weijiang in proper Bay Prime colors and wear-and-tear. First copy arrived with an entire torso panel broken off, and despite getting that replaced (wait, _did_ I get replaced?), I fell out of love with it enough that it sat in its box for around 3 years before getting sold off in an estate sale when I moved.
Evasion Mode Optimus Prime is my absolute favorite Bayverse Optimus design; hes the best one. And in G1-esque colors its just beautiful! All AOE Voyager Evasion Optimus needs is a scrap ton of silver paint (like on the shins, etc), panel lining, & maybe some little scuffs, and he'd be perfect! Thats how Optimus should've looked ALL the way back in the 2007 movie! Also, My favorite Bayverse Bumblebee design is easily High Octane Bee; he looks awesome! I hope that once we get a Studio Series Evasion Optimus, they repaint him into G1-esque colors to reference the OG AOE Voyager, and BBM Legandary Optimus! Also, I really want them to make a proper SS AOE H.O. Bee! Btw, my absolute favorite and best Live-action Optimus design is EASILY ROTB! He looks PERFECT! & the mouth somehow actually works! "Time to show you the REAL power of a PRIME!" "This belongs to a friend of mine!" "He is not alone" "On my homeworld, we believe that the battle with darkness will continue, 'Til all are one. I lost sight of that. You fought for yours, I fought for mine, where we should have been fighting the darkness..together"
I'd say it's still very much worth it if you find one unopened at retail price or lower. A very fun and unique figure. The whole cab kind of turns inside out to create the robot upper body, and it's fun to watch it happen once you get the hang of how the parts move around each other
I miss Weijang. They brought so much fun and quality to knockoffs. There was actual passion behind them. Things have gotten a lot more stale without them.
I can just imagine what the neighboors would be thinking at 9:01 if they looked at you direction from their window seeing a grown man throwing out his toys through the window lol
Nemesis Commander makes me sad. I owned it and it was beautiful, but a couple of days after I got it the thigh snapped. And as it was an eBay purchase ftom China recompense was not great to obtain. I managed to fix it enough to transform it and still look good, but I knew the break was there. Now I kinda wanna try and get it again.
I happen to have AOE Evasion Mode Optimus though gun was missing the missile when I bought it years ago. While KO released this in Nemesis deco, this did get official Nemesis deco from Takara, if I recall right this mold get heavy retooled by Takara during Bumblebee movie.
and the hilarious bit is that Commander's what Wei Jiang could do to the original evasion mode prime, imagine what they could do to the leader evasion prime
The platinum edition adds chrome that gives the otherwise drab toy some pops of bling and a smooth faceplate, then there’s the hard G1 Autobots Unite version, the blue and flameier Classics and new 2-pack version, and the Takara Bumblebee Movie upscale one.
Ahhh I’m so happy you’re finally reviewing Commander. I remember when you got that in a Dammit Open years ago!! I got Commander just from your unboxing alone. It’s so amazing!! Love the videos dude!!
I both the takara version, which at least has a few added paint apps, proper grey hands and feet most noticeable, and the rusted deco one with the mouth plate. Both enjoyable but man I really want one of those KOs or even the leader upscaled one that came out a while later. Also funny thing about the Megatron shotgun is that it actually is backwards compatible with the dotm mechtech voyager Megatron with that more back handle....wish I still had my one of that.
Never thought I'd see the day when Thew would break his Knock Off review rules, and give an official review to an unofficial Chinese knock off toy, the times do be changing... Glad the Engrish instructions made a comeback!
Ok Thuu. As a complete schill for the now defunct weijiang, i personally wanted to thank u for acknowledging this Chinese work of copy art! I have both the red and black versions of the oversized wj molds with trailers (yes, i have the black nemesis trailer not the clear one) and also the MPP10, MPP10B that also work on these big ar$e trailers. Love your vids brother! Stsy you!!!!
Literally the only toy I picked up during AOEs run. While the budget cuts were definitely felt this was still an impressively engineered, and fun toy for its time. Plastic quality isn't the greatest, but still despite many transformations has yet to show any signs of breakage. Realistic truck mode was a nice changeup from the space truck voyager we got in DOTM, and the pinned on wheels, and missile firing shotgun were great inclusions. A SS release would be fun to see, but I feel would be too similar to the two flat nose voyagers we've already seen. That upsized KO looks amazing, but does it come in a non Scourge flavor?
You need to get your hands on a black apple oversized ko mpm optimus prime. The most movie accurate and gorgeous paint job with hugely upgraded transformation and built in handguns and integrated weapon storage! Top tier transformer
I've never had an officially licensed figure irreparably break on me MINUTES after taking it out of the package. This guy was just disappointing. Wei Jiang, my darling!... This isn't a knockoff, this isn't theft, it's what the Transformers were to the original concept of the Gobots; IMPROVEMENT.
Never owned one, but I feel like all the various 3P and knocks off that put some gosh darn paint and diecast on their versions plus the upscale really made the design what it should have been to start with in toy form. The upscale ones, not the cheap nasty KO's.
I attempted to transform my copy of KuBianBao once, got real dicey and felt like everything was going to snap apart, and I carefully returned him to bot mode. Never again 🤣 my son however, attempted his numerous times, can't tell how many pieces on his I've repaired. Thankfully the feet never snapped off of either of ours.
Thew you really are a master of upping your game. The added drama to that Beatdown was just *chef’s kiss* And I’m still chuckling over “A reading from the Book of Deformation”. HalleThewjah!
my evasion mode prime is probably one of the most loved figures in my collection (considering it was one of my first "good" figures of prime) but MAN does that deco not do it any favors pretty sure they were going through massive budget cuts at the time but it's making me wish for a studio series remake just so i can have a nicer looking version of the thing i love at the same scale
I don’t know how to describe it but even when a knock off company does these really nice looking figures they still lack like…GRIT or SOMETHING IDK. They have like almost too must polish for something so extreme that comes with murder axe
Weird thing on the topic of the toyline AOE Dinobot colours; why do they share almost the exact same group colours as the Japanese version of TF Prime Terrorcon team?
There is ye olde Fans Want It addon for the original sized toy. For some reason the FWI-6 Jetwing Upgrade Kit Mark II exists to give the Evasion Mode Optimus the Jetwing backpack and guns. If you're hunting for it, don't get confused with the FWI-4 which is much, much bigger as that's for the Leader class DOTM/ROTF mold. And of course if you prefer the Ginrai Apex Armor look... there's the DX9 D04 Armor Set that comes in a shiny foil box packaging.
M01B has always been kind of a grail for me. Odd I know since it is a KO but personally, he is a vibe when it comes to evil Primes. Personally Nemesis Prime has never been my thing. It's a slick color scheme but he's such a nothing character I hardly can bring myself to care... but when you swap that teal out for purple like he's pulling double duty being both a Nemesis Prime AND an SG Optimus homage and you make it the design of Optimus that's not only dope but also belongs to an iteration of the character known for being insanely aggressive? It just tickled me in a way not many other repaints have.
