Icons

Optimus Prime

A G1 icon that folds from truck to robot with zero rebuilding, and it's a joy.

Brick Rated Score

4.4/5

Set 10302 · 2022

Pieces1,508

Minifigsn/a

Year2022

Set number10302

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This one had me grinning before I even finished the chest.

It's a proper Generation 1 Optimus Prime that folds from truck to robot and back without pulling off a single brick, which still feels like a small magic trick every time you do it. It's not flawless, the joints get loose and bits pop off if you're rough during the fold, but the nostalgia and the engineering more than earn their keep. If you grew up on the 1984 cartoon, you already know you want this.

Best for: Grown-up G1 Transformers fans who want a display piece that actually transforms

The full review

What it is

Some sets you respect and some you just want to pick up and play with, and this LEGO® set lands squarely in the second camp. It's Optimus Prime built straight from the 1984 Generation 1 cartoon and toy, and the whole selling point is right there in the box: it converts from robot mode to a Freightliner-style cab and back again without you removing so much as a single brick. That sounds like a gimmick until you actually do it, and then the first time the chest folds down and the legs collapse into a truck, you get this little jolt of delight. There are 1,508 pieces, it stands around 32cm tall in robot mode, and it towers over most of the Showpiece-scale figures collectors have paid a fortune for over the years. The designer, Joe Kyde, actually came to LEGO from Hasbro's own Transformers team, and you can feel that pedigree in how faithful the proportions are, right down to the sloped abs he said he was proudest of nailing.

The catch

There are a few catches worth flagging, though. This is a transforming model, and transforming models live and die on their joints, so the more you fold it the looser things get. Reviewers across the board mention the same trouble spots: the ankles, the waist and occasionally the head like to pop off mid-transformation, and the cab can feel a touch wobbly in truck form. The waist panel in particular is fussy and it reins in how far you can push dynamic poses, so if you were dreaming of dramatic battle stances, temper that a little. Price is the other sticking point. At 179.99 dollars RRP the piece count alone doesn't fully justify the cost, so you're really paying for the clever engineering and the licence rather than a mountain of bricks. And that very first transformation can be genuinely fiddly until you learn the sequence and stop panicking every time an ankle drops off.

Who it's for

If you grew up watching the G1 cartoon or owned the original toy, this is close to catnip, and the surge of nostalgia when it's fully built is hard to overstate. It's also a lovely pick for anyone who enjoys mechs and clever fold mechanisms over pure Technic gearwork, since the build stays approachable and rewarding the whole way through. The people I'd steer gently away are those who want a rock-solid, pose-it-once-and-forget-it display statue, or anyone chasing maximum brick for their money. But think of it as an interactive collectible rather than a fragile shelf piece, transform it now and then just for the fun of it, and it earns every dollar. It's one of the most charming things LEGO put out in 2022, and it's now retired, so if it's calling to you, don't dawdle.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build is broken into bags and it's surprisingly light on Technic, which makes it feel more like assembling a mech than engineering a machine. By the time you finish the first bag you've very clearly got Optimus's trademark windscreen chest sitting in front of you, and that early payoff sets the tone. Individual sections don't drag, so you get lots of little hits of satisfaction rather than one long slog. The real star is the transformation design itself: LEGO worked out how to make every limb fold and tuck without any part removal, and reverse-engineering how those hips, legs and cab panels collapse into truck mode is honestly the most interesting building you'll do here. It takes about two to three minutes once you've got the hang of it.

On the parts front there's genuinely good stuff for collectors. The set introduced new 1x2x1 and one-third click-socket bricks in red, and it brought back the Technic 2x2 joint brick in red after a long stint out of production. There's also a new Technic rotation joint with a disk that has two pins sticking out the back, used to build Prime's hips, which is the kind of quietly useful element parts people get excited about. You get the Ion Blaster, the Energon Axe, an Energon cube, the Matrix of Leadership that tucks into the chest, a jetpack and a printed display plaque. It's not the cheapest cost-per-piece around, but between the recolours, the new joints and that transformation cleverness, the parts do a lot of heavy lifting.

Fun facts

01The set was designed by Joe Kyde, who worked on actual Transformers toys at Hasbro before joining LEGO, and he said his proudest detail was getting the sloped G1-style abs just right.
02It's a three-way collaboration between LEGO, Hasbro and Takara Tomy, the two companies behind the original Transformers toy line.
03The whole point of the design is that it converts from robot to truck and back with no part removal at all, using its 19 points of articulation.
04At around 32cm tall it dwarfs most premium Showpiece-scale Optimus Prime figures, and the instruction booklet includes notes on the franchise plus designer commentary from Kyde himself.