General Information:
Release Date: June 2, 2011
Price Point: $89 (in a two pack with Sideswipe)
Retailer: Botcon 2011 Exclusive (Limited edition of 1500 two packs)
Accessories: Blaster, Energon Axe

Images:

• Vehicle Mode
• Vehicle Mode (Left Side)
• Vehicle Mode (Right Side)
• Vehicle Mode (Back)
• Vehicle Mode (Forward View)
• Vehicle Mode (Angle View)
• Vehicle Mode (Rear Angle View)
• With Motormaster (Vehicle Modes)
• Robot Mode
• Robot Mode (Side)
• Robot Mode (Back)
• Robot Mode (Close up)
• Robot Mode (Focus on head, mouthplate up)
• Robot Mode (Focus on head, mouthplate down)
• Robot Mode (Angle view)
• Robot Mode (Posed)
• Robot Mode (Holding weapons)
• Robot Mode (Posed with weapons)
• Blaster weapon
• Axe weapon
• Robot Mode (Axe attached to back)
• Robot Mode (Axe attached, back view)
• With Motormaster (Robot Modes)

Many moons ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a special gathering at Hasbro headquarters where we were given a tour of the Hasbro facilities and certain displays were set up just for us Transformers fans. Among these items that were listed as proposed (but never to be released) was Toxitron, a pea soup green redeco of G2 Laser Optimus Prime. Of course, fans immediately either felt he was amazingly ugly and therefore awesome at the same time. He was forgotten for the most part since it seemed unlikely the idea would ever see the light of day.

Flash forward a few years later and in our never ending quest to bat around weird ideas for Botcon, the topic of Toxitron came up. I originally had envisioned Toxitron as being a failed cloning experiment that created a "wannabe" Optimus Prime who had good intentions, but generally wound up messing things up instead. While that characterization went the way of the Dodo bird, what did remain intact was the reuse of an Optimus Prime figure in a garishly wacky color scheme to represent a character who was not too bright.

This figure is a redeco of the Voyager Class Optimus Prime from Transformers Animated. I most recently reviewed the sculpt in its incarnation as Botcon 2011 Motormaster, however this version uses the original "Optimus Prime" head instead of a new head sculpt. This review will focus on the changes made to the figure for this specific release.

Vehicle Mode:
The primary colors for Toxitron were inspired by those seen on the unreleased prototype, making his primary colors a bright green (think of a dark shade of neon green), grey, purple and black. His windows and lightbar are cast in translucent orange plastic, which matches up with on of the colors used on his paint scheme. The vehicle basically looks like a green and grey truck with a big stripe going through the middle. There's more to the color scheme than that of course, all thanks to carefully applied paint decos and tampographs. The lower half of the top section has a purple line on the sides that starts at the sides and wraps around to the front. The purple decos also continue on the sides where they trace the edge of the black section and paint window-like details on the sides. Even his grille is purple, really driving home the Decepticon connection. Black deco is used on the sides and front, forming most of the aforementioned "black dividing line" in the middle. It's also used on the lights along the vehicle's top half. Silver is used for the insides of each wheel, giving him a needed touch of metallic looking deco.

Where the fun comes in is in the use of tampographs and orange paint. Orange is used for the some regular details like his headlights, but it's also found in splotch patterns that look like toxic ooze running dow the sides of the vehicle. This includes a section behind a tampographed Decepticon symbol on the left side and along the black sections of the vehicle. There's even orange "ooze" deco on the edge of his cannon mounted in the back. Those fans following the comic book released for the convention will see that these orange "oozing" details were worked into the artwork for the character as well. This is one of those color schemes where you can tell the designers wanted to have fun more than just get another Transformer out the proverbial door. The deco is playful while still looking garishly good (in the "only hardcore fans would buy this" sort of way). Super fun!

All of the functionality from previous versions of this figure are intact here including the ability for the cannon in the back to turn around in a circle and squirt water (by pushing the barrel in). All four wheels roll just fine as well.

Transformation to Robot Mode:

1. Detach the blaster and set it aside for now.
2. Detach the second piece that makes up the back and then swing out the handle and sides to form the axe weapon.
3. Swing the front bumper panels out to the sides.
4. Separate the legs on the rear section from each other.
5. Swing each of the rear wheels in so they tuck behind the legs.
6. Swing the robot feet up.
7. Swing each bumper piece down, then collapse the pieces from step three against the sides of each leg. There is a small tab on the bumper pieces that fit into notches on the back of the legs.
8. Pull the lower legs down to extend each leg to its full height.
9. Swing out the sections under the headlights to be begin forming the robot arms.
10. Swing the robot fists out.
11. Swing the robot shoulders out to complete forming the arms.
12. Rotate the torso at the waist joint and push it up.
13. Swing the panel with the lightbar back.
14. Swing the robot head up.
15. Attach each weapon into one of Toxitron's fists.

Robot Mode:
Toxitron is one of those uncommon Transformers whose robot mode and vehicle mode show off a good deal of colors being broken up into segments. His robot mode does prominantly feature the green color on his torso, arms, waist and lower legs, but they are balanced by grey sections on his shoulders, thighs and elbows. Meanwhile, some other parts mix black and grey plastic offering some dark colors to balance out his brighter green color tones.

The paint deco colors in this form match up with the colors used in the vehicle mode. This includes black, purple and orange. In addition there is some use of two additional shades of green paint: one neon green and one that matches his plastic color better. The purple paint is seen most prominantly on his head, where it colors almost the entire thing except for neon green sections on the face and neck. Light green lines are painted on the helmet and sides of the head. Purple is also found on the shoulders fists, thighs, knee armor and feet, distributing the color throughout the figure. Like the vehicle mode colors, these are very playful and show off the good natured attempt at humor with the figure while still being a fun toy to play with. I also think it's an achievement to use brighter colors like this green and still manage to tone it down and not look too loud. Very well done.

All of Toxitron's joints are tight in this mode and his weapons fit into his hands just fine. For those not in the know, the head sculpt is designed so that you can slide the mouthplate down and reveal Toxitron's mouth/face. This is part of the continuity between the sculpt and the way Optimus Prime appeared on "Animated", and it's cool to see that functionality carried through. Like the other versions he can use his axe as a weapon or connect it to his back for storage. Want more storage? Connect his blaster to the axe on his back.

Final Thoughts:
Toxitron is one fun figure. The toy itself is already cool, but add to that the appeal of bringing to life a previously discarded idea and the overall silliness of the deco and Toxitron is a winner.