Genesis

Review by Optimal III

They say first impressions are important. And I'm not sure how critically they apply to toys. But if I'm guessing, they probably go a long way, third-party or otherwise. So, it's not surprising that Planet X made one of the best & biggest with their very first offering: Genesis.

Every Planet X release comes in a box with art depicting the character's chest, sides, & back/bottom, as if they were a cube. So, if you didn't have any idea what the toy inside looked like, you do now. I didn't take pics, but additional contents are a card & a two-sided instruction sheet as big as the box.

Besides that, the other hallmark of Planet X is that every figure they make is based on designs from the High Moon Studios games, Transformers: War for Cybertron & Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

Set on Cybertron before the Autobot/Decepticon war spreads to Earth, every featured character got a makeover that was very new or somewhat familiar. Omega Supreme falls into the latter category, but it's not so obvious in his primary alt mode, an assault ship.

Like in Generation One, he's depicted as a combiner-sized giant with the destructive power to match. In fact, the last two chapters in the Decepticon campaign are a multi-part battle against him, in WfC. He's massive & imposing, factors shared by this toy. Add dense to the list too. Legit, your arms may get tired playing with him.

I think one thing that helps is the symmetrical design. Hardly anything is hollow, and at a quick glance, you might get the top & bottom confused (bottom has the screw holes). Speaking of, Genesis comes with two sets of hole fillers (one red, one grey). There aren't enough to cover everything, but they clean up the majority of what's up top.

At a good 16-inches in length, there are bigger Transformers, but few are this solid, none of them official. He even dwarfs Sigma Six 6 Duke, who's of the 8-inch scale.

As much as anything else, there's sculpted details everywhere too. He is riddled with panel lines, shapes, and textures, all set upon plastic in red, dull gold, grey, & silver. There's also some pink & translucent red.

Visually, there's nothing boring about Genesis.

For gimmicks, he has quite a few, again fitting for the character. Eight guns are built into his body, though only four are accessible in alt mode. You push them in to rotate the barrel out, and can twist & tilt them however you please.

He has articulation in several places, mimicking WfC. Each leg has three hinge joints and collapses into itself, the toe being the stiffest. And as already seen, the legs are strong enough to support Genesis in the launch position. You just need to keep them oriented the same way or have each one oriented the same as the opposite leg.

The legs also spin, either manually or by turning the silver rim. Doing so in the launch position rotates the ship itself.

Up front, the nose can tilt to either side. And that brings us to the abundance of translucent plastic. Genesis has five chambers for LEDs that activate via pressure. So, you can insert them so that they only activate when pressed or stay on because they're being pressed by the internal spring plates.

Like the guns, only four of them are accessible in alt mode: the nose, the thruster, & the side cannons. You insert them into a cavity and rotate till they're locked in place.

Lastly, Genesis also comes with two tank drones, a feature owing back to G1 Omega Supreme. Standard are the two with red wheels. The one with gold wheels is an extra Planet X first offered after Genesis was released for people wanting a more G1 look. When Genesis was re-released in 2016, it was included free for anyone who pre-ordered while supplies lasted.

Each one has unique features, but they all have the same functionality. The wheels roll, the barrels extend & retract. They can be raised & lowered, and can angle from side to side by rotating the base.

They can also transform into turrets by flipping the sides down. You can even flip them down another 90-degrees to restore mobility & add elevation.

Before we get to robot mode, it should be noted Genesis has a second alt mode not listed in the instructions. Getting into it isn't difficult either. It's almost the halfway point. The nose & booster can be detached from the ship. The booster has an interior extension that's covered up by moving armor plates from below. It then connects to the nose, creating the rocket. You just remove the side cannons from the ship to finish filling it out.

What's left of the ship becomes the launch pad by converting the side cannon bases into legs, repositioning the bases for the booster & nose, and removing the brackets from their storage bays.

The result is another great homage to G1 Omega Supreme.

Both alt modes are winners, but as usual for me, robot mode is where Genesis really knocks it out of the park. Steps wise, he's not difficult, just big, stiff, & heavy. The nose & booster become the arms & sides. Symmetry permits you to put either one on either side, but this way keeps the screw holes to the rear. The side cannon bases form the legs & crotch. The brackets become the wings. And the tank drone of your choice becomes the head.

There're some small parts to mess with too, but that's it. Challenge stems from how strong & tight almost every joint is. The arms & sides are especially tough, so much that you may hit yourself trying to remove them from the core. Just keep your face at a safe distance when transforming and you'll be fine.

The default head sculpt is simple, effective. It's classic toy-styled and is instantly recognizable as Omega, if the wings & arms didn't already tip you off.

But if you want a more distinguished face, the other tanks have you covered. To open the chest, you lift the top plates that lock the upper chest plate. Once that's raised, whichever tank you use fits inside.

He's a lumbering behemoth no matter which way you go, and I love it.

Besides his head, his chest is the one part we haven't seen till now, almost a giant Autobot symbol. Convenient there's a spot for a small one too.

If you couldn't tell, he's as crazy poseable, especially for his size, as he is fun to fiddle with. His head's on a ball joint with full range of motion. The inner flaps of his shoulder pads hinge up over 90-degrees. His toes also hinge. His ankles tilt. His legs swivel below the thighs. He also swivels at the waist. And his "hands" keep everything from alt mode. Everything else is crazy strong ratchets: shoulder pads, shoulders, elbows, ab crunch, hips, & double-jointed knees.

Basically, anything he can do in the game, the toy can do the same. He can probably even do a handstand like Fans Toys's version, but I haven't tried yet.

Weapons are simple. Besides his two arms, he's now got access to all eight guns (four on the front, four on the back) and the tank turret on the back of his head.

For comparison, here he is with AM Optimus, TR Metalhawk, & Sky Reign.

And here he is with UW Devastator.

UW Devastator wishes he could do this.

Lastly, this is the LED for his chest. I tried, but couldn't get any good pics for robot mode.

This one is worth his proverbial weight in gold. If you can swing $400+ for one toy & have room for something so big, Genesis is something any fan of Transformers and/or robot toys should have. If you have the space but can't swing the price tag & like blue, BigBadToyStore has two different versions of Gammadim (GADEP-inspired repaint) more in the range of $200+, who I'll try to look at in the future. Either way, he's different enough from the more G1-styled 3P offerings & awesome enough to merit a spot in any collection.