Alpha Trion is an Autobot elder and serves in an almost sage-like capacity. It would be tempting to call him the “Gandalf” of the Autobots (because white beard), but his role isn’t actually that substantial. He chiefly serves as an adviser to Optimus Prime and stays out of all the actual conflicts himself, which does indeed make him wise. He’s often credited as being among the first Transformers created by Primus and maintains a connection to his creator, which serves to only further the “mystic” quality he’s often portrayed with.
Despite appearing in the original G1 cartoon in a significant-enough capacity to make him a recurring character throughout various incarnations of Transformers fiction, this figure marks the first time we’ve gotten a dedicated, unique Alpha Trion figure. We’ve gotten exclusive, and expensive, Botcon repaints, but never a true-blue Alpha Trion figure until now (unless you count that 3rd party figure that came out a couple years ago that wasn’t so hot). He and Arcee may actually be in contention for “most overlooked G1 character” in terms of getting figures, but at least Arcee had a few movie figures. Alpha Trion hasn’t even had that.
So was this Alpha Trion figure worth the wait? And, more importantly, was he worth the sticker price? Let’s find out!
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His packaging sure is pretty. It showcases the figure nicely, and this is going to be one of those packages that I keep. It looks like there’s an outer sheath that slips off to reveal a window box, but mine isn’t budging, and I’m not inclined to force it. So I’ll just be admiring it as-is. It’s worth noting that this is an officially licensed product — note the giant Autobot logo and 30th Anniversary seal. It even has that red-to-black gradient grid that the original toys from ’84-’87 had. That’s awesome.
I’ll just cut to the chase here — he’s awesome. I mean, look at him. he looks as though he stepped right off the screen from the cartoon. I can’t imagine a more faithful interpretation of the character in plastic and metal. That’s right — metal. His lower legs are all die-cast metal, which gives him some serious heft. His sculpt and paint are both awesome and clean, if not a little basic, but, considering what he’s based on, that is wholly appropriate. Again, this is pretty much as definitive an Alpha Trion figure as we could hope for.
His head sculpt is wonderful, right down to his long, white beard and mustache. That’s one of the things that always made Alpha Trion unique — he has facial hair. It aids his looking old and sage-like. And the stark white color pops against the metallic red and purple.
He doesn’t transform (nor did he ever on the cartoon, so this works here), but he is quite highly articulated, and even his cape can be posed. And because his lower legs are metal, he has a stable base that helps him to hold his poses. His articulation breakdown is as follows:
- Ball-jointed head, shoulder, feet, wrists, hips
- Double-jointed elbows, knees
- Swivel waist
- Ab crunch
His cape can be split in two pieces and each half is on a swivel joint that can be raised and rotated. It’s a nice touch that adds to his dynamism.
He can be posed easily and he’s a lot of fun to put in various action poses. He comes with five swappable hands that add a lot of personality and character to his poses as well:
He doesn’t transform per se, but he can be converted into a younger version of himself when he want by the name “A3.” His shoulder pads can be swapped out (the new ones are difficult to put on and remove — be warned), and his head can be swapped out as well for a younger-looking version of himself. The two heads are actually identical apart from the facial hair, but that’s enough to make him look like an almost completely new figure.
He also comes with a yellow stand that can be plugged into the back of his waist (there’s a small piece that can be popped out), but because his legs are so heavy, it really doesn’t help him hold complex action poses very well, so all it’s really good for is some additional support for when he’s just standing there. So it’s primary use will be as simply a display piece, but since I plan to integrate him into my larger Transformers display, it’ll probably go back in the box.
He fits in fairly well with both a Generations and Masterpiece display. Well, he doesn’t really fit that well with either because he is an awkward size (just about a perfect 6 inches tall), but I’m willing to be flexible here just so I can have such an awesome-looking Alpha Trion figure in my display. His size falls right between a Generations deluxe and a Masterpiece Autobot car, so he can be fudged in. The real problem is the way any Optimus Prime figure is going to dwarf him, especially MP-10, which is a default Optimus in many collections. I think I’m going to be displaying him with my Generations Orion Pax because their sizes are much more complementary.
This figure is definitely on the expensive side, so be warned if you’re on the market. He’s about $125 at Big Bad Toy Store because he is an import, so unless he’s a character you must have in your collection, I’d give the purchase some serious thought. There is no better Alpha Trion out there, though, so after waiting 29-30 years for a good Alpha Trion figure, I had no qualms about throwing down the dough. He was worth the wait.
Holy crap. He totally does!
Definitely cool. And Young Alpha Trion looks like Samurai Robot Stan Lee!