This is a horrible horrible thing. A true abomination. See the safety label? STAY AWAY! Joking aside, it can actually be harmful to your health but I’ll get to that a little later. This is the Mexican release of the G1 Optimus Prime. Here it is in its box:

G1 Prime has always looked thoroughly impressive in his packaging, and the Mexican packaging isn’t too far from the original US version’s configuration. Just the usual differences. In the bottom left hand corner you can see the IGA logo, the company responsible for manufacturing the Mexican (variant) Transformers. The US version would of course have a Hasbro logo in that spot. Next up, some of the writing on the box is in Spanish instead of English, e.g., “mas de lo que ves” in place of “more than meets the eye”. The case assortment number printed on the box front is of course different to the US number.

One other thing that you might have noticed from just looking at the box front is that the truck cab is not the same as the US version. It is missing the silver stickers on the front section of the cab, and also the red plastic is a noticeably different shade of red to the die-cast section. Now the sticker thing is not consistent throughout all releases of the Mexican Prime, and I believe this particular version is a later Mexican Prime.

Just a little more about Optimus in Mexico before we move on to the rest of the pictures. The picture you see at the very top of this article is of a safety sticker applied to some of the late-release Mexican toys. TFs were imported into the UK from Mexico and they caused a bit of a hubbub seeing as how some of the paint used in these toys had levels of lead in it that caused the British public (and some US dealers I met not so long ago) some concern. As a result, later Mex TFs had the aformentioned safety stickers applied to their boxes. Now, a little while back there was a major case find of MISB Mexican Optimus Primes. This particular Prime is from that batch, many of which surfaced in the Netherlands. It could mean that this Prime was among some of the very last TFs to leave Mexico, and hence, were safety tested. However, that doesn’t mean the toy quality was improved, oh no, this piece exhibits some of the quality issues that Mex TFs are renowned for. But let’s stick with the packaging for now.

Again, the usual differences between most Mexican series 1 box backs and US series 1 box backs are in evidence here. There is no tech spec bar with stats, just a white bar with the IGA logo. And seeing as how there wasn’t a techspec bar, there was also no tech spec decoder included with Prime. Other omissions include the Robot Points and the text that tells you to clip and save them. Mexico had no Transformers mailaway promotion, so no need for points, and no need to tell you to clip and save them. However, looking closely at the box back, there are blocks over the areas that would contain the points/text and they are coloured to suit the immediately adjacent box back colours. Also notice on the tech specs, it just says “Autobot” in the red bar, not “Optimus Prime”. Throughout the first series, IGA messed with the format of the spec bar quite a lot. Spanish text instead of English text also.

So what IS included with the set? Well there are all the standard 1985-mold accessories, Roller (blue), and the Mexican instructions. Some fans have said that Mex Prime doesn’t come with instructions, probably because they were trying to sell their Primes and their manuals were missing. Well they’re LYING!! It’s right there. But, like all Mexican TF releases there is no catalog or mail away documentation. The stickers are applied, but had they not been, you would see that it’s just an American TF stickersheet. Only Mexican factory stickers showed differences.

Now for a closer look at the contents:

The instructions say “Instructivo”. I gave up trying to figure an exact pattern out for what IGA would label the instructions as the changes never made too much sense to me. There is however a general pattern where series 1 releases say “Instructivo” and series 2 releases say “Instrucciones”. But it’s not always that simple. It is here though!

From the insert pic you can make out the contrast between the die cast and plastic sections on the cab, and also the missing stickers, all things that this particular batch of Mex Primes all seem to exhibit.

Whatever country it’s released in, with whatever variation, Optimus Prime is beautiful and unforgettable in vehicle mode. No rubsign on the top of the cab, as you must know by now, no Mex TF had a rubsign.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think the trailer colour is a little different to regular US Primes, but I didn’t get to carry out a comparison so I’m just guessing. The quality of the plastic and the moulding is definitely lower as the trailer parts don’t fit together too snugly.

You know, I sold this so long ago that I can’t completely remember whether or not the trailer mechanism fired well, but I have a vague memory of it sticking once in a while. The missiles didn’t fit too well but they would be ejected powerfully once you got the damn things in there! This was my first ever complete Optimus so messing around with all the gimmicks was a good larf.

With the above picture, you can begin to see why I made all that fuss at the beginning of this article about Mex Prime being such an abomination. Can you see? No? Prepare yourself…

Oh dear, oh GOD no! Who’s stabbed Prime in the eyes repeatedly?!?! That is horrible. Typical IGA paint job. Some Mexican Astrotrains are the same, red paint applied over the yellow eyes while lying on a sea of hyperactive dildos in the middle of an earthquake epicentre.

The purpose of the above picture is to show the colour of the blue plastic in Prime’s chest. The blue is lighter than the other blue plastic on the cab, and it’s probably lighter than the blue plastic on most US Primes too. The strange coloured paint on the die cast cab section is also visible here.

The copyright, like half of the Mex releases, is a 1985 US copyright but the “JAPAN” section is covered by a rectangular block, implying that Japan was not the country of manufacture.

That’s all from Mexican Optimus, it’s still the Prime we know and love with all the accessories, all the gimmicks, and the world famous striking looks in each mode. These Mex Primes are usually quite cheap because there are a lot of them around. It’s a great way to pick up a cheap boxed Prime that displays beautifully. It’s just a shame he was brutalised by a toothpick.

All the best
Maz