I've had this guy for a while, but I figger that now he's shown  up in the comic, maybe I should get around to talking about him.

There've been toddler-targeted Transformers lines before, but Rescue Bots is the one that's out now.  Next year it's apparently getting a cartoon!  (On The Hub, so you have to have Good Cable.)  I like trying out samples of Transformers toylines I don't plan on collecting (if it's inexpensive), so I tried this version of Optimus Prime.  Well, technically, it's two toys.  There's Optimus Prime and his human partner Charlie Burns, who are sold separately.  They interact, so that's why I got both of them.

Optimus Prime transforms very easily.  When he's in cab mode, just push down/straighten his legs and the rest of him springs into place for robot mode, sans the feet.  You gotta manually transform those.  To put him back,  you just push everything back into place until things snap together.  He has zero articulation, unless you want to count his manually-transformable heels, which you really shouldn't.  But this is good and appropriate, because this is a friggin' toy for toddlers.  Toddlers don't obsessively count points of articulation.  (Toddlers are, in this way, perhaps our betters.)

Charlie Burns comes with a convertible vehicle.  It goes from stand-rideable tanked claw thing to extended tanked claw thing that Optimus Prime can hold.  All you do is straighten the thing out.  There's some yellow buttons on the sides of the tanked claw thing that scissor the claws.  I was way more excited about the interaction until I realized that Optimus Prime's toy isn't exactly weighted so that he can hold the tanked claw thing weapon without falling over forwards.  If you're very lucky, or find some uneven shelving, it's possible.  Just don't sneeze.  But again, toy for toddlers.  Toddlers don't put toys up on shelves and leave them.  Toddlers play with things and then throw them against the wall.  They are, again, perhaps our betters.

But I am not one, so I don't find these toys terribly engaging.  If I had a kid that was 3 years old, I'd own every single damn one, but I don't.  Gotta start the tykes early,  y'know.