Restoring G1 Optimus Prime

Restoration of a Classic

August 2023. With TakaraTomy revealing the figure just days before, the newly-announced Missing Link Optimus Prime was the talk of TFNation (the UK's premiere Transformers convention).

For those of you living under a Rock Lord for the last few months, Missing Link Optimus Prime is a reissue of the Generation One Prime toy you remember - except now re-imagined with a butt-load of added articulation, all-in-one transformation, and several brand new features.

For many in the fandom this looks like being the perfect Optimus Prime figure; an as-you-remember-it version of the toy that can move and pose in the way you wished it could when you were young.

Perfect nostalgia fodder

 
Having immediately pre-ordered Missing Link, I was keen to get the original in-hand to re-familiarise myself with it ahead of the upgrade. And so, on the Sunday at TFNation, bleary-eyed from the night before, I hunted through the spares and repairs looking for a decent-enough original G1 Prime.

The show didn’t disappoint, and after an unsuccessful attempt at haggling I walked away with this old classic for £8.

Perfect custom fodder

He was tattered, grimy, a little bit broken, and missing both hands and all accessories. But this was Prime as I remembered him, and it was a joy to have him in hand again after 25+ years. 

And by the time I got home on Sunday afternoon, I knew I was going to restore him to the best level my limited ability would allow.

Spares for Repairs

First things first, I needed to identify what this Optimus needed. 

Whilst it's as classic a toy as it gets, it's always helpful to double check all the parts the figure originally came with. Luckily, there are several great resources online for just such a purpose. 

I mostly referred to TF Wiki, but also took the time to soak up the picture's at TFW2005's Encore Convoy photo gallery and Seibertron's own Convoy gallery. Both sites have galleries for all types of Transformers throughout the years, in case you ever fancy losing hours of your life in glorious "research".

With that stage done I came to one immediate conclusion: I was not interested in getting the trailer and putting together a perfect reconstruction of Prime from 1984. Instead, I wanted the robot cab warrior to be restored to a decent standalone condition.

So what did I need to achieve that?

• Fists: Much like the second hand version I had as a kid, Prime's fists were long gone.
• Front Grille: The wing piece of the silver grille was snapped, deeming a replacement of the entire piece.
• Reprolabels: Prime's stickers had seen much better days.
• Ion Blaster: What is G1 Prime if not the bearer of the Matrix a ridiculously overpowered gun?

There were also a few paint concerns - primarily the chipped and faded chrome parts.

Chrome Done

Before getting too far into this I gave some thought to the approach. If I had wanted a pristine, factory-condition G1 Optimus Prime I would have bought one of the reissues that have come out over the years. Alternatively, I could have dropped £50 and taken a gamble on a KO.

Instead, I bought a junker because I wanted an affordable way to experience handling the original toy again. And I wanted to restore it not out of any high falutin’ sense of duty to the toy that meant so much to me growing up… but simply because the opportunity was there to fix it up into a better condition. 

And so my mind was made up. I was OK with not breaking the bank on vintage spares and repairs - reproduction and 3D printed pieces would be fine.

With that decision made, I scoured eBay (for all of three minutes) until I found a listing for these: G1 Optimus Prime/Ultra Magnus resin printed repro hands.

These arrived quickly and in great condition. That said, they weren't perfect. The flashing was a bit untidy, and the right hand peg was a little thin so I needed to thicken it up with a band of painter’s tape.

But the colour match and the size was spot on, and for the purposes of this project they fit the bill.

This was the first point of the restoration process, and it made an instant difference. It's not hard to imagine that this was already the best this Prime had looked in years.

Next up was the most necessary fix of all - replacing Prime's grille.

This was the biggest concern of the project. I know what I said above about not buying another Prime for the chrome parts, but replacing the grille? That was gonna take a donor.

After missing the October NEC Toy Fair, and then coming up empty-handed at Bedford Comic Con later in the month, I eventually turned to eBay once again.

It took a couple of weeks before a suitable listing came up, but when it did it was perfect: a G1 Optimus Prime with no arms but an intact grille.

The seller accepted an offer price, and within a few short days I was in possession of not one but two junker G1 Optimus Primes. Now we were cooking!

Finally, I was on to the pieces needed to tidy up Prime's appearance.

The paint work on the die cast appeared to be pretty sound. Of greater concern was the heavy play wear on the chrome sections.

With this being a quick and dirty restoration, I wasn't going to invest learning how to electroplate plastic. And it would have been a redundancy to buy another sample with better quality chrome. Luckily, liquid chrome pens are both affordable and effective. I ordered this Molotov Liquid Chrome pen from Amazon.

To complete the restoration Prime would need one last, vital ingredient - new decals.

I had put in a bulk order for labels with Toyhax (the market leader in Transformers repro labels) not too long before TFNation, but G1 Prime wasn't on the agenda at that time. I couldn't justify spending on the postage from the USA for a single sticker sheet, so needed a more local alternative - so it was back to eBay. 

 

Fortunately, reprolabels are fairly easy to come by on the 'Bay. I paid a little over the odds for a Toyhax set but without the markup on postage. I consider that a score draw.

With the pieces assembled, it was finally time to restore G1 Optimus Prime!

G1 Optimus Prime Disassembled

Instruments of Destruction

It took a combination of various small Phillips screwdrivers to take Optimus Prime apart. 

The pieces disassembled easily enough for such an old toy, although the dust and grime that had built up inside his joints was something to behold!

Beyond that, the relative complexity of the construction was even more astounding.

What had always struck me as a simple transformation contained engineering that I had no idea was going on. One such example is the metal strip in Prime’s upper arm that maintains tension on the shoulder stack.

 
This kind of revelation alone made the project worthwhile.

Everything about the disassembly went well until I got to the lower torso and thighs. I hadn’t realised that a hidden pin made the pelvis incredibly difficult to take apart.

In trying to open up the pelvis - not realising that it all sat on a pin - I inadvertently applied too much pressure at the wrong point and ended up breaking part of his torso.

I considered using glue to set it back into place, but the snap was just below a sticker mount, and so it would be painfully obvious.

This is where the donor came to the rescue once more.

I swapped out the entire lower torso and thighs unit from the armless Prime, as luckily that section wasn't in too bad condition. These thighs didn’t sit as flush when Prime was transformed, but that was a lesser issue than the broken chest piece.

It wasn’t plan A, but at least I had it there for plan B.

Going Full Quintesson

After piling all the pieces into a coffee tin for safe storage, it was time to run the taps and give Prime a bath in some warm, soapy water.

I dried most pieces with a towel, but also used a hairdryer on a cool setting to get into the nooks and crannies that the towel couldn't reach. 

I took extra care drying the still-assembled pelvis section; for one because there was the metal pin in the middle of the assembly, and for two because it was the only one of those pieces I had left!

Once the pieces were clean it was hugely tempting to put Prime back together as he was. The toy had earned its wear and tear over the years, and the faded chrome spoke to years of history.

But on the flip side, this was an £8 junker that the original owner had abandoned and I was committed to the project.

As such, the last task for the night was to repaint his scuffed and faded silver pieces with the chrome pen.

With that done, it was time to leave it all to dry and come back the next day to finish the project off.

G1 Optimus Prime Reassembled

Putting Optimus Prime back together was mostly straightforward.

A satisfying part of the process

 
The only issue I encountered with the reassembly was that his left foot was well loose after putting it back on; so much so that in the end I swapped it out for the spare left foot from the donor.

The finished result is still a little looser than I’d like, but it’s way better than it was.

I applied the Reprolabels as I put the pieces back together, which made this job much easier. However, the raised dots on Prime's upper arms made it tricky to set the Autobot symbols.

Rather than do a bad job, I decided to leave Prime without a faction symbol - at least for now.

With that, Optimus Prime was restored, reassembled, and ready to take his place on my G1 Autobot shelf.

Final Thoughts

Throughout the project I kept wondering if I was doing the right thing.

Is it better to keep a classic toy as it is, and show off the years of wear and tear? Or is it better to try and give it a new lease of life?

Whilst these thoughts did cross my mind, seeing the before and after pics are enough for me to believe that I made the right call.

Before (L) and After (R)

The word is overused, but G1 Optimus Prime is genuinely an iconic toy. Having this opportunity to see how it was constructed was a real treat.

And this restoration was so straightforward - and such a joy to complete - that I’d recommend anyone, of any level, to give it a go.

It may not be the world's greatest G1 Optimus Prime restoration, but it does the job for me. And given how I now know the toy much better than I ever anticipated back when the Missing Link figure was announced, I'm going to consider this mission accomplished.

Have you completed any G1 restoration projects? Comment below and share your work!

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Thanks for reading!