Tag Archives: Autobots

#3787: Cliffjumper

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

CLIFFJUMPER

TRANSFORMERS: MISSING LINK (TAKARA)

I haven’t done any Transformers reviews since back in November, but it’s okay, because they’re coming back around again!  Last year saw the launch of Takara’s Missing Link branding, which sort of takes Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Origins approach of “vintage style figure with modern engineering” and applies to TFs, giving us figures that look like the original G1s, but without being the generally static bricks those were in robot mode.  The first two figures were both Optimus, and I’m not an Optimus guy, but now we’re getting into some of the other characters.  That some of the other characters includes Cliffjumper, who may not be Magnus or Soundwave, but is still rather high up on my list.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cliffjumper is figure C-04 in the Transformers: Missing Link line.  Thus far, this line’s been releasing figures in pairs, and Cliffy is paired off with Bumblebee, with whom he shares a bit of his tooling.  In robot mode, the figure stands just a hair over 3 inches tall and he has 21 workable points of articulation.  Right off the bat, this guy’s definitely tiny.  Like, I knew he would be, since they’re aiming to replicate the sizing on the originals, but the pictures just didn’t really prepare me for how small he was in person.  He’s just a cute little guy.  Cliffjumper’s sculpt is obviously patterned on his original figure, and in that respect, it’s a good recreation.  It looks a lot like that earlier figure, but he’s less stiff, and the details are all a lot sharper.  His posing is a little bit restricted by his somewhat boxy frame, but it’s honestly not bad.  My biggest issue with mine is that the shoulders can be a touch tricky to pose, and are maybe a hair looser than I’d like.  I’ve heard there have been issues with the heels cracking during posing, but I haven’t had that issue with mine.  Cliffy is packed with a bazooka and a smaller blaster, bith of which are chromed and very cool.  He also includes a sheet of stickers, for those interested in changing up his look.  I’m good with the basic look, so those are staying on the sheet for me.  Like his original, this guy turns into a little tiny car.  The transformation’s pretty easy, but at the same time not too simple.  On mine, the hood doesn’t *quite* seat against the windshield the way it should.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m a fan of this general concept of figure, but with Optimus being the launch and me not being an Optimus fan, I couldn’t justify the cost to jump in.  Cliffjumper, however, being the Ultra Magnus to Bumblebee’s Optimus, is right in line with my sort of off-brand Autobot sensibilities, so he gave me the opportunity to try this line out.  He’s very fun, and I like him quite a bit.  And, of course, I want a Magnus now.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3705: Ultra Magnus

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS GALAXY VERSION (BLOKEES)

I haven’t reviewed anything Transformers-related here on the site since way back in June, when I left off with a Ultra Magnus that didn’t transform.  I’m picking things back up today with….an Ultra Magnus that doesn’t transform.  Look, I just always come back to the Magnus, alright?  Today, I’m diving into new thing, Blokees, which, despite the fact that my mind keeps reading it as “Bloke-ees”, is actually “Blok-ees”, you know, like a “block”.  Clever, right?  I mean, I guess.  Anyway, Blokees is a company that does little small scale figure model kits, with their first major endeavor being Transformers.  There’s an Ultra Magnus to be had, and who am I to say no?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus is part of the Transformers Galaxy Version line’s fourth assortment, dubbed “Fractured Space-Time.”  He’s one of the standard 1 in 9 blind box figures from the set, making him an even chance compared to all the other standards.  This is the line’s second Magnus, following up on the requisite white Optimus repaint in the third series.  This one, however, is the proper fully armored Magnus that everyone really wants.  Since these are model kits, they’re unassembled right out of the box.  You get three parts trees and a bag of loose parts, which you assemble to get the figure.  Assembly isn’t bad.  It’s not too intense, but you definitely want to make sure you get things right the first time around, because it holds together really tightly, and it can be tricky to pull things back apart to fix them.  But, as I said, once assembled, the figure holds together really well, and gives him a pretty solid weight.  When assembled, the figure stands 4 1/4 inches tall and he has 18 points of articulation.  The sculpt for this guy is clearly animation based, specifically on the G1 cartoon, as are most of the Galaxy Version kits.  A lot of the core parts are shared between all of the figures in the set, and those all work well.  The Magnus-specific parts are all really nicely handled, very clean, and mesh well with the standard parts.  There’s some slight deforming to the design, but it’s pretty minor on Magnus specifically.  Magnus’s color work, which is largely achieved via the separate plastic pieces, is quite vibrant.  There’s a little bit of extra detailing on a few of the parts to fully sell the design.  Magnus’s build also gives him two sets of hands to swap out (gripping and open gesture), his rifle, an energon cube, a faction insignia, and a stand.  That’s actually quite a bit for such a small package, and covers pretty much all of your bases.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Blokees just sort of materialized out of nowhere, but they’ve been everywhere and I was very definitely curious about them, and was looking for a good jumping on point to try.  Hey, there’s a Magnus!  That sure is a nice jumping on point.  Of course, they’re blind boxed, so I couldn’t just grab one.  But, if you buy a whole case, you’re guaranteed a full set, so, you know, easiest way to get a Magnus, right?  Look, don’t fight me on this.  I actually wound up getting the whole case so that I could try them out with Matty, who’s always looking for fun things to occupy his time.  We’ve been having a great time building them together, and I got a little Magnus out of the deal.  It’s a really fun little figure, and a really fun product in general.  Just a great all around product, especially for the price.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3640: Ultra Magnus

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS REACTION FIGURES (SUPER 7)

Fun FiQ Fact #0119: This figure is one of my daughter Aubrey’s favorite toys.

And here’s the requisite Part 2 to the review I ran last Friday.  Did anyone see that coming?  I mean, I did, but I literally make the schedule, so, you know, drastically less impressive for me to guess what it’s gonna be.  Like I said last week, there’s two characters I need to see in any given Transformers line to get me on-board: Soundwave and Ultra Magnus.  I looked at the ReAction Soundwave last week, so let’s follow that bad boy up with a…good boy?  No, that doesn’t sound right…  Well, the point is that I’m following it up with my favorite Autobot, Ultra Magnus!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus is part of the sixth series of Transformers ReAction Figures from Super 7, released in 2023.  The figure is about 4 inches tall and has 7 whole points of articulation.  That’s right, he gets extra movement!  Check out those moving shoulder rockets!  Oh yeah!  All the standard ReAction figures are the same basic size, so Magnus and Soundwave are more or less the same height, which isn’t really accurate to the source, I guess, but it fits the style more or less.  I talked about the general stylistic choices of the line in my Soundwave review last week.  It’s still…odd, but it’s kind of a done deal this far into things.  It’s an explicitly animation-based Ultra Magnus, which, honestly, we don’t see all that often.  Sure, we get pretty close ones, but there’s frequently some sort of compromise, which this figure doesn’t require.  Well, you know, apart from the pretty major “doesn’t transform” compromise that he gets.  It’s a fun sculpt overall, though.  My only really dig at it is that he’s somehow even more pigeon-toed than Soundwave was, which is once again pretty goofy.  Magnus is completely painted, rather than using any molded colors.  It’s pretty good base work, though I did find it was a bit sensitive to chipping.  Also, rather than proper red, white, and blue, as Magnus is classically shown, he’s got an off-white/light grey for all of his lighter sections, which is a slightly different look.  Though, again, that’s the sort of thing that dials into the style Super 7’s aiming for with these figures, so it makes a degree of sense.  Magnus is packed with his usual blaster rifle, painted up in that light grey color.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

It’s this guy’s fault I have the Soundwave from last week at all.  I’d passed on that one a good many times because there was no Magnus.  Then this guy got shown off, and I had to care about the line.  I actually missed out on the earliest portion of his run, but, on a chance, I swung past the toy aisle at Target a couple of months ago, and there was a whole peg of this guy.  He was…well, he was more than I wanted to pay, but for a Magnus, it was worth it.  Like Soundwave, he’s a fun little novelty figure, and I do enjoy that.

#3339: Autobot Rewind

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

AUTOBOT REWIND

TRANSFORMERS: TITANS RETURN (HASBRO)

Soundwave’s not the only Transformer to get his own cassette boi sidekicks. He’s got the Decepticons covered, but over on the Autobot side, there’s Blaster, who gets his own selection of the little guys. In recent years, whenever one of the tapedecks and their cassettes showed up, you could be sure the other wasn’t far behind. For Titans Return, it was Blaster who was first out of the gate, and, by extension, so were his sidekicks. Among them was Rewind, who was, at the time, getting a bit of focus in the More Than Meets the Eye comics from IDW. That seemed like a pretty good justifiable for a figure, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Autobot Rewind was part of the first Legends Class-scale assortment of Hasbro’s Titans Return line, which hit in 2016. Legends Class is roughly the same size as the modern Core Class, which certainly made this a larger than usual Rewind.  In robot mode, he stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and has 11 practical points of articulation.  Rewind debuted this mold, which would subsequently be tweaked and re-used for both Rumble and Frenzy.  Curiously, it was never used to make Rewind’s fellow Autobot cassette, Eject, despite the two classically sharing molds.  The design for this guy was based on Nick Roche’s design for Rewind in More Than Meets the Eye, which was a good focus for the character, so it made a lot of sense.  The difference between this guy and Frenzy is the head, which for Rewind has a plate over the mouth, which makes him all extra sleek and stuff.  That’s fun.  The mold is genuinely one of the best for this style of the cassettes, and just one of the best cassette bot molds in general.  His color work matches up with Rewind’s usual color scheme, and is pretty striking overall.  He’s packed with a small rifle, which works with one of his transformations.  As with all of the TR-era cassette bots, Rewind’s first alt-mode is a data pad, which is vaguely cassette looking, and gets some stickers to help with the overall effect.  He also gets a second alt-mode, which uses the rifle in order to turn Rewind into a tank.  It’s honestly a pretty effective one, and I really dig that they did the two alt-modes here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting the Greatest Hits Soundwave, I was really settled in on just one of each of the cassette molds.  Since I had Frenzy, I didn’t need to track down Rewind.  Or, at least I thought.  I then sat down and read through most of More Than Meets the Eye, since it’s rather Magnus heavy and all, and I grew to quite like Rewind’s portrayal.  So, when one was traded into All Time back in 2020 or so, I went ahead and grabbed him.  I do really like the mold, and it’s distinctly different enough from Frenzy to make it worthwhile to me to have both.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3179: Ultra Magnus

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS: R.E.D. (HASBRO)

Okay, the Transformers reviews have certainly slowed down around here, I suppose.  I was trying for a once-a-month thing, but I couldn’t even do that.  Admittedly, I wasn’t really trying.  Well, hey, would you guys like a Transformers review?  Okay, but slight caveat: this one does not transform.  I know.  First Transformers review in three months.  Doesn’t even transform.  There’s some sort of cruel irony there.  Well, if it makes it any better, it’s at least an Ultra Magnus.  So, you know, it’s at least mostly on brand.  Mostly.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus is one of the two figures (the other being the Prime version of Knockout) that make up the fifth assortment of Transformers: R.E.D., which remains exclusive to Walmart.  The entire selling point of this line is that the transformations are sacrificed in the name of animation accuracy, a selling point that has been completely lost with this figure, because instead of being based on any animated appearance of Magnus, this figure is instead based on his G1 inner robot.  Why?  Re-use, that’s why.  I’ll get to that.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Magnus’s entire existence is reliant on one thing: he’s a 100% parts re-use.  Since he’s just the inner robot, rather than a proper armored Magnus, he’s just a complete repaint of the Series 1 Optimus Prime mold.  This is my first time messing with the mold.  It’s alright.  The movement is a little better than the Soundwave mold for the most part, and I found the angles to be a little sharper on this one.  It matches the Prime animation model, which is good for Prime.  For Magnus, it’s kind of neither here nor there whether it’s accurate to anything.  It’s generally a pretty fun sculpt removed from the source, and it plays pretty well, so I can’t really complain.  The mold still features Prime’s opening chest compartment, which on the first release allowed for storage of the included Matrix of Leadership.  The Matrix isn’t included here, so it’s kind of vestigial, but it’s still a cool feature.  The main change-up for this release is the paint scheme.  As with the G1 figure, he’s a largely white version of Prime, much like the inner bots for the Siege and Kingdom releases.  Not *actually* being an inner bot means he can follow the original color scheme a little bit more, specifically with the upper being silver, rather than just more white.  The application is clean, and he looks the part, so it all works out.  Magnus is packed with three sets of hands (fists, open gesture, and a grip/pointing combo), a rifle, and an alternate Energon axe hand (now in blue).  All of these are the same as those included with the standard Optimus, though, as noted above, this guy loses the Matrix.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this line’s Soundwave because he pretty much fell into my lap.  He was fine, but not really enough to make me jump into the line any further.  The announcement of a Magnus was exciting, but that was undercut by the reveal that he was just a Prime repaint.  Generally, I don’t tend to go for just inner-bot Magnuses, so I wasn’t really planning to get this one.  Ultimately, I got him because I needed to stop at Walmart for something else, he was there, and he was on sale.  He’s not a bad figure, but he’s also just sort of…lost?  Like, he’s not even true to the one thing the line had going for it, so, exactly what is his purpose?  I’d like to see a proper armored version later down the line, but honestly I feel like this figure’s existence is going to make getting another one more difficult.  I get Hasbro wanting to get extra mold re-uses, but for this specific line, I don’t feel like this is one that really works.  So, I’m glad to have another Magnus, as per usual, but I do wish he were better.

#3089: Ultra Magnus

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS: FALL OF CYBERTRON (HASBRO)

“Ultra Magnus is legendary among Autobots and Decepticons alike. The mere sight of his armored form charging into battle is more than enough to inspire his troops to victory, and his strength as a warrior is more than enough to break any Decepticon army.”

You know what I haven’t really reviewed a lot of lately?  Transformers.  As a whole, I’ve kinda slowed down on collecting them, so there’s a lot less of an influx of them waiting to get reviewed all the time, but I’ve still got a host of older ones I can fall back on.  I good chunk of those older figures are Ultra Magnus.  I know, you’re all very shocked by this crazy development that absolutely no one could have seen coming.  I’ve covered a good chunk of Ultra Magni here on the site, which has also allowed me to explore the various different eras of the toyline.  For today’s purposes, let’s discuss video games.  In 2010, a prequel game of sorts to the main Transformers storyline, titled War For Cybertron, was released, alongside a number of other tie-ins, including a handful of figures within Hasbro’s Transformers: Generations line.  In 2012, the game received a sequel in the form of Fall of Cybertron, which likewise got its own tie-ins, this time with the Generations line actually getting a proper re-titling, and the whole line focusing on adapting designs from the game.  Our boy Ultra Magnus found his way into this particular toyline, like a champ, and I’m taking a look at that particular figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus was released in the third Deluxe Class assortment of the Fall of Cybertron line, which hit in 2013.  In his robot mode, the figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall, and he has 19 workable points of articulation.  As a Deluxe Class release, this Ultra Magnus is notably quite small for a Magnus, especially in reference to the rest of the line which spawned him.  He’s just a little guy.  While the line was ostensibly based on the game designs, Magnus is actually not based on a game design at all.  Or, really anything really.  The question of scaling, as well as the nature of this design both stem from the fact that he’s largely a repaint of the FoC Optimus.  As such, he doesn’t get Magnus’s fully armored look, or the corresponding scale-up that would go along with it.  There does exist a third party figure which does a slightly closer job of replicating the game’s Magnus design (though even that’s based on concept art more than the actual game).  For the purposes of this release, Hasbro’s aim is clearly to make the most of what they have, so he gets an all-new, more Magnus-worthy head.  It’s a pretty nice sculpt, keeping the classic Magnus elements, but also melding things with the aesthetic of the game designs.  Additionally, the instructions also have you leave the smokestacks up in robot mode, simulating Magnus’s usual shoulder pylons.  Gotta have those shoulders for a true Magnus.  He also gets the new deco, of course.  It’s quite heavy on blue, which really helps to differentiate him from Optimus, and I really do dig the decision to go with that really stark white.  All of it results in a figure that may be small, but still looks very much like a Magnus.  Magnus was packed with the same blaster included with Optimus, as well as a big honkin’ sword.  Sword’s aren’t classically a Magnus thing, but it’s still a nifty piece.  It’s made up of three distinct parts, with the part that makes up the tip actually being the sword used by Optimus briefly within the game proper.

Ultra Magnus’s alt-mode is the same one that Prime had.  It’s a Cybertronian “truck,” which is decidedly less boxy than most Prime alt-modes, and by extension less boxy than most Magnus alt-modes as well.  It’s a different sort of design, but not a terrible one, as far as made-up sci-fi truck modes go.  The transformation sequence takes a little bit of doing, but it’s not too crazy either.  Given that it’s not really a Magnus design, it’s not the sort of thing I see myself getting much use out of personally, but it’s still nifty.  In vehicle mode, the blaster and sword can both be mounted to the figure, so as to not lose them or anything.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I discovered this figure fairly early into my dive into the depths of older Magnus figures back in 2019, and was definitely interested.  As with most older Transformers, though, I don’t really have an undying need to actively search for them.  They just sort of come to me.  This one in a more literal sense than most.  He came into All Time as part of a trade, but it was one that Max had handled, so I knew nothing about him.  So, when they came in, Max just walked up to my desk and sat this guy in front of me, because, you know, Magnus and all.  It was a fairly pleasant little surprise.  As I said above, he’s small for a Magnus, and not really based on anything specific.  That said, I do really like him.  He feels kind of unique, and he’s honestly just a very fun little figure.

#2891: Rodimus Prime

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

RODIMUS PRIME

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: KINGDOM (HASBRO)

The 35th anniversary of Transformers: The Movie has been a major focus of Hasbro’s Transformers toy output in the last year, with a major focus being placed on it in the Studio Series, but also some overflow going into its sister line, Kingdom.  Play factor does seem to be a major factor in what exactly goes where, but in the case of today’s offering, it’s more that the Studio Series doesn’t actually have a history of offering the class size that this figure utilizes.  I’ve already looked at Transformers: The Movie‘s main star in his Hot Rod incarnation, but he’s got two distinct looks in the film, since once he takes ownership of the Matrix of Leadership, he is reborn as Rodimus Prime, who is historically a little bigger than Hot Rod.  So, let’s take a look at Rodimus, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rodimus Prime is part of Transformers War For Cybertron: Kingdom, as the line’s Commander Class offering for the year, following in the footsteps of Jetfire and Skylynx before him.  In his robot mode, Rodimus stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 34 practical points of articulation.  Much like Hot Rod, Rodimus is notably smaller than other figures in the same size class, falling somewhere between modern Voyager and Leader scaling, but the reasoning behind his higher price point isn’t really scale, it’s actually engineering.  Hot Rod made use of the Voyager price point to gather more complex articulation and parts layouts, and Rodimus is really the same.  So, while he may not be as big as others, he’s still got a lot going on under the hood (in more ways than one).  He’s also got some very serious heft behind him, which is very much in line with how this incarnation of the line has been run.  In terms of mobility, this figure takes the articulation and range of motion seen on Hot Rod, and just improves upon it, removing the usual restrictions Hot Rods and Rodimuses tend to run into.  He also takes the already jointed hands on the Hot Rod figure, and further articulates them, adding additional movement at the second knuckle, as well as separating out the pointer fingers on their own.  And it doesn’t even make them too floppy or loose for use with the accessories, which is always an accomplishment on its own.  The sculpt, like Hot Rod before it, is a great translation of the animation for Rodimus from the film, following in the steps of the sleekness seen on Hot Rod.  The two sculpts are also quite similar, making them really feel like two versions of the same guy, as they well should.  Of course, as a Kingdom release, rather than a Studio release, there are a few elements of the sculpt’s styling which do go for a few extra little details, to add more to the slightly larger canvas, and also link him a little bit more to how the Siege and Earthrise bots tended to look.  It also makes him a little more distinctly different from his Hot Rod incarnation.  Keeping the ball rolling on the extra features worked into Hot Rod’s robot mode, Rodimus gets a pretty notable extra of his own; his torso is designed to open up in such a fashion so as to reveal the Matrix of Leadership contained within, which is a very cool touch, especially since you don’t really have to disrupt his robot mode to show it off.  In an effort to further justify Rodimus’s higher price-point, the figure gets a rather intensive selection of extras, the largest of which is his Mobile Defense Bay, patterned after the piece that came with his original G1 figure, which includes a rather sizable mounted cannon for him to man.  In addition to the Mobile Defense Bay, Rodimus also gets his usual long rifle, as well as the Sword of Primus, the previously mentioned Matrix (which is the same Earthrise version included with Hot Rod), and 10 effects pieces.  One of the effects is designed for use with the matrix (and is notably a different one than was included with Hot Rod), while seven of them are re-used from Omega Supreme, and work as modular effects for the cannons.  The last two are designed for the exhaust pipes that make up the cannons on his forearms, but aren’t quite as sensible in the form.

Rodimus’s vehicle mode begins as a slightly modified version of the futuristic sports car that serves as Hot Rod’s alt-mode.  The transformation sequence isn’t quite as easily done on this one, and I did have some difficulty getting a few spots to seat correctly without using a little force, which isn’t always the most comforting thing.  One of the sides to the front fender also popped off during the sequence and doesn’t like to stay put when transforming anymore, which is a bit of an annoyance.  The end result is a pretty decent looking car mode, albeit one that’s not really animation based.   The smoke effects can be placed on the back of the exhaust in this mode, and the rifle and sword can both also be stored, albeit in a sort of janky fashion.  The Mobile Defense Bay and its contents fold up and turn into a trailer, as with the G1 version, allowing for something more in line with the proper Rodimus alt-mode when the core car mode is clipped in.  It makes for a more convincing version of the design than the Power of the Primes version, though it still strays a bit from the animation and original toy.  Like with Magnus, it’s just one of those things where compromises had to be drawn somewhere to make all of the different gimmicks work together, and like Magnus, I feel like the right call was made.  I also feel like it looks better in person than it did in the renders and stock photos, which I’d consider a win.  The only real downside is that the trailer does pop apart a little bit at the top seam, which looks like it may be a line-wide issue.  It’s minor, but still a little annoying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m generally more of a Hot Rod fan than a Rodimus fan, so of the two figures that hit this year, the Studio Hot Rod was definitely the one I was jamming one just a little bit more, at least initially.  That figure was really, really good, and I felt that this one might have a difficult time topping it.  So, I was a little cautious with my expectations of this figure.  In hand, he really blew me away.  He takes everything that worked so well on Hot Rod, and builds on it, resulting in a truly impressive piece, certainly the star of the Kingdom line.  I mean, Magnus is still my favorite, of course, because, you know, Magnus, but still, mad props to Hasbro on this one.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Transformers, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2748: Ultra Magnus

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: KINGDOM (HASBRO)

“Ultra Magnus is all soldier. He is most comfortable when he is carrying out Optimus Prime’s orders – giving it all of his magnificent fighting skills, courage and gift for battlefield improvisation. And he is uncomfortable when the mantle of leadership is placed over his broad shoulders. He sees himself as a follower, not a commander, and is reluctant to assume authority until it is clear that he has no choice but to lead. And when he does finally lead, he is resolute, fair and courageous beyond reproach. He is ever-ready to sacrifice himself for the good of his companions and mission, and unstinting in his preparedness so that his ‘people’ will be as protected as possible.”

Oh, did you guys see this one coming?  I bet you didn’t!  Oh, yeah, it’s another Ultra Magnus!  What a crazy turn of events!  Who could have predicted this sudden and shocking twist?  …Okay, so, yeah, we’ve got another Magnus today.  I know, it’s very on-brand for me these days.  But hey, this one’s new!  It’s a much rarer occasion that I get to look at a new Magnus figure.  Now, as I’ve brought up in the Studio Series reviews, this year marks the 35th anniversary of Transformers: The Movie, and Hasbro’s been using that as a reason to give us updates on most of the film’s core cast, split between Studio Series and Kingdom.  Magnus found himself as a part of the Kingdom component, and, after a cameo appearance in this year’s April Fool’s Day post, I’m taking a look at that particular figure proper today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus is the new half of the second Leader Class assortment of the Kingdom line, packaged alongside a re-pack of the Beast Mode Megatron figure.  As I touched on above, he’s designed to be compatible with the Studio Series ’86 figures, and is as such quite a bit more G1-animation-inspired than the Siege Magnus was.  In his fully-armored robot mode, Magnus stands 7 1/4 inches tall and he has 20 workable points of articulation.  This version of Magnus shares much of his engineering, and a few of his parts outright, with the Siege Magnus.  Siege Magnus was one of that line’s best offerings, so it’s certainly not a bad starting point.  The internal stuff is where most of shared parts are, as well as a good chunk of the arms and legs.  The biggest changes are definitely on the figure’s upper half, which grants him an all-new head and shoulders, and well as a rather reworked chest piece, and an adjusted pelvis piece.  The end result crafts the far more animation accurate exterior of the figure.  It’s quite a bit cleaner, lacking most of the greebliness of the Siege sculpt.  I appreciated the Siege set-up for what it was, but there’s definitely something that really works about the much cleaner animation-styled look.  I also really like that they’ve adjusted the head sculpt to give Magnus the lenses over his eyes that he gained in animation, further differentiating him from the vintage toy style eyes on the prior release.  The paint work does it’s fair part in continuing the animation look, as it strays from Siege‘s battle-damaged look entirely, crafting again a much cleaner appearance for the character.  I also really dig the light piping added to this one’s head sculpt; it adds an extra bit of pop.  Magnus is packed with the same larger rifle as both Siege releases (in a shade of silver between those two), as well as a revamped pair of shoulder rockets to match the cleaned up design.  Mine actually came with two right rockets, rather than a matched set, but Max was nice enough to loan me his for the purposes of the photos.  It doesn’t really bum me out too much, however, as I kind of like him a bit more without them on.

Much like his Siege counterpart, Magnus gets the inner robot mode underneath of his full armored appearance.  For the most part, it’s not too far removed from the Siege figure’s inner robot mode.  All of the sculptural changes are confined to the figure’s torso, which is the element that’s been most frequently changed on this guy.  Since his torso is more or less just the cab from his vehicle mode, it showcases to change to the more Earth-mode set-up.  Also, while the stock shots of this figure had the front end of the truck still all the way down on his back, giving him a rather unfortunately-sized back end, it does still slide up onto his back like the Siege version, which helps things look a little less awkward for him.  The inner robot gets some subtle changes to his coloring, shifting to a starker white and a slightly darker blue, as well as losing the silver brushing.  It’s a good look, but as with any Magnus, this one’s not going to be getting much time as the inner robot on my shelf.

Magnus’s vehicle mode borrows a lot from the Siege figure, but does try to change things up as much as possible in order to grant him a more G1-esque Earth-mode vehicle look.  For the core cab, it works out okay for the most part.  The actual cab follows the classic design fairly closely, and the front portion of it looks pretty good.  The back end of it’s kind of just Magnus’s arms and legs just sort of sitting there, but that was true of the Siege version as well, and I wasn’t really expecting it to change here.  Magnus’s armor still transforms into a trailer for the cab, and in fact changes into almost the same trailer that the Siege armor turned into.  Some of the surface details are slightly adjusted, but the general set-up is identical.  They’ve changed the exact connection to the cab, so it sits a bit further back, but it’s otherwise not really adjusted, and it doesn’t really look much like the G1 car carrier mode.  In their defense, it’s kind of a necessary trade off, given how the armor up feature works, and how much of the armored up bot is the same as the inner bot.  There’s just only so much you can do with those pieces, which is probably part of why the Siege figure went with the RiD style vehicle mode in the first place.  I was initially a bit put off by this sort of slapdash feeling vehicle mode, especially in contrast to how spot-on the robot mode feels, but as I’ve had some time to mess around with it, the vehicle mode has grown on me a little bit.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I absolutely love the Siege Magnus, and he remains my favorite figure from that particular line-up, but with all that said, I did sort of have this nagging for perhaps a slightly more cartoon-accurate version of the character.  With Earthrise redoing a lot of the Siege figures in slightly more accurate Earth-modes, I did sort of hope we might see a Magnus, but I knew it was a long shot.  When Earthrise wrapped without an updated Magnus, I figured that was it, and was consigned to just be content with the Magnus I got.  But, then the Studio Series 86 figures were leaked, and I was kind of hoping there might be a Magnus there…and then I got it on good word not too long after that this particular release would be coming.  And, oh boy was I excited.  He was initially slated for release over the summer, so that’s when I was expecting him, but All Time happened to get a couple of cases of him a little on the earlier side, and I happened to get mine from one of those cases, which I certainly wasn’t going to complain about.  I think this guy’s my new favorite Magnus.  He’s just really nice.  The robot mode is definitely the real winning portion here, because man is it spot-on.  The vehicle mode’s maybe not quite as strong, I suppose, but I definitely like it more than I’d expected to, and the overall package is just a really nice set-up.  To me, this really feels as close to a definitive Magnus as we’ve gotten.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Transformers, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2746: Ultra Magnus

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS: ANIMATED (HASBRO)

“Commander of the Cybertron Elite Guard, Ultra Magnus is the most powerful Autobot warrior in the galaxy. He has trained for hundreds of years in all forms of fighting known on Cybertron, and several other planets. No Autobot is more courageous, or more dedicated to the protection of life and freedom. He is a master tactician who has never been beaten on the battlefield, and was instrumental in driving the Decepticons from Cybertron and into deep space.”

Yesterday, I took a glimpse at the G1-inspired Transformers: Classics, which was a lead-in, but on the flip-side of the live action Transformers movie in 2007, was another reinvention of the franchise, this one, much like the movies, aiming at updating the G1 core cast into an all-new universe.  The result was Transformers: Animated, perhaps one of the franchise’s most popular incarnations, at least as far as the fanbase goes.  Despite not being part of the movies, Ultra Magnus never the less found himself with a fairly well-sized role in the show, and, by extension, it’s toyline.  Dig it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus was released in the second Leader Class wave of the Transformers: Animated tie-in line, which hit in 2008.  He’s quite a sizable fellow, standing just shy of 9 inches tall in his robot mode.  He’s also got 19 workable points of articulation in that form.  Like the rest of the line, Magnus was pretty closely patterned upon his in-show animation model.  Magnus’s Animated design does a lot to keep the most classically “Magnus” elements present for the character, while at the same time, trying to remove him a bit more from Optimus’s design, as well as making the robot mode one self-contained thing, rather than the armor up type thing of the G1 figure.  I’ve always found it to be one of the strongest designs to come out of Animated but I’m admittedly a little bit biased on that front.  I mean, sure, there could be more presence to the shoulders, because that’s really where the most Magnus-y elements lie, but I suppose what he’s got going on here will do.  Obviously, when it comes to the sculpt for this figure, there are some concessions made in order to translate a 2D character model into a 3D toy, but for the most part he stays quite faithful.  Mostly, he gets a few more squared off angles than in the cartoon, as well as getting a few additional details that aren’t seen on the animation model.  These extra details aren’t enough to overcrowd the design, however, so they’ve been pretty well placed; mostly, they just make the larger canvas of the figure a little more interesting to look at.  Magnus had an action feature that allowed him to “talk.”  Pressing the insignia on his chest plays one of three clips of him speaking, as well as lighting the eyes up, and moving the mouth and brow a bit to make it look like he’s actually talking.  It’s certainly gimmicky, but it’s pretty fun, and, most impressively, it doesn’t really take away from the figure when it’s not in use.  Unobtrusive action features are always the best, really.  In addition to the talking thing, Magnus can also make use of his various built-in weaponry, in his shoulders and on his back, granting him all sorts of fire power.  Or, if you’re a fan of Magnus with a hammer (and why wouldn’t you be?  That’s, like, peak Magnus), he also includes his Magnus Hammer, which is quite an impressive piece.

In the cartoon, Magnus’s alt-mode got an update, going from the previous car-carrier set-up to a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, which I guess better fits with his “I’m just a soldier” ideology?  I don’t know.  It looks pretty cool, so I can’t really complain.  The figure, predictably, follows suit with the alt-mode change-up, and does a pretty alright job of translating the animation design for the vehicle into toy form, albeit with a lot of the same caveats as the robot mode.  The transformation sequence isn’t too rough on this guy, and even gets its own set of sound effects, which are, again, gimmicky, but not in the way of the actual functionality, so that’s alright by me.  The Magnus Hammer gets its own spot in the transformation, and he still has access to all of the built in weaponry in this mode as well, which is pretty fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t really doing Transformers when Animated was around.  Which is a shame, really, because there’s a lot of cool stuff surrounding it, this guy included.  After getting into the franchise, and especially after I started delving into the older Magnuses, this guy was very high on my wants list, but I was really just patiently waiting for the right one to show up.  The same collection that had yesterday’s Classics Magnus also had this one, and Max gave me the heads up on him as well.  I wound up getting him right in the middle of a somewhat stressful week last summer, and I sort of reset myself a bit by sitting down and transforming him back and forth a few times.  It was actually really nice.  This figure’s really just a fantastic piece, and definitely the height of the Animated line for me, though, again, I may be a touch biased.

#2719: Autobot Elita-1

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , ,

AUTOBOT ELITA-1

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON TRILOGY (HASBRO)

“Search for Alpha Trion” introduced a radical new concept to Transformers: women!  Okay, actually, it introduced gender in general, since previously they were just robots, and technically genderless.  Then these supposed “fem-bots” came along, and everything got kinda gendered…I guess.  The episode reveals that not only are there a force of female Autobots running around on Cybertron, but also that they had their own equivalent to Optimus Prime in his female counterpart, Elita-1 (whose name even has a similar root translation of “Best First”.  Pretty clever, right?).  Though central to “Search” and a fixture throughout the franchise’s various incarnations, Elita has remained a slightly less frequent choice for toys, which is really a shame.  Like Bumblebee, she was a character given a rather sizable role in Netflix’s War For Cybertron adaptation even before getting a toy in the accompanying toyline, and also like Bumblebee, she got her first War figure courtesy of the Walmart-exclusive tie-in to the show.  I’m taking a look at that particular figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Elita-1 was released as part of the second Deluxe Class assortment of Walmart’s exclusive War For Cybertron tie-in line, alongside Bumblebee and re-decos of Wheeljack, Red Alert, and Impactor.  In her robot mode, Elita stands roughly 5 1/2 inches tall and she has 24 workable points of articulation.  While these figures are theoretically meant to be more show accurate, Elita joins Bumblebee in being, well, not.  I mean, she’s not *incredibly* far off, I suppose.  The basics are there, but as I touched on in Bumblebee’s review, it’s a case of Elita’s show model being one of the few that didn’t have a pre-existing toy CAD file to work from, meaning it’s not quite as play-tested and ready to go as some of the others.  So, she is instead built on the underlying structure of the Earthrise Arcee mold.  It’s not an awful choice, since they’re supposed to be rather similar in design, and they did just tool up the Arcee mold and everything.  She does get a fair portion of new parts to differentiate, with a new head, torso, pelvis, and shoulders.  They do quite a respectable job of changing up the look, especially the silhouette.  I quite like the new head sculpt, and I do like how the new torso actually gives Elita a slightly different body shape than Arcee.  There was some confusion regarding the shoulders for this figure; initial renders showed unique shoulders, but early production samples had Arcee’s more simplified shoulders.  In hand, however, she’s back to the unique ones.  Also the subject of some changes was Elita’s paint scheme.  The exact placement of the darker red and tan sections changed around a bit between renders and then the final product, with the final settling on full red for the lower arms and tan for the lower legs, as opposed to the reverse.  It’s a pretty nice set-up, and what’s actually painted is nice and clean.  Elita is packed with the same weapon that was included with Arcee, molded in a darker transparent blue.

Elita-1’s alt-mode is exactly the same as Arcee’s.  Now, as you may recall, I was not much of a fan of Arcee’s alt-mode.  I didn’t actually refer to it as “garbage,” but I certainly thought it.  I thought it a lot.  With that in mind, prospects weren’t high for this figure. If I’m entirely honest, it didn’t bug me quite as much as I expected it to.  I don’t really think it’s because I like it any more, but more because I just knew what I was getting this time, and didn’t really get let-down by it this time around.  The transformation scheme’s still kind of involved and not super fun, and I’m still not really convinced by the final product or its playability.  But, I suppose it could be worse.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve been watching the admittedly less than stellar Netflix show’s two seasons, one of the few things I didn’t hate was Elita and her Cybertronian crew.  So, I was definitely looking to get her for my collection.  With Max’s help, I was able to get both Soundwave and Bumblebee from this round back before the new year, but I wasn’t able to snag and Elita quite as quickly.  I happened to mention to Max just the other week that I was still looking so if he *happened* to see her, I’d still be interested, and as luck would have it, he found her about 10 minutes later.  I’m certainly not complaining.  Elita’s got a cool design, and she makes for a decent toy.  Yes, she inherits the same issues Arcee had, but she’s also got the same strengths.  That means she’s got a kick-ass robot mode, and I’m not gonna knock that.