ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS: TITANIUM SERIES (HASBRO)

Hey, how about some Transformers?  Would that be good?  Would that be good for you guys?  Cool.  As is usually the case with Transformers reviews more recently here, we’re going back to the well of the two characters I put most of my focus on, Soundwave and Ultra Magnus. I’ll be focusing on the latter in particular for today’s review.  In particular, I’m jumping to the Titanium Series, a franchise-spanning banner that Hasbro ran under its Galoob arm from 2005 to 2007.  They had lines for Star Wars (which served largely as a replacement for Micro Machines), Marvel, and, of course, Transformers.  Transformers had two sub-lines running, a smaller non-transforming line called Robot Masters, and a larger transforming line called Cybertron Heroes.  The larger line had not one, but two Ultra Magnuses, the first of which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus was released in 2007 as one half of Wave 7 of the Cybertron Heroes sub-line of Transformers: Titanium Series.  He was based on his G1 design, specifically the fully armored-up version.  This was the first time that the armored look had been officially updated since the ’80s.  Furthermore, this was also the first time that a fully armored Magnus figure had no inner-bot mode.  In his robot mode, he stands about 6 inches tall and he has 14 workable points of articulation.  The articulation is a bit wonky.  The balljoints for the shoulders are kinda loose and tend to pop out of place a lot.  Also, due to a design flaw, the knees bend far more forward than they do backwards.  The rest of the articulation is generally limited at best, and, due to the metal portions of the figure and the weird tolerancing of the joints, he tends to be a bit floppy.  Like the articulation, the sculpt is also a bit wonky.  There’s odd spots of flatness, a lot of obvious joints, his arms are set way back, and there’s just a lot of weirdness to the whole thing.  There’s also the whole flip-up panel on the torso thing, which feels like it’s kind of a half-formed idea that never went anywhere.  Magnus’s paint work is at least pretty solid looking.  I dig the bright blue with the metallic finish.  It doesn’t all hold up super well, of course, so you do have to be careful about it.  Magnus included a blaster, two rockets, and a “stand” with his name on it.  The stand, of course, does nothing to actually support him, but I guess it looks sort of cool.  Magnus’s alt-mode is his classic car carrier mode.  Since he has no inner-bot, he transforms straight from the fully armored mode directly to his car carrier mode.  It’s not a super complex transformation, and it results in not a super complex alt-mode.  The basic skeleton is there, but it only barely tabs together.  It feels like more of an afterthought to the robot proper.  There’s a concept there, sure, but the execution is just not there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This review was very nearly an “I Blame Max” review.  As it is, it’s kind of an honorary one, I guess.  I wasn’t routinely collecting anything Transformers when this guy hit, so I didn’t get one new, even when they were kind of everywhere.  So, I was reliant on used ones.  Max had a damaged one in his big bin of mixed TF parts he was sorting through some years back, which he handed over to me to fill the spot in my collection, which he did for a few years.  However, a much nicer, more proper one was traded into All Time, and that’s the one I’ve got in the review here.  I’ll admit, he’s not a *ton* better, even when not damaged.  He’s a rough offering, like most of the Titanium figures.  But, he’s also a Magnus, and I’m hard pressed to truly dislike any of those.

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.