Tag Archives: Ultra Magnus

#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.

#3564: Ultra Magnus

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

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS PRIME: CYBERVERSE (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0043:  There are 7 Prime-style Ultra Magnus toys.  I own 5 of them, and I’ve reviewed four of them here.  Here’s the fifth!

I do love me an Ultra Magnus review, because it signifies that I get to talk about a new Ultra Magnus.  Is there anything better than that?  Well, yeah, probably.  But it’s certainly high on the list!  I’ve still got a sizeable collection of Magnuses, and I haven’t yet reviewed them all, so I get to pull one off the shelf every so often and jump back in.  So, that’s what I’m doing here!  This one’s on the tinier side!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus is part of the third Commander Class wave of the Prime: Cyberverse line.  In contrast to these days, where Commander Class is a size above Leader, during Cyberverse, it was the larger of the two smaller scale lines, more on par with the likes of the modern Core Class.  In robot mode, Magnus is just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 11 points of workable articulation.  Much like his larger scale Powerizer counterpart, Magnus is using his pre-show appearance design, which is a bit more unique.  As such, he gets a unique sculpt, rather than re-using Optimus parts.  I remain a fan of this design, even if it never did get any show use.  It’s smaller scale equivalent is a little more rudimentary and has more obvious bits of his vehicle mode hanging off, but that doesn’t make it less cool.  His coloring is similar but not identical to the larger version; there’s a larger proportion of red on the torso and shoulders this time around, and the blue’s a little darker.  Magnus gets a hammer weapon, which is kind of a half-way point between the Powerizer and Arms Micron releases of the weapons included with the larger mold.  It converts into a cannon mode, but definitely works better as a hammer.  This Magnus’ alt-mode matches the larger figure, with more of a tow-truck vibe than we tend to see on Magnus.  The transformation is pretty simple, and it locks together pretty well.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Max has been very supportive of me in my goal of acquiring all the Magnuses, and this is one of those instances.  He went out of his way to make sure this guy got to me, in the midst of a very rough patch of time for me.  He’s just a little guy, but he’s a little guy I really do love.  I’m always down for another Magnus!

#3503: Ultra Magnus

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

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS: STUDIO SERIES (HASBRO)

“Ultra Magnus leads defensive measures against the Decepticons invading Autobot City.”

Well, it’s been another few months with no Transformers around these parts, so, you know, maybe I’ll address that?  Yeah, let’s do that.  And the best way to address a Transformers drought is…well, let’s be honest, with me it’s either gonna be Ultra Magnus or Soundwave.  Today, let’s focus on the former. Back in 2021, Hasbro started working Transformers: The Movie figures into their Studio Series line, in celebration of the movie’s 35th anniversary. At the same time, Earthrise and Kingdom added a few more compatible characters in a fairly close to movie style. Ultra Magnus’s anniversary-related figure wound up in Kingdom, and sort of walked the line between cartoon and toy, having an animated style exterior, while still retaining the toy style inner bot. This doesn’t quite hit the same mark as a Studio Series release, so, obviously a follow-up was needed, right?  Sure, yeah, let’s go with that.  I will literally never turn down a new Magnus.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magus is a Commander Class release in Hasbro’s Transformers: Studio Series, where he’s numbered 86-21.  Magnus is notable for being the first instance of a Commander release under the Studio Series banner; previously, they were just a main line thing.  It also means he bumps up a class after being typically in the Leader category.  In his robot mode, the figure stands 9 inches tall and he has 30 workable points of articulation.  His articulation is generally improved compared to the usual Magnus, so he get a lot more poses than you might expect from a guy that’s so bulked up.  In particular, he gets a really cool set up on his hands, allowing for “fists”, basic grip, trigger grip, and even pointing.  The only part I’m not super keen on is how the shoulders work when extending out to the side; you’re effectively just popping them out of the socket, and the hinge isn’t strong enough to actually hold them up.  Magnus’ sculpt is all-new, and, as noted in the intro, it eliminates the inner robot mode, since he had nothing of the sort in the movie or cartoon.  This allows the design to focus purely on Magnus’ armored up design, and not have to worry about contending with an additional mode.  As such, his proportions work out slightly differently, and he doesn’t have spots where you can still see the smaller bot poking through.  It’s a strong sculpt, definitely capturing his movie design very well.  The only part that feels off to me is, again, the shoulders, which seem to be a little too wide for proper animation accuracy.  It’s not far off, mind you, and has to do with folding up parts from his alt-mode, so it’s not the end of the world.  Ultra Magnus gets a few built-in features.  To replicate the scene in the movie where he is drawn and quartered, his arms and legs are removable, by way of a spring-loaded locking system.  Magnus also gets a spot in his torso to house the Matrix of Leadership (as he does for a while in the movie), which is likewise spring loaded.  Pulling up the blue armored section of the torso flips the two chest doors open, revealing the included Matrix.  Magnus is packed with his toy-style rifle, plus his smaller emergency rifle from the movie, both of which can be stored on his back.  He also includes 7 different effects pieces, which are modular, and can be combined into different set-ups in conjunction with the rifles and the rockets.

With no inner bot, this Magnus transforms directly into his car-carrier vehicle mode, rather than the separate cab/carrier set-up of the Kingdom and Siege molds.  He’s a Commander Class, so there’s a definite complexity to the transformation.  It’s definitely a little more on the fiddly side, and I was consulting the instructions more on this one than others.  That said, it’s not terribly unintuitive, and its still a Magnus, so there are certain broad strokes that still land for the sequence.  The resulting vehicle mode is honestly pretty good.  There are a few spots where it doesn’t *quite* tab together perfectly, but otherwise it works, and the carrier portion is even large enough to properly carry Deluxe Class car bots, which is definitely a plus from the compatibility stand-point.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting the Kingdom Magnus, I didn’t think I needed another G1-style Magnus.   I mean, that one’s, like, really solid.  How do you top it?  You don’t, as it turns out.  You go a different direction.  This one definitely was a surprise, but a happy one.  He’s definitely fun.  I don’t know that he beats out Kingdom Magnus in my *personal* order, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate another Magnus for my Magnus shelf.

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.

#3383: Ultra Magnus

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

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS PRIME: ROBOTS IN DISGUISE (HASBRO)

“If there is any Autobot the Decepticons fear as much as Optimus Prime it is Ultra Magnus. His battle hammer has crushed chassis from one side of the galaxy to the other. No battlefield on which his armored feet have stepped has ever been yielded to the Decepticons.”

Back when Hasbro was having a go at running their own television channel, and they needed a bit more material to fill out the schedule, they launched a few new incarnations of their in-house brands.  Transformers Prime was part of this launch, and was certainly a more successful launch than its G.I. Joe equivalent, Renegades.  It also spawned a rather expansive tie-in toyline.  And, as you can probably gather from my usual Transformers habits, I’m most interested in the Ultra Magnuses.  I’m looking at one of those today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus was released in the fourth Voyager Class assortment of Hasbro’s Prime: Robots in Disguise line, referred to internally as “Powerizers” to better distinguish them from everything else to use “Robots in Disguise” in its title.  Takara also released him under their Arms Micron banner, which features some differences I’ll touch on later down.  In his robot mode, the figure stands just shy of 7 inches tall and he has 18 workable points of articulation.  In contrast to many Magnuses, including most under the Prime heading, this figure sported a sculpt wholly unique to him, and shared no parts with any of the Optimus figures from the line.  As he predated Magnus’s appearance in Season 3 of the show (where he largely re-used Optimus’s Season 1 design model), this figure has a distinctly different design, which, apart from the head (which was transplanted onto the aforementioned Season 1 Optimus), was never actually used in the show.  It’s honestly a pretty good design it its own right, and it translates nicely into toy form.  He keeps with the show’s lean and mean aesthetic, while still holding onto Magnus’s usual boxier build.  His color scheme is far heavier on blue than the final show design, and the Hasbro release makes use of a nice, deep, metallic blue plastic, which I really dig.  The Micron release has a flatter, brighter blue, which is also pretty fun, though it ends up losing a lot of the smaller details present on the Hasbro version.  Of the two, the Hasbro one’s definitely a little stronger.  The Hasbro release is packed with a large hammer, which can turn into a rifle, as well as a single rocket; he should really have two for that classic shoulder set-up, but I suppose you could track down an extra if you’re so inclined.  The Micron release drops those in favor of his “partner,” a small bot that turns into a different version of the hammer.  He’s a pretty fun little guy, and I like the final hammer a bit better on the Micron version.  Magnus’s alt-mode for this release is again unique.  Rather than sharing Optimus’s mode, this one is more of a tow-truck vibe, which is different, but fun.  The transformation is involved, but not too difficult, and the whole thing is honestly pretty satisfying to mess around with.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got the Prime Magnus figures effectively in reverse order, which is a bit of an interesting way of looking at them, since it means they get more unique as you go, rather than becoming more prone to re-use.  I added the Hasbro version of this guy to my collection a little while back, when he came into All Time as part of a trade-in a few years ago.  I got the Takara one quite recently, comparatively, courtesy of a different trade-in.  They both have their strengths, and it’s one of the few cases where I really feel there’s a benefit to both.  In general, I really like the different take on the character that this era granted.  It’s fun to see how the development process works out some times.

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

#3373: Ultra Magnus

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

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.

#3187: Ultra Magnus – Shattered Glass

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

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS: SHATTERED GLASS COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“Welcome to an alternate universe where the bad guys are good, and the good guys are bad…Shattered Glass is a mirror universe where Optimus Prime and the Autobots are the evil conquerors and ruling class of Cybertron, opposed by the noble Megatron and his heroic Decepticon rebels.

Ultra Magnus has become bored with warfare.  Having ended more sparks than he can count, he sets his sights on something greater: the destruction of the universe.”

First appearing in 2008 as the inspiration for a Botcon-exclusive boxed set, “Shattered Glass” is the Transformers version of a pretty classic sci-fi trope: the alternate universe where all the good guys are evil and all the bad guys are good…you know, kinda like it says in the italicized text above.  I guess Hasbro’s kind of okay at explaining that one too.  While all the tie-in toys were initially just handled by Fun Publications, the group in charge of both the Transformers and G.I. Joe Collector’s Clubs and their respective exclusives, and therefore not part of any of Hasbro’s proper Transformers lines, Hasbro officially brought “Shattered Glass” into their line with a Generations Select two-pack featuring the evil counterparts to Optimus Prime and Ratchet, in 2020.  In 2021, they launched a full sub-line, the Shattered Glass Collection, which was exclusive to Hasbro Pulse.  Personally, I’m not deep enough into Transformers to really need the Shattered Glass stuff, but…well, as you can see, there’s kind of an Ultra Magnus.  And, uhh, I kinda tend to just buy everything Ultra Magnus.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus is figure #6 in the Shattered Glass Collection.  He’s the first of the second batch of figures for the line, and started arriving to those who pre-ordered him at the beginning of September, which was about a month ahead of his original projected release date.  Hey, it’s not as drastic as *some* of Hasbro’s recent date changes, right?  Right.  In his fully built up robot mode, the figure stands 7 1/4 inches tall and he has 20 workable points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s mostly the same as the Kingdom Magnus.  It’s a good, classic Magnus mold, and genuinely my favorite Magnus, so I’m certainly not hurt by seeing it turn up again.  There are a few quirks to this particular use of the mold, but they’re largely to do with the paint, so I’ll get to them in a moment.  Before that, I’ll discuss the one new part of this mold, which is the head.  The original BotCon Shattered Glass Magnus had a unique head sculpt, which gave Magnus a skeletal visage and a more sinister shaping to his helmet.  It’s certainly a different design for the character, and it’s kind of the one signature part of SG Magnus, so this figure gets a new head to match that look.  Personally, I feel it clashes just a bit stylistically with the rest of the body, but it’s not a bad piece in its own right.  The paint work marks the biggest change-up for this figure, as has been the case for all of the Shattered Glass releases.  While a lot of the palette shifts for the Autobots are more centered on giving them more classically evil colors to mess with, in Magnus’s case, he actually gets a throwback to his history, with the colors of Powered Convoy, the original toy Magnus used the molds from (which were almost Magnus’s colors as well, had Hasbro not decided to shift his colors before Transformers: The Movie‘s release).  It’s honestly a sensible choice for an alternate universe Magnus, since it involves reversing his color scheme, making it feel all evil and stuff.  Unfortunately, this color scheme winds up requiring some paint where there wasn’t on the first use of this mold, which messes with the tolerances on some of the moving parts just a bit.  On my figure, the prime offenders are the inner wrist guards and the shoulder rockets, neither of which really wants to sit just right.  Beyond that, though, they look pretty solid.  It’s worth noting that in the Transformers canon, the Powered Convoy colors have been made into a separate character, Delta Magnus, and in order to facilitate this guy pulling double duty, he also includes the standard Kingdom Magnus head colored to match the core body.  He’s also got his blaster rifle (now in red), as well as the sword, axe, and Matrix of Leadership from the Legacy Laser Prime.

As a re-use of the Kingdom mold, SG Magus has an inner bot under all of the outer armor.  His mold is totally unchanged, which is honestly just fine by me.  He does get a drastically different color scheme, however.  While the outer robot could pull double duty as Delta Magnus, the inner robot uses the original Powered Convoy inner bot colors, thus allowing him to serve as a third character, Magna Convoy.  I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know anything about Magna Convoy, and reading his wiki entry didn’t really help much on that front, but I do like the look of the color scheme he’s got.  Not enough to ever display this figure sans armor, but such is the curse of any inner Magnus bot.  The inner bot turns into the same truck cab as the original Kingdom release did, just with the updated colors, and just like that one, you can reconfigure the armor pieces into a trailer for the cab.  It’s still a little bit slapdash, but I still don’t really mind that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It’s Max’s fault.  No, really, it’s totally Max’s fault.  He completely enabled me on this one.  I didn’t even know it was coming, he told me about its existence, and he even let me jump in on his Pulse Premium membership to help me get one.  How dare he?  Downright unreasonable.  In all seriousness, I’ve been wanting a Delta Magnus re-deco since Siege, and that only increased with the Kingdom mold in play.  I wasn’t expecting the Shattered Glass angle, but I can’t say I’m upset about it, since it just means extra stuff.  He’s gonna stay in the Delta Magnus mode for my display, but I’m always down for more options.

Oh, and there’s also a comic.  Right.  Genuinely forgot.  Was gonna do a bit and then I actually forgot.  He comes with the first issue of IDW’s Transformers: Shattered Glass II, which gets a special exclusive cover for this release.  It sure is a comic.  There are words.  Illustrations.  Colors.  Events occur.  Not sure I’d say it has a plot, but it’s sure got a lot of Magnus.  I can’t say it’s good or bad.  It just…is.

#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.

#2967: Ultra Magnus

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

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS: UNIVERSE (HASBRO)


Despite a prominent spot in 2001’s Robots in Disguise, Ultra Magnus was effectively absent from the Unicron Trilogy, at least as far as direct presence was concerned.  The name was used again for Energon, on a rather rare redeco of Armada Overload.  As far as any actual Armada coverage, the closest he would get would come two years after the Armada line, as part of the more all encompassing Universe line.  Since I’m in an Armada sort of mood, but I also gotta have some Magnus love, let’s take a look at that figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus was released in the Transformers: Universe line, as half of one of Hasbro’s “Battle in a Box” sets, an run of market six (close out and department stores like Kohl’s) exclusive sets they tried with their in-house brands in ‘04.  His pack-mate was Treadshot, who isn’t an Ultra Magnus, so he’s not getting a review here.  In his robot mode, Magnus stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 15 workable points of articulation.  Structurally, this Magnus goes back to the tried and true method of making a Magnus by taking an Optimus and painting him white.  This one specifically is based on the Armada Prime mold.  It’s not a bad mold, apart from the forearm assembly being backwards, and has a decent update on the classic Optimus aesthetic.  The new color scheme works really well with it, and actually does look pretty suitably like a new character.  He’s got a set of forearm-mounted guns, which serve as his smokestacks in his alt-mode.  They were removable here for…reasons?  I don’t really know why.  Magnus is also packed with his own Mini-Con companion, Overrun, who was shared with the previous Optimus release.  He’s slightly redecoed here.  He’s got a kind of goofy robot mode, but he can also serve as a gun for Magnus.

Magnus’s alt-mode is a truck.  That’s it.  Okay, I mean, it’s like a sci-fi truck, I guess.  It’s not a bad alt-mode, especially for a Magnus, and the transformation sequence isn’t too complex or anything.  Those smokestacks fall off a lot, but it’s otherwise alright.  Overrun gets his own alt-mode, in addition to the gun mode, where he turns into a jet.  Right out of the box, his wings are reversed, but this can be easily corrected by popping them out and then back into the right spots.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t know of this set’s existence as a kid, or even until later into my adulthood, so I never did get around to looking for it.  Instead it rather came to me, as it was traded into All Time last summer.  I just wanted the Magnus, so Max wound up taking the Treadshot I didn’t want, and I had a sweet new Magnus.  He’s nothing phenomenal or anything, but he’s a Magnus that fits with my Armada collection, and that works for me.