UPDATE 06/27/2020: Walmart Netflix repaint added in repaint history.
UPDATE 07/08/2021: Premium Finish repaint added
Here is Magnus in his vehicle mode. It's already a pretty different take on the G1 cab and car carrier of the past, what with the more filled in trailer and the armored beef added on this truck. I like how you can place the weapons to add some needed firepower. You can't add any cars on the interior, but other than that, it's a nice recreation of what Magnus is known for. Also, I like how the cab's front looks like RID Magnus.
There are two things I don't like about the altmode: 1) the cab can't really rotate thanks to the way it's slid into the trailer, and 2) the front wheels are so far forward that they leave a gap that looks bad for the cab. Not just from the distance between the front and middle wheels, but also from the empty space that could have been filled in easily.
Here is the Combiner Wars version. It's certainly more stylized as it's based on his IDW form, but it's a design that works well. Sure, it looks lightweight in a way, but I like the more futuristic look of the vehicle mode (despite my massive dislike on the IDW comics), much like how I like the armored up Siege version. In case you're not aware of the little guy next to him, his name is Minimus Ambus. Certainly, a weird character that's pretending to be Magnus, but he adds some nice play value.
Here is Magnus without his trailer, and he looks pretty bad overall. Maybe if viewed from the front, it wouldn't look so bad, but when you look at it from the side...
...you'll now have an idea of just how bad this truck looks. Seriously, it's got the problems mentioned before its rear is bare, but the arms are exposed, the feet are exposed, and there's no real engineering added to this toy.
For a vehicle mode comparison, here he is with Optimus Prime. Despite being a slightly bigger truck than Optimus, Magnus looks a lot worse than Prime. What made Prime work was that he felt complete in terms of engineering; he has more parts going on with him, he has a better-done truck mode despite the new additions of clear blue lights and truck eyebrows, and there were more parts put into him. Ultra Magnus, by comparison, looks like he was a bootleg that had its engineering SEVERELY cut back, especially when viewed at the side. The only good thing about Magnus is that the smokestacks are prominent somewhat while the front of the cabs look different from one another.
The transformation is fairly simple for a Voyager-sized figure. There are fewer steps than what Siege Optimus had, and the overall experience doesn't seem quite as fun as Prime was. While Optimus had a great transformation that made the truck cab feel like it exploded and then tidied up its parts into a cool robot mode, this toy just feels more like it was done in an attempt to sort of capture the simplicity of the G1 toy while not doing it exactly like the G1 toy. It's so boring when compared to Siege Prime.
In his basic robot mode, Ultra Magnus looks fairly plain, yet reflects the white albino Optimus Prime core robot that the G1 toy and the IDW fiction had. Despite having some nice molded detail everywhere, the lack of paint apps makes them feel washed out if not viewed up close. The thighs attempt to add some battle damage but they look more like the paint was rubbed off amateurly instead. The side of the robot mode does at least show more color with the blue bumper now becoming his back. It's a nice addition that at least makes Magnus look less plain than he already is.
You can display the bumper in different ways if you really wanted to. The bumper can either be in the proper spot, lowered down to give him a bumper butt, or it can be removed if you know how to slide it off.
Headsculpt almost looks like MP-10 Convoy's but shrunken down. I kind of feel like this head sculpt was switched around with Siege Prime's, since this head may look cool if it was painted up and attached to Prime's neck. I'm sure someone attempted that.
Articulation's pretty good yet commonplace for the Siege line. Head is on a ball-joint, shoulders swivel front and back, hinge in and out, swivel at the biceps, bend at the elbows, and swivel at the wrists. The waist swivels, hips move front and back on ratchets, in and out on hinges, swivel at the thighs, bend at the knees, and pivot at the ankles.
Here is Ultra Magnus next to Optimus Prime. I do appreciate how both figures look different from each other instead of making a straight repaint. The differences between Optimus and Magnus are appreciative, though Optimus Prime remains the better figure in the line, especially when there are more parts to do with Optimus.
I appreciate the differences, though we must now play dress-up with Ultra Magnus.
Breaking up the armor is reminiscent of what City Commander has done with Classics Magnus. I like how the leg armor folds up, and I appreciate how nothing is left out during the transformation. The method of the sleeve armor going over the forearms is not too bad. The torso armor is even pretty smooth, and I like how there is no big helmet that goes over the smaller head.
The completed Magnus mode is pretty chunky and blocky, but at the very least, it's able to somewhat justify the price point. See, as a Leader Class figure, Magnus and the Siege line has been somewhat criticized for being a higher price tag despite being shorter than other Leader Class figures were, even when compared to the POTP ones. The bulk of Magnus does somewhat help justify the price, though not as well as the different sizes of the Studio Series figures.
Head sculpt looks like Magnus, and I like this better than the Masterpiece version! It's not as soft or bulbous as the Masterpiece version, and the face doesn't look as odd due to the bigger eyes or lack of confidence MP Magnus had
Articulation is the same as with the Basic Mode. I'm amazed that the armor doesn't leave the toy limited 100% (*cough* City Commander).
You can give Magnus his two options of weaponry. He can either use the silver gun that is signature for the character, and the guns reminiscent of Cybertron Optimus can either be on the sides like they normally would or held as twin blasters.
This is the Netflix repaint of Ultra Magnus. He's got gray scorches on him and some of his accessories to represent the war theme, though it's funny how some of it is applied. He comes with a raspberry recolor of Rung and also uses some compound for the hidden Energon cubes. He apparently has spoilers for the series, which possibly allude to the character switching sides in the series...which feels more like a thing Sentinel Prime would do (though his RID counterpart was fairly antagonistic), but whatever, it's a G1-but-dark-and-mature series, can't question it. It does suck that this repaint's not quite as cool as I'd expect, but hey, such is life with some of these Netflix repaints.
Here is Magnus in his vehicle mode. It's already a pretty different take on the G1 cab and car carrier of the past, what with the more filled in trailer and the armored beef added on this truck. I like how you can place the weapons to add some needed firepower. You can't add any cars on the interior, but other than that, it's a nice recreation of what Magnus is known for. Also, I like how the cab's front looks like RID Magnus.
There are two things I don't like about the altmode: 1) the cab can't really rotate thanks to the way it's slid into the trailer, and 2) the front wheels are so far forward that they leave a gap that looks bad for the cab. Not just from the distance between the front and middle wheels, but also from the empty space that could have been filled in easily.
Here is the Combiner Wars version. It's certainly more stylized as it's based on his IDW form, but it's a design that works well. Sure, it looks lightweight in a way, but I like the more futuristic look of the vehicle mode (despite my massive dislike on the IDW comics), much like how I like the armored up Siege version. In case you're not aware of the little guy next to him, his name is Minimus Ambus. Certainly, a weird character that's pretending to be Magnus, but he adds some nice play value.
Here is Magnus without his trailer, and he looks pretty bad overall. Maybe if viewed from the front, it wouldn't look so bad, but when you look at it from the side...
...you'll now have an idea of just how bad this truck looks. Seriously, it's got the problems mentioned before its rear is bare, but the arms are exposed, the feet are exposed, and there's no real engineering added to this toy.
For a vehicle mode comparison, here he is with Optimus Prime. Despite being a slightly bigger truck than Optimus, Magnus looks a lot worse than Prime. What made Prime work was that he felt complete in terms of engineering; he has more parts going on with him, he has a better-done truck mode despite the new additions of clear blue lights and truck eyebrows, and there were more parts put into him. Ultra Magnus, by comparison, looks like he was a bootleg that had its engineering SEVERELY cut back, especially when viewed at the side. The only good thing about Magnus is that the smokestacks are prominent somewhat while the front of the cabs look different from one another.
The transformation is fairly simple for a Voyager-sized figure. There are fewer steps than what Siege Optimus had, and the overall experience doesn't seem quite as fun as Prime was. While Optimus had a great transformation that made the truck cab feel like it exploded and then tidied up its parts into a cool robot mode, this toy just feels more like it was done in an attempt to sort of capture the simplicity of the G1 toy while not doing it exactly like the G1 toy. It's so boring when compared to Siege Prime.
In his basic robot mode, Ultra Magnus looks fairly plain, yet reflects the white albino Optimus Prime core robot that the G1 toy and the IDW fiction had. Despite having some nice molded detail everywhere, the lack of paint apps makes them feel washed out if not viewed up close. The thighs attempt to add some battle damage but they look more like the paint was rubbed off amateurly instead. The side of the robot mode does at least show more color with the blue bumper now becoming his back. It's a nice addition that at least makes Magnus look less plain than he already is.
You can display the bumper in different ways if you really wanted to. The bumper can either be in the proper spot, lowered down to give him a bumper butt, or it can be removed if you know how to slide it off.
Headsculpt almost looks like MP-10 Convoy's but shrunken down. I kind of feel like this head sculpt was switched around with Siege Prime's, since this head may look cool if it was painted up and attached to Prime's neck. I'm sure someone attempted that.
Articulation's pretty good yet commonplace for the Siege line. Head is on a ball-joint, shoulders swivel front and back, hinge in and out, swivel at the biceps, bend at the elbows, and swivel at the wrists. The waist swivels, hips move front and back on ratchets, in and out on hinges, swivel at the thighs, bend at the knees, and pivot at the ankles.
Here is Ultra Magnus next to Optimus Prime. I do appreciate how both figures look different from each other instead of making a straight repaint. The differences between Optimus and Magnus are appreciative, though Optimus Prime remains the better figure in the line, especially when there are more parts to do with Optimus.
I appreciate the differences, though we must now play dress-up with Ultra Magnus.
Breaking up the armor is reminiscent of what City Commander has done with Classics Magnus. I like how the leg armor folds up, and I appreciate how nothing is left out during the transformation. The method of the sleeve armor going over the forearms is not too bad. The torso armor is even pretty smooth, and I like how there is no big helmet that goes over the smaller head.
The completed Magnus mode is pretty chunky and blocky, but at the very least, it's able to somewhat justify the price point. See, as a Leader Class figure, Magnus and the Siege line has been somewhat criticized for being a higher price tag despite being shorter than other Leader Class figures were, even when compared to the POTP ones. The bulk of Magnus does somewhat help justify the price, though not as well as the different sizes of the Studio Series figures.
Head sculpt looks like Magnus, and I like this better than the Masterpiece version! It's not as soft or bulbous as the Masterpiece version, and the face doesn't look as odd due to the bigger eyes or lack of confidence MP Magnus had
Articulation is the same as with the Basic Mode. I'm amazed that the armor doesn't leave the toy limited 100% (*cough* City Commander).
You can give Magnus his two options of weaponry. He can either use the silver gun that is signature for the character, and the guns reminiscent of Cybertron Optimus can either be on the sides like they normally would or held as twin blasters.
This is the Netflix repaint of Ultra Magnus. He's got gray scorches on him and some of his accessories to represent the war theme, though it's funny how some of it is applied. He comes with a raspberry recolor of Rung and also uses some compound for the hidden Energon cubes. He apparently has spoilers for the series, which possibly allude to the character switching sides in the series...which feels more like a thing Sentinel Prime would do (though his RID counterpart was fairly antagonistic), but whatever, it's a G1-but-dark-and-mature series, can't question it. It does suck that this repaint's not quite as cool as I'd expect, but hey, such is life with some of these Netflix repaints.
And for a closer take on the character on-screen, here is Premium Finish Ultra Magnus. He's given a worn-out color scheme that captures how grim and dark the Netflix show is. Most notably, his cab's gray instead of white. That's alright but I could care less about him.
Here he is next to Siege Optimus Prime. The height difference is not as strange as it would have been when Optimus was next to the CW Leader. That said, it's still not quite enough to justify the price, even though he has the bulk.
Here he is next to the other two versions of Magnus that I have. I like how each of them has their own unique take on Ultra Magnus, with one being a unique mold, another being a fairly heavy retool of Prime, and this Magnus reinventing the G1 formula.
Here is Magnus next to the Combiner Wars version. It's nice to have two different versions of Magnus, not just in terms of design but also in functionality. One has snap-on armor, the other is a single unit robot.
Here he is next to Siege Shockwave, and if you can't tell, I feel Siege Magnus is more worthy of the price tag than Shockwave is, though that's not saying much. We'll discuss more on Shocko tomorrow.
And for good measure, here is Magnus next to Titans Return Hot Rod and Legends Arcee. The figure itself makes for a nice take on Magnus that won't easily tower over your 86 Autobot crew, and the design is pretty solid, but the engineering of the basic robot mode (along with the truck mode) does pull this Magnus back slightly in terms of being highly recommended. I'd say to get him for 35 dollars if you can (though I got him for 5 bucks).
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Here he is next to the other two versions of Magnus that I have. I like how each of them has their own unique take on Ultra Magnus, with one being a unique mold, another being a fairly heavy retool of Prime, and this Magnus reinventing the G1 formula.
Here is Magnus next to the Combiner Wars version. It's nice to have two different versions of Magnus, not just in terms of design but also in functionality. One has snap-on armor, the other is a single unit robot.
And for good measure, here is Magnus next to Titans Return Hot Rod and Legends Arcee. The figure itself makes for a nice take on Magnus that won't easily tower over your 86 Autobot crew, and the design is pretty solid, but the engineering of the basic robot mode (along with the truck mode) does pull this Magnus back slightly in terms of being highly recommended. I'd say to get him for 35 dollars if you can (though I got him for 5 bucks).
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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