Just to consolidate and update my mini review (which is all over the place..lol)

Just some thoughts on Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus to those who might be interested....

1. His front panel detaches easily from the front. It still locks back into place though.
2. His shoulders are mistransformed out of the box, you have to push up until you hear a soft click to lock the shoulders.
3, His ratchets on his hips are very similar to CW Optimus as they only have a limited range of motion. Replacement ratchets would help here.
4. His cab does not detach from the trailer.
5. His feet are also mistransformed. Also no ankle tilts.
6. Minimus is pretty much required to sit inside Magnus in bot mode as he fills out the hollow area in the neck.
7. His elbows and knees are very soft ratchet joints. No loud clickety-clack sound from them.
8. Head only swivels from side to side. Can't look up unless you pop of UM's head and MA becomes visible.
9. He is very hollow when seen from the back. I guess some 3P would like to make fillers for the back of this legs and arms,
10. No wrist articulation.
11. His hands cannot hold his guns securely. They always fall off. I guess UM has butterfingers or something.
12. He does not roll very well. His crotch drags along the ground.
13, Minimus Ambus cannot be in the cab when UM is in vehicle mode. The inside of the cab is where the head goes.
14. No waist swivel.
15. Arms goes full 350 degrees at the shoulder/ Bicep swivels are present.
16. Thigh swivels are present.
17. No light piping on the Magnus head. He does have the aviator shades like in CW Defensor.

20150516_131658 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

20150516_135102 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

20150516_135016 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

20150516_135112 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

20150516_135255 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

20150516_135224 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

Vehicle comparison with Classics UM


IMG_3909 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

IMG_3908 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

IMG_3907 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

IMG_3906 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

Size comparison with other bots

IMG_3905 by Rye Saldivar, on Flickr

Overall for me, the figure is a 7/10. He looks good on a shelf and is a very good representation of the IDW Magnus but the build quality is not up to par with the Leader Class Megatron / Armada Megatron that preceeded it.

 

Combiner Wars Leader-class Ultra Magnus

I pay the price for deciding to nap instead of typing up this review first...  

Anyway, it's been almost 3 decades since Transformers: the Movie and the introduction of the character of Ultra Magnus. It's also been almost 2 decades since we've gotten an Ultra Magnus toy that's not a white recolor of an Optimus Prime toy, at least in the Generation 1 toyline continuity, if one considers Titanium G1 Ultra Magnus. Well, after another decade, comes another iteration of the that stalwart City Commander who just "can't deal".

IDW Ultra Magnus by Brendan Cahill, BotCon 2014 Original print​

Ladies and gentlemen,

Transformers Combiner Wars Leader-class Ultra Magnus​

Ultra Magnus
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: City Commander(?)

Bio
The legend of ULTRA MAGNUS is exceeded only by the legend of OPTIMUS PRIME. When ULTRA MAGNUS was lost, the forces of justice would not let a warrior of his caliber fall. MINIMUS AMBUS, using the power of his rare loadbearer spark, enables ULTRA MAGNUS to fight on.

Tech Specs
Strength: 9
Intelligence: 9
Speed: 6
Endurance: 8
Rank: 8
Courage: 9
Firepower: 6
Skill: 8

Based on his bio, that's IDW's take on G1 Ultra Magnus... And while I personally do not mind the choice of source material, I also pretty much do not care for that version of Magnus. So, yeah, I'll just assume this "loadbearer" thing isn't important..

Since he's also supposed to be G1 Magnus, I assume the tech specs are the same...  

In and Out of Package

Nothing much to say here. Pretty light on hand though, which I know shouldn't surprise me. The version which we got here in the Philippines is the one with the "international" packaging, due to the fact that aside from the requisite English blurbs, there are three other languages printed which I can barely pronounce.





Obligatory packaging shots

Out of the box, Magnus comes with a decent amount of stuff. Aside from the instruction sheet and character card, standard for TF's in the Combiner Wars line, we get two rocket pods and two guns.


Out of package, showing the contents


Close up of the Instruction booklet and character Card

Oh, and apparently, it comes with a little guy called...

Minimus Ambus

So.

Based on what I've read, the current interpretation of the G1 Ultra Magnus character is no longer just a white body double of Optimus Prime wearing a car carrier as body armor, but a Cybertronian with a "loadbearer" spark inside a suit of armor who looks like a white Optimus Prime inside a body armor formed from a car carrier...

Uh, insert "turducken" joke here?


The irreducible him...

Minimus Ambus stands at about 50mm high (about 2 inches...), smaller than your typical Legends-class or Minicon-class Transformer toy. Best I can tell, he's closer to the G1 Micromasters or the current 2015 size range of the Legends Legion-class in size. He's cast in cream-colored plastic with some red for the eyes and 2 shades of green paint detailing to pick out the bot mode details, including what is apparently his, uh, signature "facial insignia" (read: he's got a tiny handlebar 'stache...   ).


Uh... Wheeee!

Points of Articulation:
Shoulders: Ball jointed, full range of movement along the ball / peg.
Legs: Ball-jointed hips, 90° bending knees using the transformation joint,


Comparison between Minimus Ambus (center), and a 2009-era legends scale TF (left) and a 2003-era minicon(right).

Minimus Ambus transforms into what I can best described as a Cybertronian Hovercar. In this mode, Ambus becomes even tinier, due to the compression of his parts into what is essentially a small, cream-colored pill. He has no moving parts and no new details come out except for the dark grey windshield detailing.


Minimus Ambus, vehicle mode, comparison with previous examples.

The Magnus Armor


Minimus Ambus, alongside the opened-up Magnus Armor

As currently portrayed in the IDW comic books, Minimus Ambus essentially wears what amounts to an exoskeleton that resembles the Ultra Magnus we know and love. In the toy, there's a cavity inside the chest where Minimus can be placed, which is detailed like some sort of cockpit, complete with control handles and foot pedals.


Wasshoi!

Minimus Ambus fits snugly into said cavity, where the tiny fist holes in his hands can "grip" two small pegs and his feet rest naturally onto the sculpted foot pedals. Ambus' head peeks out of the robot torso, which gets covered by Ultra Magnus' head unit once it's closed up.

Speaking of which...

Ultra Magnus Robot Mode


Robot mode, Front view (right) and Back view (Left)

Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus is a chunky, if quite hollow, toy. The sculpting is meant to be a representation of the IDW Ultra Magnus character, but can also be taken as a modern take on the old G1 Magnus design. Personally, I'm fine with the aesthetic choices, though I understand some people may not exactly like the IDW take.

Deco-wise, there's very little paint, relying instead on molded plastic colors. The only paint details I can see are the silver highlights for the head, face and the vents on the chest and knees and red for the detailing on the rocket launchers and the triangles on his shins. There's also red paint on the chest/torso plate, but for some reason, it's a darker shade than any other red used on the figure, creating a very visible mismatch (this was obviously color corrected on the official images...).

Much of him is either a bunch of folded up panels, like the legs or hollowed out plastic tubes, like the arms, which make him quite light. On hand, one can get the feeling that Hasbro really is trying to maximize the design within a certain amount of plastic, as you can see a LOT of gaps all over the toy, giving it a slightly perforated / unfinished feel in some places.


Vitruvian Magnus...

Points of Articulation:
Head: No real neck per se, only a head mounted on an armature via swivel joint. 45° lateral movement on either side.
Shoulders: Soft ratcheted universal joints, full range of movement along the horizontal axis. 90° maximum lateral shoulder movement
Elbows: Soft ratcheting, 90° maximum bend. Bicep swivel below the shoulder joint.
Hands: No wrist rotation. Stationary thumb, while grasping fingers are molded in one piece on a hinge, ala Masterpiece-style.
Waist: No waist rotation due to transformation
Hips: Soft ratcheting up to 90°, afterwards, serves as a friction joint only. Full range of motion. Thigh swivel below the hip joints
Knees: Soft ratcheting, 90° maximum bend
Feet: Soft ratcheting, on a hinged armature, 180° theoretical movement on the horizontal axis. NO ROCKER ANKLE JOINTS.

Herein lies one of my misgivings. While a lot of the joints are ratcheted, they're mostly of the ridged plastic kind, making the joints have that "buttery" feel to them, especially on the shoulders. I'm bothered by the shoulders since they're have a tendency to randomly give out when posing. They hold fine, for the most part, but can't carry much weight.

Accessories

Magnus comes with four accessories: 2 non firing missile pods and 2 black guns, none of which look anything like G1 Magnus' weapons. While the shoulder pods are IDW-accurate, the guns do not resemble anything I've seen from Magnus' art online. The launchers peg on to Magnus' shoulders, while both guns can be held via his hands.


Ultra Magnus weapons.

What annoys me the most is the fact that since Magnus has these MP-styled hands, he can't hold the guns securely. There are no securing pegs and ports on the guns or the hands to keep the weapons from falling out, making posing sometimes an annoying exercise in chasing the guns as they bounce on the floor.


Ultra Magnus can kneel!

As everyone knows by now, Magnus' accessories can also be assembled together to form a hammer of sorts (ever since Animated, all succeeding Ultra Magnuses [Magni] seem to have taken to carrying a hammer in their person...). In this case, connect the rifles end to end and attach the shoulder missile launchers to the ports on the side of the smaller cannon.


Ultra Magnus weapons, hammer mode configuration.

The thing is, he essentially suffers from the same issue I had with Animated Leader-class Ultra Magnus in that, one, the only place for him to even remotely hold the hammer is by the neck (the barrel of the smaller gun), since the lower part of the shaft, formed by the larger rifle, is too thick to fit in his hands or through the gap in his forearm armor.


Big 'F-in Hammer, not enough joints to wield it...

Two, the way Magnus' arm jointing is set up prevents him from wielding the hammer in a pose that looks even remotely threatening. The lack of wrist swivels coupled by the fact that the arm armor and the thick shaft make gripping the hammer properly difficult for Magnus kinda dampens my enthusiasm in using the hammer mode.

Comparisons


Ultra Magnus, comparison shot with Classics Prime and Legends Wheelie.


Kick Test = PASSED. And yes, those are Generations Metroplex's legs...

And we haven't gotten to vehicle mode yet...

Transformation

Transforming Magnus to alt mode is an engaging if fiddly process as all the red and blue parts explode and reconfigure itself into a car carrier's trailer while the white cab swings neatly out of the way. It is notable to mention that the cab DOES NOT separate from the trailer during this process nor does it ever separate any other time. As bit of parts-forming, the missile pods have to be removed from their mounting ports as the arms have to rotate together so that the ports are now hidden. In this mode, Minimus Ambus has nowhere to securely stow himself in the alt mode. He just... hangs out in vehicle mode.

Alternate Mode

After a bunch of recent Ultra Magnuses (Magni?) deciding to disguise themselves as missile trucks or adopt a white version of Optimus Prime's truck mode, we finally get a Magnus who retains the car carrier alt mode of his G1 and CarRobots ancestors.

Compared to robot mode though, the car carrier mode is the duller mode since the trailer has very little by way of paint details and the unpainted truck rims really detract from the look. The truck cab is integrated into the trailer and can turn freely 90° from side to side. The wheels are "clipped on", not pinned, but roll freely enough, though due to how the transformation works, the trailer has very little ground clearance. In certain cases, either the robot crotch or the robot feet may drag on the ground.



The styling of the truck is aggressive, though as people have on the internet have never failed to point out, some of the detail and design choices (the doors and ladders on the trailer imply that the truck mode is HUGE) on Ultra Magnus have resulted in a disjointed look, scale-wise. Me, I don't really care.





For play value in alt mode, like CarRobots God Magnus, CW Ultra Magnus's rear trailer doors (his shin armor in robot mode) and the top deck (his arms) can drop down to form a ramp which smaller-size Transformers with car alt modes can supposedly use to ride in his spacious trailer, although as you can see, the effect isn't as complete since the ramp isn't seamless like on CR Magnus.



Speaking of carrying other TF cars, I've read a lot about how Ultra Magnus can carry deluxe cars.

However...



Yeah...

That's three generations of deluxe TF cars, and even the newest deluxes like CW Streetwise seem too big when put together with Magnus, by a huge margin. And if even a newer deluxe looks oversized, then I wasn't going to try to make him carry a lot more. Then someone mentioned an interview where CW Magnus was designed to carry scout class TF cars:



Now that looks better.

And even with 4 scout-class cars in the trailer, there's still enough room for the cab to turn without hitting anything.


Ultra Magnus in alternate mode alongside fellow car carrier God Magnus, who really trumps him in size...


Ultra Magnus in alternate mode alongside Classics Prime and CW Voyager Hotspot

Verdict

Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus isn't a bad toy, by any means. I'd even go as far to say he's a very good representation of the character, can stand in for either a G1 or IDW Magnus, good play value in terms of two good modes, interchangeable accessories, and interactivity with Minimus Ambus and other Transformers toys. It's just that a lot of the inherent flaws brought about by Hasbro's cost cutting, such as weaker plastic ratchets, hollowed and perforated parts, as well as lack of paint details really hurt his score in my books.

Should you buy this? I'll still say yes. It's still a good toy and a good Ultra Magnus. Just be aware that it comes with flaws not of it's own fault and manage your expectations.

Despite the flaws of this toy, i can definitely say, Magnus CAN deal with it now.

He barely makes 4 out of 5 deals...  

Jya na!

 

Thanks for the reviews, guys!

He absolutely looks fantastic. I haven't been this excited for a figure in a long, long time. Minimus Ambus is just perfect, I just wish he could go inside the armor in cab mode.

If people could get some photos with Skids/Whirl/Swerve/Trailbreaker/Crosscut/Brainstorm/Tailgate/First Aid, I'd love you forever.

 

Nothing on the weapons? but what about his hammer???

 

@optimus prowl:
Please wait, still typing...  

jya na!

 

Well Hasbro has to skimp out on some figures ...

 

How the heck have they skimped out on this guy? Great look that's very comic accurate, lots of weapons, great size, good articulation, great gimmick with an extra little figure...

This figure is absolutely amazing.

 

So does Minimus attach securely to anything when Magnus is in alt mode? Also do any of you have the RTS Legends/Market 6 Optimus or Magnus? Was wondering if they could fit in Magnus' chest.

 

Cybernaut, does Magnus roll fine or does it have issues like vproject's? (my apologies if you were going to mention it in your second half)

 

jeeeeeesus, minimus is tiny. can someone get pics of him with the tiny OP that came with rotf stratosphere please?

sad to see magnus' cab is deluxe sized... but understandable, i guess.

 

They won't fit they are about the same size as the the legends Wheele.

 

I think he turned out great! As for the hollowness, I think that's just due to openness of his vehicle mode's trailer.

How does he fare in holding his hammer in one hand? And could we please get some pictures of the truck mode holding deluxe vehicles (i.e. season 3 cartoon characters like Kup from Generations and Rodimus Prime from Classics)?

 

You give a giant hammer but no wrist swivels??? 

 

I think they handled the "hollow" and "skeletel" problems fantastically considering how well they utterly nailed the design.

We need an add-on kit to make a Deluxe sized Minimus.  

 

UYLTRA MAGNUS I like.

 

"Uyltra"?

Anyways, fantastic figure. Unsure about this or the Takara, but I'll definitely get a version of the mold at some point.

A bit strange that Minimus is sitting in a control cockpit, given how he's supposed to be wearing Magnus as armor.

Also for a quickie review those are 2 long reviews. Just saying.

 

Finally got the review finished. Good show also from vproject for getting his review up first.  

Jya na!

 

The back of the head, indeed that whole arm assembly connecting to the head, is bugging me way more than I think it should, idk, think I should wait for the Takara version? I'm gonna put enough work into it plugging all those gaps on the back as it is, maybe I should spring for the more accurate deco

Thanks for the reviews btw

Despite any criticisms I have this is still easily the most I've wanted a CW figure to date (excluding the rumored G2 stuff at least  )

 

Appreciate the reviews, guys. Think I'm going to cancel my preorder for the Takaratomy version on BBTS in 3...2...1.

 

Yeah. Thanks for the straight honest reviews, guys.

Not really even bothering with this Hasbro version, but I think the flaws and shortcomings you mentioned will pretty much apply and exist in the Tak version, so I canceled my pre-o for it.

Rather gladly spend the 6000y pre-o pricing on something else. Or just not spend it at all...