6" Titanium G1 Magnus & WWI Megatron

Got these from BBTS today. I'm assuming everyone who's reading this already knows what these toys look like, so there aren't any pictures unless you have specific requests/parts you want to see (though my camera isn't good enough to take really highly-detailed, close-up pics, though). So these reviews aren't really going to cover the things obvious from the official pictures, such as proportions, color scheme, etc-- I'm only going to run through the things that are NOT obvious from the pictures, such as QC issues.

G1 Ultra Magnus:
- MANY QC & design issues, sadly. The only Titanium burdened more by QC issues is GIJOE Megatron.
- The pegs that connect the missile launchers to Magnus' upper shoulders in robot mode are a bit too shallow-- even a casual brush and they fall off. They do hold on solidly in vehicle mode, however.
- Lower legs don't peg together well at all in vehicle mode, and VERY easily come undone.
- The cab portion of the vehicle mode doesn't peg into anything at all-- it's not outright floppy, but when picked up by the hand the cab portion tends to lean forward a little, leaving a noticeable gap between the back of the cab and the front of the rest of the vehicle.
- The blue upper chest piece in robot mode is supposed to fold upwards in vehicle mode as per the instructions, but all this does is get in the way of the cab, so it's best just to leave the upper chest piece as-is during transformation.
- There's a HUGE gap in between where the upper roof/arm pieces end in vehicle mode and where the slots they're supposed to fit into at the rear of the vehicle mode are. I looked at the instructions several times and tried every possible configuration to see if I was doing something wrong, but I'm not. The arm/roof pieces and the back end pieces are just completely seperate in vehicle mode. This could have been easily solved by using a different method of compressing the upper robot legs, but this was not done for some odd reason. So, you're left with A. there being a really large gap between these two sections of the vehicle mode or B. if you don't follow the instructions and instead collapse the middle leg section into the lower leg section diagonally during transformation, the gap is still noticeable but not quite as big, HOWEVER the back and front wheels in the vehicle mode don't look quite "level" with each other-- think Titanium RiD Prime in vehicle mode and you'll know what I mean.
- His gun is made of the bendy kind of plastic, which normally wouldn't be a problem, but his packaging bubble is shaped in such a way it actually bends his gun a bit a little past the trigger! As such, his gun is warped a bit. Also, as far as I can determine his gun can't be stored in vehicle mode.
- The legs can rotate sideways at a point slightly below the hips, but the peg that holds those parts of the legs together is too rigid, and those sections seperate from each other too easily.
- Ultra Magnus' articulation is as follows: front-to-back shoulder articulation, front-to-back and 360-degree rotation at the elbows; 360-degree rotation at the neck; front-to-back and slight side-to-side articulation at the hips; the aforementioned 360-degree rotation at a point slightly below the hips; and front-to-back articulation at the knees, though they cannot move backwards much without the hip-pegs coming undone.
- Ultra Magnus' diecast parts are his lower legs, chest, and shoulders.

All in all, Titanium G1 Magnus is one of the biggest dissapointments of the Titanium line, due to the fact that many of his pegs simply don't fit together well at all, and his vehicle mode isn't solid in the least. I was hoping that after the more recent Titaniums like The Fallen, Cheetor, and RiD Prime, the line was past having major QC issues, but it looks like I was wrong. I was expecting him to be a solid 9/10, but because of all of these issues I'm knocking him down to a 7/10. He's not as good as he looks, folks.


(WWI Megatron Toy Review coming in next post.)

Last updated November 10th
(This update: 5 new TF Universe 2.0 toy reviews, 2 more of VBBN's toy reviews)

Some quick-snaps of Magnus next to Rodimus & Scourge would be cool... if you have a spare moment. And maybe one or two of Meg's next to Prime, Jetfire and any of the Seekers.

WWI Megatron:
- Robot mode is very solid. His weapons fit nicely in his hand-holds, and things peg together very well for the most part.
- He has the same "sideways hip movement peg" problem that G1 Magnus has, but it's even worse-- even just stretching his legs out after transformation can cause the pegs to come undone. Given that his upper legs slide into his lower legs, this can be especially annoying.
- His robot feet can be a little floppy, but this is easily overlooked.
- The peg that supposed to hold his lower legs together in vehicle mode is utterly useless; it's far too tiny to fold together two large diecast parts like that, and the legs come undone from the peg almost immediately.
- As bad as his vehicle mode looks on the computer screen, it's even worse in person. It has treads and guns, but that's all it has in common with a tank. No turret or anything of the sort, and he barely has a transformation at all. Some people theorized that perhaps his robot legs could bend sideways at the hips and knees, thus bringing the back treads upwards to mesh fairly seemlessly with the front treads, but the knees don't bend sideways, so this is impossible.
- Megatron can move at the following points: 360-degree rotation at the head; front-to-back movement at the shoulders; front-to-back movement at the elbows; 360-degree rotation at the wrists; 360-degree rotation at the waist; back-and-forth and side-to-side movement at the hips; 360-degree rotation at a point slightly below the hips; and front-to-back movement at the knees.
- Megatron's diecast parts are his chest, lower legs, and waist.

WWI Megatron gets a 6.5/10-- he doesn't have nearly as many QC issues as Ultra Magnus, but his atrocious vehicle mode more than makes up for it. Overall, definitely not the best wave of Titaniums.

I'll take 'em tomorrow, after it's light enough outside for my pictures to come out well-- my camera doesn't do well when the only available light source is indoors, as my house doesn't have the best lighting. FYI, Megs is a bit bigger than the average 6" Titanium, but not as big as, say, The Fallen. Ultra Magnus is about average-sized.

Last updated November 10th
(This update: 5 new TF Universe 2.0 toy reviews, 2 more of VBBN's toy reviews)

Thanks for the rundown on everything. That's all... wow... very disappointing to read, actually. I had the highest of hopes for these 2 characters in particular, so it kind of sucks to know that what I'm about to get in the mail next week will be far from great additions to my collection. After the genious design of Rodimus, I expected nothing less from Magnus as well. And as far as Megs is concerned, damnit, I really hoped the pics of his alt mode that we saw had mistransformed legs so that it didn't end up being exactly as you described - more or less Megs just laying on his back.

I'll still hold out a little hope that mine fit together better than how you described yours, but at least I'll be prepared for disappointment if they're essentially the same.

That's a shame- I was pretty excited for Magnus. I wonder if BBTS can do me a solid, open it up, and check for its quality. But then, if it's a really crappy one, who's going to buy an opened toy that they know has a bunch of QC issues?

Titanium's been pretty hit-and-miss.

sigh. i really wish the tit development team could get a bit more supervision from the mainline guys

I also got them today from BBTS, and I'm also quite disapointed in the two, though far more in Megatron than UM.

UM:

There's really no reason that he doesn't have a slide mechanism in his shoulders like he has in his knees/ankles to slide his arms forward to make it look less funny; then it would've been a great robot mode and a passable alt mode.

As mentioned, the shoulder launchers don't stay on very well, and for some reason, have a rather odd mold to them, making them look like there's something more to it than there is.

Raising the chest panel levels out the cab, so the wheels are more lined up; mine are tight, so it works well.

As mentioned, the vehicle mode tansformation is rather retarded. The arms don't lock in anywhere on the knee/feet area, or even do anything but vaguely rest on them. There's also no place for his weapon in alt mode. Lastly, even properly transformed, there's a slight height differential between the cab wheels and the trailer last wheels, so it doesn't even roll properly across a surface.

Articulation and appearance in Robot mode is nice, nicer than I was expecting, and my gun isn't bent. I don't have G1 Magnus, so this is it for me; I lke the robot mode despite the shoulders, but the alt mode is sad. C+

Megs:

Where to begin? This guy is a packaging monstrocity, with all kinds of twists and at least on mine, I had to tear the plastic tray to cut away the twist tie to free him.

His transformation absolutely sucks, which makes the figure even worse. Just above his hips are ball joints, that lead up to a peg at the shoulder, and the arm comes out from there. During transformation, you pop the shoulder pegs and spin the torso, then reattach the pegs and the shoulder/arms. At least on mine, it's very loose, and I have a hard time getting them to stay pegged in. Worse yet, the ratched swivel at the shoulder is so stiff, moving his shoulder pops the peg out of the shoulder anyway!

At least on mine, the main cannon won't stay pegged into the arm, it will always fall out, immediately if you move, touch, breathe, or think about it. I ended up pegging it into the shield thing (WTH is this a seperate piece anyway?!?) and putting that in his hand.

As mentioned, you slde the gun over his head, do that stupid and detrimental shoulder peg and spin the torso, then you're supposed to raise the hip plates (why?) and slide the legs up and together. I say supposed to because that's all theoretical. Mine will not peg together, no matter what. In addition, the mid thigh swivel on mine is loose, causing the lower thigh/shins/feet part to pop free when transforming it anyway. Yet that's not the end of the problems. Though I've been working on it, my arm cannon/center cannon is bent, so it droops down in font of him. Great if he wants to shoot something right in front of him on the ground, not so great otherwise. I've managed to bend it a bit so it's not quite so sad, but given the larger and far more stable shoulder cannon, it does seem a bit odd.

The last time I transformed him, the ball joint popped out at the mid point, so his entire left arm fell off, and his legs popped off at the mid thigh as I extended his legs out. He ended up looking rather like the Black Knight.

I knew this figure wasn't going to be in the Thundercracker and Fallen Category, In fact, I was just going to use him in a classics display only in robot mode, but good god this is aweful. I like figures like Rodimus despite his flaws, I adore Thundercracker and Fallen, and I just like Scourge; in fact, this is the first Titanium figure I feel like I burned money on.

Strangely enough, looking at his back, there's a weird little C clip thing at his waist. It does nothing, yet it's a seperate piece and must have been put there for a reason. Is there an add on or something coming?

D- (And he only gets that because I know there's another Titanium Megatron figure that's worse, and I managed to avoid that figure like the plague)

wow guys, I have a totally different experience with magnus. no qc issues and the arms fit in well in trailer mode. his missile launchers have no problem staying put and are nice and tight. as far as megs goes, I agree the "tank" sucks taint but the bot mode is pretty cool. I don't have any floppiness and the joints are pretty tight.

I ordered 2 of each..Here's hoping I get as lucky as Joe on at least one of the sets.

Does Megatron have hands?