... the basic inner bot has a faceguard for battle but then powers up with armor that has an exposed mouth...?

This might be a common complaint... I don't know. It just always irritated me because it makes so much more sense if he powered up into a mode with a faceguard rather than the other way around.

He's still one of my favorites but that minor detail always bothered me a little bit.

 

Both are made of metal anyway so does it matter?

 

Wow, I was expecting another Minimus Ambus thread, but you have a point here.

It never really bothered me since I always kind of perceived Magnus as the armor and not so much the inner body. But it is a little strange for a powered body to lack a mode of defense the inner robot already possesses.

 

Never understood a face plate as protection, anyhow. It's like saying "NOT THE MOUTH! NOT THE MOUTH!" during battle.

 

Kinda my thought, too - is a faceplate really considered protection for a robit?

 

Not really..I never thought about it and it doesn't really matter.

It changes nothing, the same with Minimus. He's still Ultra Magnus at the end of the day.

 

If we're talking about the G1 toy, then technically the entire head is a giant piece of armour around his actual head. So the maskless head doesn't need protection considering it is essentially a fully operational helmet.

 

I like him but I am not very big

 

I'd be a bigger fan of Mags he didn't become an asshole in recent years.

So my opinion isn't really valid in this.

 

The inner bot has a faceguard...? I thought he had an open face too...

Oh, if you mean the black bits, that's actually the Ambus house 'distinctive facial insignia,' aka mustache, not a guard.

 

He's talking about the original G1 toy, not Minimus.

 

Oh! Duh, I should've realized that.


In that case, yea, it's kinda funny.

 

I never thought about it. But it does seem silly that a helmeted mech would lose faceplate with upgrade.

 

I always found that odd. You must remember that UM was originally to be a suit for Optimus prime (convoy), but why would prime (convoy) have a mouth on his suit when he himself has a faceplate?

 

In term of common sense, yes it's not logic to have a full battle mask covering by an expose face. But because the expose face of the armor UM head/helmet acts as a complete barrier or protection for the inner Magnus head completely, the functionality does serve its purpose so it's okay to defy the logic or common sense. It's like some people find it easier to connect the maze puzzle by doing from the end/finish point first then work it backward to the starting point in solving the problem. Seems uncommon but it gets the job done. Not sure it make sense or not...

 

Oh, here's an explanation I came up with:

Ultra Magnus was really Dion, Dion had a face. Alpha Trion remade him in the same mold as Optimus, but when making the armor on top, Dion requested a face on the outer head because that was what he was more comfortable with, whereas Optimus was fine with the change. It was a simple matter to make the armor's head have a face.

 

I found it odd, but not enough to bug me. Of course until Ambus I wasn't really keen an him being Optimus Prime in a suit, especially having never owned the toy and showing up in the show just before Prime died and then being made leader. Maybe if I ever read Dreamwave's comics I'll warm up to it but it's just something I noted one time before deciding I didn't care enough about Magnus' inner bot to be bothered by it.

 

I kinda like it, just seems like a quirk to me.

 

Unless it's not a mode of defense, and rather the seldom-used inner robot lacks the complicated face because it is so underused and thus the faceguard isn't a guard but just it's face. Why waste small, intricate parts on something mostly nobody's gonna see?

 

I could see that. I guess the Optimus "mold" is a little hard to imagine without a mouth under there. But yeah, I could see it being a Chromedome or Tailgate case.

I just realized how complicated it must be for Magnus to drink anything while in his armor. For IDW Magnus at least. There would have to be something to filter the liquid from his mouth to some point in his inner body. Even if his head is directly under where the real head is, he's got to have to open at least two hatches.

Then in Minimus' case, one must wonder whether the inside of the "mouth" Rodimus and co had invaded was built into the helmet, or if they were in Minimus' mouth - inside the armor.