Prelude: It was the year 2008 and the age of the third party Transformers began with Fansproject City Commander. Well, he wasn’t really the first, but the first to actually make a major impact and put third party products on the map for many Transformers fans. That it happened at a time when the first live-action movie had just expanded the fan base by truly gargantuan amounts helped, too, of course. I reviewed this add-on kit (as we would call it today) 12 years ago and gave it an A+. But has it aged well? My buddy James dared me to find out, so here we go!

Inner Robot: City Commander is a trailer / suit of armor for Classics Ultra Magnus, a figure from 2007 (and a white repaint of an Optimus Prime figure, as all Ultra Magni were in those days). Not going to do another review for this figure, just thought to mention that the Classics Optimus mold has aged very well and still holds up to this day in my opinion.

Armor Mode: When I wrote the original review of this set, the only „real“ Ultra Magnus we had (meaning one that was actually armored up and not just a white Optimus clone) was the G1 version, thus I was amazed that the armor did not impede the inner figure’s articulation in the least. While we have seen plenty of armored-up Ultra Magnus figures since, the point still stands. For all that he wears really bulky, chunky armor, City Commander is still very well-articulated and can move with the best of them.

The various armor pieces still look very nice and while they seem a bit rougher and not quite as smooth as many modern-day add-on kits, that doesn’t really bother me at all. The general look is clearly G1 Ultra Magnus, with a somewhat different styling. Back in the early days of CHUG, most of the G1-inspired figures were just that: inspired, not an attempt to replicate the cartoon look as close as humanly possible. Which I preferred, to be honest, but it’s a matter of subjective taste, of course. So City Commander is clearly Ultra Magnus, but with a slightly different flair.

The one thing that did bother me a little about City Commander was the fact that roughly half of the trailer (if not more) became a really huge gun. Not only because no incarnation of Ultra Magnus ever wielded such a weapon, but also because it was really too unwieldy for the figure to hold properly. So a very, very slight point deduction for that. Magnus’ traditional weapons, the white rifle and the shoulder-mounted missile launchers, didn’t originally come with the City Commander set, but were a separate add-on kit.

So all in all, I still love this armor mode. It might not exactly adhere to the current trend of looking as G1-cartoony as possible, but that’s fully okay with me.

Trailer Mode: All the various armor parts and the big gun click together into a trailer for Ultra Magnus’ truck mode. It’s not the standard car carrier, of course, but rather a closed trailer that sits snugly against the tractor. As I mentioned above, inspired by, but different. Snapping all the trailer pieces together isn’t exactly simple, but neither is it rocket science. Some of the edges seem a bit sharp here and there, but otherwise no complaints. The rear of the trailer can open up, but it’s not really a ramp, nor can anything fit inside, so the trailer is pretty much just for looking at it. And it looks great.

Side note: of course the trailer/armor works with every other incarnation of the Classics Prime mold as well and seeing as the armor covers most of the robot, you barely see a difference there. The blue trailer also easily works with a red tractor, probably an orange one, too. There are, of course, several repaints of this set as well, to work with the inevitable Nemesis Prime variant, for example.

Remarks: Back when I first got the City Commander set, I considered it possibly the best Transformers-related thing ever, I was so amazed. Of course 12 years have passed since then and we have seen a lot of great third party add-ons and figures since, plus a lot of improvement in the official Transformers figures, too. So how does City Commander measure up? Still great, in my opinion. If I were to review him today for the first time, I would still give him an A-rating, I believe. I would forego the plus at the end, simply because the huge gun is always left over when he’s in robot mode, but otherwise: still great. Don’t regret buying him then, wouldn’t regret buying him today. Still fully recommended.

Rating: A

Source: Transformers-Universe.com

 

This guy has long since left my Lost Light shelf in lieu of CW Magnus, but I can't bring myself to part with him because of what he represents as a milestone in the fandom.