Transformers G1 Ultra Magnus

Got my hands on this handsome fellow back in May at Anime Boston. He was in great condition, and a great price. so there was no way I could pass up getting him. Anyways in the pictures you will notice once of his smaller smoke stacks is missing. That's the sad result of my kitten taking a liking to poor ol' Magnus, and Magnus having the unfortunate luck of meeting the floor one day when Madeline (my black little terror), got too curious. Needless to say I am looking for a way to make him a replacement, cause the little black terror ATE the piece that broke off.

Sob story aside I'll get on with the review.

Out of the 3 G1 toys I own (the other two being Optimus Prime and Megatron) Ultra Magnus is by far the best constructed, and the best appearance wise. The plastic making up his "power suit" I believe it's called, is of excellent quality, and I don't expect that to be breaking anytime soon...Unlike his fragile smokestacks on his main body, but we'll get to that in a minute.
As to be expected of any G1 toy he's very easy to transform, both his main body, and power suit (I'm just calling it that from now on).

Minus his armor he is a white repaint of G1 Optimus (who for the record can be put into Ultra Magnus's armor...and actually looks better in it...)

Personally the red optics have always bothered me, makes him look like a Decepticon (obviously). Which makes no sense because this is Ultra Magnus, and not Nemesis...but I guess no one thought about that back then...Oh well...

So yes, you can now clearly see his missing smokestack (again thank you Madeline, you little monster).

In general he was hard to get good shots of because of the type of plastic/metal used on him.

Both bot symbols on him are stickers, as was the custom back in the 80's. Thankfully my Magnus has all his stickers properly applied...unlike my poor Optimus...





His alt mode without his armor is, like G1 Optimus Prime, a semi-cab. The nub on his trailer bed looks like it would plug into something, but it actually doesn't, it's just there to catch on the lip of his trailer. This confused the hell out of me for an hour before I finally sat on the floor and tried to figure out how to make him and his trailer roll together. Once I figured it out I smacked myself because of how simplistic it was...






With his armor he's a...I actually have no clue what exactly they were getting at with this toy...Car carrier? Mobile battle station? A bit of both? Personally I would write him off as both, seeing as in G1 we have seen him transporting his fellow Autobots into battle. As for the mobile battle station...well I mean just LOOK at those missile launchers!


As far as articulation and such goes Magnus (with his armor) is a brick, and the only mobility is in his arms, and that's pretty limited.


Overall Ultra Magnus was a great find for me (being a big fan of the guy). He looks great on my shelf, really holds a nice presence there. If you like G1 toys I'd recommend picking him up, cause other than being a BRICK he's one of the best G1 toys I've had the chance to handle.


Well, there goes my first review here, hope it was decent.

~Zel~