Last night I was able to purchase a G1 Ultra Magnus.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=320089087432

 

Since it is complete (and the cab has only mild yellowing) I think I got a pretty good deal. Especially considering it is the "deluxe" version with rubber tires, die cast chest and pain on the faces.

 

So with now finally owning him I thought about him as both a toy and as a character.

 

I recall seeing the toy in the catalogue and the truck cab looked just like Prime's which always had me thinking why that was and if it transformed or not. As all that was shown in the catalogue and the cartoon was Ultra Magnus' larger robot mode. But it is kinda neat to have a Transformer that has a robot mode like Optimus Prime.

 

Kinda ironic that Ultra Magnus was the first Transformer to be able to combine with his trailer to form a super robot while that is all Prime does nowadays. And Ultra Magnus is pretty much a repaint of Prime nowadays.

 

I personally like the toy a lot. It may have the same cab as Prime but otherwise it looks completely different. The large robot mode looks really cool. Big and impressive and I like the shoulder rocket launcher.

 

His movie/cartoon portraysl was ok but I think the writers could have done more with him. I liked the aspect that he did not really feel comfortable about being a leader but was still one of the best field commanders our there. In the movie he was "pushed aside" in favor of Hot Rod whom became Rodimus Prime mainly to sell the poor Rodimus Prime toy.

I got the TRU reissue Ultra Magnus several years ago, and he's been on display ever since, but I was always unhappy with the 3-inch safety missiles he came with. I finally took it upon myself to clip the excess middle segments off and super-glue the "warheads" back onto the parts that clip into the launcher. It looks great, and actually fires since UM was one of the few reissues with non-gimped firing mechanisms. I'm pretty happy with the results, but having not seen the third season since childhood I'm left wondering, did they ever actually fire in the cartoon?

I can't rememeber how or why this info in my head, but I thought at one point or time it was explained that magnus' larger body was a type of armor after an injury of some sort. I recently got a hold of a UM with plastic tires and i was very happy. I've owned several of the rubber tired versions but never saw hide or hair of the plastic wheeled one, lol. I think you got yourself a decent price on the guy if it's in good shape and it's all there.

Ultra Magnus used his right launcher in the episode "Surprise Party". Thought he did in that episode so I looked it up. Not sure if he used it more often though.

 

Those large missiles are really annoying. I think they should have removed the launching gimmick and made them short. It is the lesser of two evils.

 

And I got a decent price indeed. All the parts are there allthough the trailer hitch is included just once while Ultra Magnus originally came with 2. The instructions specifically mention that the 2nd is a spare in case you lost one. Yet the other parts such as the fists (which were also easlily lost) were only included once.

 

I am just really happy to have won him. Soon I will be getting a HUGE lot of Transformers in. There are some European and G2 figures in it, a few Armada ones and even a Cybertron one (Smokescreen). But the icing on the cake have to be a G2 Grimlock (missing weapons), a G1 Metroplex (missing most accessories but has fists and Sixgun) and Ultra Magnus.

 

What a haul! :clap

I loved the ultra magnus toy when I was a kid, and I guess I still kind of do. It was a pretty new gimmick at the time (truck combining with trailer) when you discount the poorly realized motormaster. Plus, I always thought he had a really fun alt mode, i mean you could put other TFs on his car carrier for goodness sakes, now who didn't utilize that a million times while playing with their TFs? :tflaugh

I have the original G1 Ultra Magnus toy. I got it back around Christmas "86 when it first came out. It's missile launchers didn't have springs in them, they just held the missiles. I added pen springs, so they fire. :thumb It isn't in perfect condition, but it still works. As far as the character goes, we do see Magnus out of his armor, in the DW series, TF: War and Peace. Though we never see it in the old cartoon, that doesn't mean he never could remove his armor. And, yes, Magnus has fired his missiles in the series on more than one occasion.

I loved the ultra magnus toy when I was a kid, and I guess I still kind of do. It was a pretty new gimmick at the time (truck combining with trailer) when you discount the poorly realized motormaster. Plus, I always thought he had a really fun alt mode, i mean you could put other TFs on his car carrier for goodness sakes, now who didn't utilize that a million times while playing with their TFs? :tflaugh

oh snap

 

you did not just call Motormaster "poorly realized" in comparison to Ultra Magnus

 

 

 

 

 

(I really wanted to love Motormaster......)

I loved the ultra magnus toy when I was a kid, and I guess I still kind of do. It was a pretty new gimmick at the time (truck combining with trailer) when you discount the poorly realized motormaster. Plus, I always thought he had a really fun alt mode, i mean you could put other TFs on his car carrier for goodness sakes, now who didn't utilize that a million times while playing with their TFs? :tflaugh

oh snap

 

you did not just call Motormaster "poorly realized" in comparison to Ultra Magnus

 

 

 

 

 

(I really wanted to love Motormaster......)

:tflaugh girl you know it's true :note I loved MM in the cartoon, but his toy was so tiny in a sad clown kind of way of course

I loved the ultra magnus toy when I was a kid, and I guess I still kind of do. It was a pretty new gimmick at the time (truck combining with trailer) when you discount the poorly realized motormaster. Plus, I always thought he had a really fun alt mode, i mean you could put other TFs on his car carrier for goodness sakes, now who didn't utilize that a million times while playing with their TFs? :tflaugh

oh snap

 

you did not just call Motormaster "poorly realized" in comparison to Ultra Magnus

 

 

 

 

 

(I really wanted to love Motormaster......)

:tflaugh girl you know it's true :note I loved MM in the cartoon, but his toy was so tiny in a sad clown kind of way of course

yeah I know

 

but Ultra Magnus was one of the only TFs I had that disappointed me right out of the box. I was oblivious to Motormaster's shortcomings by a conscious act of the will (and by repeatedly staring at his box art which made him look less ghey).

Have to agree on that one. Motormaster's cartoon portrayal was so darn cool but the figure is just too small when compared to Optimus Prime (or Ultra Magnus).

 

And the trailer being able to carry Autobots is a really neat feature indeed.