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).

What disappointed you about Magnus? For the time period, he was a great toy. Sure, he was a "brick: but then again, so were most of them back then.

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).

What disappointed you about Magnus? For the time period, he was a great toy. Sure, he was a "brick: but then again, so were most of them back then.

All of his pieces annoyed me. And his head with the inexplicable eye holes that lined up with nothing (making him look dead or something). And the lower torso was just ridiculous. For something that large, I expected a bit more than "hey look I can move if you pretend I'm on roller skates". I got Galvatron for Christmas later that year and it just made Magnus look that much worse.

 

But I was 13 when I got Ultra Magnus, so I was old enough to be critical of them...

A lot of figures back then came with all sorts of pieces.

 

And him being a brick does not bother me either. Many G1 figures had poor posability and this one makes up for with the vehicle and small robot modes.

A lot of figures back then came with all sorts of pieces.

 

And him being a brick does not bother me either. Many G1 figures had poor posability and this one makes up for with the vehicle and small robot modes.

:tflaugh Hey, this was 21 years ago; it's not like I'm writing a review of him or anything. I'm just telling you what I thought when I got him back then.

 

Keep in mind that this was 1986, and Ultra Magnus was being released alongside Hot Rod, Kup, Cyclonus, Scourge, Springer, Blurr, Galvatron, etc. etc. etc. All of those guys were actually made by Has/Tak for the Transformers line, whereas Ultra Magnus was a leftover Diaclone. The difference was apparent. (Also keep in mind that I knew nothing about "Diaclone" or the Japanese origins of the Transformers back then, and could only compare figures to what else was available at the time.)

 

And there's a difference between "lots of pieces" and "lots of extra pieces". If there had been somewhere for his four fists, head, chest plate, and gun to go in TRUKK mode then I wouldn't have cared so much.

I was almost 16 when he came out. I was 16 when I picked him up. So, I was old enough to be criticle too, but he didn't have any less articulation than most of the others. In fact, he had more than some. Look at Hotrod, for example. Only his elbows had articulation. The only one that had more artticulation than Magnus was Galvatron.

i had magnus as a kid. he often utilized a "super punch" with those arms of his.

In the context of the 1980s, Ultra Magnus was a terrific toy. I believe the Diaclone Powered Convoy figure from which it was based on won some design award. It's a shame that Ultra Magnus never came with the transformable roller buggy that Powered Convoy had (although it was sold as a KO "Trasformer").

 

And his head with the inexplicable eye holes that lined up with nothing (making him look dead or something).

21 years later, Classics Jetfire's eyes don't align properly with his helmet visor either. ;p

 

Keep in mind that this was 1986, and Ultra Magnus was being released alongside Hot Rod, Kup, Cyclonus, Scourge, Springer, Blurr, Galvatron, etc. etc. etc. All of those guys were actually made by Has/Tak for the Transformers line, whereas Ultra Magnus was a leftover Diaclone.

 

Not entirely true. A lot of figures released that year were also based on concepts intially slated for Diaclone - but never produced for Diaclone and instead exclusively made for Transformers. For example, the Scramble Gestalts were originally meant to be a Diaclone thing, but by time 1985 rolled along and everyone was preparing for the movie, Takara decided shift their focus from Diaclone to Transformers, hence a lot of designs that were originally intended for Diaclone ended up becoming Transformers. The Triple Changers were meant to be a continuation of the Diaclone Triple Changer series (where Astrotrain and Blitzwing originally hailed from). Metroplex and Trypticon would have been initially intended for Diaclone too since they also have the Scramble interface ports. And of course, guys like Sky Lynx came from an entirely different (non-Takara) mecha line. 1986 was a mix of figures made exclusively for Transformers (some of which were based on early animation concept models) and pre-existing mecha toy designs. 1987 saw most figures being exclusively made for TFs, with a few exceptions in the Japanese line - i.e.: Raiden, Twincast, Soundblaster, Artfire & Stepper. 1988 would have been the first year where the Transformer line was entirely "pure" without any figures crossed over from pre-existing lines.

 

The difference was apparent. (Also keep in mind that I knew nothing about "Diaclone" or the Japanese origins of the Transformers back then, and could only compare figures to what else was available at the time.)

 

And there's a difference between "lots of pieces" and "lots of extra pieces". If there had been somewhere for his four fists, head, chest plate, and gun to go in TRUKK mode then I wouldn't have cared so much.

Well this was obviously an issue that they addressed later on with God Ginrai/PM Prime with the Super Ginrai/Super Prime head being the only left over kibble that didn't have anywhere to attach to (although it could be stored inside the trailer - this was intentional too as during early conceptual stages the head was slated to transform into a roller car, but it turned out that it would increase the price point of the toy too much so they scrapped the idea). Godbomber is nothing but kibble and parts that just rearrange themselves to "transform" between robot and trailer. ;p But nevertheless, Godbomber leaves nothing 'remaining'.

 

But again, God Ginrai/PM Prime came along in 1988 - the first year that saw everything exclusively designed for TFs and obviously Takara designers had progressed since their old Diaclone days. Even without knowledge of Diaclone, you can see that the Transformers from the first two years commonly had left over kibble that often sat around uselessly in vehicle mode, particularly fists, missiles etc. So I never felt that Ultra Magnus was any worse - sure, he had more bits, but he was a larger toy. Look how many freakin' bits Hound has and he's the smallest of the Autobot cars!

 

i had magnus as a kid. he often utilized a "super punch" with those arms of his.

Doth ye speaketh of his extendo punch? That was neat. ;)

 

I would often play out his "origin story" where he would start off as being the white cab robot with the Ultra Magnus helmet on (to distinguish him from Optimus Prime - so that it wasn't a helmet, that was actually his head ;P) - then he would go through some baptism of fire (which would often change each time I played the story out) before being promoted and given a new exo-suit armour. I couldn't accept the armour as his body, because it doesn't make sense during transformation where you clearly have to remove the cab robot from the armour - so to me, it was always armour. And long before I ever heard of Dreamwave, I would often play scenarios where his armour would get trashed and he would be forced to eject and fight on as his core self - but again, keeping his Magnus head, which was his "real" head. ;)

 

So as a kid, I'd always considered Magnus' core robot to look like this:

I use to have it as a kid and was also disappointed. That's another reason why I haven't opened my TRU Reissue one and the Piss Magnus.

Great toy. I got him a few years ago and then he was the biggest guy in my collection. I still really like his massive arms and stuff. I always did think the toon character blew.

So why did you get the TRU reissue and Piss Magnus if you don't like the Ultra Magnus toy??

 

I wonder how many people would've paid for the Wheelie reissue if he hadn't been sold with Targetmaster Kup. I avoided the TM Kup reissue because I don't want another Wheelie. I'm stuck the Dion, but he doesn't look as nasty as Wheelie - and more importantly - never had a persona as crap as Wheelie (also, getting Orion Pax was worth it).