It has been brought to my attention that I have only done reviews of the bad guys. Well can you blame me? It's the bad guys that have the best lines, the best weapons and well being the bad guy has (at least in my unsubstantiated opinion) always been cool.
Well who am I not to give into peer pressure? As you may have guessed if you have been following this blog, I like to go slightly against convention. I could select everyone's favourite good guy in Optimus Prime, or I could go with (or it seems) everyone's favourite yellow car BumbleBee, but I'm not. Also I'm not picking some obscure character that only three people other than myself have heard of. I have chosen the bride's maid of the Prime linage. I present to you Fall of Cybertron Deluxe Class, Ultra Magnus.
I know what am I doing here? I am just giving you a repaint of the FoC Optimus Prime, why not review him instead? Well hold on to your hats, there's more! Have a closer look, notice anything new? That's right, this is a two for one review, as I also have the Keith's Fantasy Club KP-01UM addon kit. This kit helps set apart the two moulds and brings in some G1 goodness to a newer figure.
Now for a deluxe, this figure is slightly smaller than what we are familiar with in this size class, a trend that thankfully seemed to start and end with the Fall of Cybertron line. This is where the KP-01UM kit comes in handy (calling it a KFC addon make it seem like I am getting an extra side of coleslaw)
I read and heard some chatter over this mould and compared with the War for Cybertron Prime, and yes I will agree that the WFC Prime is a great figure, but the Optimus version for FoC does fail, but for once in Ultra Magnus colours this figure shines. On top of the paint scheme the addition of the KP Kit with the shoulder pylons and missile launchers make this figure scream Magnus. The majority of the figure is not paint application, but moulded plastic. There are red, white and silver details on the chest, which carry through onto the thighs and feet. On both shoulders there is an Autobot symbol. The head sculpt looks like a traditional Magnus, with the high antenna and pronounced chin but that head does look tiny when compared to the large chest. There is no light piping, but the eyes are painted red on a white face. The wheels are all plastic, with silver trim hub caps.The front wheels facing inwards on the forearms, while the rear wheels can be seen on the sides of the legs.
The KP-01UM shoulder pylons just friction fit into the smoke stacks
that are folded down on the shoulders and the missile launchers just fit into a slot on the sides of the arms. The complete kit itself is just packaged in a small bubble pack with no real instructions. The pegs on the missile launchers need to be inserted and the reason for this is to allow posibility and movement of those launchers and aide in transformation. Ultra Magnus also comes with 2 weapons, the first is the same blaster FoC Optimus Prime came with. On its own it is a good representation of a G1 blaster, but more suited for Optimus. Th second is a giant sword that Magnus could challenge Crocodile Dundee to a "Now....this is a knife!" competition and win easily. So you have a giant sword and a lack lustre blaster, but what can you do? Well I will tell you, the sword separates into three pieces and can be merged with the blaster, making the Ultra Magnus Ultra Mega Blaster. If you cannot get the matrix of Leadership might as well have a kick a** weapon!
Moving onto articulation. The head is on a ball joint allowing a full 360 degree spin and some movement up and down. There is an waist swivel mainly from transformation. The shoulders are on a ball joint so they can complete a full 360 as well as pivot in and out. The upper arm is on a swivel and there is a simple joint at the elbow. The fist can turn 360 degrees but it is not on a ball joint so there is no rist tilts. On to the main issue with this figure, the hips. They are your standard ball and socket joint that plug into the upper thigh on a swivel allowing some great poseibiltiy but they are extremely loose. Now they are not so loose as in the figure cannot stand under its own weight, but just loose enough that it may fall over if you have the figure in a complex pose. The knee can bend more than 90 degrees, but again due in part to the transformation that also makes for an weird look when bent due to the figure's larger than average calves. The feet are on a ball joint, but they do not have much of a pivot due to the large lower legs.
Thanks to all those moving joints, this figure folds in on itself quite well making for a small vehicle mode even when compared to other deluxe figures in the same series. The first thing you want to do is take the fists and turn them 180 degrees. Now you can unpeg the feet and on the joint move them up and forward, push the legs together fitting the pegs into the corresponding holes and flip them up over the thighs from behind. On the back of the figure there is a small plate that fits in with just friction, pop that plate up and push it towards the back of the head. That action will move the arms via a poorly executed auto-morph. The "feature" now adds the step of having the move the arms out of the way for the following. At the waist there is the ball joint that allows the swivel, move it up and back, there are two pegs where the feet are and they slot into the two ports on the back just below what appear to be thrusters. On the back of the shoulders you will see exhaust pipes, move them up, so they are now parallel with the rest of the arm. Now turn the forearm 180 degrees so the wheel is facing the outward and bend back at the elbow. On the now inside part of the arm we have another peg and slot that fit into the side of the cab which aide in holding the front end together. The last piece to complete is the front bumpers that hangs on the forearms with for no purpose other than to be a front bumper. The two halves are on a ball joint, so you need to twist them around 90 degrees. Now keep in mind one half fits into the other. One side has a puzzle style piece connector, followed by the second half with the slot for that piece. And there you go, Ultra Magnus in a Cybertrionian truck mode.
If you have the add-on kit, you can skip the step with moving the exhaust pipes to leave and the pylons in place, but I personally like the look of those big pipes. The missile launchers can remain in place and thankful to the peg and slot construction you can move them easily into a forward facing position. As I stated before, this is a small deluxe in vehicle mode, and being a big truck it would scale better with the smaller figures versus its fellow deluxe class comrades. Since this is a fold and twist transformation, there is not much new to report that you did not already see in robot mode other than painted white arms are slightly more pronounced.
There is weapon storage via a hole on the bottom of the foot and flipping the blaster upside down, you can also place the sword in an available port near the rear wheels but I just feel that this looks silly. The figure does have free moving wheels and does roll nicely, but as you may have guessed short of the cool exhaust pipes this is not my favourite mode.
In short, out of all the Optimus Prime moulds to be repainted into Ultra Magnus, this is by far one of my favourites that I have ever come across, all for the simple fact that it does not look like just another Prime repaint. When placing them side by side, this is the rare situation that it looks like Prime is a repaint of Magnus. Add to that, the Keith's Fantasy Club KP-01UM addon, to which I highly recommend, it adds just that last missing piece to make this figure truly Ultra Magnus.
TheRealRonin
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