Cliffbee.com TFU Spychanger Ultra Magnus Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Ultra Magnus
Series: Transformers Universe
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Car Carrier



CAR CARRIER MODE
Height: 3cm Length: 9.5cm Width: 3.5cm

   A small black and blue car carrier, Ultra Magnus is a fairly inconsequential repaint of RiD Spychanger Ultra Magnus, with the black replacing grey. He sports black plastic tyres and a red Autobot logo prominently displayed on the front. He has black windows, and the stamped Autobot logos on either side of the carrying rack found on the RiD version are not present here.

   Considering the size, this is a pretty detailed facsimile of the larger RiD Ultra Magnus. The moulding is great, but the paint job is pretty lazy. The logo on the front has a red yellow paint on both the logo and the depressed background around it, which looks pretty bad. The other feature that really drags it down is the tyres - he has five sets of wheels, of which sets 1 & 4 are real while 2, 3 and 5 are false. I can deal with false tyres, but only set 5 have painted hubcaps, the centre sets are painted all black, which looks poor. While the tyres are better than on the RiD Spychanger, it's still not done right here.

   This truck is way too small to fit any cars inside. The World's Smallest Transformers are the right size, but his thighs are inside. He can fit cars on top, but the tracks are too wide, so any that which sit on top are too big to look right. I don't really mind the lack of functionality here, it's beyond what you could reasonably expect of a Spychanger.

   So without much car carrying ability, the axles and wheels provide this mode's play value. The larger front wheels are on a single axle, the smaller rear ones are on their own half axles, since the rear becomes the robot legs. He rolls quite well, probably better than you'd expect him to.

   The repaint is very uninspired - the blue plastic is the same as last time around. I could deal with that had they attempted a G1 theme, but they haven't - this repaint is random _and_ slight. The mould is actually decent, but this is held back by a downright lazy paint job. If they'd bothered with painted hubcaps and a proper Autobot logo, he'd look a lot better. Some focus in the repaint itself would have helped, also.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Extend the rear section to form his legs, flip the truck front over to reveal the robot head. Swing up the wings on his back, pull his arms out from the sides and position them.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 6.5cm

   Like the vehicle mode, this is a mimic of the robot mode of the larger RiD Magnus, although the Transformation is quite different - the arms have been simplified, as has the chest, and the legs have been redone. The oversized shins have been retained, which can be good or bad, depending on the way you look at it. From a point of view of show/toy accuracy, it's good, but the big shins aren't in themselves a good thing.

   Anyway, this mode is essentially blue with a black torso, black arms, a silver face, silver knees and feet. This face is well moulded, and matches both the larger toy and the show quite closely. The front wheels of the truck mode are on the sides of his chest, hiding amongst the black of his chest. There aren't any allegiance symbols on this robot mode.

   It comes down to individual taste, but I really don't like the huge shins thing, which was a feature of the original so it could become battle armour for Optimus Prime. It doesn't look any worse this time around, but now there's no reason for it other than mimicry.

   Poseability is above average for a Spychanger - his head turns and his shoulders rotate, he's also capable of doing the splits, and while I'm not sure why, this is two more points of articulation they added, giving him an extra three compared to most Spychangers (which have static heads).

   The best way to sum up this mode is to say that the proportions will make or break it for you. I personally don't like them, but they do make sense in terms of the original character. Again, the repaint here is pretty minor, although at least his face wasn't painted black. For what it is, this is a decent robot mode - but it's just uninspiring since there's reason for a black and blue toy called Ultra Magnus.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   How much you like this you really depends on the stilts of the robot mode. Aside from the legs, it's a fairly good robot mode. More than anything else, this repaint just doesn't have a reason for existing, and that counts against this figure. It's not a bad repaint, but being similar to the original (which was a lot more focused), this one just feels unnecessary - 2.5/10

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