Originally written way back in January 2019. See the ending for some 2021 comments.
The stern career soldier, essentially Optimus Prime-lite, Ultra Magnus has always been a fan favorite character since his first appearance in the 1986 Animated Movie, so it makes sense that Transformers: Siege, a line dedicated to updating the classics, would start with him. But rather than just make another Ultra Magnus, Hasbro and Takara decided to make one that satisfied a certain long-simmering fan-demand.
First, a history lesson: The original Ultra Magnus toy from Generation 1 had two parts to him: A transforming cab in front that was actually the original Optimus Prime figure in white and blue colors, and a car carrier trailer in the back. The smaller robot can transform and do his own thing, but he can also combine with his car carrier into a bigger super robot. For whatever reason, none of Ultra Magnus’s appearances in animation and comics throughout the 80s actually depicted his smaller robot mode, and he was always shown transforming straight from his cab mode to his bigger super robot mode. As a result, new Ultra Magnus toys come in two flavors: Robots that go straight from his vehicle form to his big robot form, without the smaller robot even existing (even the Masterpiece does this)….
….or Optimus Prime toys recolored in white and blue for an easy re-release, without anything to combine with.
Now, over 30 years after its original release, Siege finally gives us a new Leader-class figure that does what the original toy did, something fans have been asking for for ages, to the point of making their own versions (like City Commander, one of the first major Third-Party releases, designed to go with with the Classics Magnus pictured above).
Something to note: Ultra Magnus did receive another very well-made Leader-class toy in the last few years, in the Combiner Wars toyline, with a design specifically based on his appearance in IDW’s comics.
Like most Magnus toys, though, it went straight from his combined vehicle to combined robot mode, though it came with a minifigure that could pilot him like a mech, after something from the comics. Any modern leader Magnus is going to be compared to that one, and it’ll come up here, especially since many collectors probably have this version, and are wondering if it’s worth the upgrade or not.
As for the new one, in short: Everything about him seems to have been dedicated to making him be able to Do The Thing, and Do The Thing Well, the Thing in this case being “be a smaller robot that can armor up into a super robot, and have it be stable and workable.” There’s a lot you can do with him, but I’m going to look at him in the order he was packaged in, and that the instructions subsequently say to go in.
Super Robot Mode
First, let’s get this out of the way: The first thing that strikes me about this robot mode is that it’s somewhat small for a $70 Leader-class figure, compared to its Prime Wars Trilogy predecessors. In fact, it’s not much bigger than your average Voyager-class figure, which makes for a bad first impression, especially since Magnus is traditionally depicted as an oversized robot in fiction. When stood next to the Combiner Wars figure (as shown below), the tippy-top of his extended shoulder pylons only goes up to the larger figure’s head, making him come up short. However, the second thing I noticed, upon picking it up, though, was that the figure was surprisingly heavy and dense for its small size. So, the plastic budget is definitely there, it just turned inward, and gave him a ton of mass.
He’s your typical Magnus design in this form, boxy and bulky, with tall shoulder stacks, and a nicely-sculpted, if oddly youthful face. Despite being a smaller robot covered in armor, he’s got a very clean design, with only a bit of back kibble, in the form of his truck bumper hanging off his backside. As for the excessive amounts of tiny detailing, or greebling, that Siege is known for, and of which Magnus seemed to have a bad case of, it was far more obvious in the CGI Stock Photography and prototypes, and is far more subtle in person.
There’s two clear engineering achievements on display in this mode. The first thing is that, despite being covered in removable armor, this armor is on there tight, and shows no signs of falling off or coming unclipped. It’s really solid, stable, and handily passes the “pick him up and shake him” test. The second engineering feat is how poseable he is, especially since the complexity of his design would have made lesser poseability acceptable. He’s still got all of the standard articulation points, and even the bonus ones the Siege line loves to add, like ankle tilts. Speaking of that, he’s got really stiff knees and ankles, but that seems to be for the sake of stability, and they’re not super difficult to pose. Weirdly, his fists look like you should be able to open them, though you can’t.
Color-wise, he has his typical Magnus blues, reds and whites. It’s a very dark blue, compared to the lighter blue of the Combiner Wars version, and is more accurate to his colors in his G1 animation appearances. He’s also got a bit of transparent blue on his chest windows (which are fake, like on the original toy). In this case, the battle damage paint apps present on all Siege toys look like outright grime, with a silvery sheen on his on feet, thighs, butt, forearms, and torso. He’s also got a lot of painted details, so that grime didn’t come at the expense of anything else, clearly, though it’s a look I suspect a lot of fans aren’t going to love, and it’s a look that I don’t care for on this figure, though it isn’t a dealbreaker.
Accessory-wise, he comes with two black guns (which are painted), a larger silver gun (also painted), and his two familiar shoulder-mounted missile launchers. Like other Siege figures, he’s got a lot of mounting points for these weapons, to encourage upgrading figures with the different weapon expansions available in the Siege line, though he comes with enough stuff that you can already trick him out a fair bit. He’s got mounts on his legs (for the black guns, according to the instructions) shoulder mounts for the missile pods (ditto), and ports on his forearms and behind his head.
Transformation to inner robot
Basically, you’re taking his armor off. Another feat of engineering is that, despite staying on him solidly, taking this armor off is easy. His core robot also transforms a little bit, since he spread himself out to fill his armor up, and this transformation involves a neat trick where his trunk bumper slides up his spine on a rail. You basically just set his armor aside, though, as it doesn’t have any combined form without the vehicle to attach to.
Inner Robot Mode
I’ll lead off with the design quirk that impressed me the most: Even though the original figure this was designed off of is a white recolor of Optimus Prime, and this figure is a Voyager-sized Optimus design, he shares zero parts with the concurrently-released Siege Voyager Optimus (as you can see below.) Even the similar-looking bits, like his shoulders and head, turned out to be entirely different parts on closer inspection. This extra work really impresses me, because they didn’t have to do that, a recolor would have been totally acceptable, and even more accurate to the original.
Sculpt-wise, he’s not as svelte and skinny as Optimus. He’s kind of a chonker, with extra bulk to him, and a lot of obvious tabs on his body for armor to attach, which may be why they opted for a new sculpt. He’s also got a larger backpack than Prime. Whereas Optimus was trying hard to imitate his G1 animation and comic character model, Magnus puts more of a spin on the design, looking more high-tech and Cybertronian.
As mentioned before, he’s mostly solid, unbroken white, though it’s not such a bright white that he loses his details. He’s accented with some grey bits, and some blue paint. His only motions towards the grime associated with Siege is dirty thighs. He’s also got a lot of transparent blue plastic on his chest, and it forms a neat-looking T shape.
Another impressive bit of design work: Despite not being the same mold as Optimus, and despite needing to be stable enough to have armor attach to him, he has all the same articulation points as Optimus, including wrist swivels and ankle tits, perfect for posing him with the various guns he still has access to. He’s also got a new set of ports to mount these weapons, on the tops of his shoulders, his forearms, his back, and his feet (though the clips on his lower legs block him from having foot-guns). Overall, I’m impressed with this mode, given all that it needs to be able to do.
Transformation to inner robot vehicle mode
Another thing to distinguish him from Optimus: He transforms into a cab almost totally differently. He still lays his feet down, but there’s a waist twist, and arms that go opposite to the traditional Prime direction to differentiate them. He’s also easier to transform than Prime, and you can complete it much faster, with no clippy panels to worry about, since Magnus isn’t trying to totally change the look of the vehicle he changes into from “Earth” to “Cybertron,” it’s already the latter. Once again, he’s got that nifty bit of engineering where his truck bumper slides down his spine, then rotates to the front of the truck.
Inner robot vehicle mode
I’m gonna keep it real here: This isn’t a very good looking vehicle mode, and was obviously the lowest design priority. Its most obvious problem is the lower arms and fists of the robot mode blatantly sticking out of the back, plus it’s also got a lot of gaps throughout the body, and a back end that’s blatantly made of legs, all things Siege Optimus manages to cover up. Still, he’s got painted wheels, and he rolls nicely.
What is interesting, though, is the front of this mode: Instead of styling him like G1 Magnus, they opted to homage a different Ultra Magnus: The one from the 2001 Robots In Disguise Anime, known as God Magnus in Japan (see below for a comparison.) It’s out of left field, but it makes for a unique-looking truck front, and differentiates himself from Prime, managing to look more like an outer-space Cybertronian design than he does.
Transformation to combined vehicle mode
Another simple idea: You’re taking all of his spare robot mode bits, clipping them together into a rectangle, and attaching one side of that rectangle to the cab. It can be a bit of a challenge to get all the tabs and clips lined up, but there’s a moment where it all fits, you hear a few satisfying snaps, and it all falls into place.
Combined Vehicle Mode
He’s impressively long in this car carrier mode, compared to his tiny robot mode, and while he isn’t as tall, he’s about the same length as Combiner Wars Magnus, as shown below.
While it’s a nice-looking design, continuing the God Magnus homage, the part of this vehicle mode that sticks out to me is the things it can’t do: The whole inside of the car carrier is used to hide the more robotty bits of his armor, so, unlike G1 and Combiner Wars Magnus, this one can’t hold cars inside of him like a real car carrier, just mount one on top. His cab is also locked facing forwards, and can’t turn, like those other two could.
Most of the issues with the cab are hidden by connecting to the back of the vehicle, though he still has unsightly gaps where his front wheels are. Some of those connections between the cab and trailer also aren’t quite as secure as I’d like, and the armor comes unclipped sometimes while picking up and moving the figure. Once again, he’s got lots of weapon mounting points on him, with two on the sides of the truck, and two on top, perfect for mounting his various guns and missiles in different places.
Overall
Siege Ultra Magnus is well-designed, but he has some shortcomings. There’s a lot of excellent engineering and design work on display and it’s all pointed towards making an Ultra Magnus that does That One Thing (having a cab that changes into a smaller robot that merges with the trailer to form a super robot), and making it do that One Thing well. However, it does so at the expense of other things, like his overall size (which I do consider a drawback, considering the character) and vehicle mode design, and your opinion on this figure will depend on how important having him do that thing is.
Make no mistake, if you don’t have an Ultra Magnus, and want one for your collection, this is the one to get. On the other hand, if you already have the equally-good-but-in-different-ways Combiner Wars Magnus, it’s a bit ambiguous if it’s worth the upgrade. It depends on what you value out of the character, and what parts of him are more important to you.
2021 Update: Time’s been kind to this figure, and he’s still a highlight of the whole War for Cybertron Trilogy, to me. The most relevant update here, though, is that he got an extensive retooling in Kingdom, designed to make him more G1-animation-accurate by smoothing out the super robot mode, and adding an Earth truck-front to his alternate mode.
That being said, I’m not a fan of this retool for a few reasons. Firstly, I think the new animation-accurate parts clash aesthetically with the unmodified Siege parts, making him look less coherent, and secondly, the retooling really impacts his vehicle mode for the worse, elongating the front and sticking a cab on it that doesn’t match. I still prefer the Siege version for having a more consistent appearance. Retooling aside, though, this is still basically the same figure with the same excellent design and engineering, so if those aesthetic quibbles don’t bother you, it’s equally worth a look, though I’m not trading in my Siege Magnus any time soon (and frankly, if you can get a deal on the Siege guy, or his Netflix repaint, I’d go for him instead.)
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