God MagnusHere in 2008 and we're used to Ultra Magnus updates & homage's. In 2000 however God Magnus was a real event: It was the first time that Magnus had been brought back !
God Magnus is supplied in a standard Japanese giftbox with a picture that means the box must be positioned horizontally or vertically depending which way round you have it. This gives the shops options how to display the toy. He comes in a plastic tray *mostly* in robot mode though the legs need a little manipulation and joining to the body which in turn needs his back pack transforming properly. Fortunately the huge instruction sheet supplied with the toy tells you how to do this *and* how to transform the robot into his vehicle mode.
God Magnus is a car transporter as per his G1 ancestor. He's got a white cab which is attached to a grey trailer that's much more realistic looking than G1 Magnus'. The trailer is fixed to the cab at the sides so doesn't pivot like G1 Magnus' trailer does. There are hints of the same light blue used on G1 Magnus as well as some darker blue and a small amount of red. The front of the cab is covered by a chromed blue & silver bumper with a gold chrome Autobot symbol on the front. The cab windows are light blue clear plastic.
God Magnus can be used to carry cars - the ramp at the back folds down as does the rear half of the top deck allowing you to put two deluxe sized cars on the top deck. When the rear half of the top deck is folded up then another deluxe car can be inserted in the bottom level. Perfect for transporting the Car Brothers, and indeed their Super forms are depicted riding in Magnus on the packaging. Both the rear ramp and the top deck are held in place by two light blue struts that fold out from the gridwork on the side of the vehicle - the ramp pegs into them and the top deck rest on them.
If you swing the back of the top deck forward you'll be able to reach inside the trailer and find the little red button on the back of his sound box. pressing it in this mode activates just one voice clip - "Ultra Magnus - TRANSFORM !" This makes me think that the name was changed to God Magnus very late in the production process.
Mounted on the front of the vehicle is a light blue dual missile launcher which fires two white missiles. This is connected to a darker blue support that in turn rests on two pegs at the front of the vehicle. This launcher can be removed and placed over similar pegs at the rear of the vehicle aping what you can do with G1 Magnus' missile launchers.
TF: Settle yourselves down with a cuppa and pay attention. Remove the missile launcher. Pull the foremost sections of grey gridwork away from the sides of the cab - that will cause the rear of the trailer - the lower deck, sides and ramp to come away. Pull the middle section of gridwork away to the sides slightly as well. Fold all the gridwork down so the top is now pointing downwards and the middle section is now pegged on upside down. Fold the front section of gridwork onto the middle section & peg in place. Fold the ramp onto the trailer bed. Fold the strut for the ramp and top deck in. From under the back of the truck fold out the (very short) upper legs. Separate the trailer in half down the middle to form two leg pieces.
Cab half now: fold the back of the top deck over the front and lock together. This forms a sort of cab mode but you still have the top deck and sound box in place. Pull one side of the deck up then rotate both parts out to each side. Pull the blue soundbox up from the white flatbed. Split the flatbed in two and fold out to the sides & forward. These will click onto the side of the truck. Next rotate the flatbed halves round so the wheels on them are on the outside of the vehicle and pointing up. These have formed the robot arms - pull them out to the side. Loosen the chromed front grill at ate sides & fold up so it covers the windows. Fold the voicebox, arms and shoulders back. Look at the bottom of the vehicle and fold down the light blue leg tops you see under the cab - they need to be folded out to the sides and then folded down. Fold out the small blue plates under the large grey plate - the robot chest. Lock the voicebox, arms and shoulder back in place. Fold the voice box over the top of the vehicle so the back of it faces out the same side as the windows and the chest plate. Position the top deck halves in v shape and push in so they lock together with the point of the v facing the same direction as the back of the voice box. Look at the underside of the toy again and fold up the jointed strut with the robot head on it so the top of the head is facing you. Twist the end of the strut so the top of the head faces away. Pull the chest plate forward a little. Fold down the strut towards you till it's horizontal and the robot face is facing you. Push the chest back - there's a tab on the chest matching the strut and these two need to meet. Push the legs on - the gridwork should be on the outside of each leg. And we're done ! That's how you transform God Magnus !
Where do you start with the robot ? The head is blue with a silver face, but lacking the two vertical pipes which were the signature of the G1 Magnus head. The long thin slot on the forehead is gone replaced by a moulded Autobot symbol. The head is ball jointed and has the gold foil eyes that the most recent Japanese Convoy toys had had. The chest is grey and flanked by a pair of wheels on red supports. His dark blue shoulders turn up & down and then the light blue upper arm is attached by a ball joint to them. Another ball joint at the elbow attaches to the white blocky forearms, and a third ball joint connects to the dark blue fists with white fingers that bend at the knuckle and a thumb that can be raised - yes God Magnus can give you a thumbs up ! His white waist is connected to the light blue upper legs by a universal joint. The upper legs turn where the two parts were connected together and then bend at a very high knee after which the lower legs formed by the truck bed start. These are probably bigger than the rest of the toy and give the robot mode an odd badly proportioned look. The gridwork on the side of the leg helps to support the toy without recourse to further heel spurs but it can pop off it's tabs destabilising the toy. The biggest problem in robot mode though is probably the chest - there's nothing behind the chest plate or under the head strut, just a big amount of empty space. it's quite easy to pop the head strut loose from the chest and fold it into the body cavity by accident.
In this mode the voicebox says the same thing - "Ultra Magnus - Transform". To make it do anything different you need to attach the weapon. Take the weapon as removed from God Magnus and turn both front halves in so they lock together and both set of studs are projecting from each end - square ones one end and round the other. Raise the scope on the missile launcher.
Gun Mode 1 - Cannon: Turn the missile launcher to face the same direction a the square studs. Fold that end of the supporting structure under the weapon. It now looks like a gun with a missile launcher on top. The red handle should be folded down. The back of the weapon is then rotated 180 degrees so the sloped side is under the weapon, and it then slots into Magnus' right shoulder (on your left) at which point the arm should be raised and pegged onto the side of the weapon to support it. Pressing the button now causes a gunfire noise.
Gun Mode 2 - Gattling Gun: Turn the missile launcher to face the same direction a the round studs. Fold that end of the supporting structure under the weapon. It now looks like a six barrelled gattling gun with a missile launcher on top. The red handle should be folded down. The back of the weapon is then rotated 180 degrees so the sloped side is under the weapon, and it then slots into Magnus' left shoulder (on your right) at which point the arm should be raised and pegged onto the side of the weapon to support it. Pressing the button now causes machine gunfire noise.
Gun Mode 3 - Dual Weapon.Fold the missile launcher round so the missiles are pointing out of the side of the structure that doesn't have the studs on it. Swing both ends of the weapon to point out the same side. Fold the fronts of both ends back under the weapon, rotate the end 180 degrees so the slopes are on the top sides and peg into God Magnus' shoulders. The noise button will now make a much loader more electronic gunfire noise.
So: Decent transporter, complicated TF, slightly out of proportion robot, fantastic TF'ing weapon and a great G1 homage. Well worth a look.
But to top it off he combines with Fire Convoy ! See the God Fire Convoy review !
Here's my original 2000 God Magnus Review:
"I love this toy :-)
The Toy is a homage to not one but 2 G1 toys. Firstly - and obviously - Ultra Magnus for the colour scheme and truck carrier - in fact the Japanese name he yells sounds like Ultra Magnus. Secondly - less so - Godbomber for the Robot mode, TF style and combination to SFC. And the BIG GUN. I couldn't help thinking of GB when I plugged the legs into the robot mode and the face is more similar to GB's than Magnus's (from memory)
GM's Cab (+ upper car rack and some hidden stuff in the trailer) becomes his Torso, arms and backpack - GM's chest is the underside of the cab with the legs emerging through the area previously covered by the front grill. The legs are the rear and sides of the trailer. VERY stable for legs that are virtually nothing. The gun is great - lots of combinations, but I think my face ends up with a machine gun facing forward with 2 missile launchers mounted on top !
The legs come off to form God Fire Convoy's boots. Body folds to become the armour - wrist armour removes and is inverted for GFC. GFC is BIG, solid and a little more unstable though nowhere near as bad as any BM Cheetor.
Great toy.
As a bonus I also got a FC model kit which I'll build later :-) "
Black God MagnusBlack God Magnus is a *very* rare competition prize transformer. Cast in black, with gold highlights, gold chrome bumper and clear red windows. Very nice.
Clear God MagnusTFU.info is at the moment missing pictures of this toy but there's some good ones
hereClear God Magnus was sold in a giftset with Clear Super Fire Convoy. The grey pieces and the forearms are rendered in plain clear plastic, whereas the dark blue on the trailer is also clear dark blue. The windows and the scope become clear yellow.
Another fabby clear repaint. Wouldn't mind owning this set.
Ultra MagnusRobots In Disguise Ultra Magnus is the western release of God Magnus with (I presume) the voice box altered. This mode adds a pair of Autobot symbols on the first panel of grey gridwork.
RID Magnus was sold in vehicle mode in a case containing equal quantities of him & Optimus Prime right the way through RID's existence. It was this version of the toy that a certain Hub member threw out of a window in frustration at not being able to transform it properly.
Universe Ultra MagnusUniverse Ultra Magnus takes the RID version of the toy and makes all the dark blue pieces a much darker blue, nearly black in colour. That's the only change to it - though if they'd have been thinking right all the red would have changed to mustard yellow to match the recoloured Prime it's sold with. This will come back to haunt us later.
Ultra Magnus was an exclusive to Costco in 2003 and sold with a recolour of RID Optimus Prime.
