Post by Philip Ayres on Oct 30, 2010 10:35:48 GMT
FansProject City Commander Armour
One of the problems with Classics Ultra Magnus is that you only have the truck cab and thus the smaller white robot - no Trailer and thus no combined mode that Original Ultra Magnus had. So Fansproject decided to produce an add on set of armour that transforms into a trailer.
The Magnus trailer is about a centimetre and a half longer than the cab itself, and maybe a centimetre higher. It looks like a solid unit,more like Optimus Prime's Trailer than Original Ultra Magnus' Car Transporter. The main colour is a light blue close to the colour of Classics Magnus' flatbed with a silver and white stripe along the side matching those on the cab. The trailer sits quite close to the back of the cab with a square hole fitting over the square peg on the cab's flatbed. A little further back, and with a round hole with a diameter equal to the diagonal distance across the corner of the square peg would have let the trailer turn. (Whereas a round peg fits a square hole where the diameter of the peg is equal to the length of the sides of the square). The plastic quality on the kit is excellent, but does feel a little different from that used by Hasbro and is lacking the glossy finish of Classics Magnus.
Transformation:
Or rather how to take the trailer apart and build the armour:
Raise the tabs at the top of each side at the back and pull the top of the trailer off. Fold the tabs down, fold them back and pull the rear of the top off, then split in two to form the shoulder pads. Fold the sides of the front back then pull each half of the middle out to the sides to form the forearms & hands. The remainder of the top is the chest armour: fold the front down, fold the head up and replace the front. (You can open this panel in vehicle mode so the head is displayed on the trailer)
Rotate the tabs in the middle of the base back and slide the bulk of the trailer away from the rear. Remove the waist piece from the rear of the trailer and fold the back out to form the sides. Split the rear of the trailer in two and fold the tabs in to form the heels. Fold the doors on the inner sides of the trailer back to form the rear of the lower legs.
Take the remainder of the trailer, and slide out the bar in the middle that connects the trailer to the cab. Fold the sides of the trailer up forming a gun from the trailer and secure by clipping the bar onto the top of the gun.
Take your Classics Magnus and transform to robot mode. Slide the legs into the leg armour, you'll need to wiggle them about a bit, so that the panels on the side of Classics Magnus' lower leg fits into the holes in the side of the armour. Fold the head back and form the panels behind it into a block behind the head. Slide the chest armour on to the chest so it fits round the windows and outermost moulded horns. Fold the back parts down. Clip the shoulder armour onto the top of the shoulders. Slide the forearm armour over Classics Magnus' forearms and rotate the wrists so the holes in the hand face up. Push - firmly - the waist armour into place. Slide the gun over his right hand so the slant on it meshes against the front of the wrist armour.
The armoured Magnus more closely resembles the Original Ultra Magnus' Super Mode, but with the design style updated as per many of the classics releases so it almost looks distinctly "Japanese animation" in style. Tome the part that most obviously feels wrong is the chest, which is a bit too narrow compared with the rest of the toy. But I understand we're limited by the size of the chest and the need to use the original arms to provide the articulation for the new arms. Most of the articulation on the new version is inherited from Classics Magnus and, indeed, most of Classic's Magnus' articulation has made it into the combined form. We've lost the waist, which is now limited by the new waist plate, and the original head joint is gone replaced by a new ball joint in the new head. The ball is mounted on a peg which recesses in the next and can be pulled out. We do have two new joints though: each wrist now turns. The hands have a long slot hole in them, presumably to allow him to hold the original Ultra Magnus super mode gun, but the slot has a slight indent in each side to let him hold the existing Classics Magnus guns as well as any other 5mm peg weapon. There's a hole on each shoulder that lets Magnus shoulder mount the original Magnus missile launchers or any other weapon with a 5mm peg. The peg hole is an odd shaped: it's arched with the curve towards the front.
The gun is odd: it's basically an attempt to use up the remaining pieces into something rather than a deliberately designed piece. We get two silver prongs at the front formed by the bits that slide into the rear of the trailer and they just look odd, although it is possible to slide the black Classics Magnus gun between them. Bellow these are some moulded missile tubes with the bulk of the gun extending back from here up the robot's arm. In fact I think the gun looks better the other way round, with the back acting as the front. You can just about achieve this with the gun's present configuration but it looks better to me if you slide the handle under the right hand or over the top of the left before folding the gun handle so the gun effectively extends from the arm.
City Commander is a decent high quality add on for your Classics Magnus to finally give it the Ultra Magnus look that people remember and is well worth getting.
A second version of the kits exists: In the box are the weapons set described bellow, added 5mm holes at the front on each side for mounting weapons on and a 5mm hole at the rear of one side for storing one of the new weapons. This is the version that I own, and is a better buy for the extra parts!
FansProject Shadow Commander
Shadow Commander is a black repaint of the original City Commander designed to work with Universe SDCC 2008 Nemesis Prime. He comes with an additional pink/purple sword similar to the one used by Robots in Disguise Scourge.
FansProject Powered Commander & DIA Commander
Powered Commander was an exclusive for TF Con 2009.
DIA Commander, short for Diaclone Commander, was released the same year.
Essentially they are the same kit, using the modified version of the City Commander mould. The trailer is a mixture of Prime flatbed dark blue and a little Prime red on the top at the rear. Transformed into armour the combined form has the colour of Diaclone Powered Convoy which allows Classics Optimus Prime to be powered up.
This kit comes with modified black versions of the missile launchers later found in the accessory pack with white missiles.
FansProject City Commander Add On Set
FansProject issued a set of add-on parts for the City Commander set, mainly consisting of new weapons for the toy.
The missile launcher, sadly non functional, are box like with a smaller upper layer. The front features two levels with a missile in each. One side features a 5mm peg for plugging into City Commander's shoulders or the holes in the sides of the front of the vehicle on the modified version. The other has a slot which locks onto the side of the original version. The missiles are removable from the launcher and look like they might fit the original Magnus launchers.
The gun included is quite clever and transforms! The primary version features an extended barrel and a rectangular peg that fits a 5mm peg hole so Classics Magnus can use it. A 5mm peg on the side allows the rifle to be mounted on Classics Magnus' back. To transform the rifle, fold the stock down revealing a new handle to suit the fists on City Commander, then slide the rifle barrel back into the fun which folds the 5mm handle into the weapon. The resulting weapon looks very similar to the original Ultra Magnus gun. It can be held by City Commander, stored on Ultra Magnus or City Commander's leg via a tab on the gun and a slot inn the side of Magnus' leg or supposedly pegged into the side of City Commander's trailer, but I've had difficulty making this method of storage work.
Also included are three replacement face plates. One is a modified version of the original - the original has been known to damage when you remove it. There's a Ultra Magnus face with a wide O shaped mouth. Finally there's a traditional Optimus Prime/Convoy face plate. To use these remove City Commander's head, slide the face plate out and slide the new one in before replacing the head.
A neat little add on pack which addresses some the missing weapons issues with the original kit.
Fans Project City Commander Armour Version 2
A second version of the City Commander kit includes the add ons package above, adds 5mm holes to the vehicle mode for holding the weapons in place and makes minor modifications to the toy to strengthen it and correct some issues with the original.
iGear City Commander Add On Pack
Fansproject weren't the only people to issue an add-on kit for City Commander. SG Collect made a set consisting of a head, missile launchers and gun but the set isn't popular and everything in it is duplicated by the Fansproject kit but with better quality.
The iGear set however contains lots of additional parts and can be found quite cheaply - at the time of writing BBTS have it for $35. The set consists of head,launchers and gun - as per the Fansproject & SG Collect sets - but also a sword, flag and hammer.
The head is a nice sculpt after the original Magnus, but the peg isn't long enough to sit ok on the neck of the City Commander's body.
The missile launchers are a nice moulded unit modelled after the original Magnus launchers except that they don't fire. Unfortunately their tab precisely matches the arch shaped hole on the shoulder so it doesn't fit the 5mm holes on the updated trailer (or on other toys) and won't turn when plugged into City Commander's shoulders.
The gun is a big black number, nice and chunky. Unfortunately the handle is too large for a 5mm peg hole instead fitting the elongated hand hole on Magnus' City Commander combined mode. So most other toys can't hold the gun - including Classics Magnus ! - but you may have some joy with Primes with more articulated hands like Super Fire Convoy or Energon Prime. Even using the gun with City Commander has it's problems. The stock extends too far back from the gun for the weapon to sit in the hand with the hand straight in relation to the forearm.
The sword is superb, completely moulded in clear blue plastic with an Autobot symbol on the hilt. However, like the gun, the handle precisely fits the elongated hand hole rather than a 5mm peg. So no loaning that to other toys either I'm afraid.
The clear green flag is a nice accessory but I'm not sure why it's there - someone enlighten me please! Does Magnus use a flag in a cartoon or piece of artwork that I haven't seen?
The Hammer is taken from the Animated version and can be used as a large weapon or split into two smaller hammers. The hammer is clear blue, with an Autobot symbol at either end, and contains an inner chromed layer. Very nice accessory.
The Flag, Hammer and Hammer halves can each be mounted on the same set of poles moulded in clear blue plastic. There's one long one and two shorter ones. I could have done with a second longer one so both the hammer and flag could have been on long poles at the same time. The poles will fit 5mm peg holes but there's bands on the poles that will hinder them sliding right into a peg hole.
So a bit of a mixed bag. Fix the head peg and make those on the weapons fit 5mm holes to allow them to be used by other toys and it'd be superb.
One of the problems with Classics Ultra Magnus is that you only have the truck cab and thus the smaller white robot - no Trailer and thus no combined mode that Original Ultra Magnus had. So Fansproject decided to produce an add on set of armour that transforms into a trailer.
The Magnus trailer is about a centimetre and a half longer than the cab itself, and maybe a centimetre higher. It looks like a solid unit,more like Optimus Prime's Trailer than Original Ultra Magnus' Car Transporter. The main colour is a light blue close to the colour of Classics Magnus' flatbed with a silver and white stripe along the side matching those on the cab. The trailer sits quite close to the back of the cab with a square hole fitting over the square peg on the cab's flatbed. A little further back, and with a round hole with a diameter equal to the diagonal distance across the corner of the square peg would have let the trailer turn. (Whereas a round peg fits a square hole where the diameter of the peg is equal to the length of the sides of the square). The plastic quality on the kit is excellent, but does feel a little different from that used by Hasbro and is lacking the glossy finish of Classics Magnus.
Transformation:
Or rather how to take the trailer apart and build the armour:
Raise the tabs at the top of each side at the back and pull the top of the trailer off. Fold the tabs down, fold them back and pull the rear of the top off, then split in two to form the shoulder pads. Fold the sides of the front back then pull each half of the middle out to the sides to form the forearms & hands. The remainder of the top is the chest armour: fold the front down, fold the head up and replace the front. (You can open this panel in vehicle mode so the head is displayed on the trailer)
Rotate the tabs in the middle of the base back and slide the bulk of the trailer away from the rear. Remove the waist piece from the rear of the trailer and fold the back out to form the sides. Split the rear of the trailer in two and fold the tabs in to form the heels. Fold the doors on the inner sides of the trailer back to form the rear of the lower legs.
Take the remainder of the trailer, and slide out the bar in the middle that connects the trailer to the cab. Fold the sides of the trailer up forming a gun from the trailer and secure by clipping the bar onto the top of the gun.
Take your Classics Magnus and transform to robot mode. Slide the legs into the leg armour, you'll need to wiggle them about a bit, so that the panels on the side of Classics Magnus' lower leg fits into the holes in the side of the armour. Fold the head back and form the panels behind it into a block behind the head. Slide the chest armour on to the chest so it fits round the windows and outermost moulded horns. Fold the back parts down. Clip the shoulder armour onto the top of the shoulders. Slide the forearm armour over Classics Magnus' forearms and rotate the wrists so the holes in the hand face up. Push - firmly - the waist armour into place. Slide the gun over his right hand so the slant on it meshes against the front of the wrist armour.
The armoured Magnus more closely resembles the Original Ultra Magnus' Super Mode, but with the design style updated as per many of the classics releases so it almost looks distinctly "Japanese animation" in style. Tome the part that most obviously feels wrong is the chest, which is a bit too narrow compared with the rest of the toy. But I understand we're limited by the size of the chest and the need to use the original arms to provide the articulation for the new arms. Most of the articulation on the new version is inherited from Classics Magnus and, indeed, most of Classic's Magnus' articulation has made it into the combined form. We've lost the waist, which is now limited by the new waist plate, and the original head joint is gone replaced by a new ball joint in the new head. The ball is mounted on a peg which recesses in the next and can be pulled out. We do have two new joints though: each wrist now turns. The hands have a long slot hole in them, presumably to allow him to hold the original Ultra Magnus super mode gun, but the slot has a slight indent in each side to let him hold the existing Classics Magnus guns as well as any other 5mm peg weapon. There's a hole on each shoulder that lets Magnus shoulder mount the original Magnus missile launchers or any other weapon with a 5mm peg. The peg hole is an odd shaped: it's arched with the curve towards the front.
The gun is odd: it's basically an attempt to use up the remaining pieces into something rather than a deliberately designed piece. We get two silver prongs at the front formed by the bits that slide into the rear of the trailer and they just look odd, although it is possible to slide the black Classics Magnus gun between them. Bellow these are some moulded missile tubes with the bulk of the gun extending back from here up the robot's arm. In fact I think the gun looks better the other way round, with the back acting as the front. You can just about achieve this with the gun's present configuration but it looks better to me if you slide the handle under the right hand or over the top of the left before folding the gun handle so the gun effectively extends from the arm.
City Commander is a decent high quality add on for your Classics Magnus to finally give it the Ultra Magnus look that people remember and is well worth getting.
A second version of the kits exists: In the box are the weapons set described bellow, added 5mm holes at the front on each side for mounting weapons on and a 5mm hole at the rear of one side for storing one of the new weapons. This is the version that I own, and is a better buy for the extra parts!
FansProject Shadow Commander
Shadow Commander is a black repaint of the original City Commander designed to work with Universe SDCC 2008 Nemesis Prime. He comes with an additional pink/purple sword similar to the one used by Robots in Disguise Scourge.
FansProject Powered Commander & DIA Commander
Powered Commander was an exclusive for TF Con 2009.
DIA Commander, short for Diaclone Commander, was released the same year.
Essentially they are the same kit, using the modified version of the City Commander mould. The trailer is a mixture of Prime flatbed dark blue and a little Prime red on the top at the rear. Transformed into armour the combined form has the colour of Diaclone Powered Convoy which allows Classics Optimus Prime to be powered up.
This kit comes with modified black versions of the missile launchers later found in the accessory pack with white missiles.
FansProject City Commander Add On Set
FansProject issued a set of add-on parts for the City Commander set, mainly consisting of new weapons for the toy.
The missile launcher, sadly non functional, are box like with a smaller upper layer. The front features two levels with a missile in each. One side features a 5mm peg for plugging into City Commander's shoulders or the holes in the sides of the front of the vehicle on the modified version. The other has a slot which locks onto the side of the original version. The missiles are removable from the launcher and look like they might fit the original Magnus launchers.
The gun included is quite clever and transforms! The primary version features an extended barrel and a rectangular peg that fits a 5mm peg hole so Classics Magnus can use it. A 5mm peg on the side allows the rifle to be mounted on Classics Magnus' back. To transform the rifle, fold the stock down revealing a new handle to suit the fists on City Commander, then slide the rifle barrel back into the fun which folds the 5mm handle into the weapon. The resulting weapon looks very similar to the original Ultra Magnus gun. It can be held by City Commander, stored on Ultra Magnus or City Commander's leg via a tab on the gun and a slot inn the side of Magnus' leg or supposedly pegged into the side of City Commander's trailer, but I've had difficulty making this method of storage work.
Also included are three replacement face plates. One is a modified version of the original - the original has been known to damage when you remove it. There's a Ultra Magnus face with a wide O shaped mouth. Finally there's a traditional Optimus Prime/Convoy face plate. To use these remove City Commander's head, slide the face plate out and slide the new one in before replacing the head.
A neat little add on pack which addresses some the missing weapons issues with the original kit.
Fans Project City Commander Armour Version 2
A second version of the City Commander kit includes the add ons package above, adds 5mm holes to the vehicle mode for holding the weapons in place and makes minor modifications to the toy to strengthen it and correct some issues with the original.
iGear City Commander Add On Pack
Fansproject weren't the only people to issue an add-on kit for City Commander. SG Collect made a set consisting of a head, missile launchers and gun but the set isn't popular and everything in it is duplicated by the Fansproject kit but with better quality.
The iGear set however contains lots of additional parts and can be found quite cheaply - at the time of writing BBTS have it for $35. The set consists of head,launchers and gun - as per the Fansproject & SG Collect sets - but also a sword, flag and hammer.
The head is a nice sculpt after the original Magnus, but the peg isn't long enough to sit ok on the neck of the City Commander's body.
The missile launchers are a nice moulded unit modelled after the original Magnus launchers except that they don't fire. Unfortunately their tab precisely matches the arch shaped hole on the shoulder so it doesn't fit the 5mm holes on the updated trailer (or on other toys) and won't turn when plugged into City Commander's shoulders.
The gun is a big black number, nice and chunky. Unfortunately the handle is too large for a 5mm peg hole instead fitting the elongated hand hole on Magnus' City Commander combined mode. So most other toys can't hold the gun - including Classics Magnus ! - but you may have some joy with Primes with more articulated hands like Super Fire Convoy or Energon Prime. Even using the gun with City Commander has it's problems. The stock extends too far back from the gun for the weapon to sit in the hand with the hand straight in relation to the forearm.
The sword is superb, completely moulded in clear blue plastic with an Autobot symbol on the hilt. However, like the gun, the handle precisely fits the elongated hand hole rather than a 5mm peg. So no loaning that to other toys either I'm afraid.
The clear green flag is a nice accessory but I'm not sure why it's there - someone enlighten me please! Does Magnus use a flag in a cartoon or piece of artwork that I haven't seen?
The Hammer is taken from the Animated version and can be used as a large weapon or split into two smaller hammers. The hammer is clear blue, with an Autobot symbol at either end, and contains an inner chromed layer. Very nice accessory.
The Flag, Hammer and Hammer halves can each be mounted on the same set of poles moulded in clear blue plastic. There's one long one and two shorter ones. I could have done with a second longer one so both the hammer and flag could have been on long poles at the same time. The poles will fit 5mm peg holes but there's bands on the poles that will hinder them sliding right into a peg hole.
So a bit of a mixed bag. Fix the head peg and make those on the weapons fit 5mm holes to allow them to be used by other toys and it'd be superb.
