Phil's CW Ultra Magnus & TR Optimus Prime review

[Philip Ayres]

Generations Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus

New versions of Ultra Magnus tend to fall into three camps: All white, like Battle in a Box or Classics were the most common for a while. Recently all new truck forms have been prevalent like Animated or Prime. But to me Ultra Magnus is a car transporter that turns into a large robot that isn't an Optimus Prime repaint. Yes the White Prime was part of the original toy but in the comics and cartoon that never featured. Car Transporter Magnus are rare: there's the Car Robots/Robots in Disguise version and the Titanium but really that was it till last year when Masterpiece Ultra Magnus was released. However at that point rumours were already in circulation hat there was a Generations Leader toy due in 2015 and there was much rejoicing when he was revealed at toyfair 2015.

Ultra Magnus comes almost in robot mode: out the box you need to rock his feet forward or they'll be difficulty standing him. His arms have been positioned so they'll fit into the box, both need a push up into the shoulders or you'll be left with an odd sideways joint on the upper arm that doesn't make sense. In the box with him are a missile pod that 5mm peg into shoulder and two guns which in theory he should be able to hold.

The other extra component in the box is Minimus Ambus, a tiny version of the robot that's inside the Ultra Magnus armour in the More Than Meets The Eye comic. This element has caused some controversy mainly because he's in this toy but a more traditional Magnus element isn't. He comes in car mode: to transform him into robot fold the front of the car forward to form the lower legs and expose the upper legs. Unpeg the sides of the car to form the arms. Fold the rear of the car forward and stand. As small Transformers go Minimus is tinsy tiny, waaay smaller than an old style legend. He's a comparable size to the Minicon companions that were appearing with the Generations Legends. I'd say his articulation was good for his size, with ball jointed shoulders & hips and hinged knees but that would be failing to take into account that most of the ball joints on mine appear to be made of plasticine and fall apart as soon as I look at them funny! Comparatively the hinges on his back plate are far, far too stiff.

Back to the larger toy: to transform to robot mode start by removing all the weapons. Lower the chest plate and then splitting the vehicle cab in two revealing where Minimus Ambus sits in Magnus' robot mode. Unfortunately the space is needed in truck mode for other things so he can't drive it and will need removing. Fold Magnus' head down into this space, close the cab halves and fold the roof panel down. Put the robot into a sitting position, it's not needed now but will make things a lot easier later. Fold the body back at the waist. Fold the cab up 90 degrees so it's sitting where the head was with the cab's front pair of wheels facing you. Rotate the Cab 180 degrees so the top of the cab faces you and he wheels face away, now on the same side as the rear pairs of cab wheels. Open the doors on the back of the leg and fold down behind the ankles. Pull the sides of the lower leg out slightly and rotate down 90 degrees, inserting the tab just bellow the knee into the side pane. Bring the legs together and fold the chest panel down into the rear of the trailer. Tab the red leg door panels into place as the sides of the toy. Pull both arms right the way through the shoulders, just like you would on the original Magnus toy. Fold the forearm armour forwards so it covers the hands. Hmm, can't really see why this doesn't just slide. Swing the shoulders up so the arms are above the toy and tab them together to form the top deck of the car transporter. Fold the arms back and tab them into the sides of the leg. Pull the cab forwards. Attach the missile launchers to the peg holes at the front of the transporter and

While not a complex transformation it's annoying as there's lots of issues with clearance that make certain points, notably folding the chest panel into place on the car deck, rather difficult.

Magnus' vehicle mode is a reinvention of his classic car transporter design in broadly the same colours as the original toy. The trailer is hauled by a 6 wheeled white cab but unlike nearly every other Transformers Truck I can think of the cab is actually attached to the trailer at the hitch point. The cab pivots at the hitch just over 90 degrees to each side. It's a flat fronted cab - hurrah, I really don't like Prime and Magnus with long nosed cabs - but the top is more rounded than the traditional design. The front and lower deck sides of the trailer are red with a white platform in between. The top of the front and all of the rear is clue with the upper deck being made of the white plastic of the arms. The upper deck is tabbed in at the rear but you can tease the tabs out allowing the upper deck to be lowered halfway, at the elbows, or all the way, from what was the shoulder joints. The ramp at the rear of the trailer folds down, again it's tabbed in so will need teasing out, but the rear doesn't quite touch the floor due to moulded detail on the underside so you can't easily roll cars up it onto the trailer. In fact loading cars onto the trailer is where the trouble really sets in for this mode....

Ultra Magnus is a car transporter, so you expect him to be able to transport cars. In the years since the original Ultra Magnus was released Autobot cars have somewhat grown in size. Ultra Magnus hasn't, in fact his trailer is a little bit shorter than the original. As a consequence you can only fit one deluxe car on each deck. You can fit two Generations Legends onto the deck but they don't look wide enough. You feel the toy does need to be larger to accommodate thedeluxe cars.

To transform back to robot mode start by removing the missile pods and weapons. Pop the top deck out of the rear of the toy and fold forward. Fold the sides of the toy back, and pull the robot chest up from the back of the toy. Fold the sides of the back of the transporter forward and down to become the legs sides and tab into place. Fold the trailer doors up to form the front of the legs and tab into place. Fold the feet out from under the truck/back of the legs and pull forward. Fold the sides of the truck up to become the rear of the legs and tab into place. Swing the legs down under the waist. Separate the top deck in two down the middle to form the amrs and fold the shoulderss out to the sides. Push the cab back so all the flatbed is under the front of the trailer. Rotate the cab on it's axis so the wheels at the front point up away from the wheels on the back. Fold the cab down onto the front of the trailer and then fold the cab and front of the trailer so they sit on the robot's waist. Open the front halves of the cab and fold the head out. Seat Minimus Ambus in the cab, close the cab halves and fold up the robot chest. Push the arms up into the shoulders. Fold the forearm armour back exposing the hands. Peg the missile launchers into the shoulders and put the guns into his hands.

In robot mode Ultra Magnus looks pretty much as you'd expect: all the distinguishing features from the original are there. There are some noticeable differences though: the chest, while similar to the original, has his More Than Meets The Eye stylised design which seems to involve a face on the chest. A similar motif is present on several of the Autobot Pretenders, perhaps serving here as a hint that Magnus contained another robot inside. His missile launchers on his shoulders, which were previously functional firing a single missile, are now just for decoration with two missiles moulded in place. Finally the upper legs are whit where previously they were the red of the body. This has caused some comment by fans online as his More Than Meets The Eye appearances, on which this toy is based, generally colours them red while most fictional appearances have depicted them as white.

What this Ultra Magnus has really got going for it over the original is articulation. Like the original the arms rotate at the shoulders, have a bicep swivel and bend at the elbow. In addition the fingers open on the hands and the arms fold to the side at shoulders, which is facilitated by the shoulder side panels also being able to swing up. The head turns to the side, which was a real surprise to me given how the transformation works by having it attached to a strut thatcomes out the back of the head. There's no waist joint, which i would have liked, but from the waist downwards this new version really wins over the original: universal hip joints, thigh swivels, knees and bending ankles. He will take a kneeling pose just fine :-)

Apart from the waist the most obvious missing point of articulation is the wrist. The fingers are a major problem here: the guns/hands don't work well together. Hands of the articulated fingers variety never work well for me, I much prefer 5mm peg holes in fists. Unlike some other toys with articulated hands, Cybertron Optimus Prime or Generations Titan Metroplex for example, there's no way to steady the weapon by pegging it into the palm. Even worse the handle is a bad fit into the hand. It might sit better in the hand if the trigger was a little shorter. However there does appear to be a sweet spot where they sit in the hands just fine: the lip on the underside of the handle is just tucked under the fingers. The lower end of the rear of the handle is resting against the palm. The bottom of the trigger is resting on the index finger. The grip is secure enough that I can pick Magnus up, shake him from side to side and the guns stay in place.

However I *can* see why the hands have fingers and no wrist swivels and that all ties in with the weapons' alternate mode. The back of the larger gun is a 5mm peg which plugs into the barrel of the other gun. The missile launchers the peg into the sides of the other gun to form a hammer, similar to those seen on Magnus toys since the Animated Version. The hand then needs to open to hold the hammer's shaft. The hand itself can't grasp the shaft so the hammer is supported by a pair of rings fitting either side of a odd slot cut in the underside of Magnus' forearm armour. This reliance on the slot/rings for a support make it clear that the hammer wouldn't really work with a wrist swivel. Maybe a swivel bellow the elbow would have been useful?

Speaking of the forearm armour.... Why the silly joint in the transformation using a piece of plastic pivoted at both ends? Wrap the armour right the way round the arm and have it slide! The only reason I can see for doing it like it easy is to be different from the original.

So it would appear that the reason for the hands that can't hold the guns and the lack of wrist swivel is the hammer. Is it's existence a worth exchange for their loss? I'm not sure. Maybe the hammer could have been constructed differently with 5mm pegs going into holes on either side of the hand. But then the hammer wouldn't have existed as a separate entity without the hand....

A few miscellaneous weapons observations: If you don't want Magnus to hold his weapons then there's peg holes at the top and bottom of his lower leg to store them in. If you're still having problems with Magnus holding the gun then put the gun that forms the top of the hammer in his hand as you would in Hammer mode and peg the other gun into one of the holes meant for the missile launchers.And if you're missing the missile launchers in hammer mode then the 5mm sockets in his shoulders will also accommodate the launchers from the original Magnus launchers.

This toy has a lot of faults, most of them minor but they do stack up. Then there's a whole load of things about it which are very VERY annoying! The robot it fab ... but could have been better if it could hold it's weapons easier. The car transporter works by itself, but a car transporter is meant to work with other toys and this one doesn't really. The cab doesn't detach and form a robot.

But it is such a nice toy. It's fun to play with a transform.

I love it.

But it could be better....

Ultra Magnus was released May 2015 and was solid packed at 2 per case. At the time of writing he has not been seen on sale in the UK

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Transformers Legends Ultra Magnus with Alpha Trion

Photos that have surfaced of Transformers Legends Ultra Magnus show it differs from the western version in a number of ways:

* The Upper legs are red, not white, like the original toy.

* The guns are white, not black, like the original toy.

* the front of the flatbed is blue, not red.

* the hubcaps are painted silver.

* Minimus Ambus has been repainted purple to become cartoon character Alpha Trion.

This is one of those Japanese toys where it's not clear which version is better, it's just different!

LG14 Ultra Magnus is due for release in September 2015.

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Future Repaints

There are two obvious repaints for this toy. The first is as Diaclone Powered Convoy, Magnus' Diaclone Predecessor, whose colour scheme was reused as Movie Preview Ultra Magnus. The Diaclone toy has an additional accessory in the form of the Super Buggy which make an ideal red repaint for Minimus Ambus.

Interestingly while Superbuggy is red, and that's how people picture it, it wouldn't be red on a normal Transformers Ultra Magnus, it's be blue! On the Diaclone version it's the same colour as Magnus' forearms, shoulders, chest armour and head. when you look at the Diaclone toy it also becomes obvious that the Diaclone version has FOUR colours of plastic as opposed to Magnus' three! Two of them are the same on the Transformers version:

Parts	Diaclone	Transformers
Trailer Base/Robot Body	Silver	Red
Trailer Upper Deck & Doors, Robot Waist	Black	White
Trailer Supports/Robot Feet & Chest Plate	Dark Blue	Pale Blue
Forearms, Head & Shoulders	Red	Pale Blue

The other colour scheme which has been used on an Ultra Magnus repaint is Matrix Glow Ultra Magnus which would involve casting the toy in yellow.

For a substantial remoulding two other toys suggest themselves: The first is Power Master Optimus Prime who has never had a proper update. Generations Magnus' cab ends up in the right place but the whole trailer would need retooling. I'm not sure how this toy would go down wit a non transforming cab though. The other option is a perennial truck repaint request, 1992's Euro exclusive Thunderclash, which has recently appeared in More Than Meets The Eye and received a homage in Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising.

[Toph]

Armada Rollout is also a prime potential retool option.
All he'd require really is a new head and minicon.
And we're approaching Armada's 15th.

[Philip Ayres]

Rollout?

tfwiki.net/wiki/Rollout_%28Armada%29

Oh, you mean Overload

www.tfu.info/2003/Autobot/Overload/overload.htm

[Toph]

Yeah. Though overload really is just a suit of armor for Rollout.

[Philip Ayres]

Titans Return Powermaster Optimus Prime

When I first reviewed Ultra Magnus I suggested the following retooling:

Power Master Optimus Prime who has never had a proper update. Generations Magnus' cab ends up in the right place but the whole trailer would need retooling. I'm not sure how this toy would go down wit a non transforming cab though.

I can't remember now if the rumours of a retool were doing the rounds then or they emerged shortly after. He was found in the Wal*Mart computer system in early October 2015 and hinted at at NYCC2015 shortly after before being leaked on Weibo and then officially revealed by Hasbro shortly after.

Powermaster Optimus Prime comes packaged in robot mode. "Powermaster" is something of a misnomer because he isn't a Powermaster! There's no removable engine here. Instead he's a Titanmaster, effectively a Headmaster. This is perhaps a bit confusing but most Transformer fans would associate the "cab merges with trailer to form a super robot with twin guns on each shoulder" with the word Powermaster. Some people have said "why make him a Headmaster?" Well the original Powermaster Optimus Prime was intended to be a Headmaster too and that feature is reflected in the final toy with the giant removable head, so the Titanmaster feature doesn't particularly bother me.

Like Blaster Optimus features a helmet that folds over the Titanmaster head to boost it's size. Optimus' helmet is almost all enclosing with only the eyes from the Titanmaster visible through a slot between visor and crest. Apart from the eyes being set slightly too far back it makes a good Optimus head. Folding the helmet back, it's hinged at the top of the rear, reveals a very different face on the Titanmaster. The central crest and antennae ears are still there but the face plate is gone revealing a nose and mouth. The face is cast in blue plastic with the central section painted silver. I think this is meant to represent the cartoon pre-Prime form of Optimus, Orion Pax, but I know some think it resembles Kup! The Titanmaster is still secure with the helmet raised as the strut down the back of the head tabs into holes on the rear of the leg. Fold this back at the hinge to release the Titanmaster and unfold it.

The head and chest detailing on the Titanmaster figure are clearly meant to mimic Hi-Q, Optimus' Powermaster, but the colours are wrong: instead of white chest & head, red arms and upper legs and black lower legs we get grey legs & head and a red chest & arms. The name they've chosen, Apex, has different Optimus connections: it was used on the figure that combined with reissue Powermaster Optimus Prime, previously known as Godbomber in Japan.

Elements of the transformation to vehicle mode will be familiar. Start by removing the Titanmaster, as above, both guns and both shoulder cannons. Fold the arms down to the sides. Fold the chest plate forward revealing the cab hidden underneath. Fold the cab back and then rotate 180° so the grill faces up and the head is towards you. Lay the toy down on it's back. Pull the cab forward: the first time I did this I had a friend with me and it took us AGES to shift the cab despite us both knowing it from Ultra Magnus. EXCESSIVE force was eventually required. Open the front of the cab, folding the halves out to the side. Fold the head down into it, forming a seat for Apex to sit in. Fold up the panel inside one cab half and close the cab halves forming the finished closed cab.

A small pause here: although Apex will sit in the seat very securely, aided by a slot for the tab on the back of his legs to fit in, getting him in is a pain in the backside due to the cab halves only folding out 90° to the sides and restricting access. A full 180° spread would have helped!

The cab itself is something of a surprise. Even though the windows were a little small and the front grill a little big it was a reasonable assumption that the Combiner Wars Magnus cab would be reused here but it isn't! Instead we get a new cab front with an even bigger and tinsy tiny small windows! If a retool was necessary for the changed mechanics of the Titanmaster head why not go for a more Prime like chest rather than a less Prime like one?

Back to the transformation: we've got the cab done, it's time for the rear of the trailer. Fold the waist down 90°. Making sure each arm is straight along the sides of the body fold each up & away from the body at the shoulder swinging them in to fill the gap, and massaging the tabs together. Fold each leg out to the sides so that you can unfold the inner & rear surfaces of the leg out. Fold the front of the legs forward. Bring the legs back towards each other and tab together. Pull the sides of the leg away slightly, releasing the tab just bellow the knee that holds them in place then swing the sides forward 90° so the tab locks into a new slot behind the wheels. Fold the legs forward 90° so that the chest plate locks into the rear legs and rests against the sides. Fold the top of the panels on the back of the arms back 90°. Lock the front on the legs panels into the robot's arm pits and tab the forward roof panels, on the back of the arms, into the sides. Fold the upright arm panels back a further 90° to become the rear roof panels and tab into place in the sides. Tab the legs fronts together and fold forward to become the trailer rear door: the rear of the trailer will part slightly to allow these through and securely tab into place. Fold the feet back under the rear of the trailer. Peg the dual cannons into the sides of the front of the trailer. Peg holes on the sides of the rear or on the roof can take the two black handguns.

The first time I transformed the trailer it was a floppy mess. I had done it wrong, probably involving not properly securing the chest plate which seems to be a crucial piece. For something that's a panel formed tabbing nightmare, it is a surprisingly stable structure when done right!

Prime's Trailer mode looks pretty good. The major distinguishing feature between the original 1984 & first Powermaster trailers is the dual cannons on the side and they're present here. The amount of red at the front of the trailer has been reduced a lot with just some round the shoulders being seen. The inner shoulder joints, expose here, could easily have been grey too to match in. Curiously they look like a reused part from Magnus but they're they only bits in that colour to be reused! Unfortunately immediately behind them is a 1.5cm x 1.5 cm gap at the top of the sides which looks a little sloppy. There's a larger gap too at the front of the trailer, but that's mainly obscured by the cab. Like Magnus the cab is non removable, and that has implications down the line, but can still pivot from side to sides. The rear doors fold down to become a loading ramp leading to space inside which is ample room for a couple of Generations Legends but, like Magnus, slightly too narrow for a deluxe. There's a number of accessible, and upright, Titanmaster pegs: one each side of the rear, three down the spine of the trailer roof, two on the front of the trailer roof and two on the cab roof plus another five sticking out each side of the toy which are less useful here. The cannons pivot up and down, via a peg in it's base, but it's possible to mount them the other way up or even sticking out to the sides, which lets a Titanmaster sit in them. More on that in the base mode.

Many Prime trailers are filled up with gimmicks and super mode parts with no room for storage: this isn't so it's hitting a positive note for me mimicking the original 1984 Prime and indeed beating the 1988 Powermaster. The Titanmaster pegs are pushing an "Actionmasters riding Actionmaster Prime's trailer into battle" button here and that's also a good vibe.

Possibly the best Prime trailer in truck mode since the original.

Like the original Powermaster Prime this toy has a base mode. Unfortunately, since the cab can't be removed, he doesn't have a smaller robot Optimus to go with it. Start by pushing the cab back further under the trailer. Remove all weapons. Fold the rear trailer roof sections back over the front, split the front of the trailer roof, fold out to the sides and raise the arms to form towers. Pull the trailer side panels away from the front of the vehicle. Raise the chest piece. Untab the rear side panels of the trailer front the robot legs, swing down and retab. Swing each leg out to the sides 90° at the thigh. Bend each knee about 45° and then swing each hip out to the side by about the same amount. Swing the robot foot out to form the side of the base. Fold down the stand under the cab to raise the front of the vehicle. Fold down the front third of the side to form a ramp under the arms. Peg the cannons onto the holes above the wheels and the guns into the side of the towers.

Um........ When I first saw pictures of Prime's base mode I was convinced it was mistransformed and that the ramps, which end in useful base mode connectors, should be pointing out to the sides. They're not, this is it, and it looks terrible. The ramps are restricted by the arms so you can't roll a car down it or usefully attach them to Blaster to allow transfer between the bases. The middle section of the base just feels like an empty hole surrounded by the chest armour, sides of the chest and rear of the cab. A big big mess so much so that fan made Ultra Magnus base mode looks far far better!

There's plenty of pegs to stand Titansmasters on, one on each wheel arch, two on each front base side panel, one on each middle side panel and one on the rear, which has become the ramp. These were the side facing ones on the truck. Additionally there' two more on the cab roof. Nice bit of detailing on the towers: moulded into them are Armada Optimus Prime's Smokestacks.

The best thing about this mode are the dual cannons. Now I like the ones one Powermaster Optimus Prime, and like the silver versions on Japanese Ginrai/the Powermaster reissue even more. But they've always been slightly too bulky, especially compared to those seen on the superb 1988 box back picture. Then the Powermaster had to straddle them to sit down looking very very awkward. The new cannons are a much slimmer version while maintaining the same general shape. Pegs on the top, bottom and both sides allow them to be mounted any way round, though I wouldn't have objected to an extra peg on the back of the weapon and neither would Combiner Wars Rook! Each gun has a seat in it to allow apex or another Titanmaster to sit in it.

Back to the combined robot now: remove all the weapons and any Titanmasters. Straighten the legs at the knees and wrap the trailer side panels round them, tabbing in place. Fold the feet forward and twist each leg out 90° at the thigh. Push the legs in towards each other. Fold the stand into the cab. Open the front of the cab, fold the roof panel in, fold the helmet out and close the cab. Rotate the cab 180° around it's axis so the wheels point up and the windows down. Fold the cab back into the front of the trailer, then fold that back so the cab rests on the waist and fold chest piece into place. Straighten the legs and stand. Peg the dual cannons into the shoulders. Place the Titanmaster into it's socket with the tab on the back of the legs fitting the slot at the base of the hinge. Fold the back of the helmet up so the tabs on the rear fit into the slots on the Titanmaster. Fold the head down into place.

The guns are probably a peculiar place to start but there again the guns are a bit peculiar. They're the same ones that were sold with Ultra Magnus. Now to me, the Powermaster Prime guns are a bit distinctive anyway so they're onto a looser here. Then recall the difficulties Magnus had holding his? Well the gun handles means Prime needs similar opening hands which in turn means he, like Magnus, can't hold 5mm peg weapons, a big minus point for me. Hasbro are obviously aware of the problems with the Magnus hands so they've decided to give Prime some help holding them by tooling a shallow slot in the structure under the hand for the base of the gun handle to fit in and yes this does help. A little bit. The grip isn't as secure as it would be with a 5mm peg handle but there's also a minus point: Prime can't hold the weapons if you combine them into hammer mode. And separately, held as guns, they are two different weapons whereas Powermaster Optimus always had two identical guns! The solution to this is of course to steal one, preferably the longer one, from Combiner Wars Magnus!

Onto the robot itself. It's ticking most of the major Powermaster Prime boxes straight out the box. Prime head, red chest and arms, blue legs fronts and dual cannons on each shoulder. Since the only thing original Powermaster Prime could do was turn hi arms at the shoulders you know this one is going to win any articulation battle and so it proves. Head turns a full 360° degrees. Shoulders turn as before and raise to the sides. There's a bicep swivel and bending elbow on each arm: elbows in particular always bothered me on Powermaster Optimus as it looks like he should have them especially on the Ginrai version of the mould. We already mentioned the hinged hands when we talked about the guns, and it looks like the fingers are another reused part. But the hinged fingers do allow Optimus to grasp a Titanmaster in his fist which is quite nice. No waist this time, unlike Magnus, but his hip, thigh, knee & ankle articulation is the same due to the same pieces being used. There's four upright Titanmaster pegs in this mode: one each side of the head for Titanmasters to confer with their commander and one on top of the wheel arch at the base of each foot.

Some of the detailing needs commenting on: The lower arms are moulded in grey plastic and are part of the same piece as the forward roof sections. The inner side of the arm is open allowing you to see the grey inside the arm and that really spoils things. If the arm has been red, with the grey ramp attached to the bottom, that would have worked better..... but if the arm & panel were separate I'd want the hole at the bottom covered by the panel! I'm not 100% sure about having the panels hang off the back of the arms anyway! The red inner shoulder panels are set into grey plastic here and stand out: I wouldn't have bothered and made them grey as well to blend in better in bother modes. The tops of the shoulders are also grey, which helps conceal them in vehicle mode but doesn't makes them a bit obvious here. There's truncated hollow cones atop each of them, mimicking the tops of the original Powermaster Optimus shoulders. Again grey, so they stand out. Unfortunately the diameter of the hole in top is greater that a 5mm peg so they can't serve a useful purpose. I think I'd have got rid of them and replaced them each with a Titanmaster foot peg.

Unfortunately the chest armour looks like a sprawling grey and silver mess that's splattered all over the front of the radiator grill. I get it's trying to mimic the Powermaster but it doesn't quite work. You can remove it, to change the look of the front of the body to just the chest cab, but that affects the stability of the toy which is no longer held together at the front. Magnus's chest front is considerably less keen to come off so no chance of swapping them on mine at least.

So robot mode: Good, definitely Prime, could have been better.

This is an odd, odd toy to play with. It feels fun in two modes. The truck mode, which I hated the first time I touched it, has since been proved to be very good, but even then the cab just looks odd. The robot mode is a good super robot, but aesthetically doesn't quite feel Powermaster Prime enough. The base mode IS a complete disaster, nothing can save that.

The reused Magnus guns hurt the toy but they're the only bits that do. For the record, here's the complete parts reuse I've spotted:

Part	Ultra Magnus	Optimus Prime
Inner Shoulder	Blue	Red
Guns & Wheels	Black	Black
Feet & Inner Lower Legs	Blue	Dark Blue
Ankle Hinges, Thighs & Hips	White	Grey
Fingers	White	Red

Takara however appear to be taking a a slightly different approach.....

[The Doctor]

I like how Powermaster Prime does not need the millimetres! He ignores them! As I do!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

F***ing lack of f***ing peg holes in the f***ing hands.

Thank the lord for Legends Ginrai

But thank you for pointing out I'd missed talking about the shoulder & base mode holes.

[Philip Ayres]

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Legends LG-35 Super Ginrai

The original Powermaster Optimus Prime and it's Takara counterpart Masterforce Super Ginrai are the same basic toy with different design choices made at crucial points so it's somehow right that Titans Return Powermaster Optimus Prime and Legends Super Ginrai should take the same approach. A modified toy was first hinted at in a silhouette image that I suspect the retailer in question wasn't meant to release and then revealed in prototype form in a Japanese toy show presentation where photography was forbidden. The prototype was revealed to the world in a video recorded at Wonder Fest 2016 released on July 24th 2016 with official coloured images released the same day and scheduled for a Christmas 2016 release.

Straight out the box certain changes are obvious to the vehicle mode. The cab has a new front with larger windows and a smaller grill, more closely mimicking the original Optimus Prime. The red plastic used is redder than on the western version and there's more of it on the front of the trailer, making it look more like the arms at the front of the Powermaster Prime/Ginrai trailer even though they're still safely tucked inside the trailer. Other than that the trailer is very similar until you get to the rear when you notice that the back of the trailer is flatter and no longer has the Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus feet sticking out the back. Gone too are Ultra Magnus' weapons, replace by a pair of very nearly mirror image guns which are pegged into the roof. Like many Titans Returns weapons they peg together to form a seat for the Titanmaster to sit in but, like many of the early combining weapons, the gun handles stick out to the sides to do this so the combined weapon can't be held with the Titanmaster sitting in it. The handles on the guns are different too and are now traditional 5mm pegs which is a bit of a relief for those of us who hated the Ultra Magnus style hands that Prime inherited with the guns.

The Titanmaster has in turn been extensively redecoed in robot mode to closely resemble Hi-Q or more accurately his Japanese counterpart Godmaster Ginrai. They've done a superb job too, with a white head, chest & legs. The majority of the legs are painted, the lower legs black and the upper legs red with just the knees left bear to simulate the screws on the original. There's even a round detail on the knee which was seemingly absent on Apex but was actually there on the back of Apex's legs thanks to an assembly error! The arms are the same red plastic as the cab with the image complete with some paint on the Titanmaster's face. Superb job. Transforming the Titanmaster to head mode reveals a new face. Gone is the Orion Pax style open face. I got what they were trying to do on the Titans Return toy, with the helmet covering the Orion Pax head turning the toy into Optimus Prime but never felt it really worked there with the peaked cap and crest in those colours reminding me of Postman Pat! Instead we get a traditional Optimus Prime head here complete with faceplate and I'm not complaining!

Transformation of truck to robot mode is broadly similar with two major differences. When you get as far as folding up the the truck's roof you'll discover that the lower arms have been extended along the underside of the roof and need to be retracted with the roof panels folding up on the underside. The smaller panel folds up first with the larger panel folding back on top of it, though sadly not quite flat. Then there's the feet, which are brand new and seem VERY complicated even though they're not. Start by getting the rear of the truck into leg mode then turning the toy over so you can see the underside of the feet. Fold/slide the whole foot down out the bottom of the leg: it's on a double jointed hinge so will move with some wiggling. Some more wiggling will move it 1cm towards the front of the leg. Fold the big blue panel down at the rear of the foot. Swing it out 180° so it points out the front of the foot then fold it up 90°. Fold the red heel spur down at the back. My toy sat on the shelf for a month or two in robot mode till a friend worked out how to transform them back! So this time I wrote the instructions as I transformed the toy, backtracking every step to make sure I got it right!

Other smaller points to note from the transformation: I had real trouble extending the cab when returning the robot to truck mode, far more than I'd had with previous versions of Prime/Magnus. I'm on my fourth version now, Generations and Legends versions of both, and hadn't noticed that the cab needs pulling down slightly first before being pulled forward. Also the sides of the super robot chest piece now rotate forward and back: when returning to truck mode the idea seems to be that they're rotated back 90° so the windows look out the rear of the vehicle further obstructing the internal space.

The super robot mode has three major areas of change: the chest, the arms and the feet.

The main purpose of the chest changes are to make the front of the super robot look much more like the original Super Ginrai but I suspect there's an element of functional necessity in there too to accommodate the retooled cab. I haven't yet tried a parts swap to check for comparability. The only real problem with this piece is the cab windows look recessed too far compared to the small side windows on the chest piece, but the Titans return version had that problem too.

The lower arms look much more streamlined than before. Gone are the Magnus style opening hands replaced by a closed fist with a 5mm peg hole in the middle of it and a rotating wrist. For my money the Magnus hands were a mistake on the original: Prime could only use the weapons he or Magnus came with and he frequently dropped those, though was better than Magnus. He also couldn't hold the Titanmaster size class weapons which is a major flaw given these weapons exist in this line: a similar fault afflicts many Armada toys. There's an additional 5mm peg hole on the front of the arm. That, and the extending arm used in the transformation, are believed to form part of the toy's ability to merge with Legends LG-42 Godbomber to form Legends God Ginrai with the arm armour pegging into the hole and the extending arm allowing Ginrai's fists to serve as GodGinrai's. The panels on the back of the lower arms are a bit unsightly with the larger panel sticking out at a slight angle. That's been inherited from the Titans Return version, the other two are new. I can't help thinking that a new piece with a double joint so it folded flat over the smaller ramp would look better.

Then there's the feet..... The feet inherited from Ultra Magnus were large and provided a certain amount of stability. There wasn't an obvious reason to change them but change them they did into something that's a lot more complicated. They're trying to look like the feet on the old Powermaster Prime/Super Ginrai toy but really needed to be a lot bigger in height and projection forward to do that which is impossible given the space they unfolded from. The 1988 toy's feet were also up against a substantial background of lower leg. These new ones have nothing behind them for the most part make them look very odd. There's some added articulation there: they bend to the sides for wider, legs open, stances and the foot bends to the side but unfortunately the red heel spur folds in far too easily. It's necessary to support the toy's weight and accidentally folding it in slightly seriously affects the toy's balance. I'm not keen on the new feet but I can see why they have been changed as it looks like the modifications once again make it possible for him to combine with Godbomber.

The base mode is broadly similar to how it was before. The ability to fold back the side windows on the chest plate give more vertical structure to that part of the base. Unfortunately the large rear panels from the top of the truck can no longer be folded flat against the tower arms so they either have to be folded at an angle or project, facing the wrong way, out the top which is a shame. The hands turning sideways to provide a side mounting point for the weapon is scant compensation. But, let's face it, the base mode wasn't much cop anyway and your toy will be spending very little time in it.

By itself Ginrai is a qualified success. I like the upper body changes to the robot, I don't like the feet and if I was keeping it by itself I'd look into swapping the feet, or even the entire legs, with the Titans Return version. But The whole story of this toy can't be told on it's own so to fairly assess the changes we'll need to wait for Godbomber.

[Philip Ayres]

Legends LG-42 Godbomber

Even after all these years there's something about he original Godbomber that is special. He was one of the first Japanese exclusive Transformers, he's the the first Transformer to act as a "Power Up" for another and he's he first one for AGES to have a missile launcher. He might be the first toy designed for the Transformers range to come with a missile launcher, beating the Turbomasters and Predators in Europe by 4 years and G2 Megatron by 5 years. I can remember seeing him in friend's Japanese toy catalogue and marvelling at how he powered up Powermaster Optimus Prime to become God Ginrai. Not long afterwards I got the opportunity to own one and though I parted company with it no long afterwards I have owned one for the last fifteen years as part of the God Ginrai reissue. Against that, although he does the job powering up Optimus/Ginrai, Godbomber commits the ultimate sin by having to be dismantled to transform him and isn't 100% secure in robot mode with both legs and arms held on by just one 5mm peg each. He's not that well articulated either by today's standards but it's not that out of line with other toys of the time.

As soon as Legends LG-39 Super Ginrai was revealed in July 2016 people started speculating on the existence of a new version of Godbomber anfd that toy was revealed in early December 2016 ad released in May 2017.

Godbomber's vehicle/trailer mode is broadly similar to the original, with some tweaked proportions on certain elemments: the GodGinrai arms feel bigger and the prime trailer like sections feel smaller. Dye to the nature of the toy's construction it feels a little bit unstable and I'm almost convinced I've done something wrong transforming it back to this mode! Under it's front bumper is a fold out clip which allows it to attach to the back of Legends Ginrai's trailer, just as the original toys could join together in vehicle mode.

I'm not keen on how the cannon is mounted here, it's sort of sitting there between the arms with slots on it's pivot mounted on very small tabs on the inside of the arms sections. With the right adaptor, and our old friend the Zoids Blox strikes me as being useful here, the cannon could be mounted on one of the minicon pegs to the rear of each side. In addition to those two pegs there's a 5mm on the side of each arm section, another on each side of the striped Prime trailer section, one on each wing, one on each arm fin, two on top ofthe cannon and another two on the cab. Plenty of room for expansion here. The cannon also has a pair of Titanmaster pegs, spaced to fit feet peg holes, and there's a further peg on the front of the arm section. Godbomber has an unnmaed Titanmaster who is almost all blue in robot mode bar his grey head, with a red visor who can use those pegs buthis more natural home is in the cab. The original Godbomber cab was just a shell over the front of the vehicle, but the new one has had a significant upgrade based on the Masterforce cartoon. The front of cab folds forwards, it's rather stiff so you may need to put something into the 5mm peg holes on the cab tops to level it forward. Inside is a 3 Titanmaster driver compartment designed to accomodate Shuta, Cab & Minerva. To date only Shuta has been released as a Titanmaster, with LG-29 Legends Wheelie so you'll have to pick another spare Titanmaster to sit next to Shuta & Godbomber's. The Titanmasters are visible through the clear cab windows. Lovely touch suiting both the gimmick and the history of the character.

One of the major advantages this toy has over it's predecessor is the lack of taking apart in the transformation. There's little still, mainly involving the cannon, which is removed first, and the Titanmaster, which needs to come out the cab. Leave the cab open. Fold the front third of the silver panels with the blue stripes on them back 180°, then fold each arm section, with the red wings, 90° out to the side. Fold the rear of the cab compartment back 90° so the back of it becomes the top of the robot's body. Do not try to do this with the cab closed, close it after doing this step! Fold the cab back between the wings: there's holes in the body top that fit tabs projecting back and tabs on the side of the vehicle mesh with slots inside the shoulders. Unfold the legs under the robot, revealing the chest, and seperate them. Unfold the black feet. Fold the hands out of the arms and then fold the inner part of each lower arm down. Rotate the wings back behind the shoulders. Place the Titanmaster into it's socket on the top of the robot. Pull off the rear of the cannon which become a helmet which is place over the Titanmaster and peg the rest of the cannon into a socket on his shoulder.

So that's the transformation in theory. In pratice one or both lower arms will come off: a tab on the back of the lower elbow section fits a small slot on the rear of the arm and a peg on the inside of the front of the arm fits a hole on the other side of the lower elbow section. You'll get used to reattaching them rather quickly, I find the come off quite often, partly due to them clipping the body when moving the arms and partly due to the arm panel joints being relatively weaker than others. I'd move the arms by holdingnthe front& back of the lower arms between your fingers.

The articulation on the original Godbomber was limited to the arms turning at the shoulders care of a pair of 5mm pegs: Legends Godbomber considerably improves on that! On the arms alone the shoulders turn, which actually causes something of a problem because the wings, hinged to an independent panel between arm and body, tend to turn with them! The tabs jholding the shoulders onto the body also have a tendancy to pop off. Back to the arms: There's also a bicep swivel, bending elbows, rotating wrists, bending fingers and a ball jointed thumb. I'm not a fan of hands with no peg holes bu I can see why they wewnt this way here in order to store the hands flat in other mode. I suppose it helps thatthe original Godbomber isn't associated with weapons other than his shoulder cannon! He does have an extra weapon,. A sword that's really intended for his combined mode and is stored under & in the cannon. The hand does have a tab on it's palm to enable him hold the sword but the tab isn't fitting into the sword's handle on my toy. Worse I do seemed to have snapped off the very thin tip of my sword's handle, which recesses in the missile, removing the sword handle from the cannon just now! Back to the articulation: head turns as you'd expect a Titanmaster to, hips move out to the sides, with a corresponding sideways ankle tilt to compensate, as well as bend, there's a very low thigh swivel just above the knee and the knees bend. Physically it looks like the original Godbomber albeit with the wings the other way up! Like the vehicle mode he's covered in expansion ports: 5mm holes on each shoulder, one of which is taken by the cannon, one on the cannon itself, behind each wing, on each arm fin, on each forearm, on the side of each leg, one on the chest where original Godbomber would have mounted the cannon in vehicle mode and one on the front of each hip!

We need to look at the legs: it's inevitable the toy mus come apart to form the armour for his combination with Super Ginrai to form God Ginrai, and we've seen how the arms attached already when they came off, but they've done something very clever with the legs. The lower legs remove just above the knee joint by sliding them out to the side, with just above the knee being revealed as a Combiner Wars connector and the rest of the upper leg a Combiner Wars socket. This means any Combiner Wars deluxe can form a slightly larger leg for Godbomber, a fabulous way to increase his play value. His legs can also be used with CW Voyagers but since they're shorter than most CW legs they'll look a little stumpy forming part of a combiner.

The removable arms and legs also come in handy for creating a "super mode" Godbomber with the vehicle mode cab/combined mode chest facing forward and each limb reversed and swapped sides!

Like the other Titans Return leaders he has a base mode of sorts. Start from vehicle mode, it's easier, by folding the red wings down to the sides. Folder back the front portion of the Prime trailer panels and slide each half of of the truck base out to the side. Bend the bottom half of the upper leg back and position each half with the upper leg part to the rear to the rear and the panel from the side of the vehicle pointing out to each side. The red wings clip onto these lower legs towers.

Um...... From the front it conspicuous looks like it's the vehicle mode with the lower half gone! The rear is possibly a better way round to view the base mode, with some garage space visible underneath. The flaps folded out to the sides each end in a Titans Return base mode connector and an additional Titanmaster peg hole is found on each folded out wing.

They've tried, but given the limitations of what the rest of the toy has to do I can understand why the base mode hasn't quite worked.

So on Godbomber alone.... both robot and trailer look like the original, and massive points for making them transform without major disassembly. Both modes are slightly unstable with bits coming off the robot and moving when you don't want them to every time you touch the arms.

But that isn't the whole story....

For a gallery of the toy's three individual modes see Alfes 2789

Legends God Ginrai

To form God Ginrai start by removing Super Ginrai's weapons then slide his fists forward, extending an extra section between fist & forearm, then folding down the ramps under the arms. Fold the heel spurs in.

Now to God Bomber: remove the legs, sliding them off to the sides, then the arms, head & cannon. Replace the Titanmaster's helmet into it's position on the rear of the cannon. So you've got two pairs of limbs, a body, a cannon and a Titanmaster.

God Ginrai's feet first, which is the easy bit: take the legs and fold the black feet down 90° under each leg. Put the front of the legs down flat on a surface, striped Prime trailer side facing out, and fold the blue feet down 90°. On the underside of Ginrai's feet is a grey rectangular hole that fits the red block projecting up from the God Bomber leg parts. Clips on each side of the block lock into the sides of Ginrai's feet. Raise the Combiner Wars connector legs parts behind Ginrai's feet.

Next, for the quite easy bit, take the Godbomber arm pieces and look at how they're built. Fold up the flap on the inside of the arm. Fold the top of the arm up at the top joint between it and the side. Fold the bottom of the arm down, turning the entire arm piece into a flat panel. Fold the hand back under the panel. On the underside of the top panel is a peg, which fits the peg hole on Ginrai's forearm, and a tab, which fits the slot on the arm extension Fold the side of the arm back 90° using the lower of the two joints connecting it to the top. Fold the underside of the arm piece under Super Ginrai's arm, tabbing into place round the top. Fold the grey arm panel back. Fold the inner arm panel between arm and body.

Finally Godbomber's body, and this bit isn't easy: Alfes Blog 2794 has some pictures of what you're mean to end up with. Bend each elbow 90°. Turn each arm back the bicep 180°. Raise the arm at the shoulder 180°. Separate the chest. Fold the leg up behind the chest at the sideways hip joint. Straighten the wing and swing out to the sides. Swing the arm in behind the chest. Tab the lower arm stubs together and secure by placing the helmet over slots on the bottom of the arm stubs. The red panels that were within God bombers body slot onto tabs on the cab's flatbed on Ginrai's back with hooks going into the wheel arch and the cab folds forward over the body. The cannon pegs into a whole on the blue strut over his right shoulder. The weapon configuration on the instructions is guns mounted behind the head and dual cannons on the side of the feet but I always wanted the dual cannons on God Ginrai's shoulders and this toy gives me the opportunity to do that so they go there and the guns go in his hands.

The perennial problem with modern "power up" combiners is a weakness in the legs. The original Super Ginrai, and his successor Star Sabre, had no leg articulation so their powered up forms were solid. Robots in Disguise Omega Prime suffers so much in his hips & knees that leg articulation is all but eliminated in his Armada successors Optimus Prime and Megatron. With Legends Super Ginrai the hips & knees are find, the problem is the ankles which have proved notoriously wobbly. Mine have been better than most people's in robot mode and he'll stand in a neutral position quite easily. However when loaded with the chest & back armour the single ankle joint struggles to take the extra weight causing it to frequently topple backwards. There is a sweet spot for standing it but it makes me scared to adjust the pose of the arms just in case I knock it over. You really feel some way of securing the ankles should have been provided. You can bodge something with Super Ginrai's heel spurs and God Bomber's knees but it is just that, a bodge.

And that's a shame because they've done a bang up job of updating the toy: see Alfes Blog 2792 for pictures. As per God Bomber's cab, the chest now opens to seat Titanmasters inside it, which is a great little touch. It's not the only place you can store Titanmasters either: each foot is a seat for a Titanmaster, reminding me of some of the old giant Diaclone robots which didn't become Transformers, with a peg hole in front from weapons for them to use. In fact the toy is covered in peg holes: each foot, two on he side of each leg, one through each hand, one on each forearm, one through each arm fin, one on the side of each shoulder, two on the top front of the cab chest one on the top of each shoulder strap - there's another, inaccessible, on each side - one on each side of the back pack plus a bonus one on one side, one on each wing and one on each cannon. Raid you Titanmaster accessory and 5mm weapons boxes to really tool this toy up: see Alfes Blog 2801.

As we said with Godbomber he comes with a sword, formed from two parts hidden in the cannon, to use with this mode to use to fight Deathsaurus as he did in the Victory cartoon episode where he was slain. The cannon it's housed in is a bit of a problem in this mode: with no obvious spot to lean the barrel on it droops somewhat. The backpack isn't perfect either, it looks a bit of a mess from behind. It's hard to tab together and relies on Godbomber's helmet to properly secure it, which can drop off of it's own accord or when the toy falls over.

Not perfect. This is one of the combined robots which will be better stood on a shelf looking nice rather than to be played with because it will fall over unless balanced properly which is a major minus point. But it looks superb and is a great update to the original toy.

Siege on Cybertron Magnus Prime

The first hint of this toy came via the Transmissions Podcast who in Episode 157 on March 3rd, 2016 said

Leader "Powermaster Prime" has a blue repaint. Called Magnus Prime/Super Ginrai.

Now when I heard this my immediate thought was that somehow the telling had go a little garbled here and we'd get a Diaclone Powered Convoy repaint of Combiner Wars leader Ultra Magnus: These colours had been reused in Transformers as Movie Preview Ultra Magnus and more recently as Masterpiece Delta Magnus. But I could live with owning a blue Powermaster Optimus Prime, it would hit the idea of the Blue Cab Prime being Delta Magnus. Then in the meantime E-Hobby announced plans for their Classics Voyager Delta Magnus. Had the two toys been mixed up in what Transmissions were told? Or did the E-Hobby toy force Hasbro to change their plans? We shall never know, but if you're reading Hasbro there's still room for a Delta Magnus repaint of CW Ultra Magnus in my collection.

So when Delta Magnus was revealed at Toyfair 2017 as a slightly modified deco of Takara's Legends Super LG-35 Super Ginrai, there was a mixed reaction. The Magnus name was a problem for many people as they didn't feel it matched the toy at all. Those who already had it wanted either Delta Magnus or the rumoured blue Powermaster Prime. But those who hadn't bought Super Ginrai were pleased because it gave them an opportunity to get a Powermaster Prime that looked more like Powermaster Prime than the Titans Return version did. The inclusion of the Japanese version also made people wonder if Godbomber was coming to the west, possibly in the Firepower boxset which would seem an appropriate home for him.

The version shown at Toyfair had a metallic painted trailer but his Official Images show something more grey. In the end the release of the toy ended up looking a lot like super Ginrai than many people expected, as you can see in This Comparison Gallery.

The waist, was white now is blue. The Autobot symbols on the truck mode are larger. The shades of red and blue are slightly different. The guns are now black. None of these I particularly have a problem with, in fact, if pushed, I think I even prefer the Delta Magnus colours. The problem is the Titanmaster. Super Ginrai's Titanmaster is a dead ringer for Powermaster Optimus Prime's Powermaster Hi-Q. This isn't. Along with the super robot's waist, the Powermaster's lower & upper legs and face are now blue. Since these parts, and the waist, were grey on Titans Return Powermaster Optimus Prime I think we can conclude that they're moulded on the same sprue. It's a shame, it was so good on the Japanese version.

Many people have complained of problems with Super Ginrai's ankles not holding the toy up. I didn't have that issue till I put Godbomber on him. However my Delta Magnus falls over backwards if I look at him funny or knock what he's standing on. I can't see I'm doing anything different, he just doesn't stand as well!

It looks a more than adequate substitute for Super Ginrai in every department bar the Titanmaster but the ankles scare me, especially if I was intending to put Godbomber on him.