Ultra
Magnus (FoC)
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Generations FoC Optimus Prime. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Generations FoC Optimus Prime here.)
Ultra Magnus has often
been a repaint of an Optimus Prime mold, but usually when that's been the
case he's been mostly white to emulate the cab figure inside the G1
Magnus armor. Not this time, though; this time, Ultra Magnus gets a
color scheme more suiting his outer G1 Magnus armor-- i.e., with considerably
more blue and red on it. The shade of blue on this version of Magnus is
very dark, but quite eye-catching, particularly against the white, which
pops spectacularly against it. Light red and silver form Magnus' accent
colors, and although the silver does a decent enough job, the light red
contrasts excellently against both the dark blue AND the white. The windows
in particular look nice in this shade, and there's plenty of paint apps
on Ultra Magnus to go around-- no overly large pieces of unpainted plastic,
here. There's also a fair amount of charcoal black on the figure-- used
for accessories and his wheels, mostly-- that looks okay as a neutral color,
but doesn't contribute anything to the color scheme overall (and a more
"pure" regular black would've looked better, methinks). Overall, the scheme
looks incredibly dynamic and is one of the most eye-catching from the "Fall
of Cybertron" subline of Generations.
Ultra Magnus has a new
headsculpt to properly emulate his traditional "armored up" head. The sculpting
is done quite well, as is the white paint on the face and antennae. That
said, the red eyes look a bit "off"-- they make him look a bit too evil.
Ultra Magnus also has a new, fairly large, weapon in addition to FoC Prime's
blaster-- it's a sword that's a near-replica of the one Optimus uses towards
the end of the FoC video game, and looks darned cool while also going a
long way towards making up for this mold being a bit smaller/lighter overall
than many other deluxes up until recently. It also has a peg on the side
to store it on the side of Magnus' vehicle mode. However, what's even cooler
about this blade is that it can break into three bits and combine with
the blaster to form an even BIGGER sword! Magnus is primed for combat,
that's for sure!
FoC Ultra Magnus takes
the Prime mold from the subline and decks it out in Magnus-esque colors,
but variations of those colors that pop EXTREMELY well and contrast excellently
against each other while also giving him an awesome new weapon, more paint
apps, and a new headsculpt. That said, as cool as this new paint job looks,
I do have to throw up a bit of a question mark as to why Hasbro decided
to retool this mold as Magnus and not some other truck character-- Ultra
Magnus already has a design in the FoC video game, and it's very clearly
its own design, not a "remold". That's a bit of an obvious disconnect,
here, for a toy that's supposed to tie into a video game. Still, my favorite
release of this mold, taken by itself.
Review by Beastbot