Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Commander Class 2023

#86-21 Ultra Magnus (Car-carrier Truck)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/UltraMagnus

2023 saw Studio Series expand upwards into the Commander Class with
Ultra Magnus. It also saw some confusion over what the MSRP of Commander
Class should be, with some being $80 and some $90. This was $90.

CAPSULE

$90 Price Point.

#86-21 Ultra Magnus: A decent launch of the new-to-Studio-Series size
class. A few stability issues here and there, and some places where things
are TOO solidly connected, but pretty good in both modes. Recommended.

RANT

Packaging: As with all larger classes, this is a windowless box. It
follows the basic Studio Series trade dress, but doesn't have the cut-out
faction symbol side, instead both sides are solid with the robot mode art
(mostly full body on the right side, closeup on the left). The front has the
robot in animated-plus-shading style art in a battle scene using the same
background as the backdrop included in the box. The back has renders of both
modes, plus insets showing the Matrix socket, the ability for the trailer to
swing down ramps to pick up Deluxe-sized cars, and the backdrop.
The box itself is 13" (33cm) wide, 11" (28cm) tall, and 4" (10cm) deep.
Inside the robot is strapped to a brown corrugated cardboard try that itself
is nested inside the backdrop piece, with the instructions behind the
backdrop. All the accessories are bundled together in tissue and taped into
a corner loop. Amusingly, the accessories bundle includes Magnus's helmet
antennae.
The backdrop is part of Autobot City near the loading area for the ship
in which Magnus and the others escape. In the sky in the upper left, the
other ship with Hot Rod, Kup, and the Dinobots is already fleeing. So, while
labeled as "Battle of Autobot City," it's really the aftermath when Galvatron
et al show up just as the Autobots were getting ready to leave anyway.
The instructions are fairly complete in terms of showing the features,
including the "got blown apart on Junkion" feature that I managed to figure
out before checking the instructions.

AUTOBOT: ULTRA MAGNUS
Assortment: #86-21
Altmode: Car-Carrier Truck
Transformation Difficulty: 43 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: None
Movie: TFtM
Scene: Battle of Autobot City

ULTRA MAGNUS leads defensive measures against the DECEPTICONS invading
AUTOBOT CITY.

Packaging: No rattan strings, instead twelve plastic ties (all of which
are doubled up) hold the robot to the tray. A rubber band holds a folded
cardboard block behind the head. The Matrix is in his chest, while the
mummified-in-tape bundle has the shoulder launchers, their missiles, two
rifles (one is based on the one the G1 toys had and which he holds on the
box, the other a smaller blaster he uses on Junkion), his antennae, and
another reuse of the Omega Supreme Fire Blasts (these in amber plastic with
some gray paint instead of black). Oh, and his antennae. Those are easy to
miss in all the tissue paper. Oh, he added after chasing pieces around on
the floor, the antennae are made of two pieces not glued together, which may
have come loose in the package.

A general color note before I get into the details. They went with the
movie colors (and mold details where relevant), not the G1 toy. This is
mostly apparent in the blue, which is more of a deep "true" blue, as opposed
to the brighter blue found on the original toy (a trailer from which serves
as the frame of my desk tidy).

Robot Mode: Aside from the unavoidable toyetic bits like hinges and some
of the folded up panels, this is a very good emulation of the animation
model. The only real departures are the usual increase in detail (cel
animated models were kept deliberately simplified), and the chest windows
being clear red rather than opaque red. In fact, in the animation model,
it's not even obvious that they were supposed to be windows, but I guess they
wanted you to be able to see the Matrix through the chest panels, plus it's a
nod to the toy. The proportions are a little tweaked, but it's not like the
animation was incredibly consistent with those (the shoulder pylons on the
toy rise higher than the helmet antennae, but most animation pictures I could
find are the other way around). This too seems to be based on the original
toy. Another place where they split the difference between animation and toy
is that the vents on the sides of the boots are molded into the blue plastic
and unpainted, rather than being separate pieces of white plastic.
8.75" (22cm) tall at the head, 9.5" (24cm) tall at the shoulder pylon
tops. The colors are almost entirely red, white, and medium blue. The chest
windows are clear red (as are the entire inner chest pieces that include the
windows). The head lightpiping and most of each rifle are clear colorless
plastic. The Matrix is probably clear blue plastic rather than painted clear
colorless. Opaque red plastic is used for the panels on top of the torso,
most of the backpack, the cores of the boots, and the missiles. White
plastic is used for the antennae, the grips of the rifles, the rocket
launchers, the shoulder pylons and biceps, the forearm cores, the hands,
other bits of the torso core (the parts that become the cab in vehicle mode),
the belt, the thighs, the shin fronts, and assorted hinges. Medium blue
plastic forms the rest of the helmet, the shoulder roots, shoulder pads, bits
of the chest paneling, forearm armor, pelvis, hip flaps, outer boots, and
feet.
There's surprisingly little paint on this toy. I guess because there's
not a whole lot of need to redeco the mold, they just split up the colors by
plastic as much as they could. Oh, there still is some "make it look like
the other plastic" paint, especially on the chest and the boots, but a lot
less than I'd have expected on a toy this size.
Anyway, there's pearl white paint on the face, with clear blue paint on
the eyes. The rifles are mostly painted a faintly purplish silver, with the
grips, muzzles, and side tabs unpainted. There's red paint on the top of the
core bit of the chest and the non-window parts of the clear red chest parts,
white on the kneecaps, medium blue (so-so match) on the back and inner faces
of the boots. The right shoulder front has a red on silver printed Autobot
symbol. The hubs on the visible wheels on the boots are painted silver, and
there's a bit of silver on the upper back and the vents on the backs of the
boot tops. Opening the chest shows that most of the interior is painted
either silver or blue-silver. The Matrix itself has gold on the handles and
silver on the casing.
The neck has a ball joint on top and a fold-backwards hinge at the
bottom for transformation, which does make him good at looking up. Smooth
swivel waist. The shoulders are interesting, they lift smoothly to the sides
and have hard ratchets for rotation, but there's also a transformation hinge
at the top of each pylon that isn't really locked down well (the tabs that do
so are right at the hinge and can't exert much torque), so if you try
swinging the arm back by grabbing the forearm or elbow the upper arm simply
opens up with visually weird results. There's stiff but smooth bicep
swivels, soft-ratcheting elbows, and swivel wrists. The index finger has two
pinned hinges, and the remaining three fingers are joint together but have
the same two hinges, so you can pose the hand as if he's pulling a trigger,
or have him point dramatically. The hips are soft-but-clicky ratcheting
forwards and backwards, smooth hinges to the sides, and the hip and butt
armor are also hinged to get out of the way (the buttflap snaps into place,
but bending the leg too far back will make it pop open). The thigh swivels
are the "mostly concealed" variety and thus only have a little range of
motion. The knees are double hinged with ratchets, but the second hinge does
not really improve range of motion, it's there for leg-shortening in vehicle
mode. The ankles have hinges at the inner edge and let the feet fold down
10-15 degrees to stay flat as long as the legs aren't spread too far apart.
Technically there's a ratcheting ankle joint for pointing the toe down, but
it takes the entire outer face of the boot with it and is really just for
transformation.
The "accept the Matrix" action from the movie is reproduced here as
well. If you pull the blue panels on either side of the chest apart and then
lift up the blue T that makes up the collarbone and sternum area, the rest of
the chest will pop open on springs. You need really small fingers or a
prying tool to get the Matrix out of its slot, it's in there firmly enough
they didn't ened to worry about it rattling around while the toy was in
shipping.
Regardless of how the fingers are posed, the hands can hold 5mm pegs.
There's 5mm sockets on the outer faces of the shoulderpads (intended for the
missile launchers), one on either side of each elbow joint (mostly useful for
vehicle mode), one on the back of the pelvis (the buttflap snaps into it),
and that's basically it. Two different non-standard rectangular slots are on
the right side of the backplate and the center of the buttplate, for rifle
storage. The tops of the pylons have very short and rounded-tip 5mm studs,
not sure if that's an intentional connector or just coincidental aesthetics.
The non-firing missiles are plugged into the launchers with 5mm pegs, but
they're too short for the figure to hold a missile in either hand via peg
(they can be loosely held by using the finger joints).
As noted, the shoulder launchers use 5mm sockets to hold the missiles,
and can also hold 5mm peg Fire Blasts instead. Each launcher is 34mm long
and made of white plastic, held together by a screw and probably some glue as
well. The missiles are red plastic and 23mm long with very short pegs. The
loaded launchers are a little over 2" (5.3cm) long, and mirror images of each
other.
The beefier main rifle is a bit over 3.25" (8.5cm) long with a long 5mm
peg main grip and a very short 5mm peg on top of the carry handle-like
detail, plus a longish clear 3mm peg muzzle. The instructions show it stored
in vehicle mode using the top peg, but the paint thickness on that made my
copy of the toy creak ominously, so I stuck with the main grip (which is
unpainted). A rectangular tab on the right side is unpainted and goes into
the slot on the buttflap.
The smaller post-crash pistol is generally skinnier and seems vaguely
inspired by Ironhide's pistols from earlier in the movie. It's just under 3"
(a little over 7cm) long with a similar build and connectors, but there's no
top peg and the side tab is smaller. It's meant to store on the back using
the rectangular tab. It also has a longish 3mm clear rod tip. The
instructions show it stored muzzle down, but if you store both rifles any
lifting of the buttflap will knock this rifle off.
The Fire Blasts are the same mold that first came with Titan Class Omega
Supreme, cast in slightly orangeish yellow clear rubbery plastic, but with
gloss gray paint instead of black. There's the full set, a six-piece
megablast and two spare tip blasts. The big one is a bit droopy if placed on
a rifle, though.

On Thursday, December 28, 2023 at 10:17:14 PM UTC-7, Dave Van Domelen wrote:

> In fact, in the animation model,
> it's not even obvious that they were supposed to be windows, but I guess they
> wanted you to be able to see the Matrix through the chest panels, plus it's a
> nod to the toy.

In most animated scenes, the chest windows on Magnus have shiny white highlights, which have always been used to denote glass. It's the same coloring technique used on Optimus Prime's chest windows, and also on Hot Spot in a few scenes.

> The smaller post-crash pistol is generally skinnier and seems vaguely
> inspired by Ironhide's pistols from earlier in the movie.

Evan Brooks confirmed that it's the weapon he pulls out of the shuttle console, which I think is super cool. It's not ever a gun that I associate with Ultra Magnus, but the fact that he did use it on screen is some amazing attention to detail.

Zob (Shredder's Revenge is surprisingly fun and also frustratingly challenging)