At long last, Ultra Magnus has finally gotten a new toy that isn't an Optimus Prime repaint! And what a toy it is. Ultra Magnus' vehicle mode is now a heavy-duty military military missile launcher. Some liberty has been taken with some of the details, of course, since this is based on fictional futuristic vehicle, though its proportions are surprisingly grounded in reality in vehicle mode for an Animated toy. There's lots of little details on the sides of this mode, like rivets, springs, and vents, that are unusual on a toy from this Transformers line. The overall color scheme of dark blue and very light blue works surprisingly well, with the two colors contrasting very well because of how different each of their shades are. The black makes a nice secondary color, and the transparent aquamarine used for the missiles and the hammer in robot mode is just a boss color all around. Little bits of red, electric blue, and gunmetal gray help round out the color scheme and help to bring out some of the details. Of note is that the vehicle mode windows are translucent plastic painted black, which I find rather odd. Still, it's a decent color for windows, so no complaints here. Ultra Magnus also has some REALLY nifty gimmicks-- by pressing up and forward on tabs on the sides of his missile launchers (which can move up-and-down at two points), smaller guns pop out of the top. Yes, that's right-- even his guns have pop-out guns. AWESOME. By pressing on a small red button on the side of his vehicle mode, said missile launchers will also blink yellow for a bit and an "energy weapons firing" sound is emitted from the toy. Also by unhooking the front section of this mode, you can pull out two more (non-firing) missile launchers, and even the sides of his front grill fold out to reveal little machine guns. Magnus is loaded to the teeth, that's for sure! However, this mode isn't completely flawless-- there are a few fairly obvious robot mode extras. The rear of this mode is very weak, with just small flaps covering up Ultra Magnus' knees that don't do their job nearly well enough. Ultra Magnus' knee guards also stick out the back rather obviously, and his Magnus hammer just sits in the middle of the back half of his vehicle mode, out there in the open. Two very small panels on the sides of his vehicle mode also don't peg into anything and tend to flap around when you're fiddling with him and can occasionally come off when you're transforming him, but this last one is a minor annoyance at best.
    As you're transforming Ultra Magnus to robot mode, when you plug in his inner shoulders the classic transformation sound will emit from the toy. In addition, pressing in on the Elite Guard symbol on his chest will cause Magnus' mouth to open and close once, and the lights in his eyes to blink green, the lights in his shoulder-launchers to blink yellow, and the light in his Elite Guard symbol to blink red, all in syncrhonization, as he utters one of three phrases: "Ultra Magnus here," "We must return the Allspark to Cybertron," or the denigrating "Don't be a hero, Optimus; it's not in your programming". As far as I can tell, it's the same voice actor from the show doing the voice clips, or at least a very good imitator. Anyways, Ultra Magnus certainly has a very imposing robot mode-- moreso if you swing over and unfold all of his weapons, which still all work in this mode. He also has a sledgehammer-- his "Magnus hammer"-- which looks awesome and gives Ultra Magnus some melee power, even if the hammer's handle is a bit shorter than it is on the show. His proportions are appropriate for a supreme leader, being rather stocky and broad-chested, a very "heroic" look to him. Here the Animated styling is more apparent with more "cartoony" proportions on his arms and legs, along with the more sparse, stylized Animated mold detailing. That's not to say some of the paint details in robot mode don't shine as well, however-- I particularly like the bluish-white detailing on his chest and upper legs, as well as the blue-white arrows on his lower arms. It's also surprising just how well all his vehicle mode parts fold into his robot mode seamlessly, particularly when it comes to all eight of his wheels folding up into his lower legs with only the very bottoms poking out the back end. The only real vehicle mode "kibble" that doesn't contribute anything to the robot mode are two very small panels on the sides of his lower legs, but these are so small as to be practically inconsequential. The only real complaint of consequence I have regarding this mode is that his shoulders are actually hinged at the BACK of the main body. They look fine when positioned as shown above, but if you angle the shoulders up or down too much they look awkward, since they're rotating from so far back. Ultra Magnus' articulation is very good, however-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at four points), elbows, at the base of the four fingers on each hand (as one piece), and at the hips (at two points) and knees (at two points). This, combined with his fairly good stability and sturdy ratcheting joints, means you can get some pretty dynamic poses out of him.
    Animated Ultra Magnus is a magnificent Leader class toy, with some fairly non-intrusive electronics, some utterly fantastic gimmicks, tons of weapons, an innovative (but not too complex) transformation, great proportions, and great colors, too. Some obvious robot mode extras in vehicle mode are his only real downfall-- highly recommended, and more so than any other Animated Leader class toy (including repaints).

Review by Beastbot

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