(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 Autobot Alliance deluxe Optimus Prime. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Autobot Alliance deluxe Optimus Prime here.)

    Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus has his color scheme based mostly on Powered Convoy, the original color scheme used for G1 Magnus' toy back in the pre-G1 Diaclone days-- so, if you cover up the purple Autobot symbols on his side windows and perhaps get him a new head, you can repurpose him as that character if you're not so crazy about Shattered Glass. His primary colors are a moderately dark glittery blue and black. There's a fair amount of silver and red paint applications too to help give his overall color scheme a bit of a "lighter" touch to it, though, and for the most part everything goes together well. I wish the red were a TOUCH darker, but that's about it. To help give Ultra Magnus' vehicle mode a bit more "zazz", some red tribal patterns have been added on the front hood along with a silver stripe down the middle, but despite having such small details as the roof-mounted headlights intricately painted, ultimately it leaves the entire back half of this mode bare of paint apps except for the wheel hubs AND the same color as the front half, and it still is a little boring-looking. In robot mode he has considerably more varied paint apps and his colors are broken up a bit more, so he looks considerably better there. Such details as the silver on the upper legs and abs, the black on the waist and lower arms, and the triangular patterns on his knees really help make the toy in this mode look a "touch above" what you'd find in a retail store in terms of the sheer number of paint apps.
    Ultra Magnus has a new head sculpt, though it's not one Fun Publications (the folks who run Botcon) created-- rather, it was one of the alternate heads created initially for the mold, but was just never used until now. It's definitely an Optimus-looking head, but with one important difference-- his face is a skull! This is a REALLY nice "evil" touch for an Optimus head, and the decision to make the skull portion out of clear plastic with blue eyes makes it look even more spooky and a little ethereal. In addition, Ultra Magnus has the same "tab fix" on the shoulders that all releases of this mold except the initial have; namely, one of the tabs is no longer large enough to prevent full shoulder articulation.
    Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus is a pretty interesting idea, and a way to get a more articulated "version" of Powered Convoy out to those who want it. He has quite a few paint apps in robot mode, though my main complaint is that his vehicle mode looks a tad boring, particularly in the back section where it's nearly bereft of paint apps. The ghostly skull face is definitely the best part of this remold, though. Recommended over the original Autobot Alliance deluxe Optimus Prime, though all other redecos of this mold beat this version out, in my opinion.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Botcon/OTFCC Exclusives Index