Vehicle mode is a car
transport. This mode is one of the few alt modes created just for CR/RiD
that isn't really a realistic one. This is a good or bad thing, depending
on your preferences- for me, it's a good thing. This looks like a car transport
all duped up for battle, and not like one you'd find driving along a highway.
Besides the most obvious difference- the guns mounted on the back- the
front cab portion is also slightly futuristic, with the upper portion slanted
forwards a bit and the bottom portion slanted backwards a bit. The grill
and front on Ultra Magnus is also much larger than it is on a typical car
transport. Speaking of the grill, it looks REALLY nice, what with the chrome
dark blue, silver, and the chrome gold Autobot symbol in the center. The
dark blue chrome paint can ship a little easily, though, so be careful.
The detailing on this toy is also pretty good for a vehicle. What is rather
funny is that Ultra Magnus' back four wheels still have "God Magnus" imprinted
on them. Heheh, ooops! Guess Hasbro forgot that detail! A really cool part
to this mode is that Ultra Magnus can actually hold all three deluxe Car
Brothers (X-Brawn, Prowl,
and Side Burn) on him in this mode. Neat! The
guns mounted on the back in this mode tend to come off a bit easier than
I'd like, however. And the missiles fire a bit too easily- merely brush
the trigger and they fire, so be careful. The Omega
Prime head is also rather visible behind the transparent blue plastic
used for the cab's windows. This mode is pretty darn good, but there's
one big flaw in it that keeps me from playing with it too much- the gray
"rails" on the sides don't stay in their pegs that well, and they almost
continuously pop out while you're playing with it, effectively splitting
this mode in too, since that's the only thing that really holds the back
half to the front half. It gets REALLY annoying.
Ultra Magnus' robot
mode is a far cry from the very good vehicle mode. For one, his legs are
rather long proportionally, and considering that the knees are very high
up on the legs, it leaves some rather long, unarticulated "bars" for legs.
His legs also aren't supported that well in the back, and because Ultra
Magnus is a little back-heavy in this mode, this poses a big problem, and
causes Ultra Magnus to fall on his back rather easily. The legs are also
made up of the back part of the vehicle mode, which de-attached and reattaches
during transformation. A rather cheap way out, that. Ultra Magnus' main
body also doesn't look that good- there's quite a bit of empty space on
both sides of his head between his chest, and his upper legs and waist
are molded onto the same piece of plastic, so it gives him a "Hey, look,
I'm a robot molded to the bottom of my vehicle mode!" look there, even
though that's not really the case. The ball joints in his elbows are also
rather weak, at least on mine, so he can't hold up his lower arms that
well. At least he has electronics in this mode. By pressing a button his
back, he'll "say" of these things:
- "Ultra Magnus, transform!"
- "Fire!" (followed by gunfire)
If you have his right button in between
his chest and right arm pressed in by having one arm of his gun attached
there, he emits laser sounds. Conversely, if you have his left button in
between his chest and right arm pressed in by having one arm of his gun
attached there, he emits machine gun sounds. And, if you have him combined
into Omega Prime mode, he says, "Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus- combine!".
Pretty cool, that he'll only say certain things in certain situations.
However, the guns are so ludicrously huge in comparison to his main body
that they're rather cumbersome, and obscure his whole upper body from a
head-on view. And there's no other place to store them in robot mode, which
is a bummer. One thing I like about Ultra Magnus' robot mode is his "jet
pack" on his back, with parts of his car transport rails folded in half
and arranged to form "wings". That's just plain cool. His face is also
pretty nicely molded, and I love the transmetal gold eyes.
Ultra Magnus splits
into several parts and forms the armor attachments that to connect to Optimus
Prime's regular robot mode to form Omega Prime.
Ultra Magnus' vehicle
mode is great, but his robot mode needs quite a bit of work. If you're
going to get him, get him for his ability to combine into Omega Prime,
or for his cool vehicle mode, but not for his robot mode.
Review by Beastbot