Toy Review - ULTRA MAGNUS (Kingdom)

[GoktimusPrime]

VLTRVM MAGNVM
Series - Generations
Sub-line - War For Cybertron
Sub-sub-line - Kingdom
Size/class - Leader
New/remould/redeco - Retool and repaint of Siege Ultra Magnus (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/26176-Toy-Review-Siege-Ultra-Magnus)
Wave - 2
Released here - Yes
Approximate Retail Price - $100
Approximate Size - 21.5cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Car carrier truck
Main Features/Gimmicks - Cab robot can combine with trailer to form armoured robot mode
Main Colours - liberte, egalite, fraternite
Main Accessories - rifle, x2 missile launchers

NOTE: Generations War for Cybertron Trilogy Kingdom Ultra Magnus is a retool and repaint of Generations War for Cybertron Trilogy Siege Ultra Magnus (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/26176-Toy-Review-Siege-Ultra-Magnus). Refer to the GWFCTSUM thread for comments about the original mould. This thread will focus on differences made.

https://i.ibb.co/yYyNHtz/kingdom-ultramagnus01.jpghttps://i.ibb.co/dbMt1T4/kingdom-ultramagnus02.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/v4R54Z8/kingdom-ultramagnus03.jpghttps://i.ibb.co/J3ZCY80/kingdom-ultramagnus04.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/NjV1j5D/kingdom-ultramagnus05.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/rccVx6t/kingdom-ultramagnus06.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/2ZqFwYg/kingdom-ultramagnus07.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/m45CyJd/kingdom-ultramagnus08.jpg

PROS
Nicer looking truck mode - the unsightly gaps on the side of the cab are filled in, and it looks more like an Earthen car carrier
The retooling on the armour is more extensive than I expected. Most every part has some retooling.
The overall sculpting on the armoured mode looks nicer being less "busy" with the insane level of detail on the Siege sculpt, but also not as plain as on the MP. It's a nice balance.
The missile launchers are also retooled with faux launcher trigger
Really like the more brilliant pearly white
No "battle damage" to laboriously clean off - yay!

CONS
Some of the repainting choices are strange. Don't know why the pegs on top of the shoulder pylons are painted blue. The front of the side panels on the legs are also unpainted white, which clashes against the blue panels (sides of the trailer) attached to them. The smoke stacks on the cab robot are also unpainted, same as Siege (I've painted mine silver)
Does not come with the 2 black guns from the Siege toy; given that it's the same price point, I'm not sure why they couldn't have included those guns.
In order to elongate the vehicle mode to give it the appearance of being an articulated truck, they've also sacrificed the solidity of the alt mode. On Siege UM, the front of the upper deck attaches to the truck cab; while this does make the truck mode look weird and stubby (and incapable of making turns :p), it is physically essential to lock it into place. Kingdom UM's trailer is retooled in a way where the front of the upper deck cannot attach to the cab, making the truck mode less solid.

OVERALL
I'm biased since Ultra Magnus is my favourite TF character. :p But looking at it more objectively, this toy doesn't really give you anything that the Siege toy doesn't already do. Yeah, it looks more G1... but if you already have MP Ultra Magnus or even Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus as well as Siege UM, then it's arguably superfluous.

I would only recommend this toy if you:
a/ don't already have Siege UM
b/ prefer the appearance of this over Siege UM and are willing to accept a less solid truck mode
If you're an Ultra Magnus collector like me, then you've already made up your mind about this toy and... why are you even reading this? :p But for those who are unsure, I'd only recommend it under those two aforementioned conditions.

Heck... if you don't even care about having the separate cab robot gimmick, then just stick with Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/21015-Toy-Review-Combiner-Wars-Ultra-Magnus). IMO it's still objectively the best CHUG UM toy anyway.

[kovert]

Great review.

I prefer this interpretation of Ultra Magnus. The armoured mode's eyes/lenses are larger and the face is not as narrow. The original toy also featured larger eyes and their enlarged appearance in the G1 animation appear to reflect that.

Shame about the lack of ankle articulation.

[Tha_Phantom]

Got this guy yesterday. Both the large and small robot modes impress me more than Siege, but the truck is pretty meh... They really should have redone it from the ground up like the Earthrise seekers.
As Gok said, if you don't have the Siege already then this is worth picking up, but probably not worth replacing it with. In my case I'll be keeping both moulds (although the Netflix version of Siege).

[ComradeRenko]

How compatible are the pieces between them? I quite like Kingdom's chest piece with head and the missile launchers, but prefer the Siege version for everything else. Do the changes to the inner bots bumper prevent parts swapping?

[nalops]

I have the Siege one but I'd maybe get this one on sale. Would also be interested in armour swapping potential.

[SharkyMcShark]

I can't see that this is any better than the WFCS version, aside from the combined robot head (visor ftw)

Doesn't mean that its bad or even mediocre. WFCS Mangus is one of my favourite figures. I think the slightly alien small truck mode helps things. It makes for a more aesthetically pleasing robot mode ( V shaped chest, slimming at the hips, instead of just a square Earthen truck front), and having arms hanging off the back looks less jarring when the alt mode isn't meant to be a Earthen truck).

[Seraphim Prime]

How compatible are the pieces between them? I quite like Kingdom's chest piece with head and the missile launchers, but prefer the Siege version for everything else. Do the changes to the inner bots bumper prevent parts swapping?

I think it was mentioned on another board that the peg points on the new cab are in a different location to the Siege mould. I think the armour would still clip onto the back the same way, but the front would just hand loose.

[nalops]

I think it was mentioned on another board that the peg points on the new cab are in a different location to the Siege mould. I think the armour would still clip onto the back the same way, but the front would just hand loose.

Oh wait, just remembered you can swap Galaxy Prime and Siege Ultra Magnus armours so I have to imagine the Magni (?) are cross compatible.

[ComradeRenko]

I think it was mentioned on another board that the peg points on the new cab are in a different location to the Siege mould. I think the armour would still clip onto the back the same way, but the front would just hand loose.


Oh wait, just remembered you can swap Galaxy Prime and Siege Ultra Magnus armours so I have to imagine the Magni (?) are cross compatible.

Thanks. I think I'll stick to the Siege version for now.

Interesting to see that the changes to the inner robot vehicle mode mean that the DNA Design legs moveable wheel doesn't look like it will fit at the front any more. Given that we've lost the unsightly gap that Siege had there it isn't as necessary this time around.

[Omega Metro]

One thing that I really hated with the Siege version was the weird gap by the front wheels. I like how the Kingdom version has made it look a lot better by adding the little side step to break the gap up.

[Skyfire]

I thought a lot about getting Kingdom UM as I have the Platinum Edition UM (Combiner Wars repaint). Things I hate about CWUM are the extremely tall shoulder pylons and the double shoulder rockets. But KUM is worse than CWUM in car carrier mode (less G1 toy/cartoon-like and boxy with lack of trailer rotation.)

[Justice for Ironhide]

here is a video showing the armour swapping for both siege and Kingdom Ultra magnus, as well as the cab armour not being compatible between the 2 figures:
(the section of the video which shows the armour swapping starts around 20:16)
https://youtu.be/1OqvPrRw7Nk

[ComradeRenko]

here is a video showing the armour swapping for both siege and Kingdom Ultra magnus, as well as the cab armour not being compatible between the 2 figures:
(the section of the video which shows the armour swapping starts around 20:16)
https://youtu.be/1OqvPrRw7Nk

Thanks. Damn, the Kingdom torso and head look pretty good on the Siege body. Shame about the tabs.

Did see some videos of people covering the robot hands with the blue arm covers in vehicle mode, instead of pegging them to the unfolded torso piece. While it doesn't completely eliminate the problem, it did look better.

[Justice for Ironhide]

Now that you mention it, and after watching a video, the covering of Kingdom UM hands in alt-mode does makes the gap in the alt-mode less noticeable.

[Sutton]

What a strange figure, a real tale of two (three) modes...

The main Ultra Magnus bot looks SO good this time around, with a lot of the over-the-top greebling from Siege gone, and of course nice clean and bright colours. Best G1 Magnus to date. The inner robot looks pretty good too, although like Siege also suffers from having nothing meaningful to do with the armour pieces when not in use. Given how undefined the trailer is, it's a missed opportunity to add a battle station of gun turret to the play pattern.

But then the truck mode is just.....yikes. It's actually better in person than photos make it appear, but still - so much good work lost for lack of a little more, as the saying goes. You only have to play with this guy for an hour to start see some different simple design decisions that could have been made to make this work HEAPS better.

I've tried the 'arm cover' approach to the truck mode but they don't really sit in place that well. It's ok on the shelf but cough near it and they fall straight off. I've currently got another setup that I'm liking that uses a few other assorted 5mm weapons - some from AOE Hound and the 'exhaust pipe clubs' from Combiner Wars. But it's all a duct-tape approach to bad design.

For me, this one still wins over Siege Magnus, and even CW Magnus, because the bot mode is really good. And my bots spend maybe 80% of their time that way.


But I can't help but feel like Hasbro have phoned this one in because on a design-board somewhere, there's already the early stages of a Commander Class Magnus that absolutely nails it. They've shown how quick they are to replace the flawed POTP Rodimus and TR Galvatron, so it's possible!

Fourth (fifth-ish) time lucky?

[Sutton]

Or plan B....just rip the guy's arms off. They're on mushroom pegs and slide out relatively easy, and seem strong enough to take being removed often enough.

https://i.imgur.com/AebJSM4.jpg?1

Looks a little odd from some angles still, but....still preferable to full on creepy visible hands.

https://i.imgur.com/Gi8XMUA.jpg?1

Which also means the 'pylon nipples' actually have a use now....

https://i.imgur.com/YPBKbIR.jpg?1