Toy Review - Siege Ultra Magnus

[GoktimusPrime]

Okay, finally got this figure for myself and I'm enjoying a whole lot. The Siege UM that I first saw was mistransformed by its owner leaving a gap in the top deck that I thought was a flaw of the toy, but having transformed it correctly myself I can see that there is no gap. To be honest, most of the drawbacks of this toy are pretty understandable and easily forgivable.
e.g. Ultra Magnus' armour head is not concealed but rather dangles from the trailer ceiling, but honestly there's not much else you can do the cover it up. I prefer to just spin it 180° to cover the face. It's not nearly as bad as Energon Ironhide whose head sits atop the vehicle for no apparent reason and you know that they really could've easily done something to conceal it.

There's just one flaw in this toy that I think could've been avoided or done better, and that's the angle of the feet on the armoured robot mode. The feet tilt inwards which looks fine when the robot has its feet apart at just the right width, but otherwise it looks weird, especially if the robot is just standing normally with the legs together. It also makes the rear of the trailer look weird. The feet are able to tilt inwards but not outwards so it cannot be corrected. They should've either given the feet the ability to tilt outwards (enough to straighten them) or just hard mould them in a neutral straight position. The thing is, the inner cab robot has full ankle tilts. I would've preferred to see the armoured robot given better ankle tilts and sacrificed the ankle tilt on the cab robot.

I'm not a fan of the battle damage so I tried to remove it. Managed to get most of it off. Be careful with the red tummy panel as it is white plastic that's painted red. I accidentally faded a small portion of the panel (which isn't visible in robot mode and only forms part of the top deck in truck mode, so it's not devastating) despite being careful. Might be best to cover it with masking tape.

PICS

Armoured robot mode


See how silly the feet look when you don't have the legs apart at exactly the right width?


While the ankle tilt on the cab robot is nice, I could've done without if it meant giving better ankle tilts to the armour.




Truck cab


Rear view - like a Cosplayer


Truck mode - upper deck


Front view


Rear view - again, not a fan of the permanently inward tilting feet


After attempting to strip off the battle damage decos




Cleaned up cab robot


G1 comparison




Ah, the joys of the 5mm gun post

[SharkyMcShark]

The top of the white cab goes further Gok, so that the tiny notches on the folded up forearms fit into the gaps on the hip skirt. It's got an extra click in it.

[GoktimusPrime]

The top of the white cab goes further Gok, so that the tiny notches on the folded up forearms fit into the gaps on the hip skirt. It's got an extra click in it.

Ah cheers, thanks.

Disclaimer: These photos were taken before I read your post so the slight mistransformation is still there and I'm too lazy to redo them.

I managed to find a way to fit my TR Ultra Magnus into Siege Ultra Magnus' cab. The irreducible Magnus! #loadbearer


Cab/chest closes just fine with the Magnus Titan Master inside




Comparison with Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus


I've measured both toys (the heights on the CW UM review were rough approximations - this time I've used a ruler ) and here's how they compare...
CW UM: 23.5cm head height, 26.8cm to the top of the shoulder stacks
Siege UM: 19.3cm head height, 21.1cm to the top of the shoulder stacks
So headwise Siege UM is shorter by 4.2cm, but by the shoulders he's 5.7cm shorter.

On Siege UM I was able to fit 1 Scout car, 1 Deluxe (just) and on the lower deck I could only fit a Mini-Con.


Compare this with CW Ultra Magnus...


Now in all fairness, having a detachable cab that transforms into a white Optimus Prime-like robot is the pièce de résistance of Siege Ultra Magnus. It's really something that hasn't been done since... well... since 1986! Other Ultra Magnus toys are typically based on either Ultra Magnus' armoured robot mode (e.g. MP22) or his unarmoured robot mode (MP2).

On top of this, both robot modes on Siege UM need to be articulated and also fully encasing the core robot (whereas G1 UM is nekkid from the back ). This necessitated Siege UM being a partsformer - it meant that the trailer needs to separate into components and reassemble as UM's armour. At least at the Leader Class price point. If you wanted to have a G1 Ultra Magnus toy whose trailer can do all this without being a partsformer, then prepare to have a ridiculously expensive MP. But obviously on what is still essentially a child's toy for the common mass market at the Leader Class price point, this is about as good as it gets. Sure, CW UM has a core robot too, Minimus Ambus. But Minimus is a completely autonomous robot who basically pilots the Magnus armour, he doesn't wear it. And I do like how parts of Siege UM's core robot, such as the thighs and fists, actually remain as those parts on the armoured super robot mode.

And honestly, I think that this is better than the POTP Leaders. I make this comparison because Siege UM basically has an "evolution" gimmick, which is essentially the cab/small robot component (Orion Pax, Hot Rod, Optimus Primal) combining with the trailer to form the Super Robot mode (Optimus Prime, Rodimus Prime, Optimal Optimus). In the year that's passed since POTP came out I think that they've made notable improvements. And this is the CHUG Ultra Magnus that fans have wanted since the beginning. When Classics Ultra Magnus first came out, many people lamented that it was nothing more than a repaint of Optimus Prime and wished that it had a trailer that could transform into a suit of armour for the robot. Let's face it, many of us only got Ultra Magnus because we wanted Skywarp.

Furthermore, Siege Ultra Magnus does actually improve on some things over CW UM, such as...

The hands have fingers which can open and close, but unfortunately they cannot seem to hold any of the weapons firmly. I would have personally preferred solid fists with 5mm holes

Wish granted!

+ Hubcaps really should be painted silver.

Granted!

+ The red used for the chest panel is a distinctly darker shade of red than that used on the plastic for the body/trailer. As such, they do clash.

Granted! Consistency is victory.

And personally for me, better QC because mine wasn't missing a wheel!

In all honesty, both CW and Siege UM are designed to achieve entirely different objectives. Just wish that Siege UM could've been a bit bigger and as mentioned in my last post, had better ankle tilts on the armour.

And now to address the BW Ironhide in the room -- the truck mode. It's clearly not based on G1 Ultra Magnus' car carrier mode but rather that of God Magnus from Transformers Car Robot (although obviously with a clearly Ultra Magnus colour scheme). This personally doesn't bother me as part of Siege's theme is having Cybertronian alt modes, so they're not going to base the truck cab on a Freightliner (although neither was CW UM). Basing the car carrier mode gives additional meaning to UM's Cybertronian car carrier mode. With other Siege toys (e.g. Hound, Sideswipe, Optimus Prime etc.), their vehicle modes are a hybrid of being Earthen and Cybertronian, and sure, so is UM's, but it has an additional depth of being an homage to God Magnus. It also allows them a bit more creative freedom because you don't have to worry about making an articulated truck mode (since God Magnus' truck mode was never articulated). And this really helps to conceal the exposed arms on the back of UM's truck cab, and having and exposed truck cab rear was something that POTP OP was criticised on. Or the exposed almost everything on the back of POTP Optimal Optimus.

[GoktimusPrime]

[SharkyMcShark]

A slightly difficult figure to write a review for because there's so much going on. In short it's a fun playable figure with several entirely excusable flaws.

Alt-Modes
Baby Magnus truck mode - This is probably the weakest of the four configurations with the fists and feet hanging out in the back not really doing much to disguise themselves. Otherwise, it's fine. Passable. Not the worst thing in the world.

Big truck mode - Glorious. A lovely G1/2001RID fusion. It can't actually carry any cars so to speak, but I don't really care. It's solid, covered in hard points, and the colours are definitely on topic. The angled feet at the back make the rear bumper look wonky.

Robot Modes
Baby Ultra Magnus - This actually looks great. It has strong proportions, is quite well articulated, and has big heels to support posing. While the Baby Truck mode suffers for the combination gimmick, the Baby Robot mode certainly doesn't.

Big Ultra Magnus - This is what we're here for. It retains almost the whole range of articulation from the Baby Robot Mode - you lose a bit of range in the knees, but that's about it. It's incredibly stable too. Everything stays on tight. No significant kibble issues. Aesthetically, it is basically just G1 Ultra Magnus, for better or for worse.

Transformation
This partsforms, as others have touched on in this thread. I don't think that's an issue though, given the subject matter. It's intuitive and produces stable combined modes.

My only criticisms are that the shoulder pads are a bit difficult to get on (some eagle eyed folk have spotted that the smoke stacks on the Baby Magnus shoulders are a bit longer than the proto, so maybe that might have caused this?). Once they're on they stay on though.

Otherwise, I'd have loved if the trailer did something when Baby Magnus isn't attached. You can sort of use the two black guns as legs to prop it up, but a base/turret/barricade/gun emplacement mode would have elevated this. I might sit down if/when I get Cog and try to fan-mode something out using trailer.

Accessories
I love this. THREE guns, and two shoulder rockets. So much choice.

Size
It is on the smaller size, in terms of height at least. It has heft though. It's a quite dense figure, height notwithstanding.

Overall, this is easily worth the asking price.

The last leader figure I bought was Sixshot, which just wasn't worth the money as far as I was concerned. This is a rather spectacular return to form, fortunately.

[SharkyMcShark]

Oh, and re: fake battle damage - do it properly, or don't. The actual faux metal brushing looks pretty good, but if you're not going to apply it properly to the figure then just don't do it at all. For example, Magnus has the brushed metal battle dirt on one of the four panels making up his forearms. It just looks half assed.

[Tha_Phantom]

Oh, and re: fake battle damage - do it properly, or don't. The actual faux metal brushing looks pretty good, but if you're not going to apply it properly to the figure then just don't do it at all. For example, Magnus has the brushed metal battle dirt on one of the four panels making up his forearms. It just looks half assed.

Not only did they apply paint apps to one of four arm panels, but it's the inner panel you barely see too. Complete waste of budget!

Anyway, glad you like the figure overall. I agree with pretty much everything you've said, although I haven't had any trouble with the shoulder pads. Not saying you're wrong, maybe you got a bad one out of the bunch or I just got lucky. Has anyone else had this issue?

[SharkyMcShark]

Not only did they apply paint apps to one of four arm panels, but it's the inner panel you barely see too. Complete waste of budget!

Anyway, glad you like the figure overall. I agree with pretty much everything you've said, although I haven't had any trouble with the shoulder pads. Not saying you're wrong, maybe you got a bad one out of the bunch or I just got lucky. Has anyone else had this issue?

It's mentioned by a few people on this page of the TFW review thread.

[GoktimusPrime]

The trick with the shoulder pads is getting the grey clips to connect properly with the white tabs on the back of Infans Magnus' shoulders. I find angling the shoulders as you do it can help, but yeah, once those clips are tabbed in properly then the shoulders will connect fine. But if you don't then they are easy to detach because they're not attached properly.

[GoktimusPrime]

The Mystery of Ultra Magnus...

...and his shoulders


It's a matter of ensuring that the tab on the back of the core robot's shoulders are tabbed in correctly with the slots on the grey clips on the shoulder armour. If you've done it correctly then you can see that the shoulder armour will sit more flush, and importantly, it locks the shoulder armour into place.

Hope this helps.