Yes, we’re finally going into the Lost Light roster!
And first up, is the one and only Ultra Magnus. This is Takara Tomy’s Transformers Legends LG-14 Ultra Magnus. Or, as the fans of IDW’s More Than Meets The Eye know him, the Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord. Well… at least he was until the rank was passed on to Fortress Maximus.
This is not a masterpiece figure. I’m not saying that because of the lack of diecast, or the obvious hollow plastic meant to reduce costs, or the fact that it’s obvious a toy in looks and even more in feel. All that is a factor. I’m saying it because it really feels a lot cheaper than a masterpiece or even a third party figure. Specially on truck mode. He still looks the part regarding the IDW look though, which I gotta say really jumps out in pictures.
Once he changes to robot mode, I like him a little better. The little guy is Alpha Trion. It should be Minimus Ambus, but I liked the Takara version more than the Hasbro one.
There’s some nifty features though, like putting Minim- I mean, Alpha Trion inside the armor. He can literally pilot the big guy like a mecha, which I gotta say is really cool.
The guns are… Well, they’re hollow all over. He doesn’t hold them very tightly, they fit and you close the fingers (one piece) over them to keep them there but they’ll fall in a blink of an eye.
You can combine both guns and bring the missiles along to form his hammer. It’s not a bad feature, but I would have loved a separate hammer in gray – or even silver, if we’re dreaming it up. Thanks to the cutouts in the arm bracers, he holds the hammer a lot better than his guns, although the lower part of the hammer (which obviously still looks like a gun) is really not needed. Also, I prefer the missiles on his arms.
The articulation is good. He can really do action poses. Without an ankle side tilt, he will not have his feet flat on a surface. The feet do have a forward and backward tilt but it’s not tight and he has a tendency to lack balance in certain poses. You can still make it work specially on wide stances if you use a soft surface. For instance, in the action pose below he is balancing on his own, but I already see the ankles becoming too loose to be at an angle as time passes.
He’s got weaknesses. Besides the ankles and the gun holding, you’ll notice when you transform him that the bright red might bleed a little onto the white pieces. Transformation is ok, but certain plastic parts might resist locking in. If so, check that everything is aligned. At least in my copy, I did manage to lock everything in place.
I really want to find X2 Toys’ XT009 kit upgrade to give him a little more height. Not that he needs it, he still feels really in scale with the rest of the figures. Plus, the Masterpiece version is way too blocky to feel at home with the Lost Light crew.
I became a fan of Ultra Magnus on the pages of More Than Meets The Eye. He has such a great comedic chemistry with everyone, specially with Rodimus. So, basically I couldn’t think of going for a Lost Light collection without the big guy. Here are Ultra Magnus and Rodimus in full debate.
Yes, that is Mastermind Creations’ Reformatted R-14 Calidus who is in my mind the perfect incarnation of IDW Rodimus. His review is still to come.
As for Ultra Magnus… If you are fan of the guy from even before, I’d really say go for the oficial masterpiece MP-22. If you’re looking to form the Lost Light crew, you’ll have to decide if you’d rather go old school or go for the updated IDW look. I decided to compromise a little, hence this version which is more of a toy than a collector’s piece. I really think he nails it as IDW’s Ultra Magnus.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 