Dave's Cyberverse Rant: Commander Ultra Magnus

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Prime Rant: Commanders Wave 3

Nightwatch Optimus Prime (redeco)
Ultra Magnus (truck)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Prime/Commander3

$9-10 price point, this wave also shipped with the two new wave 2
figures. I didn't buy the Optimus redeco, but I took some pictures of it on
the shelf and used those for this review.

http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Prime/Commander1 - Optimus Prime mold


CAPSULES

Nightwatch Optimus Prime: Original mold was recommended. This is a
slightly darker deco with swords instead of guns. Not much reason to get
this if you already have the original, unless you REALLY want the swords.
It's simultaneously not as show-accurate and also not particularly
interesting or different.
Ultra Magnus: The vehicle looks like it was intended to have an
accessory that wasn't included, but the transformation is decent and the
robot mode pretty good (although mine has floppy shoulders). Recommended.


RANTS

Packaging: Same as wave 2.


AUTOBOT: NIGHTWATCH OPTIMUS PRIME
Series 1: 008
Altmode: Truck
Licensor: None
Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1)
Previous Name Use: Movie1, DotM
Previous Mold Use: TFPrime
Gimmick: Battle Swords
Function: Autobot Commander
Motto: "No, I haven't seen Babylon 5. Why do you ask?"

OPTIMUS PRIME is not built for stealth, but long years of fighting have
taught him that some skills are worth learning. Sometimes, a frontal assault
is the wrong move. When it's time for a sneak attack, the AUTOBOT leader is
one of the most dangerous silent warriors around.

STR 10 INT 8 SPD 7 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRB 9 SKL 8 Avg 9

Previous Nightwatch Optimus Primes have mostly been desaturated blue and
black decos, although the Robo Fighters version was mostly a tweak of the red
and blue scheme.

Packaging: Same basic layout as the original, but with swords in hands
rather than guns.

Color Swaps: The red is pretty much the same, maybe a slightly different
shade. The black and clear blue remain the same, but the blue plastic is
replaced by medium gray. Unlike the 2007-8 Nightwatch Primes, which got more
blue and less red, this is less blue.

Paint Apps: Mostly the same, but since the thighs don't need paint
(being gray plastic) that freed up a bit in the budget. The headlights,
visor lights and shin details are painted yellow. The Autobot symbols seem
to be missing from both the doors and the grille, though.

Mold Changes: The rifles have been replaced bu a pair of clear blue
swords. They're designed to fit around the hands as if replacing the hands,
but also have pegs on the outsides of the guards. The package photo shows
them held upside down.

Other Notes: They missed a chance to sell this as Silas's fake Optimus
Prime.

Overall: It's different, but not interestingly different. The swords
are nice, but not worth nine bucks on their own.


AUTOBOT: ULTRA MAGNUS
Series 1: 007
Altmode: Truck
Transformation Difficulty: Easy (1)
Previous Name Use: G1, RiD, Titanium, Energon, TF:A
Previous Mold Use: None
Gimmick: Battle Hammer
Function: Heavy Munitions
Motto: "A Prime needs to lead as well in peace as in war. A Magnus only
needs to lead in war."

As the commander of the most elite AUTOBOT special forces unit ever
assembled, you'd expect ULTRA MAGNUS to be just about one of the most
unstoppable warriors this side of the galactic core. You'd be right.

STR 10 INT 8 SPD 5 END 9 RNK 9 COUR 10 FRB 9 SKL 6 Avg 8.25

TF:A played around with Autobot ranks quite a bit, making Ultra Magnus
the overall leader of the Autobots and Primes just another rank about the
level of captain. TF:Prime has gone back to the usual way of having Optimus
Prime the head cheese and Ultra Magnus just a soldier.

Packaging: Two rubber bands hold the robot mode in the blister. The
hammer is in cannon mode and held in by just the blister shape.

Robot Mode: In some ways it's a pretty normal truckformer, with the rear
wheels on the boots and a chest that's based on the front of the cab. The
front end splits into shoulderpads, but most of the windshield is actually on
top of the backpack, with fake windows for the chest. The use of fake
windows is pretty normal for truckformers too, especially smaller ones, but
the backpack placement of the real ones is a bit unusual. The only
significant kibble problem here is the big side panels on the forearms, which
presumably would be hidden some other way in a larger toy. There's fake
wheels on the insides of the boots, which connect via a peg and hole that are
slightly larger than 3mm for vehicle mode, making me wonder how a Voyager
class version would transform.
3.75" (9cm) tall, mostly blue and gray with some red and silver. The
obligatory clear plastic is confined mainly to the chest windows, although
the fact that it also makes up the shoulder struts is a bit worrisome. Clear
light blue plastic makes up the chest window/shoulder strut pieces, the
collar area, the sternum, and the windows of the backpack. (To be specific,
there's a single piece that makes up the backpack windows, sternum, and the
peg sticking out the back.) Medium blue metalflake plastic is used for the
head, torso center, backpack shell, pelvis, shoulderpads, forearms, boots and
feet. The upper arms and thighs are gunmetal plastic. The wheels (on
shoulders and boots) as well as the fake wheels on the inner faces of the
boots are black plastic.
The face, lower shins, front bumpers, outer arm panels and
smokestacks are dark silver. Blue-silver paint is used on the abdomen and
pelvis front, bright red on the central chest and some on the shoulderpads.
The headlights and a pelvis detail are painted yellow, the eyes are light
blue, and there's a small red Autobot symbol printed on a clear part of the
center of the chest.
Neither the head nor waist are meant to be articulated, but both have
transformation joints that can allow some movement. The waist actually turns
all the way around, but the center of the joint is rather far forward, so
turning the waist more than a little makes it look like he's been cut in
half. And the head can look down a little on its hinge. The shoulders,
elbows and hips are ball joints. The transformation swivels on the pecs
allow a bit more range of motion on the arms, although doing too much with it
makes it look like he's had his chest punched in. The hips are a bit too
cramped, and trying to lift the legs more than 45 degrees forward tends to
make the hips pop off...might go at mine with a Dremel to make more room in
there. The knees are hinged, but the restriction of the hips means you can't
get the toy to stand with the knees bent more than a little. The ankles have
transformation hinges of marginal use for posing.
The shoulder joints on mine are pretty floppy, but because the ball part
of the joint is clear plastic I'm reluctant to try the usual tightening
tricks, in case it damages the plastic or leads to snapping if I overdo it.
The hands can hold 3mm pegs, and there's peg holes on the forearm
plates. There's a clear peg on the back for the energon booster LEDs, plus
the smokestacks at the small of the back are 3mm pegs. The main cannon mount
peghole from vehicle mode is next to the right knee, but it's not too useful
in this mode.

Weapon: This does a pretty good job of looking like both a hammer and an
artillery piece. The hammer head has a right-triangular side view with a
beveled square face and no peen to speak of. The haft is 3mm in diameter and
ends in a buttcap that looks like a credible cannon muzzle. It actually has
a good solid impact in hammer form, surprisingly whack-ish for such a small
weapon.
3.25" (8cm) long in hammer mode, with the face 1cm square at the
striking surface and 1.7cm square at its widest cross section. It's made of
two pieces of clear light blue plastic joined by a pin hinge. In addition to
the haft being 3mm in diameter, there's a 3mm peg on the top and the barrel
tip at the bottom can plug into 3mm holes. There's a 3mm hole on either side
of the hammer head.
The joint between haft and head is made to snap into position for hammer
mode, and the next stable angle is about 45 degrees. It can swing freely
between 45 degrees and about negative 10 degrees (so a total range of around
55-60 degrees of free swinging). In cannon mode, the hammer head is the
base, and the peg on top of the hammer is used to connect the weapon either
to a hand grip, a forearm peg hole, or a vehicle moount. When pointed
forward on UM's truck mode, it can't depress below about 15 degrees up thanks
to the cab, but when swung to the side it can depress below horizontal. In
this mode it's only a couple of millimeters longer than the hammer mode.

Transformation: Peg the legs together, point the toes and twist the
waist 180 degrees and you've got the rear half done. The head folds down,
the shoulderpads swing up, and then the shoulders come together in front of
the torso to make the front end. Getting all the tabs and panels lined up is
a little tricky, though.

Vehicle Mode: It's a warped cabover semitractor, looking more like a
10-wheel van with the box removed than something designed to pull a trailer.
In fact, if you remove the cannon, the flat space on top is just long enough
to put a car, so you could call this a platform-style wrecker truck. Or
Wreckers truck, if you will. Now I'm tempted to get a Matchbox car carrier
and hack off the platform to make an add-on shield for this (the peg hole
location is just right to make a riot shield that becomes a platform). The
robot legs are really obvious when viewed from above, even with the cannon in
place, so making a car platform would definitely help.
4" (10cm) long, and pretty close to Hot Wheels scale. The color balance
tips a bit more towards blue in this mode, with most of the clear and
gunmetal plastics hidden. The front windshield is still clear, although it
doesn't really light up well when the energon booster is plugged into the
roof peg. The side windows are painted bluish silver, the center grille is
silver, and there's a red stripe wrapping around underneath the windows on
either side of the grille. The arm panels become the side panels just behind
the cab, and the other vehicle paint apps should be clear from the robot mode
description. There's no paint on the wheel hubs or side mirrors.
The front wheels are riveted in place, but the rear four are snapped
around pegs, meaning that the lack of paint on the hubs stands out in
contrast to the rivets that at least give some variation to the front wheels.
The forearm peg holes are now at the level of the axels, so some weapons
won't fit well. The main gun peg hole is roughly in the center of the space
on top of the legs, and the smokestacks and clear roof peg are all 3mm in
diameter.

Overall: I'm not terribly happy with the loose shoulders, but otherwise
it's a good toy with a clever weapon. If they hadn't shifted the playset up
to the Star Hammer/Energon Driller size, I'd expect a $15 set with a car
carrier trailer for it, but that's probably not going to happen officially.


Dave Van Domelen, will wait until he sees an Optimus Maximus in person
before deciding if he wants one.