DSC_5460
When Toys R Us sells your figures two years after release, at 50 - 60 percent off no less, it usually means that your stuff wasn't selling that great to begin with. As insane as that sounds, that is exactly what they did a few weeks ago to the remaining Transformers Siege: War for Cybertron figures.
Selection varied at every store, but one thing was consistent - Leader class figures were readily available.
For the unfamiliar, Transformer figures are priced according to their Class, or size basically. Leaders are priced at $69.99, so not exactly the entry level offering. Normally, price point isn't as much of a concern as you'd think, but the combination of a $10 price hike and lackluster offerings hurt things. I suspect the sales numbers probably resulted in only one Leader being released for Earthrise - Doubledealer.
Basically the problem boiled down to this - Leaders were effective a small core figure, around the size of a $40 figure, then with pieces of kibble added to it in order to justify a $70 price tag. Astrotrain and Shockwave having kibble bits really made no sense - the only one that did was Ultra Magnus - who traditionally combines with his trailer - and the remould Galaxy Force Optimus Prime... which itself wasn't great but that's another story).
So you can guess where I'm going with all this... yes, I picked up an Ultra Magnus out of respect for the character because dammit, I CAN deal with that right now.
I guess the $28 price tag didn't hurt either.
Ultra Magnus comes with the figure, two shoulder rocket launchers, two thigh guns, and a main weapon. While the robot mode is styled to replicate the nostalgic G1 aesthetics, the vehicle mode is clearly modeled after the RiD 2000 Ultra Magnus... but to be fair, they were aiming for Cybertronian modes in this line so I'll accept it.
You'll notice the side-by-side with Springer shows that Ultra Magnus really isn't that much bigger than him, so even the armour bits don't add much physical presence to the character.
From an articulation perspective, Ultra Magnus has all the usuals - ankels, knees, hips with rotating thighs, waist, rotating and pivoting shoulders, bicep swivel, elbows, wrist, and ball jointed head. The range of motion, however, is rather limited due to the bulk. You'll get your usual standing/lunging poses, but that's really about it.
Without the armour, you get Magnus, or as we called him back in the 80s - White Optimus Prime. Articulation is the same as Ultra Magnus, as the main body is what gives Ultra Magnus his movement, with the bonus of playing with a stumpy white robot with a giant torso.
Paint is about what I expected from a Siege figure. Ultra Magnus was made when they were still doing to battle damage paint apps that people absolutely hated. From what I can tell, the red and white plastics are the primary used, with everything else painted or decaled on. Applications are generally clean, with the exception of the super sloppy paint app that spill over to the handle of the silver gun. The translucent blue cab windows are a nice touch, though what would have been even nicer is if they used grey plastic for the sides of the feet so vehicle mode wouldn't look so bland from the side.
Build quality is again typical Hasbro, though somewhat lacking for a Takara/Tomy release. Joints hold well, and there do not appear to be any issues with limb sizes or misalignment of tabs and so on. However, I did find that the tolerances on some of the 5 mm holes on the body were a bit off, resulting in the weapons not staying in place while in vehicle mode.
Transformation into vehicle mode is generally straight forward, though its more of a "rearrange parts to form a trailer" than an actual transformation. It fascinating though... the vehicle mode has none of the play value that made either of the two inspirations for this figure - the ability to use the trailer to carry around other Autobots. While thankfully the vehicle mode is bigger than the $40 toys, its more akin to a bus than a vehicle carrier.
The cab can be separated and played with individually, though this is more for the kids I suspect.
So in the end, despite looking like G1 Magnus.. far more accurately than any other mainstream release, this is definitely no substitute for the MP. It is literally Cosplay Optimus Prime. It's too bad they didn't save Magnus for a Commander Class release, because I feel Hasbro and Takara could have found a way to make a nice MP alternative like they have with Jetfire and Skylynx.
For $30, I felt it was an OK figure, but if I had bought this for $70 I'd be pretty upset... and that's probably why there are still so many unloved Leader figures from the line. I can only image how half assed Shockwave is, who is now not a gun but spaceship that looks like an upside down gun with extra armour bits, and Astrotrain, who now needs the extra armour bits to complete his triple changing ways.
At least there will be lots of happy kids this Christmas...
DSC_5460
When Toys R Us sells your figures two years after release, at 50 - 60 percent off no less, it usually means that your stuff wasn't selling that great to begin with. As insane as that sounds, that is exactly what they did a few weeks ago to the remaining Transformers Siege: War for Cybertron figures.
Selection varied at every store, but one thing was consistent - Leader class figures were readily available.
For the unfamiliar, Transformer figures are priced according to their Class, or size basically. Leaders are priced at $69.99, so not exactly the entry level offering. Normally, price point isn't as much of a concern as you'd think, but the combination of a $10 price hike and lackluster offerings hurt things. I suspect the sales numbers probably resulted in only one Leader being released for Earthrise - Doubledealer.
Basically the problem boiled down to this - Leaders were effective a small core figure, around the size of a $40 figure, then with pieces of kibble added to it in order to justify a $70 price tag. Astrotrain and Shockwave having kibble bits really made no sense - the only one that did was Ultra Magnus - who traditionally combines with his trailer - and the remould Galaxy Force Optimus Prime... which itself wasn't great but that's another story).
So you can guess where I'm going with all this... yes, I picked up an Ultra Magnus out of respect for the character because dammit, I CAN deal with that right now.
I guess the $28 price tag didn't hurt either.
Ultra Magnus comes with the figure, two shoulder rocket launchers, two thigh guns, and a main weapon. While the robot mode is styled to replicate the nostalgic G1 aesthetics, the vehicle mode is clearly modeled after the RiD 2000 Ultra Magnus... but to be fair, they were aiming for Cybertronian modes in this line so I'll accept it.
You'll notice the side-by-side with Springer shows that Ultra Magnus really isn't that much bigger than him, so even the armour bits don't add much physical presence to the character.
From an articulation perspective, Ultra Magnus has all the usuals - ankels, knees, hips with rotating thighs, waist, rotating and pivoting shoulders, bicep swivel, elbows, wrist, and ball jointed head. The range of motion, however, is rather limited due to the bulk. You'll get your usual standing/lunging poses, but that's really about it.
Without the armour, you get Magnus, or as we called him back in the 80s - White Optimus Prime. Articulation is the same as Ultra Magnus, as the main body is what gives Ultra Magnus his movement, with the bonus of playing with a stumpy white robot with a giant torso.
Paint is about what I expected from a Siege figure. Ultra Magnus was made when they were still doing to battle damage paint apps that people absolutely hated. From what I can tell, the red and white plastics are the primary used, with everything else painted or decaled on. Applications are generally clean, with the exception of the super sloppy paint app that spill over to the handle of the silver gun. The translucent blue cab windows are a nice touch, though what would have been even nicer is if they used grey plastic for the sides of the feet so vehicle mode wouldn't look so bland from the side.
Build quality is again typical Hasbro, though somewhat lacking for a Takara/Tomy release. Joints hold well, and there do not appear to be any issues with limb sizes or misalignment of tabs and so on. However, I did find that the tolerances on some of the 5 mm holes on the body were a bit off, resulting in the weapons not staying in place while in vehicle mode.
Transformation into vehicle mode is generally straight forward, though its more of a "rearrange parts to form a trailer" than an actual transformation. It fascinating though... the vehicle mode has none of the play value that made either of the two inspirations for this figure - the ability to use the trailer to carry around other Autobots. While thankfully the vehicle mode is bigger than the $40 toys, its more akin to a bus than a vehicle carrier.
The cab can be separated and played with individually, though this is more for the kids I suspect.
So in the end, despite looking like G1 Magnus.. far more accurately than any other mainstream release, this is definitely no substitute for the MP. It is literally Cosplay Optimus Prime. It's too bad they didn't save Magnus for a Commander Class release, because I feel Hasbro and Takara could have found a way to make a nice MP alternative like they have with Jetfire and Skylynx.
For $30, I felt it was an OK figure, but if I had bought this for $70 I'd be pretty upset... and that's probably why there are still so many unloved Leader figures from the line. I can only image how half assed Shockwave is, who is now not a gun but spaceship that looks like an upside down gun with extra armour bits, and Astrotrain, who now needs the extra armour bits to complete his triple changing ways.
At least there will be lots of happy kids this Christmas...