I passed on Siege/Kingdom because I've been hoping for something for better. If it couldn't happen at Commander price I don't know when it's going to happen.
Studio Series discussion
- Thread starter Paladin
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I only have the Netflix version (and only that because I got it for $27 at Ollie's), and the gray parts and "damage" paint make it kinda ugly, on top of just not being that thrilled with the mold. Waffling on this one, I'll have to think about it.
That's why I'll be staying with my OSKO Siege UM. It's a shame it can't really carry cars, but it's more relevant to my needs than the upcoming SS version.
Also, the excuse that the TFTM version of UM never had an inner robot sounds to me as silly as saying that SS ROTB Airrazor should be released as a non-transforming robo-bird (with all the extra budget reserved for transformation used for a "cosmic rust/assimilation" paint scheme instead). Just because we didn't see it on screen doesn't mean that it isn't part of the character.
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I need an Ultra Magnus inner robot about as much as I need a trailer for Prime that doesn't become a super mode. It's something I'll never use that would just drive up the parts count and price.
I figured that was the point of making a Commander.
The point of making him a Commander is to make him big. I'd prefer the plastic budget go to that rather than features I'd never use. Magnus's inner robot has only appeared in fiction in Dreamwave and IDW1; the former doesn't mean a lot to me, and the latter looks nothing like a white Prime anyway. And neither matter for Studio Series.
It's a higher price point, so the budget could go toward bigger chunks of plastic OR more smaller chunks of plastic, or a balance of both.
Since WFC, they're only as big as whatever internal scale they're following calls for. Once that's hit, the budget goes toward adding other stuff to round the package out. The first Magnus they did from this series followed that format, as did the other Leaders that followed (Shockwave and Astrotrain's accessories didn't even add much in the way of height). Out of the commanders, Jetfire and Sky Lynx were the ones that really leaned into Make Them Big, because Big was a lot of who they were as transports and warriors. Not so for Rodimus, Motormaster, or Armada Optimus, and I believe for Magnus.
I suppose it is somewhat telling that the only real padding-ish thing here is a smaller blast effect complement than we've seen before.
I get that not everyone wants or cares about an inner white base robot, and we can agree to disagree there. I care just as much about the "oh his arms come off" feature.
It's just a shame because I feel it could've been done at this price point. This could've even been a pretool for a Commander class Ginrai/PMOP, unless they'd rather save that for a full God Ginrai HasLab thing. Or whatever.
I haven't seen enough of this to really tell, but I wonder if a third party company can step in with a replacement cab like they did in CW. So that the people who don't need it can just have their stock release, but the rest of us can also get what we want and we can all move on to complaining about new things.
Since WFC, they're only as big as whatever internal scale they're following calls for. Once that's hit, the budget goes toward adding other stuff to round the package out. The first Magnus they did from this series followed that format, as did the other Leaders that followed (Shockwave and Astrotrain's accessories didn't even add much in the way of height). Out of the commanders, Jetfire and Sky Lynx were the ones that really leaned into Make Them Big, because Big was a lot of who they were as transports and warriors. Not so for Rodimus, Motormaster, or Armada Optimus, and I believe for Magnus.
I suppose it is somewhat telling that the only real padding-ish thing here is a smaller blast effect complement than we've seen before.
I get that not everyone wants or cares about an inner white base robot, and we can agree to disagree there. I care just as much about the "oh his arms come off" feature.
It's just a shame because I feel it could've been done at this price point. This could've even been a pretool for a Commander class Ginrai/PMOP, unless they'd rather save that for a full God Ginrai HasLab thing. Or whatever.
I haven't seen enough of this to really tell, but I wonder if a third party company can step in with a replacement cab like they did in CW. So that the people who don't need it can just have their stock release, but the rest of us can also get what we want and we can all move on to complaining about new things.
The commander looks to have largely the MP transformation for the most part. Even simplified, I can’t see it being particularly easy on the parts count.
It doesn't take that much complexity to pull off an all-in-one Magnus. I dislike the IDW style of CW Magnus, but the transformation design is perfect.
More than pulling parts off and playing dress-up. They had to go up one size class to make this work but could handily fit the armored version in Leader.
Size hasn't been the determining factor for pricepoint for awhile now. Budget is. Higher pricepoints get more budget for things like parts count, complexity and paint, not just size. There's a reason they do the triple changers as leaders despite them being voyager sized.
And Ultra Magnus in particular isn't big. Unless he's ridiculously out of scale, he's the smallest Commander by far.
(I mean, he's larger in robot mode than Rodimus Prime or Motormaster, because they had trailers that weren't part of their robot mode. He probably has a similar volume to them in vehicle mode, but less mass.)
(I mean, he's larger in robot mode than Rodimus Prime or Motormaster, because they had trailers that weren't part of their robot mode. He probably has a similar volume to them in vehicle mode, but less mass.)
It's unlikely that they'll be able to get Magnus to the head-taller-than-Optimus height he's supposed to be so it'll probably end up a similar height to the Studio Series Dinobots, but a lot chunkier and denser.
Iirc SS86 Grimlock is about a head (and shoulders) taller than Earthrise Op, so this works for me. Magnus doesn't really need to be bigger than that, for my tastes (I forget the actual scale chart detail).
I don't know what the official heights are supposed to be but he's drawn relatively consistently a head or so above Rodimus, who is the same height as Optimus.
ER Optimus's head comes up to the bottom of the clear plastic part on Grimlock's chest so it's a pretty big difference. Still, all that trailer has to go somewhere and even the leader is way bigger than he is supposed to be. It's just a consequence of having to exist in physical space.
ER Optimus's head comes up to the bottom of the clear plastic part on Grimlock's chest so it's a pretty big difference. Still, all that trailer has to go somewhere and even the leader is way bigger than he is supposed to be. It's just a consequence of having to exist in physical space.
Incredibly helpfully, the Sunbow scale chart seems to have both Op and Magnus at the same height (which is fudged anyway because the chart has them drawn in 3/4 view).
WFC Magnus is a bit shorter than SS86 Grim, basically between him and Op in height. I'm fine with the (City) Commander class figure being at a similar height, but no taller than Grimlock. In any case, much of his mass is quite rightly going to come from horizontal rather than vertical.
WFC Magnus is a bit shorter than SS86 Grim, basically between him and Op in height. I'm fine with the (City) Commander class figure being at a similar height, but no taller than Grimlock. In any case, much of his mass is quite rightly going to come from horizontal rather than vertical.
