On to the obvious! Yes, he's a repaint of the FOC Optimus Prime with a cooler weapons and a new head. That's one way of looking at it. The other way is to think that he's actually the original and the FOC Optimus Prime is the repaint.
Another pretty obvious item worth mentioning is that this particular incarnation of Ultra Magnus DOES NOT appear in the Transformers Fall of Cybertron Game. The Ultra Magnus that appears in the FOC game as an exclusive to Nintendo has a design more akin to the Transformers Animated Series Ultra Magnus and bears a hammer, not the sword - which by the way bears a striking semblance to the one used by FOC Optimus Prime.
The Mighty Ultra Magnus' blister card reads: "Ultra Magnus is legendary among Autobots and Decepticons alike. The mere sight of this armored form charging into battle is more than enough to inspire his troops to victory, and his strength as a warrior is more than enough to break any Decepticon Army"
I'm a bit disappointed that Ultra Magnus doesn't want to take a bigger leadership role in the Autobot organization. Despite his strength, natural knack for leadership and sheer awesomeness, the leader of the Wreckers does not seem comfortable as anything other than a minor leader in the Autobots.
FOC Ultra Magnus' blister card puts his statistics at:
- Strength 10 - a tie for Prime's
- Intelligence 8 - still a tie
- Speed 5 - 2 points slower than Prime
- Endurance 9 - A point lower than Prime - He's probably older.
- Rank 9
- Courage 10 - a Match for Prime
- Fireblast 9 - Strange, I always thought that Ultra Magnus had more to bring to the party
- Skill 6 - 2 points lower than Prime.
Well you get everything to like about the Fall of Cybertron Optimus Prime - outstanding articulation, the ability to twist at the waist thanks to a "hinged" torso, and a solid working design with a plethora of mounting points around his body.
But if you read the Fall of Cybertron Optimus Prime review, then you'll note how we commented that the figure looks more like Ultra Magnus than Optimus Prime - so here he is in all his mighty slightly stunted glory!
By now you've noticed the big stick that Ultra Magnus carries with him. His hammer has been replaced by a sword that, interestingly enough, looks like the sword that Optimus Prime used in the Fall of Cybertron video game. The sword is actually a three piece blade that can be slung on his back, or broken down and attached to his rifle to form two separate blades (Or a huge anime looking blade and a claw); or re-combined to form an even bigger sword:
As mentioned, the secondary blade can also be mounted as a claw:
And the sword can be recombined with his rifle to create an even bigger sword:
The sword even adds bulk to Ultra Magnus' truck mode:
Really Loving it!!!
WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THE FALL OF CYBERTRON ULTRA MAGNUS?
There are two major problems with the FOC Ultra Magnus. The first is that he suffers from the same problems that the FOC Optimus Prime suffers from - his huge sagging breasts. This figure would have been perfect if it didn't have those breasts because they prevent Ultra Magnus from dual wielding his sword (He can only dual wield it above his head as shown in the previous pics).
The second problem is that - as previously mentioned - this particular incarnation of Ultra Magnus does not appear in the Fall of Cybertron video-game. The true FOC Ultra Magnus bears a closer semblance to his classic form and transforms into a much larger truck.
Still. He looks grand.
The Fall of Cybertron Ultra Magnus was purchased from at retail from Toys R'Us in Robinson's Galleria here in the Philippines for PHP 699.75 (US$ 16.66) it is available on Amazon for US$ 21.99 (Roughly PhP 923.58 plus shipping)
The 44DD on UM is not as obvious as on OP but still visible.
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