RID 2001 Ultra Magnus

Robot Mode: Ultra Magnus is one of the tallest RID robots with most of his height resulting from his overly-long legs. He looks a bit deformed because of them, but still cool. The wings on his back give him a regal air and when wielding his multi-cannon he looks ready to take on Decepticons left and right. The cartoon series called him Cybertron's most powerful warrior and, looking at him, you'd be tempted to believe it.

Alternate Modes: Ultra Magnus transforms into a car transporter truck. The transformation requires him to fall apart into some pieces that get recombined in a different way, a method I'm not particularly fond of (too many pieces to get lost) and is quite complicated. His truck mode looks decent, though, and you can fit some smaller car robots into his trailer for transport.

Combiner Mode: Ultra Magnus can combine with Optimus Prime (or Fire Convoy in Japan ) into a super robot called Omega Prime (or God Fire Convoy). The principle is nearly the same as with Optimus Prime suiting up into battle mode. Magnus falls apart into various pieces of armour that Optimus can put on. The result looks impressive as hell, though, especially with Magnus' large multi-cannon added as armament.

In the cartoon and the toy instructions Omega Prime is finished when basic Optimus Prime ‘puts on' Magnus. You can bulk him up further, though, by adding the leftover parts of Optimus' battle mode. The result is an armed behemoth, especially with the ladder now added as a huge cannon to his arm (which sadly the joint is too weak to support properly). Super Omega Prime (as I have named him) looks ready to take on entire armies of Decepticons or Predacons.

Missing Parts: Magnus originally came with two missiles he could fire from his multi-weapon and I'm missing those. Otherwise he's complete.

Remarks: Unlike his G1 incarnation RID Ultra Magnus comes off as a brash and vicious bully in the cartoon, burning with resentment for Optimus getting chosen over him as Autobot leader. His one-track mind got on my nerve quite a bit, but he still participated in some great fight scenes and added a lot to a cartoon series that had a lot of down sides.

The toy on its own is decent, but you really want to have him alongside RID Optimus Prime for the real play value, seeing as how these two can combine into a giant kick-ass robot warrior. So if you've got one, go get the other for maximum fun.

Rating: B

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