Magic Square Lord of War

Series: Magic Square Toys - Brobdingnag
Year: 2023
Allegiance: Decepticons
Class: Combiner (Legends-Scale)

Prelude / Space Shuttle: Anyone who caught my rant on December 17, 2023 (you can find it on my Instagram) will know that I have given up doing video reviews, even though I said I would finish up this set. Sorry. Nevertheless I want to give you some form of closure, so we will do a brief review of this guy including Magic Square Toys Space Shuttle, this set's Blast-Off.

So to start: Space Shuttle is good, simplest transformation of them all so far (except for some early pains regarding the arms, which is once again the fault of the instructions) and he does everything he is supposed to do in every mode. Recommended, especially because you need him for Bruticus. 

Lord of War: Let us start with the negatives. Tornado (Vortex) and Space Shuttle's hip rotation (which becomes Bruticus' upper arm swivel) is FAR TOO loose, causing Bruticus's arms to always swivel away. So if you want him to hold up his Blaster, either targeting or carrying, you need to hit just that tiny little sweet spot where it works. Minimal adjustment and it swivels away. Not cool.

Not as bad, but needs some getting used to, are all the many pegs you need to hit in order to assemble Lord of War. If you miss some of them, you will notice VERY QUICKLY. I didn't get the chest plate fixed up 100%, for example, so the upper body slid out of the hip joint just like that. But if you get everything connected, he is VERY stable. Onslaught, for example, is connected to the upper body part in so many places, his own combination points are practically obsolete. The same cannot be said about the other bots. Their transformations must be 100% as designed by Magic Square.

Take Munitioner (Swindle): his arms, which are "crossed" underneath the hood, with the head between them, need a certain gap in order for the the radiator grill to fit. The grill's pegs need to be between arms and hood, so they can peg in from below. And you also need to turn the head around, otherwise the combiner port of the hip won't fit exactly and Swindle tends to pop off.

In terms of universal engineering, Swindle is the worst of the lot, the others work just fine. Tornado (Vortex) might be really complex, but he is a lot of fun, too. I did not see that coming, but Vortex is the bot who fits into Magic Square's company philosophy of doing 3D puzzles (magic square = Rubix cube) the best. I love to transform him. Which is a new thing for me for Magic Square figures. All the others are on the same level of complexity, more or less, and if you wish to see them all (except Space Shuttle) in moving pictures, I would like to point you at my Youtube channel: Magic Square Toys G1 Munitioner Review | 3P Legends G1 Swindle | The Nerd Crate Too - YouTube

In terms of plastic and sculpt quality, I can only neutrally say that they are exactly as intended by MS: G1 cartoon, nothing else. So we have plain surfaces, not that many details, not that many colors, and non-shiny plastic. The usual velveteen touch. A matter of taste, of course, and the reason why Magic Square doesn't really work for quite a few people.

Enough with the complaints, though, let's get to the positives. The look of the combiner is very wholesome and everything works together well. The bots all fit nicely, the alternate modes with some exceptions as well, and Bruticus is the cherry on top. Sculpting is glorious, great looks, and the engineering gives us an incredibly well-articulated and stable combiner. You can put him into a freshly-combined pose without any problems. He's got butterfly joints, double knee joints, and a fantastically flexible head.

Style-wise they managed to create a near-perfect fusion of parts for Bruticus. Those end plates for Swindle and Brawl are a 100% match color-wise. something that goes for the rest of the set, too. There is no place where the colors don't match up, all parts are perfectly molded, and there is no place where you say "man, that yellow is not quite the right tone."

All in all I have to say that, after the disaster that was Devastator (just speaking for myself, my version was incredibly wobbly), this set here is incredible, including the combiner form.

A double dip would be more than understandable here, because the strong robot modes would shine even more with Bruticus looming in the background, so I can fully recommend that. If you keep the negatives in mind - which might seem numerous, but are regarding the entire set - you will have lots of fun with this set and the big bot it combines into.

Bruticus as a stand-alone figure is EXCELLENT!

Set:                 7,9/10
Combiner:     8,5/10