Generations Combiner Wars Leader Class Ultra Magnus - Pictorial Review

Now, a release that fans had been craving for so many year, the one and only, the legendary and iconic, Ultra Magnus!

Pic Credit : Web

Ultra Magnus was first introduced in Transformers : The Movie in 1986, an elite soldier that was entrusted with the Matrix by Optimus Prime in his death bed (but the Matrix chose Hot Rod). Ultra Magnus was one of the main cast in the season 3 and 4 of US G1 series, all the way to G1 Headmasters. 

G1 Ultra Magnus
Pic Credit : TFWiki

 

Ultra Magnus's G1 toy is actually a white version Optimus Prime with a convertable trailer that becomes his armor. This indirectly the reason why several version of his toys afterwards are a white repaint of Optimus Prime. Some, not all. There are few series where Ultra Magnus were designed uniquely such as in Robot In Disguise/Car Robot, Animated and also Transformers:Prime.

Dreamwave Ultra Magnus

In Dreamwave Generation One continuity, Ultra Magnus IS actually a white Optimus Prime. Ultra Magnus shed his armor in the episode Countdown to Extinction after he was shot down by Shockwave.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

In IDW Generations 1 continuity, Ultra Magnus is not just one bot. The 'immortal' lawman was close with Orion Pax, Skids and Delta Magnus where he fought alongside them in countless wars, witnessing a lot of historical event. However, after his death (the cause has yet to be revealed), Chief Justice Tyrest who was inspired by Magnus's legend, fashioned a suit of armor cast in Magnus's image and bestowed it upon a succession of other robots. Currently, Minimus Ambus is the mastermind under the suit of the legend.

Alt Mode

He's finally here! 

Ultra Magnus comes in a box with the same design as the previous three Combiner Wars Leader Class figures (after Megatron, Armada Megatron and Thundercracker).

Might not be big but the artwork of Ultra Magnus is clearly based on IDW version of the character.

Generations Combiner Wars Leader Class Thundercracker - Pictorial Review

Now, a repaint that no one saw coming but inevitable, Generations Combiner Wars Leader Class Thundercracker, third repaints of Jetfire mold after Hasbro and and Takara Jetfire. This review is courtesy of MyToy.

MyToy

Pic Credit : TFWiki

A character that is frequent in both the cartoon series and in the toyline. Thundercracker, along with the other Seekers (Starscream and Skywarp), was one of Megatron's warriors that participated in the attack of the ark. The character ended after the attack on Autobot City where he was gunned down by Optimus Prime and later thrown out into space only to be reformatted into Scourge by Unicron.

This is the 3rd mold ever used for a Thundercracker in CHRUG line, after the first classic seeker mold and then the FOC version. BUT, if you consider all the repaints and variants, it's another story. For instance, for the first classic seeker mold, there are 4 variants which are Botcon 2007, Henkei, Generations and United 3-Pack version (5, if you count the Shattered Glass version).

Review of Generations Leader Class Jetfire can be found here.

In Package

Let us get started, shall we? Thundercracker comes in a black box with his artwork on the lower left corner.

Generations Combiner Wars Leader Class Armada Megatron - Pictorial Review

Comes together with Generations Combiner Wars Megatron is an unexpected pair (well...not if you saw the news back then), a repaint of Megatron, Armada Megatron!

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Armada Megatron is the main antagonist in the cartoon series Armada, the first installment of "Unicron Trilogy", before Energon and Cybertron. In the continuity, the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons escalated resulting both enhancing their power with the small race of Transformers called Mini-Cons. Believing that they made the conflict worse, the Mini-Cons seek help from the Autobots to escape Cybertron. The attempt almost fail due to an ambush by the Megatron and the Decepticons resulting the Mini-Cons, in their damage starship warped and crash-landed on earth.

Armada Megatron
Pic Credit : TFWiki

In Package
*Please take note that I won't be going into details for this review as it's a variant of Leader Class Megatron previously reviewed.

The fourth CHRUG Leader Class figure after Jetfire (Hasbro and Takara) and Megatron, Armada Megatron comes in the same Combiner Wars box as Megartron.

Generations Combiner Wars Leader Class Megatron - Pictorial Review

I was working out on the review of LG-09 Brainstorm when this arrived and the sane thing to do is to put that Brainstorm on hold and proceed with the tyrant, Generations Combiner Wars Leader Class Megatron.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

One of the greatest villain of all time, Megatron led the Decepticons force fighting for the control of Cybertron against the Autobots, an act that brought war upon the entire universe.

In Package

Hasbro surprised the fans with the announcement of Leader Class Megatron under the Generations Combiner Wars series. Most are skeptical while others ridiculed Hasbro's attempt to reboot the character for CHRUG line. Let us see, shall we?

Megatron comes in a big box with the same theme as the previous Combiner Wars releases. I just noticed that the word "Transformers" laid out vertically on the side resembles Age Of Extinction box design.

Generations Leader Class Jetfire - Pictorial Review

Now, time for another exciting official release. Just to be clear, I tried my best not to be biased in my reviews and being that my collections focused mainly on [Official] Neo-G1 figures, there's been up and down in terms of the excitement of HasTak releases. My last Deluxe wave (Scoop, Rattrap, Tankor, etc) was a big disappointment while Voyager Roadbuster is kinda great (better than Skybite). But this here, is one of the best official figures for 2014, the 2nd biggest original Neo-G1 CHURG mold after Metroplex and the first of it class in this line, Leader Class Jetfire.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Jetfire (also known as Skyfire) first made his appearance in G1 cartoon, Fire in the Sky episode. He was a friend of Starscream from way before the war but an exploration mission gone bad causes Jetfire to be lost (presumably dead) for millions of years.

I could go on and on about him but the best thing about Jetfire is his G1 toy. Not all original G1 toys originated from HasTak. Jetfire is one of the example, taken from Macross Super Valkyrie VF-1S of Takatoku Toys. And perhaps due to legal reasons, Jetfire in the animation was changed to not resemble his G1 toy.

Pic Credit : TFWiki/Seibertron.com