Transformers Toys Studio Series Commander The The Movie 86-21 Ultra Magnus Review

 

Enjoying a Fukuoka stay

       Aloha, I am back with another Transformer review, and as promised from the last review, here is Studio series 86 Ultra Magnus. Well, you know how it goes. Let's get started.

Boxing

 

Your box cover and backdrop. It's really nice and self explanatory for those who've seen the film. But if you are not that sure, its basically Ultra Magnus and his crew trying to board the shuttle scene in hopes to get to Cybertron to stop Unicron. But Galvatron and his cronies attempt to prevent them from doing so. It would had been really cool if you could see other characters in the background. It seems as if UM is just doing everything on his own. 

      

So Ultra Magnus comes with two rifles. You can peg his rifles on his back which apparently I forgot to do a shoot on. But for your reference, you can place weapons on his back. He looks great and after fidgeting with him, this is the Ultra Magnus you want as your G1 classic figure. I probably said that on the previous War for Cybertron line. But this is the guy you want if you are still lacking a classics Magnus. I love how he has finger articulation and it looks good on him when he is commanding his troops. He comes with a Matrix which is accurate due to the fact the Matrix was passed to him after Optimus expired and he also attempted to use it on the Planet of Junk in a wasted effort, unfortunately. Colors look great on him. There is more articulation on this guy in comparison to his WFC counterparts. Joints and ratchets are super tight that it makes that heavy ratchet noise as you bend his limbs. The missiles can be detached to place blast effects (comes with the figure). FYI, I am not a huge fan on placing the effects as one long piece. It makes the elongated effect really limp so you won't see the very long effect for this review.  He does have a waist and head swivel which is always great to have. 

The complaints or something like that: Looks wise, he looks good overall especially his upper torso. Nice engineering at that point. Something about his shins that bugged me. It just look and felt plain. His leg just feels like two big blocks and that is it. Its no big deal really but it just felt so plain to me. If you wish to extend his arms, you will have to release those two red shoulder tabs that are holding it in. But sometimes by doing so, his arms look like folding flaps flapping all over the place. I think the most irksome feature is his ear/antennas come detached. I don't know why but it can be removed and they can sometimes come off easy as you transforming him. They are small as well so it keeps you on your toes of trying to not lose it. These are very minor complaints but I guess there is something in every figure that isn't perfect. 

Alt mode

Fairly easy transformation for the most part. I didn't really need the instruction manual. I did need to go on Youtube for his knees because it took some pressure and time for me to push it up from not scrapping the floor. Even so, the knees are just slightly above the surface. So my anxiety is going through the roof at times. UM can fit mainly deluxe or smaller figures into him. His shins form the ramp in this mode. However for some characters like Ratchet to fit in the bottom, you have to remove his lightbar to do so. And around this time, I realized Ratchet was still flaking some white paint. Oh dear. But the alt mode is done very well and the cab can be removed from the trailer. As you can see somewhere towards the end, his upper torso pretty much forms the cab. The cool thing about this mode is that his body forms the entire cab and trailer straightforward. The previous WFC lines were more part-formers like where you had to remove his armor to make the trailer and then his inner self made the cab. The transformation is definitely more uniform here. 

Ultra Magnus in Japan

Had some fun with him in my Fukuoka, Osaka and Tokyo hotels. 

Conclusion

Pick this guy up. Is he worth the $90? Yes he is. I remember there was rumors that this guy was probably going to be above $100 since inflation is around. But thank God those were rumors and nothing more. He is a fun figure to play with overall despite just really plain block legs. Super tight joints and immaculate alt mode. Darn those knees though. He is the classics type of figure you want so pick him up if you see him. If he goes cheaper than $90, you be a fool for not picking him up. If you look at the Japan pics above, it will tell you who is the next figure I am reviewing. And to back track a little, it was announced a few days prior to this review that 86 Optimus is coming next year. Now this is one guy that is anticipated but possibly will hit above the 100 dollar price range. Until then, thank you for reading this review and see you next time. Jesus loves you. 

Transformers Toys Studio Series Voyager The The Movie 86-23 Autobot Ratchet review

 

The medic shoots it up

 

Aloha folks, I am back with this time - 86 Studio series Ratchet. How does he fare? As usual let's get started.

Boxing

Nice looking box art with Ratchet going in with guns blazing like he did in the film. His backdrop, to no surprise, is where he defends the controls alongside Iron hide in the 86 movie. It's literally the same backdrop as 86 IH. 

The Doc is in

 

The goods: I always liked Ratchet's design over IH's. I always dug that black visor of his. Thanks to copyright issues with The Red Cross, Ratchet's shoulder cross paints had to be modified into what you see here. If you loved IH, then Ratchet's replayability soars here. And he is definitely looking awesome as well. The blue tinted windows are done really nice here. His joints are tight, poses great and has the ability for swivel-bility.

Neutral: I wasn't a big fan of the weird back and side shin flaps IH had. It's still here but it doesn't bother me much now since I already knew Ratchet would use the same mold. He plays nearly identical as IH. 

The bad: It's probably my version but I noticed some of his white paint would chip off. I would find very small white debris while handling him especially when attempting to go into alt mode. Also, some folks pointed this out but they don't like the fact that his red hands are actually white plastic painted red. I'm torn in the middle because I have no real qualms but I feel for those are really die-hard collectors. 

Alt mode:

Still got part of that jigsaw look but he looks amazing in comparison to previous lines. As I had stated, while handling this mode, some white paint chipped off. Light bars can be removed so you can use the top for turret handling. You can use the weapons subsequently as exhaust pipes or as a front assault type of weapon below his bumper. I also forgot how difficult this mode can get to. It's not hard to figure out how to get this guy into his van mode, it's just that some parts require some pressure and precision to lock in place. 

The real negative draw here is that his vehicle mode looks really plain. He is missing his red stripes and cross symbol in this mode. Something Hasbro cheapened out on IH and this guy. 

 

Conclusion

Ratchet is a solid figure overall. My biggest gripe was the paint chipping which is probably just my figure. Otherwise, I liked him overall. I always felt Ratchet would fit these molds a lot better than IH. Now it makes me wonder if we are getting an 86 Prowl or is the ER version is the up to date version for the time being? Until next time. Get ready for 86 Ultra Magnus!

Transformers Studio Series 86 22 Brawn review

                                                          

Aloha folks. I am back with another TF review. And today it is none other than Studio series 86 Brawn. With 86 Iron-hide released, it was a matter of time they released another one of the doomed autobot shuttle crew members. How does he fare, let's get started!

Boxing/Contents.

Brawn rushing into battle like he did in the film, however with disatrous results. Included is the backdrop which includes the hole in the shuttle artwork which caused Brawn to rush into battle. 

Standing tall

   

For the longest time, Igear Hench was my Brawn stand in. Not to mention, Hench was bigger than the other Hasbro releases. We finally got a Brawn from Hasbro that is more up to scale to his cartoon counterpart. Brawn for the most part is a very simple figure. He doesn't have a waist swivel which can be a negative aspect to some people. However, he looks great overall. The paint is spot on. He is small though and today we are nearly paying 25-30 bucks for something that was pretty much 10 dollars a decade ago. He does have a head swivel but thanks to the back head rest, it might be tough for your fingers to squeeze in to twist it. No biggie, you can pull his chest place out which in turn also brings forth his head out and then you can twist it with ease. He plays very simple as I have stated and he can do some fairly decent poses. His tire on his back can pop off which allows you to store his gun. Or you can just plug his gun into that tire hole. 

Alt mode

Surprisingly, this mode is very easy to transform into. You plug his gun into that tire of his and you can move the wheel actually to spin the gun around. Last, its not a problem for me but as you can see, there is the mushroom like peg wheels which some folks detest. I guess we have 3rd party to the rescue for this.

Conclusion:

Very easy to play with and Brawn is here to complete your 86 line. Colors are great on him. I guess he just have a minor swivel issue in his robot mode once again, but thanks to that head rest of his its easily rectified by pulling his chest down. I don't have much to say here because he is simple as I stated. He isn't terribly wobbly like ER Tracks, nor is he light like some of the recent releases. 86 Ratchet is up next. Until then, see you soon.