The Energon Pub

I've been offered Fansproject City Commander for a decent(ish) price. However with an official Generations leader Magnus only months away from release, is the FP set still worth getting?

"Worth" is a very subjective word. It might help knowing a few things from you in order to help you out:

Are you a big Magnus fan?
What is your collection like?
Or rather, where in your collection are you trying to fit in a Magnus?

Having had City Commander for a few years, as well as several other FansProject figures, I think he goes really well with the Wreckers crew they've made. They are very blocky and have lots of hard angles.

I feel that this new Magnus will fit in very nicely with a Classics or even IDW collection, more so than City Commander. He's also going to be about half the price. I would say just wait it out for new Magnus unless there's something about the City Commander armor that you just have to have.

Well ... do you like how City Commander looks? Or do you see yourself replacing him in a few months time?

I still like CC because, unlike any other UM right now, he's the only guy with a Primy cream filling. And that's important to me. But if that's not important to you and you see yourself replacing him in just a bit you may as well not get him.

There'll probably be a lot of CCs on sale after the new Magnus is released.

Thanks for the replies.

I've always liked City Commander and hoped to pick him up one day. But I have no experience with Fansproject and I don't own any 3rd party characters, mainly because of the expense.

As for Generations Magnus, well he's already on pre-order so I'm definitely going to get him regardless.

In terms of my collection, to be honest it's a bit of a mess. I generally collect toys that 1. I can afford and 2. I like. So there is movie stuff mixed with CHUG, G1, RTS and TF Prime for example, there is even Masterpiece and TFCC stuff thrown in as well. I've just ordered Cybertron Dark Scorponok as my 'generations' Black Zarak. So having a 'look' really isn't important to me.

It sounds like your collection is like mine (and probably a lot like most other Classics collectors). If you think about it the main classics lines are a mess stylistically. It's been ... what? A little over a decade since Classics began as a filler line? Just within those main classics lines there's an evolution stylistically and things get even messier when you toss in 3Ps. Each 3P has it's own style, and I feel a mix of styles helps to even everything out.

As a longtime CC owner, I still love the guy. Especially with all his upgrades (if you can still find 'em). If you like bots with armour I feel CC is one of the best since each piece is almost just like functional armour save for a helmet piece. It's a lot of fun to combine him (although scary at first). While the armour does limit articulation, you can still get decent poses out of the guy.

If you want to think about it this way: the official Magnus is really Minimus Ambus while CC can be the "real" white Prime Magnus.

But I will say that he's not worth something crazy. And beware of KOs! The KOs of CC suck. Like, a LOT.

Well I own city commander and I still love him. Granted, I was never a big fan of the white prime or anything vintage toy accurate sibce im a cartoon guy. But city commander just looks good. I plan on using him in a different display whhen I get Hasbro Magnus. I got mine with reprolabels and the G1 facw upgrade from Dr. Wu. I also love the mold so much I bought the shadow, diaclone, and purple SG KOs of the mold which are awesome. The only issue with the KOs vs. the original is that the shoulder and arm armor is very loose. This can be easily fixed by applying small pieces of adhesive padding tape to the inside to give that extra thickness. (The kind of padding found under a DVD or VCR so it wont scratch your furniture) Other than that the KOs are great quality. The only original I own is the magnus version which is nice and tight.

Once owned both, Would rate The City Commander toy galaxies better than the Protector toy.

Displayed the City Commander toy for a while. Didn't like how the armor looked in robot or truck mode. As it wasn't G1 styled.

About the only positives I can say about the armor is. It's strong, durable, bulky. Turns a Voyager into a Ultra class toy.

I'd wait for the new Hasbro Magnus if it were me. Heck, I own City Commander and I'm eagerly anticipating the official Magnus.

MightyMagnus78 wrote:I've been offered Fansproject City Commander for a decent(ish) price. However with an official Generations leader Magnus only months away from release, is the FP set still worth getting?

You do have the core naked UM right? Well, unless he's a KO (if it is one then the price must be decent indeed) he IS worth it. 2nd to the not CJ, this one really pushed the bar for 3rd Party products.

If I may chime in my two cents:

I love my City Commander. He is my collection's Ultra Magnus, and after seeing photos of the upcoming toy, I think he will continue to be. Not that the new toy is bad, it just doesn't quite tick the right boxes for me.

The 2006 Classics Optimus Prime is still my "Classics" collection's Optimus, and to me, Optimus and Ultra Magnus having matching cabs in vehicle mode is important. Also, while I hardly ever display him that way, it is nice to me to know that the "naked Magnus" option is there.

If those aren't important factors to you, and if you aren't otherwise in love with the aesthetics of City Commander, then I'd say skip him and get the new one. But me, I'll stick with what I've got!

Yeah City Commander is real nice. I'm still torn about the Leader fig.

... I'm starting to see all the things about City Commander that deviates from G1. And, I worry about the White Prime holding up after awhile with his joints and clear plastic. I guess I need to see some more pics before deciding.

warzon3 wrote:I worry about the White Prime holding up after awhile with his joints and clear plastic. I guess I need to see some more pics before deciding.

My base figure is still holding up just fine. The joints haven't degraded one bit. Yeah, his arm can't hold up City Commander's BFG unsupported, but it has never been able to do that. I usually get around that by finding a pose where it rests on top of his knee, such as this:



Works well enough for my tastes!

Anyway, here's Magnus busting out:



Again, not a way I ever really display him, but maybe because I knew the G1 toy could do it, I just like knowing there's a white Prime at the core of Magnus!



And then Magnus and Optimus have matching cabs in vehicle mode, as it should be.



Now the obvious big advantage to the upcoming new one is that his alt mode is a car carrier, where as City Commander is not. If that is important to you, get the new one, obviously. But if that isn't as important... Well, I do love City Commander!

warzon3 wrote:Yeah City Commander is real nice. I'm still torn about the Leader fig.

... I'm starting to see all the things about City Commander that deviates from G1. And, I worry about the White Prime holding up after awhile with his joints and clear plastic. I guess I need to see some more pics before deciding.

It is pretty much impossible to crowd source your own opinion.
Once you move to aesthetics, no one can answer that but you.

If you are asking about quality, the quality is there.
It is a great figure.

Where's Minimus Ambus? Thought he'd be under that armor. Why is their a White optimus under that armor instead? Just kidding

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Where's Minimus Ambus? Thought he'd be under that armor. Why is their a White optimus under that armor instead? Just kidding

Since my fandom originates from the G1 cartoon and toyline, and I have never read any of the comics, all I can say is, "Minimus Ambus? Who's that?"

(Although please note, I do not actually require or want an answer to that question.)

Yotsuyasan wrote: Since my fandom originates from the G1 cartoon and toyline, and I have never read any of the comics, all I can say is, "Minimus Ambus? Who's that?"

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Minimus_Ambus

The "City Commander" would always be the one with the core robot and in MP's case, well the one phase transformation from the 80s animated series.

The Tyrest Accord Enforcer, well, that's the Minimus Ambus guy aka the upcoming CW release.

Slight deviation, I wonder if IDW would scrap the bottom of the barrel and resurrect the "original" UM then make a storyline "Who is Ultra Magnus?" Kind of like what DC comics used in their Teen Titans storyline (also back in the 80s.

Yotsuyasan wrote:

warzon3 wrote:I worry about the White Prime holding up after awhile with his joints and clear plastic. I guess I need to see some more pics before deciding.

My base figure is still holding up just fine. The joints haven't degraded one bit. Yeah, his arm can't hold up City Commander's BFG unsupported, but it has never been able to do that. I usually get around that by finding a pose where it rests on top of his knee, such as this:



Works well enough for my tastes!

Anyway, here's Magnus busting out:



Again, not a way I ever really display him, but maybe because I knew the G1 toy could do it, I just like knowing there's a white Prime at the core of Magnus!



And then Magnus and Optimus have matching cabs in vehicle mode, as it should be.



Now the obvious big advantage to the upcoming new one is that his alt mode is a car carrier, where as City Commander is not. If that is important to you, get the new one, obviously. But if that isn't as important... Well, I do love City Commander!

This power armor sure has aged gracefully. I remember back then calling all sorts of favors to be able to first:

1. Purchase the 2 pack Classic Optimus + White Optimus aka UM which no one wanted (or for the specialty shop) wanted to order

2. Order the CC set from FP

3. Purcase the face and weapons packed in the paper envelop.

Good old days..........

Hey "Y", you didn't attached the decal grill on UM?

Here's a perfect solution: get both!

I dunno what there is to decide. CC isn't going to change and there's a lot of pictures out there on Google. To me it really boils down to one of two states of mind:

1) "I've thought about it for some long, so deep down I really do want it."
or
2) "I've never pulled the trigger, so you know what? I can pass."

I'm usually #1. If I find I think about a TF I want long enough it's a sign I really want it. But if you're looking for a bunch of people to get you on the hype train and talk you into a purchase, just let it go - you don't really want it.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Here's a perfect solution: get both!

For this post, You get one of these.