The Energon Pub

Kremzeek reviews has done Kingdoms Ultra Magnus and comparrison pics. It does look a bit better than Sieges but with out the all in of a new SS86 figure for him I prefer Sieges car robot throwbacks

Trying not to be negative here, but is anyone else disappointed in Kingdom Ultra Magnus? To me it seems like the same unindustrious pattern that gave rise to ER Megatron, but worse, since this is a Leader Class, and consumers are being asked to pay much more for something that really isn't that different. I understand that there are "budget limits" (although to be honest this was not apparent in any line prior to 2015 that I was aware of). But it still feels more egregious than in past lines.

Of course I may sound slightly contradictory, I mean I may have 15 of basically the same mold from CW, but at least they are all different characters. Maybe it's just my perception, but if the slight modifications to Megatron in ER, and now Ultra Magnus in Kingdom were different characters, I guess I'd be ok with it. Not sure if that's right or wrong, but just my viewpoint I guess. I mean if anyone totaly skipped on both variants of Siege UM, I guess this would be more appealing...??

I do think Magnus could have been better, yes.

But at the same time, I look at the Kingdom version and can't help but think "It should have been like this in Siege from the start."

Starseeker wrote:Is anyone else finding Beast Megs transformation to be really frustrating? My biggest problem is after getting his torso free and twisting, I cannot for the life of me get the waist to click into that little white tab on the left side of the torso. Watching the YouTube videos, everyone seems to be doing it easily. Is there a trick I'm missing?
I'm also having a difficult time with those black tabs that seperate/connect his legs. And all that back kibble. Holy! Trying to get all that to fit right in dino mode is almost impossible.
He's a great looking figure that I was really looking forward to. But I can't enjoy him because I'm spending an hour at a time messing with this thing.

yes between his skin material and overly tight joints he is a regular nightmare to transform

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Starseeker wrote:Is anyone else finding Beast Megs transformation to be really frustrating? My biggest problem is after getting his torso free and twisting, I cannot for the life of me get the waist to click into that little white tab on the left side of the torso. Watching the YouTube videos, everyone seems to be doing it easily. Is there a trick I'm missing?
I'm also having a difficult time with those black tabs that seperate/connect his legs. And all that back kibble. Holy! Trying to get all that to fit right in dino mode is almost impossible.
He's a great looking figure that I was really looking forward to. But I can't enjoy him because I'm spending an hour at a time messing with this thing.

yes between his skin material and overly tight joints he is a regular nightmare to transform

Hmm, you guys have me leaning toward cancelling my pre-order and seeing if I can wait for a sale instead. The transformation is my biggest draw, and if this one is a bit of a nightmare, I'd much rater pay less for that frustration.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Starseeker wrote:Is anyone else finding Beast Megs transformation to be really frustrating? My biggest problem is after getting his torso free and twisting, I cannot for the life of me get the waist to click into that little white tab on the left side of the torso. Watching the YouTube videos, everyone seems to be doing it easily. Is there a trick I'm missing?
I'm also having a difficult time with those black tabs that seperate/connect his legs. And all that back kibble. Holy! Trying to get all that to fit right in dino mode is almost impossible.
He's a great looking figure that I was really looking forward to. But I can't enjoy him because I'm spending an hour at a time messing with this thing.

yes between his skin material and overly tight joints he is a regular nightmare to transform

Hmm, you guys have me leaning toward cancelling my pre-order and seeing if I can wait for a sale instead. The transformation is my biggest draw, and if this one is a bit of a nightmare, I'd much rater pay less for that frustration.

Funny thing is, this is the only place I'm hearing transformation complaints from. I have at least 10 people I follow on twitter who got Megatron in hand, and 2 of them have said he is ER Trailbreaker/Sunstreaker levels of complexity and enjoyment to transform. I haven't seen any of them complain about his transformation yet.

The only ones I've seen people have issues with on Twitter are Cheetor and Blackarachnia breaking tabs that basically serve almost no purpose anyway

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Starseeker wrote:Is anyone else finding Beast Megs transformation to be really frustrating? My biggest problem is after getting his torso free and twisting, I cannot for the life of me get the waist to click into that little white tab on the left side of the torso. Watching the YouTube videos, everyone seems to be doing it easily. Is there a trick I'm missing?
I'm also having a difficult time with those black tabs that seperate/connect his legs. And all that back kibble. Holy! Trying to get all that to fit right in dino mode is almost impossible.
He's a great looking figure that I was really looking forward to. But I can't enjoy him because I'm spending an hour at a time messing with this thing.

yes between his skin material and overly tight joints he is a regular nightmare to transform

Hmm, you guys have me leaning toward cancelling my pre-order and seeing if I can wait for a sale instead. The transformation is my biggest draw, and if this one is a bit of a nightmare, I'd much rater pay less for that frustration.

Funny thing is, this is the only place I'm hearing transformation complaints from. I have at least 10 people I follow on twitter who got Megatron in hand, and 2 of them have said he is ER Trailbreaker/Sunstreaker levels of complexity and enjoyment to transform. I haven't seen any of them complain about his transformation yet.

The only ones I've seen people have issues with on Twitter are Cheetor and Blackarachnia breaking tabs that basically serve almost no purpose anyway

Its not hard its just that a few areas of his transformation require extreme amounts of force to do; and I already posted a while back about the problems with his skin, I've ot a few pieces on his tail that are starting to warp already

Rogue-Primal wrote:

Overcracker wrote:Damn... struggling so hard not to get Airrazor mow.

Dinobot is awesome, Grimlock is fantastic. So glad I have both pre-ordered.

Bee is o.k. Not sure I’ll pick him up

Seeing as i've been playing Fall of Cybertron recently. Bayverse head doesn't look right on that design. I'd rather buy a original fall of Cybertron Bumblebee.

Technically that's his look in the Bayverse BB movie.

Also, the FoC Bee is incredibly awkward to transform back into car mode and is much more bulbous.

Not as awkward as FoC Prime is both ways. That's one really odd transformation.

I have the Rage over Cybertron 3 pack, and I really only like messing around with Megatron. Prime and BB can stay in their robot modes.

Can anyone say, Masterpiece killer? Seriously, these look real good, and with the prices they come at, I dont see my self going for any more MP figures anytime soon.

grimdragon2001 wrote:Can anyone say, Masterpiece killer? Seriously, these look real good, and with the prices they come at, I dont see my self going for any more MP figures anytime soon.

Depends on what you're looking for in Masterpieces. For starters, G1-style Generations take some liberties with show designs, and don't have licensed vehicle designs.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

grimdragon2001 wrote:Can anyone say, Masterpiece killer? Seriously, these look real good, and with the prices they come at, I dont see my self going for any more MP figures anytime soon.

Depends on what you're looking for in Masterpieces. For starters, G1-style Generations take some liberties with show designs, and don't have licensed vehicle designs.

I think he might be talking about the bw figures, in which case, I'm inclined to agree

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

grimdragon2001 wrote:Can anyone say, Masterpiece killer? Seriously, these look real good, and with the prices they come at, I dont see my self going for any more MP figures anytime soon.

Depends on what you're looking for in Masterpieces. For starters, G1-style Generations take some liberties with show designs, and don't have licensed vehicle designs.

I think he might be talking about the bw figures, in which case, I'm inclined to agree

Beast Wars without a doubt can overtake interest in their MP counterparts, but the G1 themed figures in the current and recent Generations lines have been excellent as well. Price, look, quality and playability are all factors I'm looking at and Generations has some advantages there

grimdragon2001 wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

grimdragon2001 wrote:Can anyone say, Masterpiece killer? Seriously, these look real good, and with the prices they come at, I dont see my self going for any more MP figures anytime soon.

Depends on what you're looking for in Masterpieces. For starters, G1-style Generations take some liberties with show designs, and don't have licensed vehicle designs.

I think he might be talking about the bw figures, in which case, I'm inclined to agree

Beast Wars without a doubt can overtake interest in their MP counterparts, but the G1 themed figures in the current and recent Generations lines have been excellent as well. Price, look, quality and playability are all factors I'm looking at and Generations has some advantages there

True, but BW MP's go for show-accurate beast modes too, to the point Beast Convoy's outer shell is smooth with the textures as paint like the original 3D model. Kingdom goes in a more realistic direction. In short, Gen. and MP may overlap in some areas of interest, but when it comes to looks they're completely different beasts.

Video review of WFC Kingdom Ultra Magnus: https://youtu.be/WqR0SBbAeD0

While the raptor hands look terrible, I see where hasbro got the idea from. Dinobot was based on the 90s Jurassic park idea of what a raptor looked like and that's the hands position you see on many images which Hasbro probably took inspiration of.













Also, anyone else kinda sad that they didn,t stick to their initial ractonite design?

Do we all agree that this:


Looks better than this:

That does make sense for the raptor hands. Having the wrist portion point straight down with the finger portion curling slightly back would have looked better, but they need to be straight for the transformation. So instead he looks like he is ready to dip his nails into some polish for a splash of color. It really is a shame how they came out, but one I can live with.

Loving the jurassic park comparisons!!! That makes a lot of sense now that you mention it

Also, I agree completely about the original ractonite design lol the giant head on one arm isn't very appealing. But im sure there are reasons behind the change, hopefully haha

So, while we all knew Transformers Kingdom Ultra magnus was a retool of the Siege one, we never got a really good sense of just how much was new. Well, a video review comparing the two is out now and we can see that there have been a lot of changes to give it the G1 look, which should have been there in the first place. These aren't huge changes but they do help the figure look more like the G1 Magnus we know. Like the smoother shoulder pylons, differently styled rockets and even new molded detail on the trailer to imitate the G1 structures. We also see how good the inner bot can look when transformed properly, something we did not see before. We thank all the fans who sent this our way.

So let us know what you think. Anyone double dipping?

william-james88 wrote:While the raptor hands look terrible, I see where hasbro got the idea from. Dinobot was based on the 90s Jurassic park idea of what a raptor looked like and that's the hands position you see on many images which Hasbro probably took inspiration of.













Also, anyone else kinda sad that they didn,t stick to their initial ractonite design?

Do we all agree that this:


Looks better than this:

If that is indeed their base for the dino mode, then i can accept the hand more (not that i mind before). However, in this case, i find it weird that they just put regular, round pupil on the dino eyes, not the elongated pupil that should be closer to actual raptor. It just feels a bit odd to have the design goes for realistic approach everywhere on the body, except the eyes.

And yes, ractonite's initial design is way better. The shoulder and hand on the actual toy in particular just feels awkward to me.

bacem wrote:If that is indeed their base for the dino mode, then i can accept the hand more (not that i mind before). However, in this case, i find it weird that they just put regular, round pupil on the dino eyes, not the elongated pupil that should be closer to actual raptor. It just feels a bit odd to have the design goes for realistic approach everywhere on the body, except the eyes.

Uhhh...... since when do we know what raptors' eyes "really" look like for sure? Eyes don't tend to fossilize, especially not the shape of the pupil.

If we're going by comparing it to existing relatives (birds), I'd say the circular pupil is actually probably more accurate than any slit-eyed depiction, although that's ultimately just conjecture.

Im assuming the word "realistic" was meant as resembling what raptors looked like in jurassic Park as that's what was mentioned earlier. I dont think they were under the impression they are the only one that knows what dinosaur pupils looked like, as wild as that might sound

Jeddostotle7 wrote:

bacem wrote:If that is indeed their base for the dino mode, then i can accept the hand more (not that i mind before). However, in this case, i find it weird that they just put regular, round pupil on the dino eyes, not the elongated pupil that should be closer to actual raptor. It just feels a bit odd to have the design goes for realistic approach everywhere on the body, except the eyes.

Uhhh...... since when do we know what raptors' eyes "really" look like for sure? Eyes don't tend to fossilize, especially not the shape of the pupil.

If we're going by comparing it to existing relatives (birds), I'd say the circular pupil is actually probably more accurate than any slit-eyed depiction, although that's ultimately just conjecture.

To clarify, when i said "actual raptor" i mean "the realistic depiction of a raptor based on jurassic park design, that the toy seems to be based of", not "literal real raptor because i can time travel and saw them alive up close".

bacem wrote:

Jeddostotle7 wrote:

bacem wrote:If that is indeed their base for the dino mode, then i can accept the hand more (not that i mind before). However, in this case, i find it weird that they just put regular, round pupil on the dino eyes, not the elongated pupil that should be closer to actual raptor. It just feels a bit odd to have the design goes for realistic approach everywhere on the body, except the eyes.

Uhhh...... since when do we know what raptors' eyes "really" look like for sure? Eyes don't tend to fossilize, especially not the shape of the pupil.

If we're going by comparing it to existing relatives (birds), I'd say the circular pupil is actually probably more accurate than any slit-eyed depiction, although that's ultimately just conjecture.

To clarify, when i said "actual raptor" i mean "the realistic depiction of a raptor based on jurassic park design, that the toy seems to be based of", not "literal real raptor because i can time travel and saw them alive up close".

The Jurassic Park design isn't particularly "realistic", but I see what you mean. I do think the eyes in particular were based more specifically on how they looked in the show rather than more like Jurassic Park, but even there they're slightly vertical rather than just round, so who knows why they did made the pupils round.

I always assumed Dinobots hands were like that to hold an possible Golden disk acesssor,but it's nice to see another reason.

Day 380 of waiting for Transformers Armada Masterpiece news.

bacem wrote:

william-james88 wrote:
Also, anyone else kinda sad that they didn,t stick to their initial ractonite design?

Do we all agree that this:


Looks better than this:

If that is indeed their base for the dino mode, then i can accept the hand more (not that i mind before). However, in this case, i find it weird that they just put regular, round pupil on the dino eyes, not the elongated pupil that should be closer to actual raptor. It just feels a bit odd to have the design goes for realistic approach everywhere on the body, except the eyes.

And yes, ractonite's initial design is way better. The shoulder and hand on the actual toy in particular just feels awkward to me.

Might be because the initial design doesn’t show the rib cage at all unless it’s somewhere on his back. However, Ractonite does seem the most awkward of the Fossilizers so far in terms of proportion in his robot mode. HIs Styracosaurus fossil mode is awesome though. Iguess that since Vertebreak isn’t a weaponizer, she’s a lot better proportioned.