Ultra Magnus

Ultra Magnus is a redeco of the Diaclone "Powered Convoy" figure, itself a redeco and slight retool of "Battle Convoy", the toy that became the original Optimus Prime figure, sporting a new trailer. One of the last few Diaclone toys to be released in the Transformers toyline, Magnus was recolored from the original toy's dark blue, red and black color scheme into a more patriotic red, white and blue, though his chestplate, which was rendered white in his package art followed a more the blue color scheme of his shoulders. He transforms into a White Freightliner WFT-8664T cabover semi-trailer truck, towing a car-carrier trailer capable of transporting up to four normal-sized Autobot cars. As with Optimus Prime, his cab transforms into a small robot, which can then combine with the trailer to form a "super robot", although all original Generation 1 fiction prior to the 21st century ignored this and simply rendered the super robot as Magnus's default robot form. To facilitate this combination, Magnus sports a slightly longer front axle than Prime, thereby creating tabs on either side of the cab that slide into grooves in the trailer to help lock the small robot into place. He is armed with a rifle sporting two handles that allow either of his robot modes to hold it, and two shoulder-mounted missile launchers, whose spring-loaded firing mechanism was removed for the Hasbro release of the figure. The Diaclone Powered Convoy figure had several additional features and modes which were mostly excised or left unmentioned for the Transformers release of Ultra Magnus. Principally, Powered Convoy came packaged with "Powered Buggy", who was left out of Magnus's release (see notes below for further details). Omitted from Magnus's instructions is the ability of his chestplate and super robot head to combine to form a small vehicle; the Powered Convoy version of the figure included small rolling wheels on the underside of the chestplate which were removed for Ultra Magnus. Additionally, three additional modes were included in the Diaclone instructions that Hasbro left out: a "preparation base" mode and an "Autobot base" mode were excluded entirely, while the third, a "catapult launcher" mode originally intended and proportioned to accommodate the Diaclone Jet Robo figure that became Starscream, was shown only on the front of his packaging, interacting with Silverbolt. The Japanese release of Ultra Magnus—released as part of the Scramble City sub-line—did include instructions for the preparation base and catapult launcher modes, but replaced the original Autobot base mode with a new configuration. The original Ultra Magnus figure has been reissued and redecoed several times down the years, and this article strives to list each edition of the figure under its own heading. The first alteration to Magnus, however, was a running change made while he was still on shelves: Originally, his tires were made of rubber and he sported paint on both his small and large robot heads, but this version was soon replaced with one featuring plastic tires and no paint on either head. In addition, the clear yellow plastic that formed his windows was removed from the cab, leaving just holes instead; and his thighs and fuel tanks were left white, as opposed to the vacuum metalized chrome ones of the original release. The small robot component, as well as being part of Optimus Prime, was also released with a different trailer as Pepsi Convoy. The white Optimus Prime redeco was Also repurposed to be Optimus Prime himself in the Transformers vs. G.I. Joe issue The War Never Ends.