Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Ultra Magnus (SS-86 Commander)

Review:  #790

Name:  Ultra Magnus

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2023

Size Class:  Commander

Mold Status:  new

PACKAGING:

Ultra Magnus comes in a big box that's fully enclosed, given he is part of the larger Commander size class.

The packaging is quite nice given the big artwork, but it is not particularly too premium.

VEHICLE MODE:

Based upon his appearance in the 1986 movie, Ultra Magnus transforms into a car carrier with a white cab, and a blue trailer.

His design is familiar, there are not massive departures in terms of general characteristics.  For example, the back is still obviously the robot shins and legs.

In terms of size, he is decent, however, being a car carrier, there are a lot of empty spaces so he can appear to be bigger than he might otherwise be.

Despite the cab being able to separate, the cab and trailer doesn't have much turning clearance.

This is one long vehicle but he is very impressive in hand.

A gimmick is that he can carry up to three Deluxes.  They're mainly the smaller contemporary Deluxes but it is still a nice gimmick.

The top level can also unclip and be angled down to allow a vehicle to drive up there.

The robot weapons, which are two guns, can peg onto each side for storage in this mode.

Finally, the red tips of the missiles can detach and as depicted in the official instructions, you can peg in the flame effects instead.  It looks a bit corny and cheesy though.

If you look underneath, while the trailer component is compact and dense, the cab is much more hollow as it is mostly just a panelling shell.

Nevertheless, this is a strong vehicle mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Again, the transformation scheme doesn't depart too much from previous figures.  The rear forms the arms and legs, while the cab folds into the torso.  What is quite nice are the way the panels unfold and fold upon each other in order to collapse away.  It's impressive without feeling fragile.

ROBOT MODE:

Robot mode is of course the star of the show and Ultra Magnus looks fabulous here.

He's got huge feet but that adds to his bulkiness, rather than making him look awkward.  He barely has kibble, which is extremely impressive when even the Masterpiece version couldn't achieve that.

The head sculpt is fantastic but he doesn't have any gimmicks related to the head, no face swapping or anything like that.

Size-wise, he is as tall as one the previous bigger Leaders, but he carries much more mass, feeling heftier in your hands.

He's extremely poseable of course, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with a huge cardboard stand as part of the Studio Series line, given the box is very wide, the stand is also very wide.

Ultra Magnus has a fair few gimmicks, the first of which is that his chest is springloaded.  Unclip the blue piece and the chest windows will pop open to reveal the Matrix of Leadership.

For weaponry, he comes with a pair of guns.

The guns can be held in either hand.

There is an open 5mm slot in his hands to peg the guns more securely in than just him holding it.

He comes with several fire effects pieces, but they're casted in a smoky plastic, rather than a fully transparent one.

The smoke effects can peg at the tip of the guns, and since the effects can split into multiple smaller pieces, there are a lot of options in how you can do it.

The guns peg onto his back when not in use.

He has some articulation for his fingers, which is pretty cool and fun to play around with.

A great robot mode, which to be honest, doesn't really have any flaws.

OVERALL:

Ultra Magnus has the moniker of being the first Commander in the Studio Series line and he lives up to expectations.  While he is a tad bit small in vehicle mode, he makes up for it in robot mode where he has good presence.  The transformation is solid, despite the engineering not containing anything too surprising.  While the robot mode is fabulous.

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Super Mario Run (Android)

Super Mario Run is the first mobile game released by Nintendo that used one of their well-known existing intellectual properties. In this case, it was Mario, which was a big deal at the time of release. It did use a monetization method that was rare for its time, being that while it was free to download, only the first three levels were playable for free. After that, you must pay US$10 or its equivalent in your local currency, to unlock the rest of the game. At a time when mobile games were, and currently still is, dominated by free-to-play models, this coupled with the high price, and the game underperformed.

Ignoring that aspect, this is an auto runner. It is designed to emulate what speedrunning a normal Mario game would feel like. In this respect, it achieves its purpose and the game works extremely well as a result. The animation of Mario jumping and flipping around looks amazing, like that first time you’ve played Assassin’s Creed and the parkour just works. As expected, the game is simple to play and simple to control. It is designed to be played with the screen in a vertical orientation. It is playable with one hand and Mario will automatically run. You tap the screen to jump, holding it for a higher jump. Mario will automatically climb over small obstacles and enemies, but if you time it correctly, you’ll be able to jump on top of enemies for extra height and coins.

Coins are scattered throughout the level to collect, and they act as your high score, encouraging you to replay the same level. Timing your jump is important given that you cannot move backwards and that can be annoying especially since each level has five pink coins to collect. Collecting all five in a single attempt will unlock another five purple coins in different positions. Getting those will unlock five black coins in new positions yet again. This is a simple yet addictive element that strongly encourages you to replay the same level.

Despite the auto running, each level is designed quite well in that there are hidden secrets here and there. It obviously incorporates staples of Mario games such as its enemies, the blocks for bonuses, and general gameplay elements. Yet the game puts its own spin on things including blocks where it pauses Mario and the timer to allow you to decide where to go next. The game can get challenging and soon after the first world, cleverer elements come into play where timing is crucial to get the perfect, or near perfect, run.

Each level is short, designed to be completed within a few minutes, usually less than two minutes. Unfortunately, the game only has six worlds of four levels each, meaning there is only a total of 24 levels. Each world has a boss battle to finish it off and these sections make it feel very similar to a normal Mario game despite the auto running. Each level has a timer and if you die, either by an enemy or falling into a bottomless pit, then you can respawn a limited number of times via a bubble. Run out of those bubbles that revive you and you’ll be forced to restart the level. there is an easy mode where it gives you unlimited time and unlimited bubbles (i.e. retries).

The story mode, known as Tour, is supported by a simple yet traditional story. Basically, Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and Mario needs to catch up to him to save her. After completing the original 24 levels, World-Star is unlocked, which has nine new levels. The twist is that each level remains locked and has a specific requirement to unlock. These involve challenges within some of the main game’s levels and they can be tough.

There is another mode called Toad Rally where you play against the ghosts of other players to gain more coins. It can be fun, but this mode is tied to the kingdom building aspect of the game. You will need to keep winning in Toad Rally to advance and gain more toads for your kingdom. This will in turn unlock more buildings and decorations to put into the home screen of the game. Every time you beat a ghost player, it will match you up with harder and harder ones. It seems to scale up quickly, but at least losing doesn’t cause you to lose that many toads, but it is still a setback.

Finally, there is Remix 10 mode where you consecutively play ten very short levels. Basically, these are just small sections of the existing levels. The background of this mode is to find Princess Daisy and playing the mode will give you more buildings and other decorations. Each mini level has at least three purple coins to collect, and dying in one will force you move onto the next level, losing all the coins you had collected from that level. This mode, along with Toad Rally, is gated by tickets that you earn by playing through the Tour Mode.

You can unlock other characters to play, who each control a little bit differently such as Toad who runs faster, or Yoshi who can float a bit during his jumps. Annoyingly, the game requires a persistent internet connection. Even a single drop off will disconnect the game. Due to this, the game constantly loads between screens and levels, which is frustrating. There are times where the game will randomly disconnect from the servers, even when your internet connection is strong and there are no issues with other apps.

Overall, Super Mario Run is a nice interpretation and translation of Super Mario into a simpler format for mobile phones. The animations are smooth, and the controls are simple, yet the levels present just enough challenge to keep it interesting. Each level is a bit too short, but even considering that, it can be annoying restarting a whole level since Mario can only ever go forwards. You can’t really afford to make a mistake and must retry the whole level instead. With its short length, it is a bit too expensive to pay the asking price for the full game, while the free levels are too small a part of the game. Still, it has good production values and is a fun game.

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Blue Reflection Ray (2021)

Blue Reflection Ray is an anime that is a spin-off of the game and is a prelude to the sequel game. It is 24 episodes long and follows Hiori and Ruka. The former is a Reflector, which is basically a magical girl. There are other Reflectors who would use their power to steal the feelings of others. When they do so, they create a temporary bubble, signified by the more fantastical elements, and the feelings are represented as a crystal. Reflectors are then able to transform in these bubbles, complete with weapons. It is like the original game in that the designs have a ballet theme to them.

Hiori is on the good side, and she fights against the other Reflectors as she does not believe that taken even unwanted feelings from someone will help them. Those feelings make up that person. Ruka can become a Reflector, but she is reluctant in the beginning as she doesn’t know what she wants to do with herself. It takes a short period of time before she finally decides.

The anime doesn’t explain the context of the setting very well and you’re left to figure it out yourself. It doesn’t help that the writing and pacing is subpar. It is very slow and there are times where it can be disjointed. Coupled with the poor and simple animation and this anime does not leave a good first, second, third or any sort of lasting impression. Unfortunately, the slow pacing and uninteresting plot continues to pander on for most of the season. You might start getting confused over several of the characters as they do not have much of a difference between them in terms of personality and appearance. Just like the games, the point of this show is to show off how beautiful the characters are, and the plot is second.

The plot supposedly has a big turning point in the middle of the season, but you’ll still find it hard to care. The anime was episodic for most of the first half of the season too. In every episode, there will be a small plot point and then the girl of the week who will have their feelings crystalized and attempted to be taken over by the enemy. Yes, things progress, such as the protagonists increasing in number, or the backstories coming out, but it is all so very dreary and dry.

Once the mid-season conflict is resolved, the second half seemingly goes back to how it was. It removes the episodic nature but it’s still about the protagonists finding a way to beat the antagonists. The antagonists are still in the background plotting away with their goal which hasn’t changed. While the protagonists are more aimless with just the generic “we have to stop them” as their only guiding post. Even big things such as the reveal of the characters you are supposed to know and supposed to feel surprised by, are dull.

While it is not a big revelation as such, the last part of the season is a little bit more focused. By now, it is obvious that the events concern and revolve around Hiori. Things being just that little bit clearer when it comes time to show off why it is so. The pacing remains slow and there are still too many scenes with nothing happening in them, but it’s a little less boring.

The season waits until the very end to reveal the motivation and backstory of the main villain. It is designed to be a tragic backstory so that you can feel sorry for her and empathize with her actions. However, it was left too late and so by that point, it is difficult to take her side considering all the things that she did. It doesn’t matter though since the anime finishes with the expected happy ending and things are quickly forgiven, making most of the season feel redundant.

Overall, Blue Reflection Ray is extremely average. The game it is based off didn’t have an amazing story, so this anime did not have a strong foundation to work off from anyway. However, the storyline did not have enough plot to sustain the full 24 episodes. Half of the episode count would have been sufficient because as it is, the pacing is too slow, and you lose interest in what happens. Having a reset in the middle of the season and then the characters kind of repeating what they were doing to catch up was not great either.

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For other reviews, have a look at this page and this page.