Ultra Magnus (Energon)

The name or term "Ultra Magnus" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Ultra Magnus (disambiguation).

Ultra Magnus is an Autobot from the Energon portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

Oh, he CAN deal with that now.

Battle-hardened veteran Ultra Magnus is a wise and powerful leader. His natural effectiveness as a leader is enhanced by the constant counsel of his binary-bonded Mini-Con partner Knock Out. As a leader, he prefers to concentrate on the here-and-now, and has little patience for mystical mumbo-jumbo.

Fiction

Force of Habit

After serving with distinction in the Armada War and the Powerlinx Battles, Ultra Magnus was given command of the half-finished Autobot flagship Iron Hope during the Unicron Singularity crisis. Magnus sent the Eclipse, the Valiant, the Azusa, the Spanner, the DieCast, and the Longbow to search the galaxy for ancient Autobot colony worlds. While en route to the Delta Crateris system, he received a distress signal from Longrack, the Spanner's commander. Over Ironhide's objections, he maintained their course. A second call for aid was also denied, as the Iron Hope had come under Decepticon attack. After ordering his troops to their battle stations, Magnus leapt into battle against the raiders himself. Force of Habit

Toys

Energon

I totally bought one at Target, I swear.

• Ultra Magnus (Ultra, 2004)
  • Accessories: 2 missiles

Energon Ultra Magnus is a redeco of Armada Overload, transforming into a weapons trailer/aircraft launcher with spring-loaded missiles. His robot-mode shoulders have flip-open panels to reveal non-firing missile racks. He came with Knock Out, who forms the robot mode's head and central torso, and activates electronic sounds when he is plugged into the robot mode's chest socket. Ultra Magnus also came with a redeco of the Space Mini-Con Team. He has a third "weapon mode" that can plug onto the back of the Armada Optimus Prime super-robot mode, or the Prime trailer's "base" mode.

The toy was a last-minute "eleventh hour" redeco, along with Rapid Run and Treadbolt. As such, their packaging photography had to be completed before properly-painted samples could be obtained, so the box-back photos use the original decos; Magnus' box also shows the original Street Speed Team rather than the Space Team.

Magnus, Rapid Run and Treadbolt were all produced in smaller numbers than the rest of the normal retail Energon line, and were only available in the initial shipments. However, while Rapid Run and Treadbolt were fairly easy to acquire, Magnus' shipment saw a very limited release, quickly replaced with the second assortment in the US, making him hard to come by. Magnus later showed up in much larger numbers in Australia, Canada and some European markets; in the United Kingdom in particular, he actually shelfwarmed so badly that he could be found well into 2006. He was made available in Japan as a Toy's Dream Project exclusive "USA Edition" with the box altered via a grayscale sticker, reflecting the Space Team's addition (see below for more).

This mold was retooled to make Universe Sentinel Maximus.

• More information on Ultra Magnus at TFU.info
• More information on Ultra Magnus at Transformers-Universe.com

Notes

Sadly unreleased.

• Magnus was originally going to be packed with new-character redecos of the Street Speed Mini-Con Team named "Brakedown", "Clocker" and "Override", but they were replaced with same-character redecos of the Space Mini-Con Team presumably at the last possible minute. The redecoed Street Speed Team members were displayed at OTFCC 2003, and leaked packaged samples of Ultra Magnus that have made it out into the secondary market contain the Street Speed Mini-Cons in their intended colors (see also the image to the right), and the final release version still lists them on both sides of the packaging, although the back of the box shows them in the original Armada Street Speed Team's colors (as well as Ultra Magnus in Armada Overload's colors). The Japanese "USA Edition" release (in minimally modified Hasbro packaging) still lists the Street Speed Team on the front of the box, but covers the portion on the back that depicts the Street Speed Mini-Cons with a grayscale sticker depicting the Space Team, whereas the European packaging lists and depicts the Space Team (albeit still in their Armada colors). A popular fan-theory posits that this change was due to the redecoed Street Speed Team's(intentional) resemblance to Japanese-market exclusive Super Stunt Team redecos (just with the colors rotated between the three of them), but if that were the case, it seems that it would have been a lot easier on Hasbro's part to simply stick with the intended sculpts and change their colors rather than go through the process of replacing the sculpts themselves. Exactly why the change to the Space Team was made has yet to be determined, especially given Magnus's inability to hold their combined form.
• He's not an Optimus Prime redeco. That should count for something.
• He's a redeco of one of Optimus Prime's magic mushrooms. That's even less dignified!!