Ultra 10 years wait for Masterpiece 22 Ultra Magnus ... ...

Finally! Ultra Magnus looking like Ultra Magnus.

Together with Spike and Daniel

This certainly has been a dream come true as I was very unhappy with Masterpiece 2, Ultra Magnus released by Takara. MP2 was released in 2005, though die-cast, the trailer is made of cardboard and in the packaging, it serves as a tray to hold plastic blister pack of the toy. To get the trailer into shape, you will need to D.I.Y. which I d.i.d.n't bother.

Patience paid off and Takara Tomy made MP22 Ultra Magnus in 2014 and I got it in 2015. There was a third party company (Keith's Fantasy Club) that made the same item but probably due to licensing named it Citizen Stack but nothing beats the original.

Packaging is really kept very much like the original Masterpiece and a little trivia for those who are new to this. Takara used to name it 'Master Piece' and 'THE' in More Than Meets The Eye' is spelled as TEH.

The collector's coin that comes with all pre-orders.

Rear of the packaging gives a synopsis of who Ultra Magnus is and since Takara Tomy came into existence after the acquisition by Tomy, Master piece shrunk in size quite a bit and the Optimus in the picture is also a reformatted Masterpiece which I bought the Year of the Horse edition.

Generally, Masterpiece keeps to very much the G1 look but has a articulated feel and offer more poseability. I also like the addition of Spike and Daniel. The accessories that came with this set are the father and son, blaster and a pair of Matrix of Leadership holding hands. I can throw the box after this review.

I forgot to mention one more piece of accessory and that is the interchangeable faceplate for a shouting facial expression. Removing the faceplate reveals the original look of Ultra Magnus before combing with the trailer.

And that's what MP2 serves to present, the original look of Ultra Magnus which I have no recollection of seeing this in the series. Size comparison also shows how big 'Master Pieces' used to be.

Putting the hands and faceplate together, you can borrow the Matrix of Leadership from Optimus Prime of MP10 of any variant, you can recreate the scene from the movie when Prime passed the Matrix to Ultra Magnus when he 'died'.

"Bro, do you really want to know what is the Matrix?"

"Hey, erm...wrong movie?"

Ultra Magnus does come with the chamber for the Matrix.

Size comparison and this is how they should look proportionally.

Shake it off....shake it off.....

Another nice touch by Takara Tomy is the cab and trailer can be detached. I really like that a lot as you can see the details of the vehicle better.

Spike and Daniel can snuggly fit in and autonomous driving was already available in the 80s.

Attached the trailer and let the fun begin. Streak and Bumblebee loading up.

The armor ready for Gattai!

Ending off this with a few G1 poses.

This is a must get for all Transformers fans but I do worry the 'yellow' syndrome in years to come.