Dave's Ultra Beast Rant: Magnaboss Since each set is effectively four toys, I'm reviewing Tripredacus and Magnaboss separately. CAPSULE The reverse of Tripredacus, which had strong pieces and a weak gestalt, Magnaboss has some weak parts but a very strong gestalt. More dynamic colors, better weapons, poseable and stable gestalt, challenging transformations. Definitely worth the time and money. Strongly recommended. $19.99 at Toys R Us. New Packaging Note: The "true" Fourth Wave toys (Grimlock and Lazorbeak are Wave 3.5, really) have added a feature to the package which isn't part of the techspecs proper, although I'll be listing them in the techspecs in the future. It's a "Challenge level of robot conversion" graph, which is a four point scale: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. It can also be interpreted as a ten point scale, since there's ten boxes under the four words. The final box has an arrowpoint, which points to the line representing the difficulty level. So, for example, reports of B'Boom having a rating of 5.5 really translate to a 6, between Intermediate and Advanced. I have to add here that the box art for Magnaboss is quite striking. Simultaneously Japanese (Samurai) and Amerind in appearance. However, the grimace on the face (which also appears on the box picture) of Magnaboss is not present on the toy, they probably retooled it to look friendlier. TECH SPECS MAXIMAL: Magnaboss Function: Combat Leader Challenge Level: Expert (9) Quote: None A new breed of super robot blasts its way to the head of the Maximal battle lines with three times the fighting force! Prowl's ferocity, Silverbolt's swiftness, and Ironhide's strength team up to form Magnaboss - a triple-power threat capable of annihilating any Predacon enemy, even the ultra combative Tripredacus. Magnaboss owns the battlefield, arming itself with a massive, megaton battle sword composed of Silverbolt's razor-tipped wing swords, and Ironhide's blunt-force battle clubs mounted on Prowl's cyber tail claw. If two heads are better than one, Magnaboss is way ahead of that game...times three! STR 10 INT 10 SPD 9 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRP 10 SKL 10 Avg 9.875 Again, there's no individual tech specs, so I'll be writing my own as part of this review. The premise behind these specs will be that the fusion of robots came about as a side effect of merging three sparks to stablize them after the damage wrought on re-entry to the protoforms. MAGNABOSS It's worth noting that this is NOT the first Elephant/Lion/Eagle combiner three-team toy to be made. That honor goes to the toy ripped off as Star Warrior a couple of years ago (I forget the original name, but it wasn't anything too terribly famous). However, Magnaboss kicks that toy around the block. Standing about 9 inches (23 cm) tall, Magnaboss is easily as stocky and fleshed out as Optimus Primal, and nearly as poseable (elephant bits get in the way in much the same way as rhino bits get in Rhinox's way). All of the limbs come from Ironhide, and are stout and stiff, allowing for good stand-up posing. The head can't turn, nor can the waist, but the arms and legs have great poseability. As mentioned above, the face has been remolded and is probably the most robotic face to come down the pike in a while for Beast Wars, rivalling Optimus's faceplate. I haven't tried this yet, but it may also be possible to do a "mutant head" trick with this one, deploying Prowl's lion face instead of Magnaboss's face. The gestalt is built up in layers. First you compact Prowl into a ball, then you wrap Silverbolt around him, then wrap Ironhide the origami elephant around both. Ironhide forms the arms, chestplate, horns and everything from the waist down, which gives Magnaboss a very unified color scheme of mainly red and grey, wtih some brown, yellow and white accents. Much better than the hodgepodge of Tripredacus. Silverbolt's missiles can be fired out from Magnaboss's chest, but it's difficult to get them to do so and they don't fire too far. Magnaboss holds together quite well, through a series of locking tabs, pegs and slots. The chest is a little dodgy, as the chestplate is just a little too narrow for Silverbolt's wings to tab/slot onto tightly, but it holds well enough. And the merger of weapons into a giant sword works very well, although it still relies on one of the toys getting a pretty lame weapon individually. IRONHIDE Ironhide is a mass of folding flaps, excellent fun for origami freaks, and no easier to transform from robot to component than from elephant to component form. Proposed Techspec: MAXIMAL: Ironhide Function: Ground Assault Challenge Level: Advanced (7) Quote: "Zat the best ya got?" This Ironhide has very little in common with his namesake other than a tremendous ability to take punishment. Confident, perhaps overconfident, in his armor plated hide, Ironhide takes risks that Cheetor would blanch at, but somehow always comes out in one piece...even if nothing else around him does. Between his titanium tusks, duralloy spikes concealed within his wrists and his mighty Gamma Club which is both blaster and bludgeon, few things stand long if they're in Ironhide's way. STR 9 INT 4 SPD 4 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRP 7 SKL 6 Avg 6.5 Beast Mode: Pretty much an elephant statue, but one doesn't expect loads of poseability from an elephant, yes? Robot bits visible from rear and beneath, but from front and sides it's a convincing elephant. The "animal attack mode" involves flipping this club pieces our from behind his ears on hinges, and it looks really lame, I recommend never doing it. }-> Besides, given the sheer number of joints in his tusks, they're weapon enough in beast mode. About 4 inches (10 cm) tall and 6 inches (15 cm) long. Transformation: Lots and lots of folding panels and multiply-hinged joints. Not too hard to master once you get the hang of it, but it takes a few trials to get the hang of it. Robot Mode: About 6 inches (15 cm) tall, with a serious hunchback (the head is about an inch below the top of the back). Head doesn't move much, nor are the limbs particularly free to move among all the elephant parts. The elbows are about two millimeters from the shoulders, since they're the knees of Magnaboss and Magnaboss's hips are over by Ironhide's neck. Not much in the way of hands, since his hands are Magnaboss's feet and vice versa, so he doesn't hold the club too well. The heels of Magnaboss's feet form nifty spikes for Ironhide's fists, adding to the "Maxx" look of the toy (the head and hunched over posture help there too). Overall: Definitely suffers from being the big part of Magnaboss, so much of Ironhide is devoted to the gestalt that there's little left for him. It's not a bad toy, mind you, but a dedicated elephant transformer would probably have been done better. SILVERBOLT Actually easier to transform from beast mode to combined mode. Proposed Techspec: MAXIMAL: Silverbolt Function: Aerial Recon Challenge Level: Intermediate (4) Quote: "From up here, they all look like ants, even Inferno!" Another new Maximal who goes against the reputation of his namesake, Silverbolt LOVES the skies and can hardly get enough. He's been known to stay airborne for days at a time, following the sunrise around the curve of the planet to keep thermals under his jet-assisted wings. In a fight, he'll fire smart missiles from his wings out to the sides, then distract his target with dogfighting acrobatics until the missiles home in on their surprised target. When too close for missiles, he can slice opponents with carbon-fiber ceramic composite wings, the trailing edges of which can detach and be used as swords in robot mode. STR 5 INT 6 SPD 9 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 6 FRP 7 SKL 8 Avg 6.5 Beast Mode: With an impressive wingspan of nearly 11 inches (27 cm), Silverbolt has the correct proportions Airazor skimps on. Metallic bronze feathers with white accents complete the bald eagle look. Unfortunately, from below Silverbolt is quite hollow and his robot arms stick out under the tail in a rather noticeable fashion. Plus, it's hard to get Silverbolt to balance on legs which are just a little too far back. You almost get a gerwalk mode just trying to make it stand. Transformation: There's really only one trick, and it's fairly easy to figure out. But you do have to watch out for joint-popping. Robot Mode: Not so good. Solid brown on torso, thighs and upper arms, bright white on head, forearms and shins, very little decoration at all on the main robot body. The wings are impressive, but in a way this is also a weakness, since they make it very hard to keep Silverbolt standing even when you use his bird tail as a third leg. And the plastic for his robot-only parts just feels kinda cheap. Stands only slightly taller than a Regular Beast at 4.5 inches (11 cm). Overall: If sold as a Regular, I might recommend it, but it's just kinda klunky. Putting missile launchers along the length of the wings doesn't help in making them non-klunky. PROWL Equally hard to transform into component mode from either other mode, most of the difficulty comes from the toy's fragility. Proposed Techspec: MAXIMAL: Prowl Function: Tracker Challenge Level: Intermediate (5) but fragile Quote: "Prey comes to the hunter who is patient, but flees the one who is too patient." Considered by the other Maximals to be the most like his namesake of the Magnaboss team, but this is damning with faint praise. Prowl has a keen analytical mind which he uses to anticipate the actions of his target, often tracking a Predacon for miles without any physical evidence, merely using the target's own habits in place of spoor. But when the prey is found, all trace of logic vanishes as Prowl leaps for the kill, preferring the natural claws and teeth of his form to the Petraxium spurs implanted in his mane. When the goal is to subdue rather than kill, he often employs the man-catcher weapon concealed in his tail. STR 7 INT 9 SPD 7 END 5 RNK 7 COUR 7 FRP 3 SKL 7 Avg 6.5 Beast Mode: Like a smaller version of Cheetor in many ways, but more poseable. Unfortunately, as Prowl is made of cheaper plastic than Cheetor, he's prone to falling apart, especially at the very weak joint between his robot forearms and lion forepaws. And he shares Cheetor's weird hind legs and missing butt syndrome. His "animal attack mode" weapon is a pair of horns that pop out of his mane rather unconvincingly. There's no real "undercarriage garbage," as that sort of thing is hidden in his mane, but there's some parts metallized for No Very Good Reason which amount to the same sort of thing. Well, okay, they're there to make the robot mode a little more robotic looking. Tranformation: Similar to Cheetor's, especially the legs, but complicated by the cheap plastic and weak joints (the head has an alarming tendency to fall off if you even look at it funny). There's some clever hinging and tab-locking in assembling the chest, but the low grade of plastic used tends to not live up to the design. Robot Mode: Also about 4.5 inches (11 cm) tall, he color coordinates very well with Airazor, and even has a winglike motif from his mane halves. His lion paws hang out like sore thumbs, especially on the forearms where they snap off so easily, but at least on the heels they act to counterbalance the weight of the mane. His tail forms a very lame clawlike grabber weapon or fork. Overall: As a Regular, he's almost worth it. But the cheap plastic used makes him feel like a knockoff of a real BW toy. Fortunately, he's all balled up and protected inside Magnaboss, so this doesn't really enter into things. MAGNABOSS OVERALL: While his component pieces have major weaknesses, the combined form is very cool, and well worth the money...and the time you'll spend figuring out how to put it together.