+- Saké Comments (http://www.transformertoys.co.uk/discussion)
+-- Forum: TRANSFORMERS (/forum-1.html)
+--- Forum: Transformers Discussions (/forum-2.html)
+--- Thread: Hasbro UK's G1 Magnus lie (/thread-1686.html)
Hasbro UK's G1 Magnus lie - Brawn - 02-14-2011 11:48 AM
Until I saw the Movie on VHS I long believed that Ultra Magnus was the Autobot leader.
I was too young for the 84-85 characters really, and the toys I was getting were things like Metroplex, Ultra Magnus, Combiners etc.
As such I relied heavily and drooled over the Product Catalogues we got with the toys like these ones (probably the 86) one:
http://www.transformertoys.co.uk/content.php?/transformers-gallery/european-generation-one/146/european-generation-one/UK+Sheet+4.html
Rodimus wasn't even in it??? And Ultra Magnus is clearly labled as the leader, imagine my dissapointment of him in the movie....!
Why did Hasbro lie to us for two years continously with the next catalogue (probably 87?):
http://www.transformertoys.co.uk/content.php?/transformers-gallery/european-generation-one/147/european-generation-one/UK+Sheet+5.html
Even when Rodimus was released, I assume a year late, he is only a hero and Magnus is still the leader.
Did they just think the Rodimus toy was too lame to be a leader? Did anyone else believe this, or anything else as a kid? .... and yes it still bothers me.
Re: Hasbro UK's G1 Magnus lie - minion - 02-14-2011 02:55 PM
All guess work, but I imagine that it's a case of the toys not having the same storyline as the shows and comics. I'm remember reading that Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge were intended as new characters rather than reformatted old ones, and it was a later decision that lead to what we now know.
Magnus probably fell the same fate, being intended to be so much more, but then relegated to what I suppose amounts to 2nd in command of the Autobots. It was probably too hard (or Hasbro were too lazy) to rebrand him at a later date.
I never owned Magnus as a kid, but did have a Rodimus that I remember getting on sale as Fourboys newsagents in town because the box had been opened and his gun and instructions stolen/lost. I thought he was a cracking toy, especially the trailer.
As a child I totally believed Magnus to be some sort of high commander because of those ads and other bits like his function. For me the techspecs were everything (at least for the figures I had and what I saw on the toy shelves). I think I read too much into Brawn's which is what made me love him even more - despite being my first TF
