I have both version of Scorn from the live action movie. Say what you want about them, but the dinobot designs were pretty great. Except Swoop. The 2 heads was just stupid. But I still bought both versions of him too. About the only one I didn't buy was the bigger Grimlock cause I didn't have the money for him. But I have bother versions of the smaller one.

I thought SS Swoop was supposed to be a Voyager, not a leader? I don't think he should be leader just because of the dinosaur he is alone. I suppose he did look the same size in bot mode as the rest in the movie. But the scale in those days on screen was suspect at best. The animation is all wonky and there are alot of inconsistencies and errors. Plus buying another $55 Transformer I already have a few versions of hurts the wallet lol. He better come with fuckin missiles and a sword at that price. But if history has shown us anything, he won't.

They've been able to do some pretty nifty size shifting with some of these characters too. Some recent robot modes have been able to compact down pretty well. I know it's Masterpiece, but Trailbreaker comes to mind. I think I'd have preferred a voyager sized Swoop, but a leader sized one would make for more anime accuracy, and I could see them compacting that robot mode into a pretty small pterodactyl.

I'm also happy to get a Leader Swoop.  I'd hate for him to look out of place with the other Dinobots.

I display mine in dino mode, cause I think they look better that way, especially without all the weapons. Him being that big if they can't compact it will definitely look odd. I'd display my Beast Wars stuff in their beast modes if I had the room. As is I'm basically out of room for them in bot mode.

Bombshell shipping soon from Pulse.

Leader Slug is now back up for PO on Pulse.

I snagged the last Ironhide/Prowl set. Again, wouldn't have sweated missing this set, but I found it, and for half off, it was definitely worth picking up. I have to imagine they'll do the same with Ratchet and Brawn for this crew. And now having Detritus in hand, I'm jonesing for a Hound.

Now that I've had it for a while I have to admit Snarl's yellow vs gold doesn't bother me anywhere as much as it did before I received the figure.  If I don't find decent upgrade kit I can live with this figure as is.

I stumbled on Ultra Magnus today during my lunch at GameStop! With some Pro rewards points redeemed and a monthly coupon, I was able to shave it down to $75.

Man, this thing is a powerhouse. Right out of package, I managed to forget all about the odd width of his chest/shoulders, and it just looks like a smaller Masterpiece rendition. I don't know if it captures the anime models as well as the actual Masterpiece UM, but it comes really close. Way closer than War for Cybertron versions. It's on par with the quality of SS Hot Rod and Kingdom Rodimus Prime.

It's not without issues, the most severe of which was the cab portion of the transformation. The cab is a separate element, and it falls out constantly. Something about the peg that holds it in just.. doesn't. Maybe the mushroom is too narrow, maybe even nonexistent. I do feel a click when it's in, and it shifts based on the mode, but if I have to flip it over to transform other parts, the cab just falls right off. The peg is the hitch on which the trailer pivots, so it's meant to come apart there, but I'm sure not constantly.

So I guess I was being harsh when I said "issues", because really, that's just one issue. Everything else to me works really well. The conversion steps are intuitive if you have MP UM already. If not, you're still in for a treat. Everything (else) clicks and pegs together. There was some trickiness in the knees that kept me from pegging the trailer to completion, but I eventually figured it out.

One more thing to note, is that as he's strapped to the cardboard, he is not sporting his "horns" on his head. Those are separate pieces among his accessories, which are wrapped in paper. Make sure you find them before you discard that stuff. His other accessories are the shoulder rockets and launchers, two rifles, a string of blast effects that peg into each other. The matrix is already plugged into his chest.

Ultra Magnus has always been a favorite of mine. He was my de facto leader of my original toys, as I didn't have Optimus or Hot Rod. I've coveted every incarnation of him, and CHUG had me yearning for definitive options at mass market. War for Cybertron came close, but this is exactly what I've wanted for years.

Some other observations:

The white plastics are inconsistent. Some are gorgeous pure white, some spots seem off white, like the cab area around the windshield, the elbows, the ramps for cars to enter the carrier. It’s not a great look.

There are some very minor steps in conversion that are easy to miss. There are slots that hold the forearms to the legs in trailer mode that need shifting, kind of an abdominal plate that needs rotating in bot mode.. these are little things I missed since I didn’t use instructions to convert. 

I also discovered his rifles can plug into his back, but one plugs into his butt plate. A little silly looking.

https://flic.kr/p/2p715C7

https://flic.kr/p/2p6Y9aZ

https://flic.kr/p/2p6Y9aZ

Also his chest plates spring open after you hinge the blue breast plate up. Kinda cool auto-transform feature.

Ugh, not sure if you guys see the distortion, I see the pics normal on my phone, but on a desktop, the vertical orientation photos I upload to Flickr get squished. Sorry about that, really not illustrative of what Magnus looks like. That photo now has the opposite effect of emphasizing his broadness, and compounds that with making him look squat.

I knew he was too wide! 😜 

It look distorted on the forum page, but if you click the image it looks correct on the image page.

Pulse updated Magnus' release date to 10/9. Ratchet remains 11/1, for now.

Yeah, I got the notice for UM getting ready at Pulse. I gotta cancel that! I'd love multiples of this figure, but $75 spoiled me and I don't want to swing $90 for this, as great as he is.