Delta Magnus

Delta Magnus is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Fear me. I'm not just a Convoy; I'm a Powered Convoy.

Delta Magnus was the leader of the legendary Primal Vanguard, known for overusing the adjective "glorious". He and Ultra Magnus are both members of the House of Magnus.^[1]

Fiction

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

I'm going cross the delta.

A red and blue Ultra Magnus clone was one of several clones created by Shockwave in the same program that produced Sunstorm. While in a tube, he was discovered by the Battlechargers, who released Sunstorm. The laboratory the clones were stored in was soon destroyed by Sunstorm. Night of the Combaticons Prowl later watched footage of the clone from Shockwave's lab while trying to unravel the Decepticon's schemes. The Omega Effect

2005 IDW continuity

Do I have any particular reason for existing beyond selling toys to collectors?

Delta Magnus and the Primal Vanguard watched over the Matrix of Leadership after the disappearance of Nova Prime. During the Interregnum, Delta Magnus used a power booster rod to trick the Nebulans into thinking he was a god.

Ironfist worshiped Delta Magnus, reading as much as he could about Delta Magnus's days with the Primal Vanguard, adopting his catchphrase "glorious", and even building a life-size model of Delta Magnus. An Intimate Beheading

When the war broke out, Delta Magnus fought the Decepticons alongside Ultra Magnus, Orion Pax, and Skids. The Divided Self

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Dreamwave Jazz wishes he was me!

Masterpiece toy bios

Delta Magnus, of uncertain relation to Ultra Magnus, was a member of the Primal Vanguard who was sometimes tasked with holding the Matrix in his body till a true successor was found. He was assisted in his tasks by Powerdrive (パワードライブ Pawādoraibu) a buggy drone, but fell in battle. To preserve morale, Autobot leaders took Delta's Magnus Armor and assigned others to wear it, to continue the illusion of a still-living great warrior. Wearers would die and then the armor would move on to a successor, till an upgraded and trained Powerdrive was chosen as the seventh. With the loss of the original armor, Powerdrive was integrated into the armor's remaining stock and became a single, integrated robot. He would go on to have a long and famed career as Delta Magnus.

However, fearing that his true identity would come out in the open, he turned down an offer to command the newly built Autobot City on Earth. Still transferring to Earth, Powerdrive as himself developed a close relationship with pen pal Marissa Faireborn. Developing a bond with the human, he revealed that he and Delta Magnus were one and the same. With the death of Ultra Magnus, Delta Magnus was forced to become City Commander, and panicked over the possible reveal of his secret, believing that the Decepticons would use this to destroy the Autobot's moral high ground. His confidante Marissa gave him advice, noting that him acting as Delta Magnus was really just an extension of the idea of "robots in disguise" and was still in the pursuit of justice. Her words comforted Delta Magnus, who came to a decision. Masterpiece Delta Magnus bio

At some point, Delta Magnus learned of the long-lost fortress of Diadem, which dated back to the era immediately after the people of Cybertron overthrew their Quintesson creators. Seeking to secure the facility's wealth of ancient data, Delta Magnus travelled to the human colony planet that was home of Cordon, an amnesiac Autobot reserve trooper who hailed from the era of Diadem. Offering him the chance to restore his missing memories from Diadem's backups, Magnus successfully recruited Cordon to join a mission to the installation and use his biometrics to unlock it. Masterpiece Cordon profile

Unfortunately, the mission to Diadem turned into a battle with both Decepticons and Quintessons, and much of the installation's data was lost due to the damage. Cordon's memories were recovered (although the trooper ultimately declined to install them), but more notably, the Autobots also discovered a robot named "Spin-Out" in stasis. Diadem's records revealed that Spin-Out was originally a piloted battle machine built to fight "Waruders" on the Earth of a different dimension; the facility's Anterior Zeta computer system had recovered the mech from a crashed spacecraft 10 million years ago and elevated it into a living Transformer using Vector Sigma programming. While Delta Magnus questioned Anterior Zeta's subsequent decision to secretly disseminate a genetic imperative to fight the Waruders throughout the Cybertronian repair network, he agreed with the computer-brain that the threat posed by the faction was well worth preparing against. Masterpiece Spinout profile

Some time later, it emerged that the planet Foreston was home to an underground factory from the same era as Diadem, where "second generation" bodies had been constructed for testing at the latter facility. While the project had been forgotten during the Cybertronian civil wars, the factory had continued to operate autonomously for millions of years, and was now believed to contain countless advanced body frames that would be invaluable to the Autobot cause. Delta Magnus dispatched a team to the facility, with Crosscut among them as his senatorial status would give him authority over the factory's archaic security systems. While the team secured the "G2" technology within for the Autobots, they also discovered that the facility had inadvertently unleashed a swarm of strangely-evolved prototypes into the world. Masterpiece Crosscut profile

Legends comic

Delta Magnus and Marissa were summoned to the Legends World by Waspinator, who was trying to figure out which universe Magna Convoy was from. Learning that Magna Convoy belonged to one "Primus Vanguard", Magnus professed to have never heard of it, his own organization being known as the Primal Vanguard. He expressed doubt that Convoy's group hailed from his universe, then set out to explore the Legends World with Marissa. They returned to find that Ginrai had borrowed Delta Magnus's car carrier trailer, though they never witnessed him also combine with it into Super Magna Convoy. Bonus Edition Magna Convoy While participating in the battles to wipe out the Concurrence in 2022, Delta Magnus listened to Marissa's report that the Autobots and EDC were being supported by six mysterious Transformers. Bonus Edition Greatshot

Toys

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers

Thank God for toy repurposing!

• Ultra Magnus Yokokuhen Version (February 26, 2001)
  • ID number: C-69
  • Accessories: Large robot head, rifle, chest plate, trailer connector/waist plate, 2 small robot fists (left & right), 2 missile launchers, 4 missiles

In the early stages of the development of The Transformers: The Movie, promotional footage for the movie was released that depicted Ultra Magnus in the black, red, and dark blue color scheme of the original Diaclone Powered Convoy toy. As the second of two exclusive redecos released in the wake of the 2000 reissue of the original Ultra Magnus toy, the "Movie Preview Version" (予告編バージョン Yokokuhen Bājon) of Ultra Magnus paid homage to this early appearance. He is just a redeco of the Transformers Magnus figure, however, and so despite his resemblance to the Diaclone figure, he still lacks that toy's exclusive features, like Powered Buggy, wheels in his chestplate, and a Diaclone pilot.

Movie Preview Version Ultra Magnus was available exclusively at Toy Festival 2001, held on February 26, 2001 in Tokyo, Japan, limited to 1,500 pieces.

• More information on Ultra Magnus Movie Preview Version at TFU.info

Masterpiece

Surprise, I'm not him! ...Or him!

• Delta Magnus (August 27, 2016)
  • ID number: MP-31
  • Accessories: Energy Shotgun, 2 missiles, Marissa figure, 2 neutral faces, 2 yelling faces

Masterpiece Delta Magnus is a redeco of Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus in his Diaclone precursor's colors, transforming into a car carrier with a functioning gate/ramp. His trailer can carry four Masterpiece Autobot cars – two on the upper deck, which features small indents to stop them from rolling off, and two on the lower. The figure lacks the Matrix of Leadership-holding hands that came with MP-22, but his chest retains a storage space for the Matrix that came with MP-10. In place of the articulated Spike and Daniel figures from MP-22 he comes with Marissa Faireborn, who can ride in his cab. Delta Magnus comes with four interchangeable faces: yellow-eyed silent or shouting, and blue-eyed silent or shouting.

If purchased from a seller supplied by Hasbro Asia, Delta Magnus comes with a collector coin, mounted in a folding card styled like his chest and torso, opening to reveal the coin where the Matrix chamber would be.

Shattered Glass Collection

Surprise, I'm him! ...And him!

For further information, see: Ultra Magnus (SG)#Shattered Glass Collection

Shattered Glass Collection Ultra Magnus is a retool of Kingdom Ultra Magnus, making use of an alternate skull head sculpt based on the original Shattered Glass character's design. However, in a rare move for a "mainline" Generations figure, Magnus also includes the toy's original head, noted during a Hasbro Pulse Fan First Friday Tuesday livestream to allow fans to repurpose the figure as Delta Magnus.^[2] During the same event the inner robot was consistently referred to as Magna Convoy. Neither appellation made it onto the toy's packaging.

Unlike the Shattered Glass head that can be popped off with some ease, and despite what the instructions tell you to do; the Delta Magnus head requires repeated unscrewing if you want to swap them, though a mod can be made to ease the swapping by slicing off some panels from the inner front socket/lower jaw section from underneath his silver face plate.

Merchandise

Yolopark

• House of Magnus BotCon VS Set (AMK Mini Series set, 2024)

• Accessories: 2 additional pairs of hands (Splayed, Pointing), Ion blaster
• Known designers: Jesse Wittenrich (deco)

Released exclusively for the Agabyss-organized BotCon 2024 convention, this AMK Mini Series kit of Delta Magnus is a redeco of the same line's Optimus Prime, and can be only completed by snapping the pre-painted pieces together. Aside from the identical hand parts used for most of the AMK Minis, Delta Magnus also comes with his ion blaster.

Delta Magnus is only sold as a 2-pack along with Sunstorm.

• Jesse Wittenrich's designer commentary on AMK Mini Series Delta Magnus

Notes

"If you think about, that Masterpiece toy is kinda like if your coworker died on the job and you wore their skin afterwards."

• Dreamwave's Ultra Magnus clone was never named in any of his appearances. He is included here because he uses the same basis—the Powered Convoy toy—as Delta Magnus.
• IDW Delta Magnus's body appears to incorporate elements of both Ultra Magnus's and Orion Pax's designs, including Magnus's antennae and huge shoulders and Pax's shoulder-tires and droplet-shaped forehead vent.
• In Japanese continuity, Powerdrive, as a buggy drone in his original form, is based on the original Powered Convoy's accessory, who was named "Powered Buggy" (パワードバギー). The implication here is that the original Powered Convoy toy, Powered Buggy and all, represents the original Delta Magnus, while the Masterpiece toy (with integrated cab and no partner) is Powerdrive as Delta Magnus.
• Delta Magnus's identity being taken up by a series of successors using the Magnus Armor after his death is, of course, a wholesale reference to the IDW version of Ultra Magnus, whose present-day iteration is actually Minimus Ambus.

Origins

I was the original super mode.

In 1983, Takara released the Diaclone mecha toy Powered Convoy (パワードコンボイ), an alternative working of the Battle Convoy toy, the latter of which was recycled by Hasbro with minimal changes as The Transformers headliner Optimus Prime. In anticipation of the upcoming 1986 theatrical film, Hasbro opted to import the Powered Convoy toy as the character Ultra Magnus. Before being informed of the toy selection, film artist Floro Dery would sketch an original design (which did see use in the cartoon episode "War Dawn" as Orion Pax, the young Optimus Prime). As the animation process for the film got underway, the Diaclone toy design was used in initial footage of Ultra Magnus, but later on, Ultra Magnus was finalized with a Transformers-original color scheme with a white truck cab. Nonetheless, various home media releases of the movie would give fans a glimpse of early-stage movie scenes featuring the Diaclone color scheme.

In 2001, Takara reissued Ultra Magnus in his Diaclone colors, labeled "Ultra Magnus Movie Preview Version" (ウルトラマグナス予告編バージョン) in homage to the early movie footage. In 2004, this toy would receive an Easter egg cameo in the Dreamwave Productions comic issue Generation One #1, and in 2011, a TFWiki page would be created for this hi-and-die character under the Diaclone-inspired placeholder name "Powered Convoy". Concurrently, Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II would introduce an Animated incarnation of the Diaclone design under the name "Powered Convoy", or P.C. Magnus.

Then in 2012, IDW Publishing comic writer James Roberts introduced the background character "Delta Magnus", an ambiguous relative of Ultra Magnus, drawn by Alex Milne and Josh Burcham in homage to the Diaclone toy. In 2015, this wiki opted to merge the pages for the Dreamwave and IDW characters together, and this decision soon proved to be prescient. The following year, TakaraTomy announced a Masterpiece redeco of Ultra Magnus using the Diaclone color scheme. This full-fledged neo-Generation 1 character employed the IDW character name and was given a bio referencing both the 1986 movie test footage and the 2012 IDW comics.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Delta Magnus (デルタマグナス Deruta Magunasu)

See also

• Magna Convoy
• Powered Convoy

References