In the world of the Transformers, the Autobots usually serve under the guidance of Optimus Prime. While Prime is one of the mightiest and most valiant Cybertronians, he’s not the only one who fights for freedom as the right of all sentient beings. In fact, he was once almost replaced by a warrior who looked a lot like the Autobot leader.

Ultra Magnus debuted during the peak of Generation 1, and he’s gone on to appear in various other continuities. These have altered his relationship with Prime, with some timelines making them into fierce rivals. Regardless of where he’s seen, however, Ultra Magnus is one of the most important Autobots in the Transformers franchise.

What Is Ultra Magnus’ Role Among the Autobots?

In Generation 1, Ultra Magnus was credited as the City Commander for the Autobots. This meant that he was in charge of Autobot City, which consisted of the Titan Transformer Metroplex and other components. He debuted in The Transformers: The Movie, though he almost did so with a different look. Ultra Magnus was one of the last Transformers to have a toy or design that was derived from the Japanese toyline Diaclone. Initial trailers for The Transformers: The Movie had him in his Diaclone toy colors, but this palette was eventually reversed for his more iconic look.

Despite his immense power and prominence on the battlefield, Ultra Magnus is also one of the most humble Autobots. He rarely wants to take on the role of leadership, especially for the entire Autobot faction. This made him uneasy about taking the Autobot Matrix of Leadership following Optimus Prime’s death in The Transformers: The Movie. He’s also sometimes portrayed as the leader of the Wreckers, which is a survivalist group of Autobots. Even there, he’s less interested in taking the glory and more focused on winning with zero casualties, showcasing why his heroic spark was chosen to potentially replace Optimus Prime.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise and Animated Radically Changed Ultra Magnus

While the Generation 1 continuity introduced the most iconic version of Ultra Magnus, it was far from the only take. The next new version of Ultra Magnus appeared in Transformers: Car Robots, known as Transformers: Robots in Disguise in America. In Japan, this version of Ultra Magnus was called God Magnus, as he was as much an updated form of Ultra Magnus as he was the character God Bomber from the anime series Transformers: Masterforce. God Magnus/Ultra Magnus was portrayed as Optimus Prime’s brother, though he despised his sibling due to being passed over for the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Nevertheless, the two eventually set their differences aside, and they also had the ability to share the Matrix’s power and become the powerful Omega Prime.

In Transformers: Animated, the title of “Prime” is a rank and not purely a name. Ironically, this universe had Ultra Magnus as a young Optimus Prime’s superior, with Magnus outranking Prime. Thus, Ultra Magnus was portrayed as a superior office that both Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime looked up to. Though Ultra Magnus and Optimus didn’t always agree, the former saw the potential in the young Autobot, to the chagrin of Sentinel Prime. The show’s third and final season had Magnus grievously wounded, but the series finale noted that he was expected to make a full recovery.

Something that’s frequently happened in the Transformers franchise is for Ultra Magnus to be a “white repaint” of Optimus Prime to some extent. This is an homage to the mechanics of the original toy, which had a truck cab that combined with its trailer. The cab could transform individually into a robot that was identical to Optimus Prime’s, albeit white instead of red and blue. These similarities are rarely commented upon in fiction, but it has caused some to question how Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime are related. In the Generation 1 continuity, this was largely sidestepped, with none of the fiction commenting on Ultra Magnus’ “inner robot.” In fact, Magnus was also never portrayed as being able to transform his truck cab into a robot.

For accuracy’s sake, the Transformers: Masterpiece action figure for Ultra Magnus has a cab that’s only able to combine with the trailer to transform. It’s also hypothesized by fans that, just as Ariel and Orion Pax were rebuilt as Elita-One and Optimus Prime, their friend Dion may have been rebuilt as Ultra Magnus. Ultra Magnus wasn’t officially seen in any of the Unicron Trilogy Transformers anime, though he did receive a “new” toy in that continuity. This Ultra Magnus was a repaint of Overload, a gigantic car carrier Autobot who could combine with both Optimus Prime and the flying Autobot Jetfire.

Ultra Magnus retained this ability, and the character Overload had already been called Ultra Magnus in the Japanese version of Transfomers: Armada. The fiction never explained any connection to Prime, however, and beyond the alternate and the “cab” being able to turn into a separate robot, there were few similarities to the G1 incarnation. Transformers: Robots in Disguise was one of the few exceptions to this rule. There, Magnus was Optimus Prime’s brother, cementing a connection that many fans made in G1. Ironically, this version didn’t physically resemble Prime and was far from a mere repaint of the same body. This concept was repackaged for Dreamwave Productions’ Transformers comic books.

Those comics were based on a version of the G1 continuity, and they also established Magnus as Prime’s brother while also further suggesting that the Autobot was once known as Dion. The animated series Transformers: Prime made him Optimus’ second-in-command and an almost honorary brother, and he had the same hammer as his Transformers: Animated counterpart did.

What Does Ultra Magnus Transform Into?

In the Generation 1 continuity, Ultra Magnus transforms into a car carrier, and he frequently carried other Autobots in his vehicle mode. Again, he combined with his trailer in robot mode, though this was treated as his main or even his only robot mode and not a “super” mode. This vehicle mode was maintained in Robots in Disguise, though with a more modern car carrier truck. Likewise, Ultra Magnus was unable to disconnect the truck from the trailer, resulting in a much different robot mode. In Transformers: Animated, he turned into a Cybertronian truck before coming to Earth, and there, he gained a new M983 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck.

In Transformers: Prime, he was back to being a repaint of Optimus Prime, but with a twist. Instead of simply being a white redeco, this version of Ultra Magnus was a blue repaint of Prime. This had the effect of giving his robot mode (which featured the head design of his G1 combined robot mode) a similar color scheme to his original design, albeit with more blue and less red. Since then, the character’s only major appearance was in the Netflix Transformers: War for Cybertron trilogy, which had designs that explicitly updated Generation 1. There, Magnus was once again a white repaint of Prime that combined with his trailer, though his vehicle mode more heavily resembled his Robots in Disguise incarnation.

Does Ultra Magnus Die?

Optimus Prime isn’t the only Autobot to make heroic sacrifices, with Ultra Magnus also dying in various continuities. In the G1 timeline, he was seemingly killed by the Decepticons on the Planet of Junk so that they could retrieve the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. This scene was originally going to be much more graphic, with the Decepticons using energo-lassos to literally rip him apart. Thankfully, the wounds were a lot less fatal than they appeared, with the TV-loving Junkions rebuilding Ultra Magnus. His body still retained its coloration instead of turning gray, suggesting that he had yet to truly die.

He did meet his final end, however, in the anime series Transformers: The Headmasters. There, he was killed by the Decepticon Sixshot, though once again, his body retained its coloration. It’s believed by fans that this is due to his combined form negating usual rules on posthumous Transformer color schemes. Magnus nearly died in Transformers: Animated, but was stated to survive his almost fatal wounds. On the other hand, the Netflix War for Cybertron series had the Decepticons’ leader Megatron kill off Magnus after the latter refused to give up info on the Autobots. Even as he died, the Autobot City Commander proved that he’s loyal to the Autobot cause to the bitter end.