A contemporary Rock Lords Poster, circa 1986
If I'm totally honest, I don't think the Legacy Junkions lived up to the potential of Scraphook. They were fine, don't get me wrong, but I don't think the gimmick was taken very far. I found Junkasaurus a bit disappointing too, even by the standards of fan modes. Magneous, and his fellow Infernac Universe brethren, replace the Junkions for Legacy United, and I wonder how things will play out with them. He's got the same come-to-bits-but-an-actual-transformation gimmick that Scraphook did, if with a lower ratio of removable bits to leftovers. Magneous however does have something that Scraphook didn't, he's a rock. And, if anything, that's a novel look for a Transformer.
It's far from unprecedented though. The old rival to Transformers, Tonka's Gobots, had a spin-off called the Rock Lords. These operated pretty much exactly how you'd expect an 80's toy line to, with the exception that everyone changed into a lump of minerals. Yes, actual rocks, no electric guitars involved. Or Megaman. Now, before I go further, I want to stress something; I'm not engaging with the ancient Transformers/Gobots rivalry here. Such things are petty, stupid, lazy, ignorant, and most importantly, beneath me. I had a few of these Rock Lords back in the day, and they weren't bad. But, in total fairness, if you looked at the Rocklords and asked if they were some form of joke, I could not honestly blame you. I mean I like BeastBox, so I'm not against a robot becoming a shape, but yeah... It's not clear what they were thinking. Magneous, and presumably all of the Infernac toys, have actual vehicle forms though, thus largely avoiding the "But why?” problem. Why? It's because it's visually interesting and you get something that looks radically different from anything Transformers or indeed anything else Hasbro has made lately. Although I assume actual Rock Lord tributes, maybe as some form of exclusive, are only a matter of time. Otherwise, Magneous is a blank slate, with no stated faction and no fictional appearances. Maybe Skybound should fit these into the Energon Universe somewhere. Assuming it's not too modern for them.
Magneous' alternate form is a pick-up truck, by way of geographical time. It's mainly two tones of grey stone, with the shape of a machine, but fairly minimal mechanisms. While there are wheel wells, the wheels are all but hidden by rock formations. Its windows meanwhile feature wire mesh, giving a bit of the old Mad Max or Gaslands, which is unexpected, but not unwelcome. The fundamentally stony look of things is very well done; there's no flat panels or hard angles here, more irregular shapes carved by time and smoothed by water. It’s striking in its way, as a proof of concept, or the basis for a Flintstones collaboration, the toy is definitely passing muster. What does count in its favour is that there's only so many things we can compare it to, unlike, say, actual cars. I'm probably being a bit forgiving here due to the sheer novelty of it, but there is a case of visible Head Syndrome on the underside that's not a plus. In terms of play value? It's a good roller, with dedicated tab/slots for it's weapon, including a battering ram set-up I'd completely failed to notice until after posting. 5mm ports are there, but you have to take the dude apart to get at them.
Speaking of pulling the dude apart, the armorizer thing. To make another Scraphook comparison, much less of Magneous can be handed to other toys, and there doesn't seem to be any suggestion of part-swapping or gestaults at this time. There's an odd detail I'll come back to, but there's no package art depicting another combination. He ends up missing arms, lower legs, and accessories. The beneficiary of this sacrifice gets a stone hammer, a shield, some arms and a couple of stoney armor bits. It's fine for what it is, if quite vestigial, and maybe in need of longer pegs. To make a broad observation: things almost seem to be going full circle with this whole gimmick. Between this and the Trashmaster mould, these toys are looking more and more like regular Transformers with random bits that come off, rather than accessories that graduated to self-contained toys. I'll let you decide if that's good or bad, but in its defence, I want to acknowledge two things. 1) The parts fit and tolerances seem good to the point being stiff on my example, so nothing detaches from him when it shouldn't. 2) There's enough of Magneous left to get a truck chassis which you can plug guns into, so you can make an artillery thingy. And the leg wheels are detachable for, um reasons? The instructions are unclear.
The robot mode is functional as well as interesting. Articulation is about typical for Legacy, if the neck being a bit limited, as its just a simple swivel with a slight tilt. The joint design is otherwise complete, notable features being the technically ball jointed wrists and soft-locking knees, both arising from the transformation. Magneous features a stony axe/crossbow, and can use his backpack/roof as a shield, so he's got the robot playpattern down. As such, with the basics covered, I can talk about the looks, which continue to be distinctive. Magneous is not a robot disguised as a rock, rather he is a rock that is also a robot. The sculpt is almost entirety stone textured, sometimes mirrored, sometimes asymmetrical, but always stony. What stops this from being a stone monster, and instead a Transformer is the chest design, featuring two wheels and a regrettable amount of open space. That's definitely a weird bit to be visibly hollow, the robot mode otherwise doing OK on that front. Proportionally, this chap looks like a stocky brawler, faintly reminiscent of Bayverse Ironhide by way of He-Man techno-fantasy. (He-Man also had rock people, it seems to have been a zeitgeist thing.) It looks like someone chipped one of his horns and he was too hyped to notice. There is character, yes. There is another odd design choice to go with the chest though, the removable forearm panels that look like carved feathers. These ordinarily remain on the forearms, concealing the 5mm ports, but the instructions highlight dedicated tabs for them to act as fillers for the calves. While welcome, this does make wonder about future releases, as a friend of mine pointed out, a leaked Infernac toy, has a certain feathery look to him too. But, this is idle speculation, and that guy is a rock helicopter, it's uncharted territory. This element does however highlight Magneous' general lack of 5mm ports, which was a non-issue in truck mode, but more noteworthy here. The designers seem to have prioritised the overall look of the toy here, so you can't double him up with another similar toy, and that's a bit of a shame.
Overall, I'm quite charmed by Magneous. He is a breath of fresh air, and while there is a nostalgic element to him for me, the Infernac mob is a rare flash of creativity in a very nostalgic brand. Mind you, if you put aside the visual aspect, say if rockformers aren't your thing, Magneous is fine but not exceptional. There's no shortage of carformers, and the armorizer functions feel a touch tacked-on. He's definitely an interesting piece, but he's up against some strong competition in wave 1, many as equally weird. Ultimately, he is something that exists, but it's good that he does.
Also, It's a crying shame that the Detritus name was taken....
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