Magnaboss (BW)

Magnaboss is a Maximal combiner from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Magnaboss physically combines Prowl's ferocity, Silverbolt's swiftness and Ironhide's strength. Having fought together for eons from their time as Autobots, their spark fusion into a new persona is a rousing success as well. Magnaboss has Prowl's analytic mind, Ironhide's great courage, and Silverbolt's deep compassion. As a leader, he is inspirational, and as a warrior, he has forged a legend that has made him a symbol of Maximal unity and strength. His weapon of choice, the megaton battle sword, is forged from the combination of all the weapons of Magnaboss's component Transformers.

Magnaboss has been known to include:

Fiction

3H comics

Magnaboss was a member of the Maximal High Council after the Great Transformation Homecoming and a Matrix Templar. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/18 He, along with his fellow council members, disbelieved Optimus Primal when he warned them of the threat of Unicron. Homecoming Primal was eventually proved right, and he and the other council members helped keep the civilian population stable. Unfortunately, he and the others, along with thousands of civilians, were killed in "the Culling", an attack by Unicron's forces on Cybertron. Optimus Primal's profile in Club magazine #9. He and the similarly deceased Rodimus were replaced as Templars by Sentinel Maximus and King Atlas. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/18

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

Before the fursuit.

According to one account, Magnaboss was created near the end of the Great War by the Autobots as a contingency plan. After Perceptor died near the end of the Great War circa 2035, the provisional "Primal Council" recruited Perceptor's surviving trooper Unit-3 as a replacement leg. In what would be the final battle of the war, Magnaboss was deployed against Megatron's rogue contingent. The combiner easily held the line against the Decepticons until the Tripredacus Council surrendered shortly afterwards. Dawn of the Predacus

According to another account, Magnaboss was created later during the other Great War as a fusion of the three Elders who presided over the Maximal Imperium, in a tactical response to the introduction of the Predacon combiner Tripredacus. Beast Wars Sourcebook #2

Though he disappeared from public view after the signing of the Pax Cybertronia, a legend arose that he would return at a time when the Maximals needed him most. Beast Wars Sourcebook #2

Classics

When modifying the Autobots' bodies to handle the unstable energon on prehistoric Earth of another dimension, Prowl included a contingency plan, allowing himself, Silverbolt, and Ironhide to merge into Magnaboss. The new ability was first demonstrated when the Autobots, now calling themselves Maximals, were attempting to retrieve their ship's missing energy purifier. Facing God Neptune, the trio merged into Magnaboss. Unfortunately the added power still wasn't enough, and the Maximals were left defeated. Shattered Hope Magnaboss briefly formed to again fight God Neptune, only to be soundly defeated by Megatron's Gigastorm Armor. Shattered Destiny

Beast Wars: Uprising

Magnaboss was the combined form and ace in the hole of the leaders of the Maximal High Council. In the final battle with the Grand Mal Magnaboss was nearly crushed by a falling building, but was saved by Devastator. The two gestalts fought side by side, but were hit by a powerful beam, killing Lio Minor and half of the Constructicons. Once the Vehicon Apocalypse was brought to a close the candidates to fill Lio Minor's place were narrowed down to just under three bots, including Cheetor, but the head of of the Maximal Academy was ultimately chosen. Derailment

Commercial appearances

In the middle of a barren wasteland, Magnaboss and Tripredacus dueled in close-quarter combat. Magnaboss and Tripredacus commercial

Games

Transformers: Earth Wars

The Game Full of Death and Suffering...! This character article is a stub and is missing information on their video game appearances. You can help Transformers Wiki by expanding it.

Toys

Beast Wars

• Magnaboss (Ultra Class three-pack, 1997)

• Accessories: Combined "megaton sword", 2 missiles
• Known designers: Takio Ejima (TakaraTomy), Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)

Beast Wars Magnaboss was sold as a boxed 3-pack of Prowl, Ironhide, and Silverbolt, each packaged in beast mode. He is formed by combining the trio, with Ironhide forming the arms, legs, and waist, and Silverbolt and Prowl forming the upper torso and robot head.

He wields a "megaton sword" formed by combining Prowl's "cyber tail claw", Silverbolt's "razor-tipped wing swords", and Ironhide's "blunt-force battle clubs"; he can also use Silverbolt's wingtip missile launchers, which end up as part of his chest.

By design or misengineering, his head ends up tilted back a bit, perpetually gazing upwards. Like his counterpart Tripredacus, Magnaboss has a fandom reputation as one of the most complex toys of his era.

Magnaboss was redecoed in Japan as Beast Wars II Magnaboss.

• More information on Magnaboss at TFU.info

Combiner Wars

Return to Comics Style!

• Prowl (Deluxe Class, 2015)
• Ironhide (Deluxe Class, 2015)
• Silverbolt (Voyager Class, 2015)
• Unit-3 (Deluxe Class, 2016)
• Tigatron (Deluxe Class, 2016)

• Accessories: Rifle (combined from gun and shield), four small weapons, four hands/feet

Magnaboss can be formed by combining the retail Combiner Wars figures Prowl, Ironhide, and Silverbolt with BotCon 2016 exclusives Unit-3 and Tigatron. The 'official' configuration places Ironhide and Prowl as the left and right arms, respectively, and Tigatron and Unit-3 as the left and right legs, respectively. Additionally, a set of stickers for the three mass-retail figures was available at BotCon to enhance both their own and Magnaboss's resemblance to the original Beast Wars figures.

Magnaboss is armed with a 5 mm rifle formed by combining Silverbolt's gun and shield, which can be further expanded by attaching Legends Class Powerglide or one of his mold-mates in gun mode. You can also use the "shield" of Silverbolt's gun and Tigatron's gun blade to make a sword for the combiner.

Notes

• The 1997 tech spec for Magnaboss, like many Beast Wars toys, contains little character information though it ostensibly depicts the three members as separate individuals from the Generation 1 characters of the same name. The identification of his components as the Autobot characters of the same names was established by IDW in their 2007 Beast Wars Sourcebook. By contrast, the 2016 Beast Wars: Uprising prose stories and the 2021 Earth Wars mobile game treat the Magnaboss trio as latter-day Maximals separate from the original Autobots.
• Curiously, Magnaboss's bio card doesn't use any pronouns for the combined form, the bio card simply refers to him as an "it", treating the combined form more as a weapon than an individual.
• Before "Dawn of the Predacus" was given to IDW to produce, it was initially proposed as a Beast Wars: Uprising story. Early brainstorming had Magnaboss as an antagonistic Builder weapon engineered by the returned Prowl/Prowl II. Magnaboss would then have been heroically stopped by Predacus.^[1][2]
• In the Earth Wars mobile game, the deco on Magnaboss's face takes cues from his Japanese namesake.

References