Mag Warriors Contents (each): Action Figure (16 pieces), Weapon, Shield, Collector card, instruction sheet

This is going to be a weird review, is hard to explain the qualities of the Mag warriors without comparison to an older figure of the same type. So it's a good thing I've got one of these older guys kicking about! I've seen the Mag Warrior toys around for a few weeks now, but until recently decided to give them a pass. This was mainly because of that (very) similar toy figure, who while being quite cool has a bunch of problems which seriously detracted from his fun factor.

These figures have Magnetic construction as thier main gimmick. These magnets are coupled with a rubber ring, so when these are attached to the round metal parts they can be positioned anywhere on that surface, allowing for decent posability and easy deconstruction/reassembly/freakish 8 limbed monster creation.

The older figure (the blue fella, figs 9 and 10) has these magnets for every single joint… which while this sounds great in theory, in practice means the figure comes apart very easily and reassembly is a pain because all the magnets repel/attract each other! Which leads us to these Mag warriors. Based off from old warring knights in shining armour, these guys took all the cool factors of the blue guy (I refer to him as 'the blue guy' because I can't remember what this one was called…) and made it better.

First of all, not every joint is magnet based, only the major joints at the shoulders, hips and neck. While this sounds like a cop out, it really isn't. These fewer magnets do the job, allowing fantastic posability, and limb swapping (more on this later) without problems from each other. Also the Mag Warriors are slightly smaller, so the magnets do a better job of holding extended limbs aloft, something the blue guy had problems with sometimes.

The blue guy also had non replacable batteries in his head, which when activated made his clear blue head flash. Wait, what was that? Non replacable? Yup, silly no? Well the Mag warriors have replaceable batteries, which when activated via the concealed button on their heads make their eyes light up. What impressed me most about this feature is there are 2 lights in each head, instead of a single light for both eyes. This means the both lights are projected forward, instead of a single light in the middle radiating outward. Its only a little feature, but when compared to the blue guy, seems miles better.

Each Mag warriors figure comes disassembled in nice display case packaging. I say disassembled because each limb is constructed from 3 separate parts, easily clipped together. In the package are 3 accessories, a weapon, shield and metal stats card. It turns out that every part of the figure has a statistic attached to it, the helmet, armour, boots and shield have a defense rating, and the, arms/gloves and weapon have an attack rating. These two add up to totals for defense and attack. These guys are meant to defeat their opponents, then cannibalise the vanquished characters body parts to make them stronger! It's a neat idea, and easily done via the Mag-construction. The Metal card also doubles as a display base, and magnets in the feet of each warrior increases stability.

Because the Mag Warrior line comes from Mega Bloks the figures have Lego like connections on their outer arms and legs, as well as on their back. This means that you can attach lego blocks to these figures, kind of like the old Kenner toyline Centurions! (Whoops, now I've betrayed my age to everyone...)

My only gripe with these figures are that the shields have to be held in the hand of the figure. It would have been nice if the shields attached to the figures arms instead of taking up a hand. Also, the feet magnets could be stronger, while they're fine for standing poses I want to stick these guys on vertical metal surfaces! Like Fridges! As it is, they stick to the fridge, them slide down, picking up speed to end up in a mangled (and yet easily reconstructed ;) pile on the floor. Another (small) problem is the lack of weapon stowage. One thing I would have liked to have seen are weapons and shields with metal parts, and an extra magnet in the back of the figure. This would mean you could have the option of sheathing one of these items on the figures back.

Apart from these little problems these guys are fantastic, and heartily recommended. The only other thing, is you'll need two Mag Warrior figures to really take advantage of them! Cheeky. Go to Mega-bloks official site for more info, there's also a small video of the figures in action, stop motion animated! Go look!

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