Hasbro UK's G1 Magnus lie

[minion]

All guess work, but I imagine that it's a case of the toys not having the same storyline as the shows and comics. I'm remember reading that Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge were intended as new characters rather than reformatted old ones, and it was a later decision that lead to what we now know.
Magnus probably fell the same fate, being intended to be so much more, but then relegated to what I suppose amounts to 2nd in command of the Autobots. It was probably too hard (or Hasbro were too lazy) to rebrand him at a later date.
I never owned Magnus as a kid, but did have a Rodimus that I remember getting on sale as Fourboys newsagents in town because the box had been opened and his gun and instructions stolen/lost. I thought he was a cracking toy, especially the trailer.

As a child I totally believed Magnus to be some sort of high commander because of those ads and other bits like his function. For me the techspecs were everything (at least for the figures I had and what I saw on the toy shelves). I think I read too much into Brawn's which is what made me love him even more - despite being my first TF