TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:
Alternate Mode:
Box Art:
Technical Specifications:
STR
INT
SPD
END
RNK
CRG
FPR
SKL

Sir Auros' review of: Megatron

Name: Megatron
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Commander
Sub-Group: NA
"Prepare for oblivion!"

Megatron once again "takes to the skies in disguise" in his latest aerial-attack configuration. Body armor composed of stealth deflector shields that allow for invisible attacks on Autobot enemies. Twin turbo thrusters rocket him to speeds of up to 600mph in less than 17 seconds. In robot or vehicle mode, this evil commander is one of the worst threats in the universe.

I was recently lucky enough to pick up all the Machine Wars Basic figures pretty cheap loose on ebay. The Megatron/Megaplex mold is completely new to me and while it's not quite as good as the G2 Cyberjet figures, it is pretty neat. It's kind of funky seeing Megatron as a jet, but the only complaint I have is that it's nowhere close to being on scale with the Optimus Prime figure in the line. I'm actually kind of surprised the Machine Wars Starscream mold wasn't used for Megatron if they were going with a jet.

Vehicle Mode:
The Machine Wars jets are even worse than the Cyberjets at creating believable jet modes. The figure also uses stickers and the G2 Decepticon symbol. I'm not fond of stickers and I'm glad Hasbro's no longer using them. I like the G2 Decepticon insignia, but it's pretty weak that it's not even colored in and it looks pretty cheap. The best thing about this mode is that the robot mode's weapon is hidden in it. Sometimes the parts of the weapon get a little too wedged into their hiding places though and require some sort of tool to remove. The jet mode makes for a decent toy for a kid and I know for sure I would've loved it, but it just doesn't work as a display piece for me.

Robot Mode:
This is much better and Megatron's head is actually shaped like G1/2 Megatron's head, so that's cool and much better than the G2 Gobot Megatron. Like the Cyberjets and the other Machine Wars jets, Megatron has great articulation in robot mode due to ball-socket joints. The one thing that actually hampers the figure's articulation also happens to be one of the coolest things about the figure. The arms have these funky blade-like protusions at the elbows and while they look cool, they do restrict movement slightly. While I'm talking about the arms, the weird holes in the forearms annoys me. Would it have been that hard to cover those up or have it so they showed up on the reverse side of the arms at least?

Transformation: 8 - Nifty semi-automatic transformation gimmick, but the robot mode is laughably disguised in vehicle mode.
Durability: 8 - Two small parts for the gun means two tiny things to lose. The figure itself is pretty solid though.
Fun: 9 - Almost as much fun as a Cyberjet and a decent display piece in robot mode.
Price: 8 - It's really not that bad if you can find it loose and alone. However, you usually can only find this as part of a lot or carded, so the price is really variable.
Summary: 8 - Slightly above average, but has some noticeable flaws.