TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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

Tahukanuva's review of: Megatron (t-rex)

Name - Megatron
Function - Leader
Sub-Group - Cheaper Alternatives

This figure began as a figure for the new Beast Wars line back in 1996, and was recently repainted and overpriced for the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary line. Figuring that they'd better take advantage of the fact that Kenner had put a Cyber Key slot in that old mold, they... What's that? This is a nude mole? Oh, I'm sorry readers, I've just been informed that this is in fact, a new mold created for the BW 10th line. Hasbro put a Cyber Key slot in that so they could shove it in Cybertron if (when) BW 10th became a miserable failure.

Alternate Mode

This is, without a doubt, my favorite Dinosaur mode in any Transformers series ever.
From a couple feet away, It looks like a fairly realistic T-rex. Once you get closer, however, you'll see that kind of biomechanical appearance that the Cybertron beasts all shared, except better. This combination of life-like and artificial means he looks at home with both your Beast Wars and Energon/Cybertron beasts. He also has articulation out the wazoo (which is enough, I don't want an articulated wazoo) with; toe, ankle, knee, hip (ball-joint), shoulders (ball-joint), neck (twist x2, hinge), and jaw. The only bit I find lacking is that the tail is frozen in one position. While Hasbro could've just made it an unnatural stick, they molded it in a position that's straight enough to not be distracting, but fluid enough to look good with most poses.

And what poses can he strike! All of that articulation allows him one of the most animated beast modes I've seen. With the multiple joints you can have Megs here: turn his head to look at something, chase after Undermine, roar into the face of a Spychanger, cock his head as if confused, scream a mating call into the air, and the best part is that the movement looks more realistic then any Jurassic Park toy.

Now, onto the colors. Megatron paint scheme is an homage to Armada Predacon, who was, himself, a remold of Transmetal Megatron, so you can look at this as a Cybertron rebirth of him if you wish. Megs is mainly a mix of olive and dark green, red-brown and gold highlights, some bits of purple here and there, with black nails and red eyes. That may sound like an eyesore, and it is at first, however, once you've played with him a while, he looks pretty good. Better than lavender, at least.

Robot Mode

It's going to be hard to follow up that excellent beast mode with an equally great robot mode. This figure succeeds for the most part, with just a few niggling faults.

Like the beast mode, robot form has great poseabiltiy with 21 points of articulation (23 if you count the heel spurs) in this mode, five of them ball-joints or combos that mimic the range, the rest either hinge or peg. Some fun poses for robot mode include: pinning another 'bot against the wall, crushing Mini-Cons, aiming his gun, raising a fist of triumph, standing on his toes with leg joints bent for Demon legs, hell, he looks good just standing there.

The color scheme looks better in this mode, since the purple doesn't seem quite as random with it appearing on his thighs, biceps, and helmet. The torso armor is mainly red-brown with yellow designs on the chest plate. His face is silver with eyes of that same bright red as beast mode. I'd like to note that robot mode is where the Armada Predacon homage is most obvious.

Even with the funky colors, this looks like Beast Wars Megatron, with the T-rex head/hand, and tail/gauntlet. His head sculpt appears to be a hybrid of the G1/BW Megatrons animated models, and the teeth like detail on his collar looks more like six dino claws on this mold, with sculpted lines about halfway across. Unfortunately, the figure's most obvious flaw is revealed in this mode, he's got a stub-arm! If you take the tail off his left arm, it barely reaches past his hip joint. On the plus side, it does look like a T-rex claw (but with a thumb), a refreshing break from peg-hole fists.

An overall excellent mode.

Extra Junk

Megatron comes with his tail/weapon, normally a minus, is sculpted where you could believe Megs could do some serious slashing damage. Plus the Cyber-Key plugs into the bottom, splitting the tail in half, and at once creating a gun and recreating Megatron's tail claw. Megatron's Cyber-Key is of the Jungle Planet variety, which unlike the BW 10th release, it's got a code. The unlocked content basically amounts to "This toys based on a Beast Wars toy.", not a reason to choose this color-scheme over the Beast Wars. He also includes a planet map (Giant Planet I believe, didn't pay attention), and a gold missile for his gun. He doesn't include the mini-comic and model ship that came with the BW10th toy however.

Transformation: 8, Rather complicated, with lots of twisting and folding, and if you forget the left shoulder pad (I have never done this), you've got to detach the torso, and go back and fix it.
Durability: 9, Standard Cybertron plastic, the beast mode shoulders are loose already, but nothing feels brittle.
Fun: 10, Awesome, articulated robot that turns into the King Tyrant Lizard, doesn't get much better than this.
Price: 10, First point of contrast with RM Black Beast Megatron, he's well worth the price.
Overall: 9.5, One of the best beast Transfomers yet, and he's rotting on the shelves. BUY HIM!