Cybertronian Megatron

Height: 14 cm (robot mode)

Articulation: 25 total points - Swivel neck; 6 points each arm: triple-jointed shoulder, double-hinge elbow, forearm swivel; 6 points each leg: universal joint hip, thigh swivel, hinge knee, double-jointed ankle.

Colors: Molded light grey, black, clear purple; Painted red, black, light grey, purple, silver, grey.

Accessories: Fusion cannon, missile.

Release Data: Released in August, 2010 in the United States at a retail price of US$11.99.

Author: ExVee

(more...)



Megatron rebuilds himself continuously. When the war first began on Cybertron, he constantly applied new modifications to catch the Autobots unaware and under prepared. His spies are always on the lookout for new tech that will optimize his body into the perfect war machine. He is the bleeding edge of technology on Cybertron, and his enemies will pay the price for not keeping up.

Sounds like he and Lockdown should sit down and compare notes.

Having not played War For Cybertron myself, my knowledge of this particular Megatron is limited. But apparently he was portrayed in the game with at least some degree of a personality. A particular exchange ending with the line "Yes, Breakdown. I am famous for my sparkling sense of humor. Now get moving - before I dismantle you myself!" certainly catches favor with me. Plus he's not a gravelly, Welkerish Megatron, which also scores points with me. I'd comment on giving Cullen another rest from playing Prime, but I think we all know by now that Welker is doing Megatron for the Transformers: Prime cartoon, so why even bother?


Robot Mode

What struck me about this toy from the very first photos was how it was an almost direct take on the first two Animated Megatron toys, which depicted the character's (extremely brief) appearance in his Cybertronian form. And by "Cybertronian" I of course mean "balled-up robot."

Much the same, Generations Megatron has little in the way of distinctly vehicular elements in robot mode. The only concrete indication of having anything to transform into is the fact that the forearms are composed of tank tracks. Unfortunately while it would seem to follow that a robot-dominated design should be an excellent action figure, it doesn't quite work out that way. The major flaw is bizarre restriction of joints that serve no reason I can determine, as well as lack of some articulation I feel should be standard on a Deluxe toy by this point.

The large, blocky shoulders make for a powerful, imposing body shape. But at the same time, the construction of the shoulders prevents the arms from lifting outward more than a very short range. Part of this may be owed to the engineering of the transformation, but this is something other toys have been designed to be able to overcome, so it really stands out as a failure here. I'm also disappointed at the complete lack of a pre-elbow swivel, severely limiting the toy's ability to pose its forearms. A small degree of the motion a swivel would have allowed can be replicated using a transformation hinge, but it's far from an equal trade. This especially makes the toy's arms feel very stiff and inflexible. I am thankful for the swivel for the forearm, since at least it means the cannon isn't stuck in one place on the figure, and since a wrist swivel is impractical for how the arms transform.

Speaking of which, while the hands are managed fairly cleverly and come together virtually seamlessly when considering they have to split down the middle during transformation ...are almost useless at the same time. I'm impressed to a degree with how this was engineered and executed, but at the same time somebody still designed the hands in such a way that they won't hold any sort of accessory. I know the options are limited, but with the seeming lack of other moving parts I wonder if they couldn't have at least thrown in a couple little hinges to make the fingers articulate. The fixed pose is not bad, but lacks any sort of versatility all the same. I suppose since the toy has no handheld parts this wasn't really a priority but it still kind of bugs me.

The unusually universal-jointed hips have a seemingly pointless range restriction just like the shoulders, keeping the legs spread far enough apart to look odd. And yet the small bits of plastic keeping the legs from closing in more offers no structural support or other obvious design-necessary function that these couldn't have been omitted to increase poseability with the legs. But at least the knees are good. Big, solid joints, and for transformation able to bend like a double hinge. The ankles have a limited range of movement, but they also seem to have "soft" ratchets - either that or the plastic is cracking. Guess if that's the case I'll find out sooner or later! But the large surface of the feet and the ankle construction does thankfully leave the toy quite stable for posing.

There's no waist joint, even though nothing about the transformation would make it have to be left off. The neck is a swivel, but is part of a hinged panel that doesn't really lock in anyplace in robot mode. So you'll be able to fake at least a downward glance. I'm actually reasonably impressed by the head, visually. I haven't been able to disassemble it to examine further, but the face appears to be a separate piece from the front of the helmet, so there's empty space between the edges of the helmet and sides of the face making it look more "real".

The chest piece is made to move during transformation, and it regrettably does not really lock into place in robot mode. It seems to be relying completely upon the friction of the hinges to keep it up. Conversely, the back panel not only snaps firmly into place, but it has to line up just absolutely perfectly to snap around the torso. The double-hinged arm it moves on is incredibly stiff so it's not only a challenge during transformation, but to set the back piece when removing the toy from the package because it is not fully in robot mode position at that point.


Transformation

While not an origami-esque nightmare, the basic stiffness of some of the moving parts makes collapsing parts like the shoulders difficult. The feet and legs don't seem to peg down in vehicle mode as tightly as I think they should, but otherwise everything eventually settles into a stable little box.


Vehicle Mode

...and I do mean box. Naturally there's a degree of leeway when you're having "Cybertronian" anything, but this is only a little more convincing as a vehicle than the Animated counterpart. I'll give some credit, though - at least from the top and kind of the sides it does not immediately look like a wad of robot.

I'm pretty sure Megatron is the only one of these War For Cybertron-based toys that intentionally replicates one of the game's gimmicks of having both a slow-moving hover mode, and a normal wheeled/tracked configuration to move more quickly. At the same time, the toy looks a lot more like the hover mode with the tracks folded under the body is how this was more intended to be. I'd sooner assume the tiny tank tracks to serve a purpose like G1 Galvatron's silly little tank treads and provide a stable platform from which to fire the main gun.

Sadly the treads are the only moving part in vehicle mode, so it really is like a box with a gun. The cannon is even fixed in position pointing straight ahead. The cannon can be removed, but that also takes away a huge part of the visual interest. It does make more obvious though that the tank mode has horns not unlike those on Armada Megatron. The squareish shape of the tank mode when the cannon is removed almost puts me in mind of a robot beetle of some sort, except the horns are a little bit small. But if this is the most interesting thing I can say about the vehicle mode with the cannon removed, you probably get an idea just how entertaining it is.

If you look at the underside of the tank you can see the most obvious signs of robot, but even then it's not terrible. Oddly though, the robot head folds into the torso during transformation, but it really didn't have to. There's enough space in the forward section of the tank to accommodate the head. It seems to be a step taken just to try and get it out of sight a little bit better. I'm actually almost insulted by this, given other easy little changes they glossed over that would have improved the robot mode quite a bit. But they do manage to catch this really insignificant element instead.


Accessories

-Cannon

Another take on good old Mister Fusion Cannon. At least this time it's not the scope of a gun. It's really just a fairly generic techyfied large cannon with some red paint apps to tie it into Megatron's color scheme. It attaches very solidly to a large, square hardpoint on either forearm. It lacks any sort of standardized connector though, so Megatron will be the only one using it. The very large trigger is on exactly the opposite side of the cannon from the forearm mount, so if you try to snap it on loaded, you're either going to shoot yourself, or blast the missile off to points unknown. There's a second slot just behind the large square opening, which is used for mounting to vehicle mode. If you're not picky about looks, you can flip down the toy's back panel and attach the cannon to Megatron's back for storage. Of course everybody knows the only correct place to store Mister Fusion Cannon is on a forearm.

One neat trick is that when you load the missile, it pushes back a piece inside the barrel until painted purple highlights can be seen through slots from the outside, giving the impression of a charged energy glow. This trick was also seen on Animated Swindle. I imagine he actually sold Megatron that upgrade...




Closing Remarks

While probably not the worst of the WFC group, it certainly manages to make the otherwise uninventive Soundwave look a lot more clever for not being so wrong in the process. I can't really say why I wanted to like this Megatron as much as I did. After all, I have an excellent representation of a Megatron as a gun, and another as an Earthen tank inspired by Generation 2, even. Generations Megatron was certainly at the low end of my priority list, but I still looked forward to it with what I don't think were unreasonable hopes. And yet it still didn't live up to any of them.

I'm not looking for a Drift or Darkmount every single time, but I don't think it's asking too much to get at least equal with any given Classics toy four years later. Megatron almost defines Could Have Been Better for me. Hopefully once we get back into fully new Generations molds in a couple months, it'll prove the WFC set as aberrations and not the average.

-ExVee