Megatron Monday

I'm sticking with Beast Wars today, going from my very first Megatron to the first Megatron I still own - Transmetal 2 Megatron. I had infact owned the first Transmetal Megatron, but he suffered from GPS (Got eaten by a dog Plastic Syndrome). So this guy is the senior member of my collection.

I love this guy! I cannot believe the amount of detail they were able to put into him. I think that after all these years and the various Megatrons that have come out since him, he's still the best looking one. None look like they've gotten nearly this amount of work put into them. There's not a spot on this guy that isn't covered with some kind of technical or biological detail. Even better, nothing on this guy is symmetrical - if one side is bioligical looking, the other side is mechanical. Makes for one crazy looking robot. A simply amazing design.

BEAST MODE

I think it's best we start here. Megatron's a bright shiny red with hints of orange on the wings, tail and underbelly and purple on the wings. In addition to flat plastic colors, we've got translucent plastic on his wings and vacuumized metal on his head, neck, wing tips, and belly. His head and neck look absolutely stunning with the shine on them, with the overlapping plates.

Those plates aren't just for the looks either! The neck has a pretty awesome feature to them that lets it bend to the side and back and forth by moving a switch on its base. The soft plastic will wobble around if not locked into place. It allows for some great posing but it is pretty limited. Another feature in his head has you pressing the back of the head down to open his mouth and fires a missile.

His back legs are short and squat and end in some of the biggest feet I've ever seen. Even though his feet are that big, with another claw sticking off the back, I still have trouble getting him to stand in a position that isn't standing straight up. I mean, that's fine, but not very menacing since he can't look down from there.

The wings on the back can rotate towards his back or his sides and there's a switch that can be

lowered and locked into place to spread them open. The tail is made of the same soft plastic of the neck but doesn't have any posibility to it.

The only drawback to this mode is the base of the tail. Megatron's face is easily visible here, with only a small translucent orange visor that covers have his face. If they had made something that fully covers his head, whether it's translucent or not, it would have made a huge difference. As it is, The tail doesn't look like it fully attaches to the body and has a damned face on it. The thing looks like a Megatron Comet has mounted the dragon's ass.

Before we check out the robot mode, there's a third vehicle mode that most Transmetals have. Once the second Transmetal wave came out, they dumped the vehicle mode, but Megs kept his. It's kinda ridiculous though so I wish they just dumped it. Fold all his legs up exposing a few wheels and he becomes some kinda drag-ster. Get it? Dragon? Dragster? Yeah, I hate

myself too.

ROBOT MODE

Man this guy looks menacing. I mean look at that scowl of his! Evil, I tell you. He keeps a similar mechanic as the Ultra Beast Wars Megatron with a mouth for a hand, but it's swapped now and its his hole neck. The movement feature works the same in this mode, same as the wings. His other arm is normal, but has a big shield on it. It looks like it could block a lot of munitions. The missiles (Megatron comes with three of them and his second launcher above his head, along with two holding slots in his wings) could work as clubs in his one regular hand.

In the middle of Megatron's chest is a soul chamber, an aborted feature that both Megatron and Tigerhawk had. Inside that little plastic orb is an empty chair. That's it. It rolls around all over the place in there. Once they decided not to have someone sitting there, I really wish they did something else with it. They could have just stuck a cat's eye marble in there and it would have looked better. Really, make it purple and you could call it an energon crystal.



The posibility in this guy is great. The legs are extended from his dragon mode and have two knees (the lower one swivels) and keeps his huge feet, allowing for a lot of different poses. Megatron's right arm (the dragon head) can still get pretty decent poses and the mouth can still hold some smaller stuff (like a little Sam Witwicky figure), though the springs keeping it closed aren't that strong.

Overall, this is a fantastic figure and one of my favorite. Megatro's never looked more powerful or menacing. He's a damned dragon, and not a lame one like RiD Megs had, two-headed or not. I highly recommend this guy to any Transformers fan.