Review: #326
Name: Megatron
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Block Wars (Kabaya Model Kit)
Year of Release: 2016
Size Class: Kabaya Model Kit
Mold Status: new
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
For those not familiar with Kabaya model kits, there are relatively inexpensive model kits that you build on your own, usually based on existing toys and simplifying them.
For those not familiar with Kabaya model kits, there are relatively inexpensive model kits that you build on your own, usually based on existing toys and simplifying them.
The pieces come still attached to their sprues and they are tightly stacked on top of each other when you first take it out of packaging. It also comes with a sticker sheet as the plastics are cast in solid colours and any intricate detailing will come from stickers. Part of the fun is putting Megaron together yourself and it is a lot of fun. You really feel like you're putting in a lot of your own effort into making the toy and slowly seeing it take shape. Megatron is not hard to put together, will take roughly 30 mins, and most of that time is taking putting the stickers on carefully.
TANK MODE:
One of the most surprising things about this wave of Kabaya Tranformers is that all the figures are based off their Cyber Series Battalion toy. Megatron transforms into a blue grey tank, while the blue is an odd colour for the character, it looks fairly good.
This is one of the better and more solid vehicle modes of the wave. It's a bit weird that the stickers for the tank treads looks like they are incomplete.
Megatron is approximately Legion sized, and above is a comparison with Legends Combiner Wars Shockwave, which you can see is quite a bit bigger.
One of the unique features of these Kabaya Model Kits that the Cyber Battalion inspirations did not have is the ability to combine various parts from other figures to power up the vehicle and robot mode. For Megatron, he takes Optimus' legs and Starscream's legs to make a walking tank. It looks really weird and dorky though.
Overall, despite the questionable blue colour schedule, Megatron has a good tank mode that looks plausible and isn't obvious that it's comprised of various pieces clipped together.
TRANSFORMATION:
Due to the simplistic nature of the figures, transforming Megatron from each mode involves partsforming, or in other words, you have to pull him apart and clip him together again. You have to detach the turret which separates into his arms and fusion cannon, while his head cleverly hides underneath the gun, you attach it to the front of the tank and swing his legs down.
ROBOT MODE:
Megatron's robot mode is pretty good, with a powerful and stocky body, he has his fusion cannon on his right arm and a riot shield on his left.
Unfortunately from the back, you can see that he is very hollow (which is a side effect from the budget price of the figure). Still, the plastic used is fairly good quality and feels strong.
The face is a sticker and the tolerances are really tight, so you will either get a face that perfectly fits the groove or more likely, something just a bit off. Apart from the grey and blue, every other piece of detail comes from stickers, and the most annoying thing is that the places you put the stickers on aren't flat surfaces but grooved, which means they will peel over time.
Size-wise, he is a bit taller in this mode. Megatron's strength comes from his wider body giving him a bulkier look.
His weapons are his gun and shield, and his articulation is very limited so he can't actually make much use of them.
You can basically swing the shoulders and hips. The large feet means that he cannot balance if you use his hip joints.
The shield also has a tendency to fall off since the post it pegs in has a piece stopping it from slotting in allt he way. His hip stickers also really like to peel off.
Megatron's powered up robot mode looks weird, it's his robot on treads, with Starscream's nullrays as shoulder cannons. Lazy and boring.
A fairly good robot mode, the treads details for his torso looks amazing but ultimately his limited articulation lets him down.
COMBINED MODE:
However, that's not all, yes, there is an additional feature for this set that the original Cyber Series Battalion toys never had, and that is the fact that they can combine! Before we go into detail with this mode, a quick look at the whole set in vehicle mode. You can see that the whole wave shares the same four base plastic colours (yellow, red, grey and blue).
Now in robot mode and they actually look great as a set.
Megatron forms the right leg. He is unique in the wave in that the whole figure only forms one limb, his robot bits doesn't get spread around the combined mode.
As you can tell, this combined mode has bits of all the figures everywhere, but he holds together surprisingly well and is quite stable.
The head is basically Optimus with his axe blade forming a sort of crown, it makes the combined mode look fairly majestic though.
In terms of size, being comprised of four roughly Legions sized figures means he towers over Legends Shockwave, and even Deluxes such as Nightbird.
The combined mode has a claw for a right hand and a gun for the left hand, they don't look too bad. The poseability is very limited especially when you consider his stability. He has elbows, wrists and shoulder articulation but as they are fairly short combined to the rest of the body, they aren't that useful. The hips are on balljoints but as the chestplate attaches to each thigh, it means his legs are fixed. He also has knees but since the hips are fixed, knees doesn't mean much.
In terms of weapons, you can combine bits of Optimus and Bumblebee's weapons together to form a spear-bladed weapon, and use Bumblebee's car roof as a shield.
Unfortunately, the head is also fixed into place. This combine mode is really only for looking good standing on your shelf and not meant to be played at all since parts will undoubtedly shift when you try to move him around. Furthermore, for some reason, Starscream as a leg doesn't seem to attach that well and likes to keep popping off.
Nonetheless, this is a very novel mode. While Megatron and Starscream will never join forces and combine with Optimus and Bumblebee, let alone having Optimus be the controller, it works surprisingly well and looks powerful.
OVERALL:
This wave of Kabaya Model Kits has a lot of creativity. Instead of only going the lazy route and just recreate the existing toys, they added in extra play value in the form of mix and match parts for both modes, and the inclusion of a combined mode. Megatron's strength lies in his tank and robot modes, and while he has limited articulation, the fact that he looks great on your shelf standing neutrally kind of outweighs that.
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