Review: #715
Name: Megatron
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Predacon
Line: Vintage Beast Wars
Year of Release: 2021
Size Class: Ultra
Mold Status: repaint / reissue of original Beast Wars Megatron
PACKAGING:
As part of the 25th anniversary of Beast Wars, Megatron was re-released, with packaging replicating the original.
It's multilingual packaging and the back has the cross-sell with the other reissues.
BEAST MODE:
Megatron transforms into a purple tyrannosaurus rex, and just due to the aesthetics of the day, he looks more like a toy than a real beast.
This is a pretty good looking beast, it hides all the robot parts well, but it is heavily reliant on panels.
While an Ultra size, due to the period the original mold was created, he is bigger and heavier than even contemporary Leader figures.
Despite his heft, he balances really well. The toy comes into a shade of purple that more closely mimis his onscreen appearance.
The negative is that he is not that articulate, only his legs have some sort of movement and even then, they're fairly restricted.
There is a gimmick here, the mouth is springloaded which when you pull the upper back of his head, will open the mouth and reveal the water squirter. The spring is really strong and there's no way to keep it open without holding it.
The water squirter can be removed so that you can fill it with water, but it's best not to use this gimmick since water and toys sometimes do not mix well.
This is a good beast mode, it's obviously not the most realistic depiction of a dinosaur that we'd expect but you'll love its presence thanks to his size and heft.
TRANSFORMATION:
Transformation is fairly simple. The legs effective do not change at all between beast and robot mode except the panels which extend out. Everything above the legs then swivels, you then open up all the panels to reveal the head, and then rearrange the beast head and tail to form the robot arms.
ROBOT MODE:
Megatron's robot mode is okay, he is a lot more bulkier and stockier than you would hope for.
The negative of having such an accurate beast mode was that it achieved that by relying on panels, and those panels had to go somewhere in robot mode, being a backpack in this case.
The head sculpt is also not what you'd expect, it's a simple sculpt with a snarl that doesn't really bear that great a resemblance of Megatron.
The early Beast Wars toys had a mutant head gimmick, effectively an alternate head. For Megatron, two panels on either side of the head folds together to form the mutant head. The negative effect of this is that when not using it, the halves stick out to the sides of the head and get in the way.
In terms of size, Megatron trades height for bulk.
Although he's roughly the same height as Kingdom's version of the character.
Articulation is okay, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees.
He lacks fists, and having the head and tail for arms the way they are currently means that they are way too bulky and gets in the way.
There is a gimmick for the tail arm, and that it is springloaded so that it can extend. The spring is too strong as the locking mechanism does not have enough strength to hold it in place. The only alternative is to fold one of the tail panels down to catch the latch and stop it from extending all the way. This is a terrible oversight.
Apart from that, the last gimmick involves the hip panels, each one houses a springloaded missile, and they are pretty cool.
The water squirting gimmick is still accessible here in the arm with the head.
Despite his flaws, he does command a sort of presence thanks to his intimidating proportions.
OVERALL:
Megatron is an extremely flawed toy. The focus seems to have been the beast mode leading to the robot mode being compromised. The robot mode's arm gimmick is the worst in how it cannot properly latch itself into place without wedging the panel against it. It's much better to get the updated Kingdom version unless you're curious about the original figure.
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