Robots in Disguise Galvatron
I had seen a bunch of Megatrons a few months back at a K-Mart for $20, but I never got around
to buying one. Then when I finally decided to get one, they had all been sold and K-Mart was
Megatronless. After a bit of studying and reading I found out about the release of Galvatron
and decided he was a suitable substitute for Megatron. Well, today at a Toys R Us I had an
actual choice as they had three Megatrons and three Galvatrons. They both had their good points,
but what it comes down to is I liked Galvatron's color scheme better and I already have a purple
Megatron, heh. Anyway, don't be alarmed if I accidentally call him Megatron, because I probably
will.
Galvatron is made from the same exact mold as Megatron since Hasbro opted to use the Devil Gigatron
mold (which housed ten 'official' modes, four added from the Gigatron mold, which was the Megatron equivalent
in Japan...anyway, back to the review), so it comes down to which color scheme you like better and
if you want the extra instructions for the four new modes.
I never really reviewed anything with this many modes, so I'll be reviewing each mode as if it
were a different component (like the combiners) and giving it a mini rating. You'll figure it
out, I have faith.
Robot Mode
Galvatron is packaged in robot mode, which is pretty neat looking and quite poseable. In fact,
you can't go far on Megatron, in any mode, without finding some articulation. Very nice job there.
Galvs has no real major issues with kibble, mainly because this is the central mode (rather than
the beast/vehicle mode being the central one others are designed around), with the exception
of having feet at his wrists and a tail hanging from his back. It's also worth note that he
has quite the wingspan, with neat looking wings to boot. The only weirdness is their color, which
doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the robot.
The large majority of Megatron's joints are ratcheting, which helps his support poses, though
I could do without his feet. His ankles are tight ball joints which aren't the problem, but the
actual feet fold in half to become his two-headed dragon mode dragon heads, and the hinge joints
they use isn't overly tight, so he can fall flat on his face or back easily. This aside, robot mode
is really cool, and worth around half the price tag alone. 9 out of 10
Gargoyle Mode
Blech. It's just robot mode with no legs and being supported by his arms. You also have to fold up a
weird and stupid looking muzzle from inside his chest which is not only stupid looking (as I said),
but is also near impossible to get out. Fortunately you won't need it much since you probably won't
use this mode a great deal. In the Japanese version this is called 'Gigabat' which makes a helluva
lot more sense than gargoyle mode. Silly Americans, hehe. 4 out of 10
Two-Headed Dragon Mode
This is the only mode where the dragon heads which are his feet come into play, so I suppose this
mode was his very first alt mode since none of the other modes have as great detail put into
them and really only resemble what they're supposed to be (like the Griffin).
Anyway, this mode is pretty much just Galvs standing on his hands (I'd say head-stand, but his
head is tucked away in his chest). It looks pretty neat, and the dragon heads (which are his legs and
feet) are quite poseable, and you can even make them snap at each other.
The only thing I don't like about this mode is the dragon's legs, which are Megs' hands. They
seem to be up too high and a bit on the skinny side, but I guess there's no real way to fix that. Also,
while we're on the subject of dragon bits, this is also the only mode where his tiny little
dragon arms come into play. Be warned about those things, they'll pop off if you so much as look at
them funny. Actually, it's easier to transform them after you yank them off and then put them back
on since attempting to transform them while they're attached will usually result in Megs getting an
armectomy. 7 out of 10
Jet Mode
This is one of my favorite modes, and also I'd assume one that the designers originally intended.
What it is is Galvatron on his stomach with his 'tail' as a cockpit and his wings flipped around
the other way. His feet fold up behind his back, making them look kind of out of place, and his
arms do a bunch of unfolding to become the rear wheels of the jet. The front wheel is stowed in his
chest plate.
The end result looks very impressive, if I say so myself. And, get this, it's free rolling!
Even though nothing except the wings are pegged in, the insanely tight joints of his legs and arms
allow for no shifting of parts while he rolls. Very neat, I think.
The one problem I had at first was getting the cockpit to go straight. The way I first did it I
ended up with his cockpit being at a slight angle above the horizontal which made for a weird looking
jet. What you need to do is sort of slide it down via the hinge joint, and then fold it down more
via the ball joint. The little notches on the thick end of the tail go right into slots where his
head used to be. It's not an overly tight fit, but it will stay on its own, and it makes the
jet look that much better. 9 out of 10
Car Mode
This mode really pushes it. The wheels that were the rear wheels are in a similar position, and the
wings are in their original position now. But then you need to fold up the wings (which is a task,
let me tell you, more on that later) and the 'wheels' (I use that term loosely) which are part of
the wings become the front wings. For lack of a better spot to put them, Galvatron's legs are just
sticking out the back.
Ah, and the wings? Well, they fold, but they are notched and grooved at the point you need to
fold them for this transformation so they support two positions; bent too far, and not bent far
enough. You can get it to an intermediate, and correct, position, but it's a struggle, and the
result isn't overly stable.
The final car mode is pretty disappointing. The rear wheels roll fine, but the front ones have
issues with grinding and scraping, and one of them on mine barely even moves at all. Sheesh. Really,
this mode is pretty much a clutter of parts and that makes the statement: "Hey, I have four wheels,
so I am a car!" Skip it. 5 out of 10
Boat Mode
Ack! Another mode that pushes it waaaay too much. It's actually supposed to be a hydrofoil,
but it succeeds in being a jumble of parts and junk, and oh lord is it stupid looking. After I
finished making it I spend another ten minutes comparing it with various pictures of it to make
sure I didn't miss something. Blech. Waste of energon, I say. 3 out of 10
Elephant Mode
Ahh, now this is fun. After a clever swapping of parts and stuff, and silly little elephant mode
was found. While it's generally kinda weird and out of place looking (I mean, come on, Megatron
the ferocious guy, turns into a gun, T-Rex, dragon and now an elephant?), it's a very neat mode, and
I enjoyed it anyway.
What you do is flip up his wings to be perpendicular to his body, then fold up his tail/cockpit and
stick it into the slots on the wings and tada! It's the elephant's head and trunk. The rest is
simple to do, just Galvatron on all fours (hmmmm...).
The only gripe I can think of is his body is kinda small for an elephant (in proportion to his
huge head anyway), but, like I said, it's a silly mode, so that won't even play into anything. Very
cool. 8 out of 10
Griffin Mode
This is another mode I like a lot. Megatron on all fours again, with the tail sticking out in the
front to be the neck and head of the griffin. The rear legs are Megatron's legs, but they're
folded just so that they're shorter than the front legs (his fully extended arms) with the final
look being pretty neat.
This is also the only mode where his staff is intact, and it sits on his back acting as a
half back-mounted launcher, half tail. The multijointed wings also flap and can even be folded
up for realistic looking Griffin action. Well, if griffins were real anyway.
The only thing I didn't like about this mode was that the griffin's 'beak' doesn't open or
close. I doubt it would have been much of a problem to add a simple hinge joint there, but
I guess you can't have everything. Very nice mode. 9 out of 10
Flying Dragon Mode
Okay, first off I'd like to say that's a stupid name for a mode. There are two dragon modes
here, and both have wings, so I'd assume both can fly. In the Japanese version this was called
'Devilnodon', after Pteradon, which makes more sense. It doesn't overly look like a Pteradon,
but that's probably because it's not one, it's a Devilnodod. Duh.
Basically this is a second version of the Gargoyle mode. It has the same blocky feel to it,
except instead of having Megatron's stupid looking head with the muzzle, it has his tail/cockpit
act as the head. The rest is pretty much exactly the same, though it is in reverse (his robot
chest is on the flying dragon's back, rather than the front). The end result is better looking
than the gargoyle, but still not too impressive. 6 out of 10
Hand Mode
I never really understood this mode, but it's there, so I guess I have to review it.
Well, it's a hand. Yep. A pretty big hand too. Going by the large size of it, if it belonged to a
human, he'd probably be like eight or nine feet tall. Of course, as it is, it's Megatron being a
huge hand all by himself. Weird.
Well, the hand is ambidextrous, so it can be a right hand or a left hand via a simple shifting
of the thumb. Also a nifty feature is using Galvatron's cod-piece to make the fingers move by
moving it up and down. Pretty nifty, and the hand can pick up a pretty good amount of stuff, though
I wouldn't suggest using it to take out the garbage or anything. Weird mode, but it comes out being
not so bad. 7 out of 10
So, overall, the average of the ten scores comes out to be 6.7, so you can round it up to
7. However, I feel that seven is too low a score for this nifty ten-changer (more if you count
the large number of fan modes), which is why I've jacked it up two slots to the max of 9.
Anyway, like I said, the thing that will help you decide between Galvatron and Megatron is
the color scheme (unless you buy both) since they are both the same toy otherwise. Choose wisely,
grasshopper, or the giant hand will squash you like bug.
