Robots in Disguise: Megatron Megabolt
Well, it's been a year in the coming, but he's finally here. For those not in the know, the
Beast Machines line was rather abrupt in its end, leaving a few molds available in scarce quantities
(Battle Unicorn, Spy Streak, Motorcycle Drone etc) and some even left unreleased entirely (RID Bruticus,
Air Attack Primal, Megabolt). However, that was remedied at the end of the Robots in Disguise line
with the releases of Megabolt and Air Attack Primal.
That said, Megabolt was a highly anticipated toy. The prototype pictures for it appeared
on Ben Yee's page almost two years ago, and with the show accurate big floating head (or BFH for
short, you can sub another f word for 'floating' as well if you wish) mode and very cool looking
robot mode, people couldn't wait to get their mits on Megabolt. Sadly though, he was never put out,
and Hasbro sat on the mold for a year.
However, now he's a KB Toys exclusive (and gah, $12.99), and back with a vengeance. Or something. He's
packed in robot mode, but I have him in BFH mode right now, so I'll review that first. Okay well,
the actual head part is pretty show accurate, being the same flattened, modified skull sort of deal
the BFH was. It's got a bit different coloring, containing more purple, but the colors are volumes more
accurate than other BFTS molds (BPOP, Silverbolt etc).
Also nifty is the spider legs. Actually, there are only six of them, so he's actually an insect,
not a spider, if you wanna get picky, just to clarify anyway. If you push him along on his little
wheels, his legs will move up and down in a sort of crawling motion, and his mouth opens and closes,
ala pac-man. The only real problem with this is that the mechanism in the wheels is rather tight,
so you may have some trouble pushing him along if you don't press down hard enough. This leads to
another problem as the control helmet for robot mode rubs against the ground. The bottom of mine is
already a bit scratched up. If you press down the spark crystal (which is Vehicon, by the way), he
opens his mouth and fires the missile.
Transformation is nutty, and rather complicated. Going from BFH to robot isn't overly
hard, but the other way around is a tad nutty. I didn't need instructions, so everything is
fairly obvious to a point, but I had to stare at the pictures a little to make sure. It's really
pretty complex, with a lot of folding and pegging and an odd swivel joint that moves his legs above his head,
so I won't get into it. You have fun!
Robot mode, as shown by the pictures, is quite excellent. He's pretty well proportioned (save for the
pinhead) and has ball jointed thighs, knees, elbows, ankles and shoulders. There's also a
stiff 'extra' knee joint that's used for transformation, that makes a bit more sense as a knee,
though it's stiff and a hinge, so it's pretty limited.
His actual knees pose a little problem. The figure is extremely top heavy, so if you don't
position him in a certain way (so his feet are behind his torso) then they'll buckle and Megsy
falls on his back. However, his feet are really big, and he supports a wide variety of poses, so
that can be forgiven I suppose.
Gimmicks? Yes. Well, pressing his spark crystal will snap his missile launcher into place
above his head. Rather violently as well. And not only does the spring swing it into place, but
it gets locked there with a magnet. Oh the niftyness of it all! If you press the spark again, the
missile will fire. Also, be careful, if you want to deploy the helmet/launcher but not get a
missile in your eye, don't hold down the spark in, as the same mechanism that deploys the launcher also
fires the missile. Just a warning.
The helmet itself is pretty neat, and he actually resembles his show self with the helmet on (from the
neck up at least), which is a plus. This toy blows the BM Megatron version out of the frickin water any
day of the week. Had this been packed as a mega (and it might as well have been, with the dame
price), I would not have felt as ripped off as I did with mega BM Megatron. It's just a cool
toy.
My advice? If you have a KB, go get it. They're slowly appearing across the country now, though
I'm not sure what to say to the international collectors. I guess eBay is always an option, or
maybe an online store will start carrying them. Either way, despite the knocked up KB price, this guy
is worth it. Very cool stuff.