Megatron
(Beast Machines)
Beast mode is a dragon.
As one can easily tell, the Beast Machines Megatron toy is based off of
the Transmetal 2 Megatron toy, only scaled
down, altered a bit for Beast Machines, and given a simpler transformation.
In most ways, Beast Machines Megatron is inferior to his predecessor, but
this does not necessarily make him a bad toy, as many Transfans would have
you believe- overall, Beast Machines Megatron is still quite a good toy.
When one first sees this toy on the shelves, the first thought that would
probably enter one's head is "Man, this toy is small for a Mega". Indeed,
this toy is very small for a Mega- almost deluxe-sized, in fact. The huge
wings are what give Megatron his volume. These huge wings are also what
make this beast mode look so cool. They give Megs sort of a mysterious
look. They don't hold up very well, however, since they're so big, and
eventually slump downward if you put them in any raised position. The detailing
in this mode is also exquisite, and, in certain areas, is a bit uneven,
giving Megatron a slight TM2 look, although it's not as obvious as it was
in the Transmetal 2 toy. Compared to the TM2 form, however, Megatron's
beast mode looks very skinny and puny. His main body is only slightly thicker
than my thumb, and his tiny arms are way too small. It is also very obvious
that the arms are not in any way connected to the main body, which adds
to their oddity. Megatron's action gimmick is a "snapping attack jaw",
which really doesn't work that well. What is supposed to happen is that,
if you pull the head back and let it go, it will strike forward, snapping
its mouth shut, but it almost never snaps, it only lunges forward. Still,
at least the "lunging action" is pretty cool, even though it does interfere
with neck and head posability some. The dragon head looks very cool, by
the way. One last downside to this mode is that the robot hand, "hidden"
inside the tail, is blatantly obvious- it would be better if Hasbro somehow
disguised it a little better. Megatron is also a bit unstable in this mode,
as most of his weight is distributed to the back- he may fall on his tail.
Robot mode is pretty
neat, and again, it resembles his Transmetal 2 form somewhat. What's cool
is that Megatron's face is molded wearing his neat-looking helmet from
the show, which is a nice touch. Megatron stays pretty stable in this mode,
which is an improvement over the beast mode- however, his left arm (the
dragon head) still suffers from lack of posability, but at least it's not
bad as Transmetal 2 Megatron's wiggly dragon head-hand. I still think heads
for hands aren't a good idea, though. Megatron's right hand also has a
large extra hanging off of it, the dragon tail, which doesn't help that
hand, either. Also, the dragon hands that form the stomach don't fit together
that well, and can come out of place easily, leaving some cracks and crevices
between Megatron's body and legs. Even though I've focused a lot on the
downsides of this mode, this is still a pretty good mode, what with the
large wings, decent posability, and great detailing. The spark crystal
is under the sky blue panel on Megatron's chest.
Megatron also has a
"cloaked" mode, the one he's in in most of Season 1 of Beast Machines.
However, there are no arms in this mode, which is a pretty big letdown,
as it mostly ruins the playability of this mode. Megatron's cloak covers
up most of him except for his head and dragon feet. An interesting thing
to note about this mode is that some toys are able to get the cloak mode
to fit together well, but other Beast Machines Megatron toys are not (mine
fits into this category). If your toy fits into the latter category, this
pretty much makes the cloaked mode not worthwhile at all, with zero playability
and looks.
A good, show-accurate
toy in and of itself; I guess it's just overlooked so much because it's
inferior to the Transmetal 2 Megatron toy.
Review by Beastbot