(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Combiner Wars "G1-eque" Megatron. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of CW "G1-esque" Megatron here.)

    Well, here's an homage I wasn't expecting-- yessir, the Armada version of Megatron has actually been remolded from a design also used for a G1-esque toy of Megatron! There are several things for this mold that call back to the Armada version more than the G1-esque version, actually, with the tank mode in particular looking pretty nice, keeping many of the details that Armada Megatron had while getting rid of the impractical futuristic "H-tank" look and making it a much more realistic-looking tank, as well. (That said, a detail looking like the horns of Megatron's head poking down the center middle of the vehicle is highlighted in paint-- a nice touch that calls back to the original toy.) The Minicon ports on the mold were also certainly put on this toy for this version, even though none of the Minicon ports actually activate anything. The military green of Armada Megatron fits the tank mode quite nicely, and there's tons of paint apps and an impressive number of colors used on the mold this time around. The metallic silver blue on the armor panels on the sides and top of the tank mode and a similiar color of that shade in plastic being used for the cannon complements the green very well, making Armada Megatron very visually interesting despite not being "dipped in paint" like the G1-esque version of this mold. There's also just a titch of purple and light red-orange accents peeking through in vehicle mode to give it some more interesting coloration, but the robot mode is where the purple and red-orange really shine through, particularly on the upper legs and some small connector bits. In robot mode his color scheme is thus considerably more varied, with the purple and a fair amount of silver on the chest, arms, and lower legs adding more to all that green. The transformation is technically the same for this toy as for the G1-esque Megatron, but I like to keep this version's treads folded out a bit behind the arms to give him more of an Armada Megatron silouhette. All of this said, however, the robot mode is where this toy suffers, and considerably moreso than on G1-esque Megatron. Having the cannon on the right arm, the shape of the lower legs, the chest-- they're all VERY G1 Megatron, and don't really fit Armada Megatron at all, and these are all big negatives. Some of these should have been vastly remolded or the transformation redesigned a bit to help differentiate him and de-emphasize these similarities.
    Armada Megatron has a new head mold, which sculpt-wise looks nice in the face (particularly with the nice cherry red light piping for the eyes and the light metallic purple on the face), but the horns are way too small proportionally, and look off without being large clamps like on the original Armada toy. That's it as far as mold changes-- all the more unfortunate for this toy.
    Combiner Wars Armada Megatron has an impressive number of different colors and paint apps on him, and his tank mode looks awesome-- but his robot mode isn't remolded nearly enough to differentiate him from the iconic G1 Megatron design, and the one part that is remolded (the head) is too mal-proportioned to look all that intimidating. Unless articulation matters more to you than anything else, I'd just get the original toy instead-- the original may not be as much of a marvel of engineering, but it's a lot more fun and looks a lot more intimidating.

Review by Beastbot

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