Megatron
(Prime)
Megatron's vehicle mode
for Prime is a flying space thingie (Megatron hasn't been one for disguise
for a while, I guess). Although this is a brand new mold and a larger size
class, this toy has a lot of design and transformation similarities with
the deluxe-class First Edition toy of the
character, so I'll be comparing the two quite a bit in this review. Obviously,
as a voyager, this toy is a much more appropriate size for Megatron, but
it still suffers from a lot of the very obvious robot extras/undercarriage
that his First Edition toy suffered from-- namely hugely obvious robot
upper legs and feet at the sides of this mode, most of his head poking
up in the center of this mode, and somewhat obvious robot arms on the back
end, though the latter help to contribute to the overall shape of the vehicle
mode and don't really bother me. His front... cockpit... thingie still
doesn't really look like anything, made from parts of his robot chest and
waist, but at least it's accurate to the show model. Proportionally, the
vents on his main body are smaller on this version, but the wings (and
this, I feel, is his biggest drawback compared to the First Edition version)
are actually smaller proportionally and a bit higher up-- as wings, they
were actually at least somewhat convincing and aerodynamic on his First
Edition toy, but substantially less so here. On the plus side, I love how
much larger/more menacing his shoulder spike pieces are in front of his
wings here. He also has a quite impressive electronic weapon-- it's his
fusion cannon with a blade attachment on the front, but if you press in
on the back end, a litle red light will rotate around to face forward along
with a transparent purple blade. The light is SUPPOSED to shine through
the blade, but like pretty much all the electronic light piping gimmicks
in the Prime line, it doesn't really work very well. Still, the red light
looks menacing, at least. As far as his detailing, it's what you'd expect
on a Prime toy, with alternating curved and pointy bits (with more of an
emphasis on the latter, since this IS the emperor of evil we're talking
about here), and relatively minimal mold detailing when compared with movie
or Generations toys. However, what I find REALLY cool about the detailing
on Megatron is that-- on his light milky gray parts-- there's a very slight
"brush strokes in one direction" mold detailing on all the pieces, giving
what would otherwise be a rather blah, boring color a more "burnished metal"
look-- it's a very small touch, but it does SO much. Megatron's other colors
besides gray include a little bit of silver paint (though not nearly as
much as his First Editon toy), and some really nice shades of purple paint
and plastic, centered on his chest, weapon, and wings. There's also a fair
amount of pale brown plastic, oddly enough, which is definitely NOT show-accurate.
I get that they'd want more color variety, but although the pale brown
goes alright with the purple, it doesn't really go well with the milky
gray-- they're both too dull and light.
Megatron's transformation
here is almost identical to his First Edition toy, with only a few minor
extra differences/steps (such as the piece that partially covers his head
in vehicle mode splitting in half, and his shoulders being on separate
ball joint pieces). The result is a quite accurate robot mode, as you'd
expect for a toy that's made so many compromises in vehicle mode. Given
his fairly buff proportions, he looks just like the gladiator that he should.
The only pieces I would really call "kibble" are the couple of vehicle
vent & head cover pieces behind his back, but what isn't directly behind
his back stays out of the way of movement, at least. I do like the "split
in half" design for his head cover pieces much better, as he doesn't have
anything hanging behind his butt anymore. His "spikes" are also larger
proportionally on this toy--his toes and shoulders especially, which looks
great to me. His transformation also doesn't leave segments of his lower
legs a blatantly different color, which is a definite plus. His headsculpt
is pretty spot-on compared to the show model, though I'm confused why his
face was painted silver but his eyebrows weren't, given what huge features
of this head design they are. The middle of his body is mostly made of
transparent purple plastic partially covered in most places with gray plastic,
which helps with the color break-up there (and elsewhere, like on his lower
arms). This is so that you can use electronic light-up gimmick pieces from
the line to make Megatron "light up"-- but as mentioned earlier, they don't
work very well, and sadly, neither does the transparent purple light piping
in his eyes. Megatron's fusion cannon can be pegged into either of his
lower arms-- it's a tad oversized due to his gimmick, but not by much,
and Megatron's always been a "big gun" kinda guy anyways. I particularly
love that the blade attachment to the front of his cannon can be held in
either of his hands as a bit of handguard/"bladed knuckle" weapon. For
articulation, Megatron can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points),
elbows (at two points), inwards at the wrists, and at the hips (at two
points), knees, and slightly at the ankles. He isn't QUITE as well-balanced
as his First Edition toy, but he's still fairly good in that respect, and
you get him into some pretty awesome poses.
Prime voyager Megatron
still has some big problems (most of them being with his weak vehicle mode),
but the design has been improved upon a little from his First Edition toy,
with slightly better robot mode proportions, cooler weapons, and a really
cool "burnished metal" detailing on all of his gray parts, even if he has
less silver paint here and less convincing vehicle mode wings. Plus, size-wise
he fits in with other toys in the line much better, here. If you want a
toy of the original Megatron design in the Prime line, this is definitely
the version you'll want.
Review by Beastbot