The Movie versions of Megatron have always have not just abstract vehicle modes, but ones that honestly look lazily put-together, and this new tank version of Megatron sadly doesn't break that feeling that the first version of the character had. His tank mode isn't "of Earth"-- and I'm fine with that-- but what I'm not fond of is how it's really just a bunch of robot parts cobbled together for the main body with a turret and treads, and that makes it a "tank". The main body doesn't look solid at all, and looks just like what it is-- a bunch of hinges and bolts to compress the robot body into the space in between the couple of identifiable "tank" parts of this mode. Still, to be fair, it IS a more convincing mode than the first Leader Megatron's alt mode, due to their not being any huge pieces of robot kibble that stick out and outright ruin the silouhette of the mode. Megatron's robot head sticks out very obviously form the front underneath the turret, but this time it's intentional, as it was this way in the movie, as well. Granted, I wish they had given Megatron more of a bonafide "battle mask" for this version as opposed to two stubs of plastic in front of his jaw, but eh. The turret looks pretty cool, and pressing on the light red button will fire a spring-loaded missile out of it, but sadly the turret can't move at all-- it's stuck in place, which is simply unacceptable on this large of a toy. The rocket boosters on the back end also seemed tacked-on, as those pieces don't mesh with the pieces in front of it at all, and in fact sit at a slight angle when connected, which looks odd. The turrets look very well-done-- even split into two parts on each side as they are-- with very "sharp"-looking detailing, and some really nice metallic silver and copper paint detailing on the interior. It's a rare eye-catching part on what is otherwise a wholly boring color scheme, with that too-often-used dull milky gray on the vast majority of the figure with black being the only other major color. More of the metallic copper and light red, please. The mold detailing is VERY well-done, though, with metallic shards and plating sticking out everywhere on the toy.
    Megatron's robot mode is an improvement over the tank mode, and is certainly what the toy was built around, but still falls short of being impressive, sadly. His main problem has to do with his proportions-- he has a definite hunchback, which is not accurate to how he looks in the actual movie. His legs are also a bit overly large, and though his arms are a bit asymmetrical in their size in the movie to give him a bit of that "rebuilt" look, they aren't nearly THIS symmetrical. His right gun-arm is absolutely HUGE, reading down almost to his foot when extended, while his right arm is a tiny twig of a thing, with his middle finger extended much farther than his other claws-- which honestly makes it hard to make him look like he's NOT giving you the bird. On the plus side, though, I do like the "one big/one little shoulder"-- that's a GOOD kind of asymmetry, in my opinion-- and the detail given this main body is phenomenal. It looks like he has an intricate metal-shard-ribcage there, and if you press down on the bronze piece in the center, you can see several gears inside his chest turn as flashing red lights come on in his head and upper body while he roars "I...AM...MEGATRON!" A really nicely-done gimmick, there. I don't like the paint apps on Megs' face, though-- they make him look like he has some sort of bull nose-ring and liberally-applied mascara, which just looks wrong. Besides his aforementioned missile-firing gimmick, Megatron's big claw on his right arm can also rotate forward, and if you press backward on the black lever near the back of his claw, a blade will swing downward automatically, which is also rather neat. In addition, when you rotate his right arm around at the shoulder, ever 90 degrees or so a "pounding" sound will emit from the toy, along with the blinking red lights. This, honestly, can get a little annoying if you just want to move his arm, as there's no way to deactivate it short of taking out the batteries. Despite the fact that they're oversized a bit, Megatron's legs are constructed quite well, with wide feet that keep him quite stable and pretty silver-painted kneecaps. (There's two big black pegs sticking out of the insides of his knees that are minor eyesores, though.) As far as Megatron's articulation goes, he can move at the shoulders (two points on the right, three points on the left), elbow on the left arm, at the base of the middle finger on the left arm, and at the hips (at three points), knees, and slight side-to-side movement at the neck. As such, although it's not horrible, Megatron isn't exactly particularly posable, particularly on his huge right arm due to the gimmicks housed there.
    RotF Leader Megatron is one of the weaker toys of the line, what with his "bunch-of-parts-with-a-turret-and-treads" tank mode and a robot mode that has some definite proportion and articulation problems. His color scheme is also a snoozer, too. Still, he's the only RotF Leader-class toy that isn't difficult to transform, so at least he has that going for him, along with some cool gimmicks and excellent mold detailing. Still, if you're going to get one version of this character, the Voyager-class version of this guy is an easy recommendation over this less-accurate and more-expensive version.

Review by Beastbot
 

Second Opinion by VBBN

Difficulty of Transformation: Medium
Rating: 6.7

    This time around, Megatron is a tank. His voyager form has some wings to imitate that he still has some properties of being a jet and that he flies in ROTF, but those are absent from this Megatron. Mold wise, there is a ton of detailing on this guy, and I don't mind the head being visible all that much. I mean, think about all the Cybertronian forms we have seen thus far. Soundwave, Fallen, and the first Megatron all have had heads/battle masks visible in their vehicle modes. Voyager Megatron's head has a better facemask, however if it REALLY bothers you, you can push Megatron's head so it is facing downwards. Anyways, back to the tank. Paint is okay, would have been nice to have more silver paint but seeing as to how costly that could be, I can see why they avoided it. My main problem with the tank is that it is too high, and doesn't have enough armor shell on the top. Other than that though, its resembles a tank more than the original Megatron resembled a jet, so that's good. In terms of features, you can press a button to fire a missile, which makes a firing noise and causes lights to appear. The only lights you see in this mode are two red panels and Megatron's eyes, though.
    Robot mode is slightly better. Let's get the negatives out of the way first, of which I have three. Firstly, his head barely has any side-to-side articulation. I know this is because of his gimmick which I will explain later, but still. Next, I know he is a big toy, but I think he could have been larger, taller. He dwarfs Prime in the movie, so I would have liked to achieve that here. My third complaint is my biggest-- the arms. His left arm is barely an arm, more of a stick. This is not at all accurate to his Movie counterpart, who had normal-sized arms, just asymmetric in details. His other arm is a giant log, practically useless as it can only rotate 360 degrees at the shoulder, and go outwards slightly when the attack blade is attached to his upper arm. His little blade thing can move downwards on the arm and flip out, which is nice, but not movie-accurate at all. The cannon still fires, but to activate the sound, you have to rotate the arm past a certain point. Strange. That aside, lets get on with the positives. His torso and legs are WONDERFUL. Good articulation and amazing detail. And a neat thing to note, Megatron's chest actually looks like The Fallen's face, well most of it anyway. In terms of sounds besides the gun, he has a transformation noise when you rotate the hips downward during transformation, and when you pull down the lever on his chest, he says "I am Megatron," In a drawn out, creepy, loud voice. So for those of you that want to repaint this guy into a Galvatron, you may want to reconsider. Also, when you pull down that lever, tons of gears in his chest move for his Mech Alive, which is very awesome. Probably the best mech alive gimmick of the Decepticons.
    All in all, Megatron is not too fantastic of a figure. If you don't care about scale, I'd say get the voyager version, but if you have the utterly fantastic Leader Prime, you don't really have much of a choice, this guy is a must.

Review by VBBN

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