What's this? Galvatron gets a new toy, and it's NOT just a repaint of Megatron!? Never thought I'd see the day! Anyways, Galvatron is a tank this time around, but with a cannon that looks an awful lot like the same part of his G1 futuristic cannon emplacement mode. As you'd expect, the cannon has your standard spring-firing missile launcher inside of it, activated by pushing down on the circular orange button behind the barrel. Galvatron's turret can swivel all the way around-- and hey, he's even got a little bonus missile pack peaking out from behind the turret! But other than that, this mode can't really do much. Which would be fine if it looked really dynamic, but it doesn't; a dull gray tank with silver highlights and black treads does not an eye catch. The transparent orange barrel is really the only eye-catching about this mode, IMO. It is impressive, however, the amount of mold detailing on this toy-- particularly on the sides, Galvatron is almost covered in the stuff, with panels, "backup ammo" detailing, vents-- the works. Putting "GALV-25" on the turret was a pretty cool fan nod, as well, given that it's a reference to the 25th anniversary of Transformers. Probably the most impressive aspect of this mode is that there's no robot mode extras whatsoever (well, except for one of the hands which is ever-so-slightly visible from the rear of the turret, but that's being REALLY nitpicky). There's even flaps of plastic on the front and back so you don't even get a peak of Galvatron's robot parts! However, this comes at a price...
    Getting to Galvatron's robot mode is a REAL chore. He's LITERALLY the most complex deluxe toy I've ever reviewed for this site up to this point (4/09). See, this design was originally intended to be for an Ultra class figure, but was eventually made into a Deluxe class figure instead for various reasons. However, when downsizing this figure, Hasbro should have dramatically simplified the transformation, as Galvatron's Ultra-complex transformation just doesn't do well at this scale. Parts unpeg all the time, it's needlessly complicated, and some parts don't do anything, like the fake "feet" behind his shoulders, which were originally planned to be part of a four-legged "battle cannon" mode when the design was still intended to be Ultra class. Because of the downsizing of the design, some rather necessary features were cut to, such as real knee joints (he has pegs that can rotate side-to-side instead where the knee joints should have been) and some obvious extras, like all the junk on his back that doesn't really peg into anything. More individual parts would've helped eliminate some of this, but obviously there's only so much you can put in a deluxe toy. Anyways, proportion-wise, Galvatron isn't too bad-- his upper legs are way too small, but that's about it. His head sculpt and chest design is also very well-done-- very "G1-y"-- with the overall design obviously still being different enough to warrant an update. Keeping the cannon on his right arm-- and sliding it above the tank turret parts it was wedged in between in vehicle mode-- was another particularly brilliant move. The added purple in this mode really helps to differentate the color scheme some from all that dull grey in vehicle mode, and the touches of orange here and there work surprisingly well as an accent color. As far as Galvatron's articulation goes, he can move at the neck, shoulders, elbows (at three points on the left arm and two points on the right), waist, hips (at three points), side-to-side at the knees, and a back-and-forth joint on an area between where the knee and the hip joints should be, oddly enough. However, this sounds better than it actually is, particularly when it comes to the waist, and shoulders, which are fairly restricted by all the back kibble and Galvatron's beefy upper right arm. There are also a few other design aspects of Galvatron I'm not fond of, such as the odd-looking lower legs (they look almost hollow from a side angle) and the fact that one of his hands is open and the other closed (with the closed one not even having a peg to hold a weapon), which was an odd choice.
    Universe 2.0 Galvatron is a nice attempt at an updated version of the character, but the toy should have stayed at an Ultra class size. It's annoyingly complicated for a deluxe, parts unpeg way too easily, and he has a lot of kibble in robot mode that probably would've tucked away on a larger toy. Plus, his color scheme in tank mode is exceptionally dull. He's not a terrible toy by any means, but there are several other Universe 2.0 molds I'd pick up first before I'd consider Galvatron.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers: Universe 2.0 Index