Transformers Reviews

Cybertron Mode Megatron

June 12, 2008 1:59 pm Ryan Animated, Toy Reviews, Voyager

Oh my goodness. How did I let it slip for so long? Oh, right. “I’m busy today. I’ll do a review tomorrow, so it’s okay if I play SimCity or watch an old Animated episode.” Anyways, this week’s toy on my desk is Voyager Megatron from Animated.

This first Megatron toy in the Animated line turns into Megatron’s original altmode, the Cybertronic jet seen in that one scene in the pilot, to stand with Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime. He’s mostly black, with a fair dose of grey and translucent red. His fusion cannon is mounted so that it fires aft, presumably to deal with that backstabbing Starscream. It is, naturally, quite aggressive, and being a spacecraft completely free of anything remotely resembling aerodynamics. It also appears to have VTOL fans, for no other reason than they need to parallel similar constructions on his earth mode. I can’t shake a feeling that it should be flying backwards, probably because of that fusion cannon and the flow of the lines of the craft, but apparently that’s just wrong. Overall, I’d say that he’s got a nicer looking Cybertronic jet mode than his 2007 film counterpart.

Transformation from Cybertronic Fusion Fighter to Robot

Collapse the wing-thingies into the fuselage.
Separate the two red diamond-thingies and pull the sides of the rear section of the jet out, then rotate and swing them down. Fold the diamond-thingies down to form the knees and unfold the feet.
Fold the aft landing gear into the abdomen. Rotate the chest down, locking the two red pegs into the holes in the underside of the chest.
Rotate the arms into position, Automorphing the head into position (unless the gears in yours have started to skip). Rotate the arms into whatever pose you want, it’s pretty much done.

Now you shall know true fear. Or, um, maybe not. He’s not really that intimidating. Cool looking, but not really “scary”. Maybe darker grey plastic would have made him more intimidating, I dunno. Overall, he’s got an okay colour scheme. I’d rather have darker grey or silver, but too shiny wouldn’t fit the Animated look. The translucent red is a nice touch, but it’s just begging for an LED unit somewhere. I’m thinking his chest would be a good place for it. Maybe Jin Saotome will come through? Another thing I’ve noticed is that the dark grey/black paint on his arms is either flaking off so fast I didn’t even notice it, or it wasn’t complete on the figure to begin with. Kind of a bummer. He’s pretty posable, and I can’t wait to see how he looks with Optimus tomorrow. His posability is kind of hampered by his oversized weapon (it’s nearly as big as he is, of course it’s a bit heavy), but I don’t think it’s as bad as people say. There are a number of fixes going on for the cannon arm, but I’m still undecided on whether it’s worth the effort. It’s not bothering me as much as Lockdown’s hands or Bumblebee’s stingers, but time will tell whether it gets more annoying. What does annoy me is the tendency of his skidplate cover to pop off if not handled with care. The cannon itself fires a single missile, but like most toys it doesn’t fire it very far, what with all these toy safety rules and whatnot. It’s got a simple little Automorph to turn it into some sort of “sword”, but it’s a bit finicky and doesn’t really look all that good, in my opinion.

Articulation Breakdown

Head - Swivel
Arms - Triple swivel shoulders (all ratcheted), double swivel elbows (both ratcheted, both in the same axis so he can touch his shoulders), swivel wrist
Legs - Swivel waist (very limited), double swivel hips (both ratcheted), double swivel knees (one ratcheted), swivel ankles

Score

Deco: Rating: . I like the transparent red, and the dark grey as black works well with the figure, but I’d have liked darker grey better. The light grey is a double-whammy, as it costs both intimidation factor (he should be a lot tougher looking; he’s Megatron!) and show accuracy.
Posability: Rating: . He’s got a lot of articulation (as all the Animated stuff seems to), but his oversized weapon hinders it (and removing the weapon leaves that little arm that it clips on to with nowhere to go).
Transformation: Rating: . It’s a solid transformation, but simple enough to do quickly. It takes a bit of fiddling to get it symmetrical, though, which is kind of irksome.
Badassery: Rating: . It’s Megatron. Scourer or worlds, extinguisher of countless sparks. He’s big, he’d bad, he’s got a gun bigger than both his arms together (and that gun is pretty aggressive looking, too). That fiddling little deco problem is costing him here too, though. It just makes him too friendly looking.
Vehicle Mode: Rating: . It’s a nice looking vehicle. Aggressive, alien, what more could you want? I can’t speak to real world accuracy (because it’s not from around here), or show accuracy (he was onscreen in this mode for less than a minute, I’m not going to go back and check), but I like it.
Robot Mode: Rating: . It’s a solid robot. He’s got the Animated styling down, he’s got some interesting proportions (holy cow, big feet), and all things considered he looks good in this mode.

Overall, Overall Rating: . I like him, but he’s got some issues, and the leader size figure down the line may be more desirable, especially for people not inclined towards Cybertronian vehicle altmodes.

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