General Information:
Release Date: August 2013
Price Point: $14.99 (depending on retailer at time of initial release)
Retailer: General (Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us etc.)
Accessories: Wings/cannon halves x 2
*Images and text below from Amazon.com:
There was a time when those who wore the Decepticon badge did so with pride and not fear. There was a time when the name of Megatron was honored by many across Cybertron. He was a scholar, a warrior and a hero, fighting for the freedom of the oppressed. But power inevitably corrupts and none are so powerful as mighty Megatron. Long ago, he forgot he was a hero and became nothing more than a tyrant. The battle between Autobot and Decepticon is never over and this Megatron figure is the next generation of awesome Transformers action. Your Megatron figure can lead a Decepticon attack from above in stealth bomber mode. When he converts back to robot mode, the wings become his mighty fusion cannon. Keep converting him back and forth so he can handle whatever his Autobot enemies dish out.
In the course of the IDW Publishing comic book series, several Transformers changed forms over the years. In the recent "Spotlight Megatron" comic book, Megatron was shown getting a new body that transformed into a stealth bomber in vehicle mode. Now this version of Megatron has been given form as an action figure in the "Generations" line. To give credit where it is due, this design was originally conceptualized by former "Transformers" artist Don Figueroa for a pitch. There's some dispute about Hasbro using the design, but I won't get into that. I just wanted to be sure the true pedigree of the figure was mentioned here.
Packaging:
For this series of IDW inspired figures, the "Generations" packaging has been changed. The backing card has the familiar, G1 inspired "grid" on it, but for the most part it's blank except for a small "Transformers Generations" logo at the top. The package "art" is provided by the cover of a comic book included with the title. In this case, the book comes with a special printing of the "Spotlight Megatron" comic book that showed Megatron using this form for the first time. On top of that is the figure in robot mode as is the current standard in the line.
Robot Mode:
Being based on the comic book iteration of Megatron, this figure winds up having many of the details seen in that version. Among the distinctive details worked into this figure are:
- Megatron's infamous head design now has ridges worked into the sides and the top of the "helmet" section.
- On either side of the head are vents resting on his armor near the shoulders.
- The chest section is broken up, with angled panels allowing for gaps in the middle of each side of the chest.
- The center of the chest is made up of parts from the cockpit section with a Decepticon symbol showing in the center.
- Each arm has blade like protrusions on the top and bottom of the forearms.
- The thighs have raised patches of armor on the front and sides.
- The knee armor has a distinctive pointed shape and goes over the thighs a bit.
- There are angled details on the lower legs.
- The feet are curved, coming to a point in the middle.
- The waist section comes to distinctive points in the middle, evoking parts of the Decepticon symbol in shape.
- Megatron's signature Fusion Cannon weapon is an angular piece made up of two wing ends. These two pieces form a distinctive shape similar to what was seen in the comic book.
- Small details suc as line details on the shoulder armor and forearms are also present, matching the comic book design.
As you can see from the list above, a lot of effort was made to ensure this design was faithful to its source. Despite being a Deluxe Class figure, Megatron still manages to look imposing thanks to his proportions. His shoulders and torso are wide, narrowing in the middle and then expanding out a bit at the legs. With the feet and other details forming points on almost every main section of the robot, he also winds up looking very sleek at the same time. I really dig the design.
Megatron is cast mostly in metallic black plastic. He also has metallic purple and lavender colored parts on sections like the upper arms and fists respectively. There's some translucent purple showing through on the Fusion Cannon and eyes. Overall these base colors are really great and while they're not traditional Megatron colors, they definitely suit the character.
The paint colors used on this figure include silver, metallic purple and red. The silver is used for a lot of detailing from the face to the vents near his shoulders and chest. The metallic purple is found on the forearms and legs. Red is used on the windows of the cockpit on his chest area. There's also some metallic black paint used on the outside of the Fusion Cannon halves. This is to match up with the vehicle mode parts in his alternate form, but it also matches nicely with the comic book version of this Megatron. The finishing touch is a Decepticon symbol right in the center of the chest in purple.
Megatron has nineteen points of articulation in this mode. This includes four on each arm and five in each leg. His shoulder and hip joints allow for a wide range of motion. For some reason, if I mess around with the left arm on mine a lot, the arm slips off the ball joing. It pops right back on and the arm holds up in various poses, it's just a mysterious issue I wanted to make sure I mentioned. Megatron features 5mm peg holes on both forearms, allowing you to attach his Fusion Cannon (or any other 5mm weapon) to either arm. His fists are also sculpted with 5mm holes, allowing him to hold weapons as well.
Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
- Detach the Fusion Cannon. Split it in half and push each wing end in. Set these aside for now.
- Straighten out each arm and swing the fists in.
- Pull the center of the chest up, forming the cockpit of the bomber.
- Swing up each half of the chest up a bit (there's a tab that connects it to the center section).
- Push each chest half down then swing it up against the cockpit.
- Rotate the arms back and swing the shoulder armor against the section with the vents.
- Rotate each thigh section around then rotate the lower leg around so you can move the legs up.
- Swing each leg up, using the tabs on the sides of the feet to connect to the section near the vents and the middle. You'll need to push the knee armor down.
- Swing the feet back.
- Rotate the arms so the ridged sections face up, then press them up against the robot leg pieces.
- Attach the ends of the wings to the tabs on the edges of the vehicle.
Vehicle Mode:
Megatron's vehicle mode is a wedge shaped stealth bomber similar to the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit. Details include an angled shape in front and several pointed sections in the back. The center has the cockpit coming up in an oval shape flanked by two vents. There are extra details on this figure the B-2 does not have including raised ridges from the robot forearms on the top of the vehicle and a series of layered armor details at the nose of the cockpit. While similar, this is definitely no clone of the B-2. Still, it does stay true to the vehicle as shown in the comic book. Indeed, this jet has some weaponry not seen on the B-2 including blasters near both vents and two smaller blasters on the nose of the vehicle.
This mode is mostly metallic black in color, with most of the purple and lavender parts now tucked away. Silver paint is used on most of the detailing including the ridges on top and the front of the cockpit. The landing gear under the cockpit is cast in lavender. In case you're wondering, he does have other non-functional "wheels" sculpted onto the forearms. The cockpit window are painted red and you see more of the translucent purple peeking through on the ends of the wings.
Megatron's 5mm holes from the forearms wind up on the top of the vehicle, which works out perfectly as it allows you to attach extra weapons to him in this form. Sure he already has some weaponry sculpted into the figure, but what's a couple extra cannons going to hurt? Theoretically you can also swing his robot fists down and attach weapons to them, giving him weapons under his wings.
Final Thoughts:
Megatron is a really cool figure. To be fair however, a friend told me his copy of this figure had joints that didn't quite work as well as mine (more loose, easy to fall apart etc.) so if you do pick Megatron up, be sure to test him out in poses, transform the figure a few times etc. to be sure you don't have any quality issues with yours. I mentioned my own odd issue with his arm above. I do recommend this figure. I think he looks cool and he's fun to toy around with. I do find myself wishing he had been done in the Voyager Class scale, but given that we've gotten cool triple changers in that scale instead, I'm okay with this choice! Recommended.
