Beast Wars Megatron is my favorite incarnation of the character to use the name. More than the G1 guy, more than the Animated guy, more than the Unicron Trilogy guy, and even more than the Movie guy! His voice, personality, and manipulative ways make him too hard to hate! Now, I already own the Kingdom version, which is a pretty awesome toy all around, though I was surprised to see that the Beast Wars Ultra get a re-release a few months later. Interestingly, he was charged for the same price you'd get for a Leader Class figure, which makes him and Cheetor in similar spots for how close their release schedule was in addition to the size class. Now, Kingdom Cheetor wins for the better aesthetics and engineering while the original won in terms of coloring and more durable plastic, so let's see how the Vintage toy wins compared to the Kingdom release!
Here is Megatron in his beast mode. Design-wise, it doesn't really fit the sort of charismatic essence his character has in the show, but this was made before we got the CGI model, as was the case for plenty of Beast Wars toys. It's more of a generic T-Rex in terms of what he looks like, so much so that one side of his face has the screws exposed! Its proportions are alright, though they're not as aggressive as his rival, Primal. The sculpted details are decent, and the paint apps do add some extra breakup to the purple T-Rex. It's not as common nowadays, but back then, people used to make fun of Beast Wars Megatron by calling him Barney the Dinosaur because of the similar deco. His articulation consists of ball-jointed dino arms, and some slight leg movement, which is hindered because of the space being hindered by the kibble; his knees and toes do bend well enough, though the mouth can open and close when using the water-squirting tongue. If you want to make it manually, you have to slightly dislodge the tongue, though the tongue is removable as part of the feature.
For a beast mode comparison, here he is next to his Kingdom counterpart. These two are certainly comparable, probably moreso than even the two Cheetors due to the similar size and price point they're going for. The original Megatron is slightly bigger than the new version and feels more toyetic compared to the Kingdom version's realistic T-Rex look that's inspired by Jurassic Park, and you can tell just how massive of a difference there is between the anatomy as well as the sculpted details. The new version makes use out of the PVC parts to make the skin texture look more convincing, though I'll at least say that the original version does an okay job at looking like a T-Rex. Surprisingly, the decoes of the two-match more than I expected. You'll see what I mean when we get to the mold history.
And here he is next to his rival, Optimus Primal. As you can see here, the scale between the two is not too bad, because it is pretty close to what these two could pass off as in the show. Megatron was a bigger bot than Primal in general, though you'll see how the opposite turns out in robot mode.
Transformation is very complex for a 1996 toy. In contrast to Optimus Primal, the outer part of the beast mode becomes the backpack, the dino head becomes the right arm, the tail becomes the left arm, and the torso is within the dino body halves! Combine that with the ratchet joints clicking from place to place and the general use of part-shifting, and you get yourself an asymmetrical yet awesome transformation for the robot mode. Megatron's robot mode is the iconic design we know him for since 1996, but it's not as refined as the character model is. Mostly, the proportions are a little stumpier than the character design has, who was a little taller and leaner in the show. I think what's also adding to the stumpy look is how wide the toy looks, from the span between the cranium of the dino head to the outer edge of the dino tail. Maybe if those parts were a little undersized, it'd make for a more proportionate robot, but the toy does feel a little too much like an intermediate step between his Kingdom and Masterpiece toys and Neo's Guiledart. The coloring of the figure is broken up much more with the inclusion of black, though it does feel rather unfinished due to the torso being solid black without any of the additional paint apps that would otherwise make him more complete. The sides and back views show just how kibbly he is with the hip panels sticking out and the dino wings being these big chunks. Even the mutant mask halves are so prominent and can get in the way of the head articulation. Speaking of, the head sculpt does look rather nice for the character design, and it has a version of his snarling expressions he tends to have, though it leans more on the Ninja Turtles side of things instead of David Kaye Megatron levels of snarling.
His articulation is pretty close to Primal's, though with a few differences here and there with the arms. The head is on a ball joint with the mask halves getting in the way, shoulders that ratchet up and down and hinge in and out, elbows that bend, a dino head that can swivel below the elbow, a slight waist swivel, hips that move front and back, in and out somewhat, swivels above the knee, bendable knees, and some toe articulation. If you want to pose Megatron's dino head with the mouth open, you can slightly dislodge the throat of the dino head so the jaw can open with no issue. The dino tail has a lever that you can push so the tail can act as a claw, though having it hinge and open back so it's more of an attack than a capture claw. He also has the mutant mask halves form a pretty unpainted yet menacing mask, which does look kind of ominous with the eyes being exposed, and the hips' panels can become the anchor launchers.
And now, for the mold history. Here's Megatron's original release from 1996, which was more of a purplish gray, had a silver bucket head, and was generally a sign of it being made before the cartoon was made. The Vintage reissue does not resemble this, so it's more of a weird mix between toy-accuracy, cartoon-accuracy, and Kingdom-accuracy.
Unlike Optimus Primal, who has received tons of, poor Megatron would not get a reuse until 2006 when the Beast Wars 10th anniversary line was made. Included in a 2-pack with a partially retooled Optimus Primal, Megatron received a new deco that better resembled his cartoon appearance as well as a headsculpt that better matches his personality. The best part is all of the paint apps added to the torso and thighs, making him a lot less monochromatic of a toy.
This is the Takara Tomy-only Telemocha version of Megatron, who has a deco that is slightly slightly slightly slightly slightly closer to the cartoon as well as not including the head sculpt that was with the 10th anniversary version yet instead has the toy-accurate head. Strange how that works.
And now here is a one-off release of the toy that was for a different character, and his name is T-Wrecks! A Dinobots-subline Maximal, he is as red as all of the Power Rangers Tyrannozords since 1993. He has no new tooling, but the color layout of red, blue, and a weird silver makes for a distinct vibe for the figure. I think you should display him with the mutant mask to distinct him further from Megatron.
For a robot mode comparison, here he is next to the Kingdom Megatron, who is much closer to the CGI model with some liberties taken to go for that WFC Trilogy synergy. He's leaner, sleeker, and much more refined than the original toy, though that doesn't make the old toy look like shit. It's essentially an evolution to the character design that we'd see over the years, though it is not as significant as comparing the G1 toys to the WFC Trilogy versions or Masterpiece toys.
And here he is fighting against Optimus Primal. Amusingly, Megatron is shorter than Primal, which is quite the opposite in the TV show since Megatron was the taller of the two (and possibly the tallest Beast Wars character that isn't the Transformers shown in the Ark). It's great to own two different versions of these characters, whether it's the more show-accurate and refined WFC Kingdom figures or the chunky and fun Vintage Beast Wars toys. If you can find this guy at Walmart still, I do recommend that you get him, though I will mention that I got my Megatron for $15 before Christmas. Go me.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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