Sunday, April 21, 2024

Transformers Generations Selects Super Megatron review

The Return of Convoy line was well-known for Japan's take on hyping up the return of Optimus Prime; rather than make him a Powermaster like in the Marvel Comics (because Ginrai took that Transtector intended for the Autobot Leader), he instead took the mantle of Star Convoy, who was sadly left without a Megatron to fight against in terms of toy form. The aforementioned Decepticon Leader was depicted in RoC rising from his icy grave, becoming Super Megatron after his Galvatron identity was killed in The Headmasters. His more stylized G1 design had not been replicated into a toy for the longest time, and it's about time someone took the mantle for once! Let's see how well it stacks up as a figure!


Here we have Super Megatron in his tank mode, which looks particularly unimpressive when it comes to the front section. While some tanks have had fairly big gaps, none are as big as on the mode we have here. Not helping is the fact that Megatron's crotch is widely visible here, resulting in some possible pain for him to experience when he gets into robot mode. The top section looks cool, what with the triple barrel cannon on a decently articulated turret, but it still looks piss poor. It's more like a blob of vaguely a tank more than the ROTF design, because that one was deliberately meant to be an alien overall. I'm also pretty sure that the Battlestars manga had him as a turret, but that's not possible. Also, there are no wheels in the tank treads, but that's expected given how the figure works; I cannot forgive the toy for having no tabs for the treads to peg into while in tank or jet mode.


For a comparison with the Earth tank mode he's used in, well, Earthrise, which is still a better-designed vehicle mode by comparison. Even the original Siege one looks cooler than the Super Megatron alt mode.


Transforming him into his jet mode is not too difficult to pull off, though you will have to make sure enough clearance is present for the waist swivel. I like how the fusion cannon now has the triple-barrel gun inside it while also serving as the nosecone of the jet mode this time around. The legs and arms point to the back of the altmode, but this new jet mode is still way better than the weird excuse of a tank mode we just looked at. The wings have a decent length to them, especially considering they have to be accompanied with the smaller wings AND the long nose cone/fusion cannon. The cockpit is absolutely tiny in contrast to how huge the rest of the altmode is, but I'm sure people will fold away the wings and make jokes about the tip looming phallic. Especially knowing how thirsty certain TF fans can be when they go "AyO hEaR mE oUt"


For another size comparison, I have Starscream from the same line the previously mentioned Megs was from, and as you can see, their sizes don't seem to.particularly match each other quite well. Not a terrible thing perse but I don't expect them to be in a similar size in-fiction.


And finally, the transformation to robot mode is fairly simple for a Voyager, which appears to be commonplace with figures that were made from this era moreso than the WFC trilogy, especially when it comes to Siege. It's not difficult to follow despite how radical the robot mode may seem. This is the default orientation of Super Megatron, where the main wings are tucked away and the cannon remaining as it looked in jet mode. I really like the look of Super Megatron, especially given how striking it appeared while still not going into the extreme nature of Japanese G1 designs (or anything like Brave). While I don't hate those aesthetics, this is still Transformers we are talking about; even further reimaginings or appearances wouldn't be prominent until the Beast Era.


His head sculpt looks generally good, but the mouth does come off as soft compared to the ones on the WFC trilogy toys. His forehead has a unique tampograph likely connected to Dark Nova. The articulation is comparable to the standards of the WFC trilogy, with a ball jointed neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement (on plastic ratchets), bicep rotation, double-jointed elbows, and slight curling at the wrists because of the transformation; the waist swivels, the hips move front and back as well as in and out, the thighs rotate, the knees bend, and the feet can hinge but there is no pivot due to their permanent stance. Sad.


The alternate Ultra Megatron mode has you rotating the forehead piece around as well as deploying the wings, switching the chest around, opening the fusion cannon, and removing the triple barrel cannon before attaching it on the shoulder. It's one of those "fudge the toy for a bit to get another mode" things where the legs are unchanged, but you can make him more interesting by switching the face around to give him a TLK-inspired battle mask. That face swap feature is similar to plenty of Movie Optimus Prime toys we've seen like the Takara AOE Leader retool, their exclusive BBM Legendary Leader Prime that works like the Evasion Mode Voyager, and both the MPM-04 and Ultimate Optimus Primal figures they share with Hasbro. Being a Voyager toy makes the face swap annoying, though.


IF you don't know by this point, this figure is a heavy retool of Titans Return Galvatron, which was a second stab at a CHUG version of the character after the extreme embarrassment that was the Universe 2008 Deluxe. While this figure was an improvement with the size and proportions, the cannon blocking any elbow articulation combined with the crappy integration of a play mask over the Titan Master held it back. I know some hated the triple changer idea, but it was a line-wide thing for all Voyagers. Kingdom Galvatron is still better than this figure, IDC about the complaints people had about the shoulders or paint apps.


For a size comparison, you can see he is taller than his WFC trilogy counterpart by a few centimeters, which is common when fans transitioned from the Prime Wars trilogy to the WFC trilogy, and this was no exception. Overall, I like Super Megatron in spite of his altmodes being either aright or shit. I love seeing how they were able to take an alright figure and make it more worthwhile with a design that hadn't been done in toy form, even with a couple of other flaws. Good luck getting him online, though!


Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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