Our planet was once a powerful empire, peaceful and just, until we were betrayed by Megatron, leader of the Decepticons. All who defied them were destroyed. Our war finally consumed the planet, and the All Spark was lost to the stars. Megatron followed it to Earth, where Captain Witwicky found him. It was an accident that intertwined our fates. Megatron crash-landed before he could retrieve the Cube. Archibald accidentally activated his navigation system. The coordinates to the Cube's location on Earth were imprinted on his glasses. Said glasses would later be sold on eBay by Sam Witwicky; coincidentally, that is where I got Premium Series Megatron for a good price, so let's review him!
Here we have Megatron in his Cybertronian jet mode. At the time, this would have easily given any Geewunner a heart attack for not matching the Walther P38 of their precious childhood. To be more serious, Megatron incarnations since 2000 had more varied design choices than Optimus Prime did; he would usually be a tank or a jet, but there were moments where a Batmobile-esque car or a beast would be present. This alt mode, though much more alien than what came before the 2007 movie, does fit the bill for what the character could turn into. Though the altmode was much more difficult to get a good look at compared to the Earth-altmode Transformers, it is known to be much sleeker than this toy; because the toy designers weren't accustomed with making something more alien in design, Megatron's altmode ends up having a good chunk of robot junk exposed, with a gap in between the wings and the tailfin, the lower legs under the wings, and the head is exposed. It isn't a floppy mess since everything tabs, but the aerodynamics could be better. Though mostly gray, the weathering paint apps do add a bit of life into the figure given how fast this jet would fly.
This button between the wings activates a metallic shriek noise that was carried over from the original version. I assumed Hasbro designers thought Megatron would sound animalistic compared to the actual movies where he spoke fluent English apart from the occasional growl and roar. Perhaps some whooshing noises would make sense.
Transformation is simpler than with Optimus Prime, where you essentially have the body parts go to their places in a more straightforward manner. The Automorph Technology on this toy mainly comes from the wings folding away as well as the feet straightening out. The resulting robot mode mostly captures the design Megatron had in the movie, though we have a huge chunk of the kibble on the back as well as on the forearms. The latter is because of the gimmicks, and they don't look terribly out of place apart from the left one sagging down more from its weight; the former, meanwhile, does break up his actual silhouette. It kind of works in an Energon Megatron sort of way, but it makes me wonder how much cleaner the toy would be if they folded away manually and with more traditional engineering rather than Automorph Technology. The sculpted details are decent but the black does obscure some of them. The red spikes behind the shoulders could pass off as the flames that would burst from his chest after Sam kills him with the Allspark.
His head sculpt didn't need any remolding, but it could have used better paint apps to pick out the details better. At least he has light-piping, but he has no neck movement whatsoever despite having a ball joint. His articulation consists of ratchets at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, swivels at the biceps and above the knees, and hinges at the fingers.
The light and sound gimmick has Megatron's chest panels shift outwards as the lever rises up, with the clear red spikes revealing themselves as the transformation sound plays. The noise replaces the other metallic shriek that the original version had.
You technically can have his neck rotate by detaching it from the tab. His right arm has a flail gimmick where the hand launches while a string chain wrapped by pieces of plastic keeps it tethered to prevent loss. The black tab on the kibble works as a whipping gimmick.
The kibble also opens up to store the plastic/string chain properly.
As for the left arm, you have the fusion cannon that has an Automorph gimmick of its own: two spring-loaded barrels. Like with plenty of Deluxe MechTech and PRID Powerizer weapons, it can't stay in place.
Something that isn't really documented as much is that the left kibble can slide in the middle while the folded away hands can attach together. The fusion cannon should be deployed, but it is said that the springs on the right arm and the left kibble piece are swapped, and reversing their spots means the right hand works like a normal missile in terms of its spring's strength while the left kibble piece can remain as a deployed cannon.
As far as the original version is concerned, Megatron has lighter gray plastic, pink clear plastic, and blue highlights. The latter makes sense given how it represented Megatron frozen and covered in ice for most of the movie. As for being a normal Movie Megatron at the time, he at least doesn't have wings made out of ice like the Voyager, but the Premium Series works better.
For a size comparison, here he is with Optimus Prime. Both have the same height despite Megatron towering over Prime in the movies. This figure isn't as good as Prime and holds up less, but I can at least say that it is a better toy than people give it credit for. He has a handful of gimmicks that don't compromise his appearance much while also having being more experimental, eventually having MPM and Studio Series so better with the design. I just wish he had more silver than black to better match the movie, like with the custom Sean Long got in 2008...remember him? Anyways, get this toy only if you see him at a reasonable price, and keep in mind that the Premium Series version will likely be more expensive than the original version of the mold.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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