Here we have Energon Megatron in his Cybertronic gunship mode. This thing is far too loaded with weapons and bulk to be any normal jet; the guns, mini guns, twin cannons, and giant turbines under the gull wings results in a very aggressive alt mode design. The nose of the altmode even look evil with that unibrow on top of the narrow cockpit. This thing also feels heavy, with some dense plastic and a mix of ratchets and spring loaded mechanisms that we'll talk about later in the review. To top it all off, he has rolling landing gear, a concept modern jetformers lack severely.
The Hyper Mode can be accessed by plonking the tank on top of four Minicon ports on his back and moving the upper wing plates out to form an X-Wing shape. That extends the green inner wings and flips two additional cannons out. Nothing ground breaking but still a neat bonus.
Here is the Core Class version of the same character on top of the original. What a size difference inflation and production costs make, huh?
His transformation revolves around Automorph Technology before it was promoted heavily in the 2007 movie. After detaching the wings, rotating him around, and hinging the cockpit back, the landing gear shins not only hinge forward to being the feet out all flat and in place, but the boosters become the knee pads automatically. Then straightening the legs brings the hands out from the forearms without sliding them out manually. The arms can then be pulled so the rest of the torso can jut out in place, allowing the head assembly to hinge back and face forward. The horns then have to point up to complete his crown. The robot mode may scream Galvatron, but it still rocks the look as Megatron regardless. I love that this wasn't just a slightly tweaked G1 Galvatron design like wit a lot of Evergreen characters, but he instead represents a reimagining with carried over elements as the trend was back in Energon. I love that he has the wings on his back as well as the redesigned shins and the twin shoulder cannons to make the design feel new, which is something I always appreciate versus making the G1 designs a little rounder for Evergreen and barely distinguishing them in media made since 2018. I also felt that the color scheme, though not exactly 1:1, could sort of homage the old toy's colors on G1 Megatron. I say that because the old figure was mostly grey rather than purple, though the figure here has blue and teal green placed throughout. Hell, you know how some fans bring up Energon Rodimus's head being homaged in the Classics version of G1 Hot Rod? I bet Classics Megatron had a similar homage with the wing kibble from this design.
His head sculpt is great, especially given the size class he was in and also being from the early days of CAD files being a thing for designing toys. Having the horns a separate color from the rest of his head, on top of having a nod to his Armada horns in the etched detailing, gives him the look of wearing a crown. His articulation consists of a neck swivel, and ratchets of varying degrees of softness or clickiness for the shoulders, elbows, forearm rotation, hips, and knees. The lack of wrist and waist rotation as well as ankle pivot is forgivable for a toy like this; the main point was to be a cool yet fun toy to play with, unlike the average kid-aimed toys Hasbro made since Age of Extinction all the way up to Cyberworld. The shoulder cannons can also hinge out of the way if you want to pose his arms without interfering with the wings; they also work as additional firepower.
Upon a closer look, the callbacks to his original Armada design increase with his tank drone, which is sculpted to look like a damaged and undead version of his original alt mode. You have a lot of the details carried over, though with some new ones representing the scars revealing inner mechanisms. It's not much of an H-tank anymore with the back piece in the way, but at least we have a new Minicon port.
It features lights and sounds in addition to a launching missile and a flip up targeting reticle. Unusually, he has rapid fire machine gun sounds that are not really appropriate for a tank, but they were partially reused for DOTM Leader Class Ironhide...a figure I once had but gave away years later since I felt let down by him.
It can clip onto his right arm as an unwieldy yet badass weapon, reminiscent of the average fusion cannon mounted on other Megatrons. This method uses no 5mm ports, so only he can wear it like this.
There is a reason why the back of his tank mode has an unusual port as well as why there is a blue button on the back...
...and it reveals a sword blade! It is sculpted after the one he hand-wielded in the cartoon, but this still works given his gimmick does still work decently accurate, even if in concept than execution.
The blade being colorless allows it to light up, though the slash sound effects are more appropriate. This is all done by flicking the blade lightly whenever it presses on something.
As far as repaints are concerned, we got the usual Galvatron recolor, this time in stronger G1 goodness. I would have loved getting this version, especially since these colors are even better than the original. I nearly thought of buying one at TFCon 2025 Chicago, but I decided to instead buy new molds I don't have yet instead of repaints of figures I already own (with one exception because he isn't a true TF toy but instead Blokees). Someday, I will buy him.
There was a canceled repaint meant for Target stores depicting him in a weird half-stealth, half-neon color scheme that is both absurd for Megatron yet weirdly awesome at the same time. It has the same energy as the Universe 2003 repaints, but it would have included Smallest Transforming Transformers Soundwave (yet not Megatron for some reason beyond him being a gun). By the way, did you know that the original version of the Megatron mold was originally sold at Walmart stores before getting a wide-retail release later in the Energon run?
This is not the only version of Megatron we got, as the Takara Superlink toyline had it's own version of the character, only smaller and in more vibrant colors and with a Voyager/Ultra Class scale than the Leader-sized approach of the Hasbro release. His sword is also green to match the cannons and wings instead of clear parts. This later got a US release in a 2-pack with a Deluxe Energon Optimus Prime. I hope to get that set to share some more Energon love. Takara did get the Leader version as Galvatron, but as a USA Edition sold in Toys R Us.
For a size comparison, here we have him along with his prior and subsequent designs! Armada is the Legacy Evolution version yet is scaled similarly to his original version. If I had the Takara version, he should scale better with Armada about as well as he once did with the original. Obviously, Cybertron remains taller than both.
And here we have him with the Core Class figure as we reach the conclusion! This is one of the best Transformers toys to come out of Energon, and not because of the Galvatron design homage. With how over-saturated G1 rep has been in recent years, going back to a time when these tributes felt special. But even setting that aside, he is one of the best balances of fun play factor and awesome to pose and display. Sure, Cybertron was the most refined of the Unicron Trilogy and Armada had the Minicon gimmicks despite being after the more detailed and articulated RID2001, but Energon had something going for it. Even if the show sucked and the toys were hit or miss, they still have more going for them than a lot of mainline stuff we got of late. I know apologists will say "but Earthspark and Cyberworld are for kids!!!", and I refuse with showcasing TF toys we got in the 2000s and even in the 90s being better at making that fun balance than the penny pinching excuses of Sparkworld. That being said, getting Megatron complete will be pricey, owing to the sought after nature of this toy and many of the Unicron Trilogy figures. Even something as poorly received as Energon has some nostalgic factor put into it, so good luck getting this figure at a good price, including landing gear, cannons, and his accessories.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment