Friday 8 July 2011

Toybox REVIEW: Transformers Dark of the Moon voyager class Megatron



As some of you may have realised by now, I've effectively given up collecting Transformers. This isn't because I've gone off them, just that the sheer amount of ones I wanted + constant price hikes + Hasbro UK being rubbish + interest in other better quality lines meant I had to sort out priorities a bit. With the release of Dark of the Moon though, I've bought my first Transformer in a year. And what better way to get back into things than with my favourite movie Transformer - the mighty Megatron.

For the first time in the movieverse, Megatron has an Earth vehicle mode - more specifically a Mack Titan oil tanker truck (which is a nice foil to Prime's truck mode). The toy's vehicle mode is nicely detailed, being mostly made up of browns and greys. The cab windows are translucent red, which while probably not accurate I feel its a good look for the Decepticon leader. The front portion of the oil tanker (which is also the figure's mechtech weapon) can be removed and placed on the top of the cab. Its a nice little play feature, but it does look a little silly.

I've never felt movie toys have had the simplest of transformations, but with Hasbro improving their instructions vastly since the Revenge of the Fallen toys (close ups, instructions being printed both ways rather than just "to change back reverse instructions") Megatron retains the impressive transformations the movie toys have without being too difficult for children to do. While not completely movie accurate, Megatron's robot mode is a nice interpretation of his rusted, beaten down appearance in the film. The headsculpt nicely shows off the damaged side of his head (which happened in the climax of Revenge of the Fallen) and the toy has a nice range of articulation to put Megatron in plenty of menacing poses. The tarpaulin can be attached as a hood/cape to replicate his movie appearance, and does nicely cover the damaged side of the head when attached. His mechtech weapon (which when pushed extends the cannon and 2 claw-like appendages) can be put on either arm via a peg.

The main place the figure really falls short is ironically its size. As the comparison picture with RotF voyager class Starscream illustrates below, the figure is rather small and skinny for the tyrannical leader of the Decepticons. This obviously was somewhat necessary for the transformation to look as good as it does and Megatron is probably much more in scale with DotM's deluxe Starscream, but even so the figure still comes across as a little small. I'm also disappointed the figure didn't come with the shotgun-type weapon he uses in the movie, but I'm hoping a future leader class figure may rectify that.

Despite being small and not completely accurate, Megatron is still an excellent figure and well worth picking up. I'm only interested in a few of the DotM toys (the others being Sentinel, Shockwave and Laserbeak for now) and I have no regrets about buying Megatron. A piece well worthy to any Megatron collection and/or Transformer collection as a whole.


No comments: