Whenever we talk about the Decepticons, the first thing that comes to mind is Megatron. He is the face of the Decepticons. He is the soul and the embodiment of all that is Decepticons. He is undoubtedly the most renowned Decepticon leader of all time.
When I was a young lad, I had always wanted a Megatron figure. As far as I was concerned, the old G1 Megatron figure should be one of the centerpieces of any Transformers collection. Unfortunately, despite the robot mode being one of the ugliest robot ever created by humankind, it remained one of the most hardest-to-come-by figures here in Malaysia. The main attraction of the original figure was arguably the gun mode itself. It was one of the most realistic alternate modes ever. I never really held a real gun before, but I reckon Megatron’s gun mode shouldn’t be that too far off. I mean, it really had the feel, and the weight to boot.
After that particular G1 Megatron, all subsequent Megatrons became tanks, jets, race cars etc… But Megatron was never gonna transform into a gun again…
… Until now…
For years, I have waited for it, and finally Megatron has gone back to his roots and transforms into a gun again…
Alternate Mode:
To me, no matter how many reincarnations Megatron was going to have, he will always be – The Gun, and this time around, he is no longer the realistic conventional gun that we love back in the 80’s. He is no longer the awesome Walther P38 that was so iconic. This time around, he is a NERF gun! (?) Yup, you heard me correctly, he is a NERF gun!!! I mean what the heck?! Then, it was only a matter of time that some stupid regulations in the US, was gonna affect those of us living outside of it, isn’t it? The US government could actually learn a thing or two from some of us Asian countries – try not selling guns or firearms so openly, then maybe we could get a more realistic Megatron action figure. Well, since we know that wasn’t going to happen, like or not, we have to live with this travesty.
Anyways, coming back Megatron’s alternate mode, he’s not that bad at all. Sure, unlike his predecessor, you will never be mistaken it for a real gun, he looks kinda good – for a toy gun. I’ve seen some pictures of the Henkei’s version, where Takara-Tomy actually give it a more conventional & menacing colors, i.e. metallic and black, which I think is far superior to Hasbro’s version – which is a little too toy-ish for me. I mean the combination of purple, white, black, green & (gasp) orange (at the nozzle-cap) – Megatron truly makes a convincing toy gun. Darn, I just can’t stop saying that “T” word!!!
Size-wise, I think it’s perfect, I can hold it perfectly with my hands. The trigger-hammer is locked in place, and the gun doesn’t shoot any pellets or make any sort of sound effects when you pull the trigger – no surprise there, but it does produce some sort of a clicking sound, and that’s it.
Overall, despite the fact that it is a NERF gun, I think it’s a good effort, spoilt horrendously by its hideous colors.
Robot Mode:
I think generally what to expect here already, right? The colors are just not going to go away. It just pains me to see a very colorful and happy Megatron. I mean, he is MEGATRON!!! The original EMPEROR OF DESTRUCTION!!! The LEADER of the DECEPTICONS!!! He shouldn’t be COLORFUL!!! He’s like a RAINBOW!!!
Colors aside, I think design-wise, he’s great. He looks detailed, and very nicely proportioned. He is 200% better than the hideous-looking G1 counterpart. He is what the original Megatron should’ve been. Design-wise, I think the designers did everything right, except the oddly-placed fist when Megatron is about to blast away using his fusion canon. I think they should’ve made the fists rotate-able.
Megatron has very good articulations, and you can get quite a number of good poses with this guy. It may take a little bit of getting used to, of seeing a Megatron with wings, but generally he’s okay. He definitely resembles the original G1 Megatron in the animation show, though not exactly but quite close.
Overall:
I think Hasbro made a really good effort here. The alternate-mode may look toy-ish, but it’s surprisingly good. My obvious gripes with the figure are the colors. I honestly think that the colors really spoilt it for what could have been an excellent figure. If you find the Henkei version, I suggest that you go for that version instead as the colors are more befitting for a Megatron figure if you haven’t already got the Hasbro’s version, or if you have the cash to spare. A few years ago, maybe 3 to 4 years ago or so, it was very hard for me to find an affordable Takara stuffs and Megatron was very, very rare here. Even Hasbro’s Classic Megatron figure was hard to come by, so I had no choice but to grab him the moment I saw him. It wasn’t until early this year that I actually came across the Henkei version, which I wasn’t going to get since I already had the mold.
Anyways, I’m just happy to see Megatron coming back to his roots.
Final verdict, 9/ 10 (for the designs), 6/10 (inclusive of colors)
No comments:
Post a Comment