Beast Machines Megatron

Series: Beast Machines
Allegiance: Vehicon
Categories: Mega
Year: 2000

Purification is the key to our salvation!
The leader of the new world order on Cybertron. Megatron has focused his ruthless energies on a new mission: to restore the machine-like purity of the Transformers. Creating a devastating virus that wiped out the inhabitants on Cybertron, Megatron populated the planet with Vehicons - vehicle Transformers with no spark. In robot mode - his preferred mode - Megatron plugs into his diagnostic drone, which controls every aspect of Cybertron. In beast mode, powerful jaws can crush all metals and alloys with ease. Breathes fire or ice. Will stop at nothing to fulfill his twisted vision of a new order.

Robot Mode: In robot mode Megatron appears as a smaller, somewhat simplified version of the Transmetal 2 Megatron from Beast Wars. The major differences are the head, which has Megatron's face hidden behind the control helmet he used in Beast Machines to interlink with Cybertron, and the wings, which are grey instead of transparent orange. The figure itself is pretty posable, but dynamic poses are made difficult by the weight of the wings on his back and his somewhat unstable legs.

Megatron has a secondary robot mode. His wings fold around his body until all you see of him is his head. This is meant to resemble Megatron as he appeared during most of season 1 of Beast Machines, the wings forming the control harness he hung in most of the time. It's a bit of a forced resemblance, of course, seeing as the harness was not part of Megatron in the TV series, but rather something he slipped into, and it left his arms free. They could have given him the harness as an extra, but then where would the wings go?

The bottom line is, the robot mode isn't bad, but it's trying to be a few too many things at once, so I can call it average at best.

Alternate Mode: Just like in Beast Wars, Megatron transforms into a red dragon. Just like the robot mode it is a smaller, simpler version of the big red beast he first became in the episode 'Master Blaster', but the resemblance is a good deal closer here. The only thing that really sticks out are the wings. Having to serve the double function of forming Megatron's harness in robot mode, they are pretty big and heavy, unbalancing the dragon somewhat. They also don't really stay unfolded properly. Apart from that, though, the dragon mode looks pretty good and has at least one improvement over the Beast Wars version in that the long neck is actually made of joints instead of rubber. So all in all a good beast mode with some problems.

Remarks: This Megatron figure faces the unique challenge of having to be two different figures at once. It has to represent Megatron as he appeared during the first season of Beast Machines, but it should also represent Megatron during those few scenes where he regressed into his old Transmetal 2 form from the Beast Wars finale. I'd say the designers have done the best they could given that premise, but the figure that emerged is still a bit lackluster. Among the Beast Machines figures I'd call Megatron above average, but given the relatively low standard among Beast Machines figures, that isn't exactly a compliment. So all in all, I can't really award him more than a C with a plus for effort.

Rating: C+