Thrilling 30 Megatron

Robot Mode: There are certain characteristics we have come to associate with Megatron toys. They are mostly grey in colour, they sport his usual bucket-helmet, and they have a very, very big gun, preferably on the forearm, in some cases on the shoulder. This version of Megatron here ticks some of the boxes, though he is coloured mostly black with purple highlights and only some grey. The head and the big gun still make it easy to recognize him as Megatron, though, so no problem on that front.

Despite being on the small side for a Deluxe class figure (War for Cybertron Megatron is a good deal taller and broader), the robot nicely conveys a feeling of power with his broad upper body and muscular-looking legs. The black paintjob with the purple highlights looks very nice in my opinion and the big gun on his arm completes the dangerous look. Speaking of the gun, it’s more of a fork than a gun and in the comics it was supposed to be a rail gun, but the package still calls it fusion cannon. Either way, a big gun on the arm (left or right, your choice) is pretty much a given for any Megatron.

Articulation is top notch, not complaints here at all. The robot holds together quite well, too. There is no loose kibble or anything. Just about the only slight complaint I have is that the hollow legs, combined with the broad upper body, make the figure a little top-heavy, but it doesn’t really affect his balance. So bottom line: a very nice robot mode.

Alternate Mode: Megatron transforms into a mostly black stealth bomber, loosely resembling a Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit. The wings are formed from the halves of Megatron’s weapon, while the robot itself forms the body of the plane. The result is a surprisingly aerodynamic bomber with very little in the way of underbelly. If you look closely you can see Megatron’s toes stick out the rear, but that’s about it. The bomber offers nothing in the way of gimmicks or such, but it really doesn’t need to. Bottom line: a really efficient, well-designed vehicle mode. No complaints at all.

Remarks: This figure represents Megatron as he was seen in the IDW G1 comics, designed by Don Figuera. After being severely damaged at the end of “All Hail Megatron” (as we all were after reading that claptrap) Shockwave rebuilt Megatron in a new body created from Ore-13, resulting in one of the most ridiculously overpowered Megatrons of all time. Not only was he practically indestructible (a satellite fell on him from orbital height with no ill effect), he had a built-in space bridge that could bring the entire Decepticon army from Earth to Cybertron, could combine with the leftovers of his old body in order to create a super-hyper-mega-giga-mode that allowed him to take on the Decepti-God (the combined form of ALL Decepticons) and in some way I’ve yet to really understand also managed to influence some form of radiation on Cybertron that forced people to spontaneously form combiners or some such nonsense. Eh, yeah. And here I thought Master Galvatron from Galaxy Force seemed unrealistically powerful.

Anyway, leaving aside its rather ridiculous back story, the figure itself is pretty cool. The only point against it is the size, as Megatron really needs to be Voyager-sized or bigger, but apart from that: a top-notch Transformer. Recommended to pretty much everyone. Side note: the US version of the figure includes the IDW Spotlight: Megatron comic, while the European release comes without the comic.

Rating: A-