Revenge of the Fallen Megatron (Leader)

Series: Revenge of the Fallen
Allegiance: Decepticon
Categories: Leader
Year: 2009

Rebuilt with parts cannibalized from other Decepticons, Megatron rises once again to lead his army. Though the AllSpark destroyed him once, he can now feel its power coursing through his circuitry. It calls him to seize his rightful place as ruler over the puny planet on which he was imprisoned and destroyed, and from which he will launch his conquest of the universe. Optimus Prime is all that stands in the way of victory, and the Autobot leader has done a poor job of hiding himself. At long last Megatron knows exactly where his enemy is, and he has enough power to destroy him.

Robot Mode: The first thing one notices about ROTF Megatron (after you're done gaping at the huge right and tiny left arm, that is) is that his resemblance to the character we saw in the original 2007 Movie is a lot better than it was in any of the previous incarnations. The head is pretty much a perfect match and the rest of the body, despite being configured somewhat differently, looks pretty close as well. The detailing on the figure is very impressive, giving Megatron a sinister, almost skeletal look. His asymmetrical design with the tiny, tiny left arm takes some getting used to, but it doesn't put me off as much as I originally thought it would. So going by appearance, Megatron has little to complain about.

Sadly the same can not be said for the rest. Megatron has some severe posability restrictions. The big right arm can only turn at the shoulder, that's it. No elbow joint, no twisting, nothing. The head can't turn, either, Megatron can only look upward and that only because of his transformation. The tiny left arm is pretty posable (Megatron can scratch his nose if he wants to), but being so small, he can't really do much with it. His legs are pretty posable, though, making up a bit of what the upper body lacks.

In terms of weapons Megatron carries the huge gun that makes up his right arm. While it's nice to see a Megatron with a big gun on his arm (or being his arm, rather) again, the execution takes a bit of getting used to. Still, not too bad in terms of looks. The gun fires a black projectile and you can flip down a big blade, so Megatron is ready for close quarter combat (where his lack of arm posability will probably get him killed, though).

Megatron also offers sound effects. The US-version says "I am Megatron", while the European version says "Megatron!", followed by a dirty laugh. The laugh isn't quite as good as that of Animated Megatron, though. I'm not a big fan of sound effects, but I thought I'd mention it here. So all in all a great robot mode in terms of looks, but somewhat lacking in terms of play value.

Alternate Mode: Megatron now transforms into a Science Fiction style tank. The tank threads flip out to the sides, the big gun goes on top (with the tiny little left arm somewhat wrapped around the base) and his head... well, it's still there. Not hidden at all. Not even in that itty bitty, barely there way we remember from 2007 Movie Megatron. It's just sitting there between the tank threads, evilly grinning at anything in its path (and close enough to the ground to gobble up spare parts). Okay, you can give him "braces" of sorts, which hide a tiny bit of his head. But not much. I'm not opposed to non-Earth vehicle modes, mind you, but I'd have appreciated at least some effort to disguise that this is, in fact, a robot in disguise.

At this point I have to admit a mistake. I originally thought that the tank, once finished, is pretty much a brick, that the gun can't turn and the only parts that move are the big blade, which can flip forward in this mode as well. But of course the gun can turn in pretty much all directions, you just have to refrain from locking it into place near the front of the tank. So, sorry about that. The gun can move, all is well.

Just like with the robot mode I like the look of this vehicle, especially with the big turbines in the back (Megatron was supposedly meant to be a triple changer in the first few drafts, still retaining his jet mode). But apart from looks it doesn't really offer much, turning gun or not. Except an evil grinning head hanging close to the ground. Which isn't really enough to sell me on this vehicle mode.

Remarks: Megatron apparently died at the end of the first Transformers live action movie, but by now pretty much everyone knows that he'll return (what a surprise) for Revenge of the Fallen. His body was salvaged and rebuilt using canibalized parts from other Decepticons, among them Brawl, which gives Megatron the tank threads on his legs among other things. Will Megatron die again in the second movie? We'll see soon enough, just a few short weeks from now.

I was never a big fan of Movie Megatron. His comic incarnations were boring, his appearance in the Movie was short and not all that impressive, and his toy incarnations were mixed blessings for the most part. This new incarnation that we'll soon see in the Revenge of the Fallen movie manages to improve in some ways. The look is far more impressive and much, much closer to the character we saw in the Movie, especially the head. Sadly the toy is somewhat lacking in terms of posability and play value. So while I do consider it better than any of the 2007 Movie Megatrons, it doesn't edge them out by much.

Rating: B