G2 Megatron (Combat Hero)

Series: Generation 2
Allegiance: Decepticon
Categories: Combat Hero
Year: 1995

Peace through tyranny!
Megatron is a combination of brute strength, military cunning, ruthlessness and terror. He aches to return to Cybertron to complete his conquest after destroying all the Autobots on Earth and capturing all of Earth's resources. He's incredibly powerful and intelligent and fires a nuclear-charged fusion cannon. He can also link up interdimensionally to a black hole and draw anti-matter from it for use as a weapon. Megatron has no known weaknesses.

Robot Mode: In build and shape Combat Hero Megatron is pretty similar to the larger G2 Megatron, but there are numerous differences. He's much smaller, of course, and comes in blue instead of green. Also, Combat Hero Megs is much more posable. Shoulders, elbows, legs, knees, and head can all move, giving him a pretty full range of movement. As seems to be the trend for many G2 figures, though, this wide range of posability is limited by the lack of a solid stance. Megatron's feet (if you can even call them that) are only the edges of his leg plates. He can stand well enough if the legs are straight, but once you start bending him, it's very hard to get him to stay upright. The bigger G2 Megs, who was far less posable, had a much more stable stand.

Megatron also suffers a bit from colour and sticker overdose. The blue and black pattern is looking good, but the orange of his air pump gun sticks out pretty severely. There are also some very strange stickers positioned prominently, such as the "Megatron rules!" sticker on his chest. The less said about those, the better.

Weapon wise Megatron carries the large tank cannon on his shoulder, which can fire a missile by way of pumping air. Megatron comes with two of these big missiles, which can also be put on his forearms. Finally he carries a small laser gun, which he really doesn't need. So Megatron really isn't lacking in the armament department. He can't shoot his main gun without toppling over, though.

So bottom line, if they'd given the robot better feet and left off some of the stickers, he'd be top notch. As it is he's still good, but with some problems.

Alternate Mode: Much like his larger cousin Megatron transforms into a tank. I don't think there are two many blue-and-black camouflage patterned tanks around, but whatever. Here, too, the orange air pump gun stands out pretty severely. Also, Megatron's arms, which form the outer sides of the tank's turret, don't click properly into place here. The turret can't turn, either.

Megatron can fire his missiles in this mode as well, of course, and the missiles can be stored on the sides of the turret for transport. Megatron's smaller gun can also be mounted here. With all his weapons on, though, Megatron looks a bit overloaded. To me he looks much better if you leave the extras aside. So all in all a decent vehicle mode, but suffering from pretty much the same problems as the robot mode.

Remarks: I've read a lot of reviews regarding the two Generation 2 versions of Megatron and most reviewers seem to prefer this one here, the Combat Hero, to the larger, green G2 Megs. I have to disagree on this, though. Sure, Combat Hero Megatron is much more posable and more compatible scale-wise with his direct counterpart Combat Hero Optimus Prime, but his stability problems and colour overdose drag him down quite a bit. Also, to me he simply doesn't look... menacing enough. Might be the orange air pump, I don't know. So anyway, Combat Hero Megatron is a good figure, but he comes with several drawbacks as well, so for me the main G2 Megatron shall always be the big, green guy.

Rating: B