Armada Megatron

Series: Armada
Allegiance: Decepticon
Categories: Gigacon
Year: 2002

My power is your doom!
Megatron commands the Decepticons by being the strongest and most terrifying warrior of them all. He can use his massive firepower for maximum devastation, enabling him to level a battlefield to the ground. There can be only one ruler of the universe, and Megatron intends to be that ruler. He will not stop until he has the Mini-Cons because they will give him unimaginable abilities and power. Will he achieve his goal to become ruler and destroy the Earth in his quest to posses the Mini-Cons?

Robot Mode: When comparing them to the Beast era and Robots in Disguise toys that came before, the Armada toys were in some ways a step backwards. Posability was reduced in favor of gimmicks and size and it quickly becomes evident that the Armada toys were meant to be played with by children, more so than the kibbly RID figures. Anyway, Megatron is a pretty good example of that. He does great on the look-front (though he's a far cry from the look of the original G1 Megatron), but he can only move his legs sideways at knee and hip, not forward and backward.

The main gimmick of the Armada figures was that figures had extra features that could be activated by Mini-Cons. Megatron features multiple attachment points for Mini-Cons, as well as several gimmicks. Attaching a Mini-Con to his left arm activates a knife hidden in his forearm. Megatron can also enter an attack mode by swiveling the turret of his tank mode forward onto his chest, where a Mini-Con can then activate his missile launcher. Megatron also features a mouth guard you can move up and down, as well as (somewhat) posible mandibles on his head. Sound effects are also included, but I'm not really a big fan of those.

Not much more I can write here. One can tell a lot of thought and detail went into Megatron, more than most other Armada figures, so the bottom line is a good robot mode. A tad more posability would make him awesome.

Vehicle Mode: As he does in many of his incarnations, Megatron transforms into a tank. It's not a real-life model as far as I can tell, but it's easily recognizable for what it is and the only hint of a robot mode you see is Megatron's head, which is situated between the two forward tank threads. It's upside down, though, and the face hidden by a panel, so you don't really see that it's a robot head. The tank turrent can turn the full 360 degrees and the barrel can be raised quite high.

Just like in robot mode, the tank mode also features a number of gimmicks. A Mini-Con can activate Megatron's missile launcher by pegging into the turret. Additionally there are two compartments on the rear left and right side, where a Mini-Con can be stored and/or be attached. Both forward tank threads also feature gimmicks for attaching Mini-Cons, a flip-out ramp on the right side and three small flip-out panels on the left. That's a lot of gimmicks for a vehicle mode, but they don't overload it or hurt the overall look and feel of the tank. So the bottom line here: Thumbs up!

Partner / Add-Ons: Megatron's Mini-Con is Leader-1, but I'm missing him. Instead I gave him Clench, the Mini-con of Armada Galvatron, who is just a repaint of Leader-1. Leader-1 was grey and blue where Clench is black and burgundy red, but otherwise the two are identical. Leader-1/Clench can transform into an armed car of some sorts, and attach to Megatron to activate his knife (in robot mode) or missile launcher (in robot and vehicle mode). One of the better Armada Mini-Cons. And yes, he carries the name of the Gobots leader, but there's no connection.

Combination Mode: Just like Gavlatron Megatron can, of course, powerlink with Tidal Wave. For pictures see my Galvatron review. It's not exactly the smoothest two-figure combination ever (Tidal Wave's parts are too heavy for Megatron's arms), but it doesn't look bad, either. So let's put this one under nice but unnecessary extras.

Remarks: I started collecting Transformers again when the Armada toys were on the shelves and here in Germany we had both Megatron and Galvatron available at the same time. Back then I bought Galvatron, thinking Megatron too colorful. It was only years later that I bought Megatron and comparing the two, Megatron does look more interesting than Galvatron, whose paint job is somewhat boring. Megatron was leader of the Decepticons in the Armada cartoon and comic series and ended up swallowed by Unicron in both versions. He returned in time for Energon, of course.

As a toy Megatron is definitely one of the better toys of the Armada line. He almost goes overboard with the various gimmicks, but manages to integrate them smoothly into his form without being overloaded. More posability would have been nice, but otherwise you can't really say anything bad about him. A solid Megatron figure, recommended to all fans of Armada, Megatron, or tank-mode Transformers.

Rating: B+