Cliffbee.com Cybertron Legends Megatron Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Megatron
Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Drag Racer



DRAG RACER MODE
Height: 2.5cm Length: 10.5cm Width: 8.5cm

   A mid grey dragster with some orange around the middle, some shiny purple paint on the nose, spoiler struts and front fenders and a metallic blue cockpit. While I call this a dragster, it's clearly inspired by the Batmobile concept, and is more of a Batmobile than anything else. The colours are actually very simple - about 80% of the car is grey. There's some darker metallic blue trim around the cockpit, and a stamped Decepticon logo on the roof. The abundance of grey is flirting with disaster, since it's such a dead colour, so I'm glad most of the paint used is shiny and metallic.

   Like the other Mini Cybertron toys, this is a simplified toy, but there are still some great moulded details. There's a fairy complex engine block being the cockpit and two jet engines at the back, along with spoilers on either side - it's a shame none of these are paint, since the sculpt is very good. The front is curved to points, which is what makes this car look like Megatron's copying Bruce Wayne. Both the small front and large rear tyres are grey. The front set roll and while the rear set are fixed, they look like they'll roll and there are smaller hidden wheels underneath which _do_ roll.

   By virtue of the complex transformation, this car is a little gappy in places, although with such a sci-fi design, Megatron gets away with this. My main complaint is the abundance of the grey - not only are the colours far simpler than those on the full sized toy, but the large expanse of grey at the back annoys me.

   Despite his size, Megatron is a pretty detailed little car. The sculpt is excellent and the metallic paints look really good. I do wish they added more paint to the back half, but there are a lot of little things done well, such as the sculpt on jet engines and the well detailed (albeit false) rear wheels.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   About as complex as it's going to get at this size. The rear fenders become the boots, the spoilers his feet. The cockpit becomes the chest while the purple nosecone splits quite cleverly becoming orange arms. The front fenders end up as backpack. The legs will most likely pop off during transformation - the hips joints pop out easier than the knees turn.

   While it's slightly annoying, this is certainly a satisfying transformation at this size - it's more complex than most basics. The larger toy is more complex, but that's to be expected for a leader class.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 8.5cm Width: 4.5cm

   Again based on grey, but this time Megatron has a lot more orange - his forearms, elbows, thighs and groin are orange. His face is silver, while the blue cockpit and Decepticon stamp are now on his chest, along with bright red patch. That nice purple makes an appearance on his boots, making sure that the paint is spread on this mode. While it's still not a fantastic colour scheme, the balance is better in robot mode. I could do without that bright red patch and purple paint on his crown (to match the larger toy) would have been nice, but I'm not complaining.

   Megatron has a tiny yet detailed face, tiny grey fists and complex sculpting pretty much everywhere else. Again I'm impressed with the complexity of this small toy, which even has tiny little fist holes. Nothing is ever going to fit into these holes, it's nice to see the designer added them for effect.

   The articulation is pretty good, although it doesn't translate to good poseability. The shoulders, hips and knees are all ball jointed while the elbows are fixed in a slightly bent pose. The shoulders give us some useful poseability but the backpack and not-quite-adequate heelspurs limit the stable leg poses available. At the same time, those annoying hip joints have a tendency to give, causing Megatron to do the splits or simply keel over backwards.

   While this is a fairly attractive robot mode, there are problems that drag it down. The colours work well enough but the hip joints cause stability issues, the heelspurs and backpack exacerbates the problem - Megatron is hard to stand, let alone pose. Above the waist this is a good robot mode that still makes a good display piece.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of, although Legends Galvatron is a repaint of Megatron.

OVERALL

   With a good Batmobile mode and an attractive robot mode, Megatron is good value at his pricepoint. He does have some flaws, with the hip joints being the worst aspect of the toy, but there's enough detail in the sculpt and complexity in the transformation to make him worthwhile. He could have been excellent with a few more paint apps in car mode and more stability, so I'm slightly disappointed - 7/10

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