WFC DLX MEGATRON

REVIEW: WFC DLX MEGATRON

Over the last 10 years or so, I have undergone a sort of renaissance with regards to the character of Megatron. I have always regarded him with a special place among fictional villains as Megatron is not insane. He is not reliant on the occult, or some other alternative offshoot from the main of society. He is, put simply, a charismatic and highly intelligent military leader, an individual who has seen the state of his people and has decided to do something about it. Indeed, I’m sure a fair number of Cybertronians could make a legitimate case for Megatron being a hero, even though his means and rationale firmly align him amongst the ranks of evil, as he is also the very definition of Machiavellian. He is a manipulator. And he knows the strengths and weaknesses of all his foes. He is many things and the most frightening aspect of what is he is that he is, again, perfectly sane. Outside of Magneto (the definitive arch-nemesis of the X-Men), The Joker and Starscream, Megatron is my favorite fictional villain.

Recently, Megatron has been both blessed and cursed by the Masterpiece treatment, he has been remade into a nerf-gun (of all things), and been the featured villain of both Transformers: Animated and the multi-million dollar machine that is the Bayverse. One of these incarnations made you stand up and salute and pledge your lifelong allegiance to the erstwhile Decepticon Commander. He was calm, cool, collected and absolutely in control every second. He ran the show, and didn’t even have a body through much of it.

The other incarnation was the Bayverse, who-while he looked the part—did not deliver at all, getting ashed by Shia LaBeouf in the first movie while acting like a raving lunatic (even though he did have some great lines), and basically being no-sold TWICE by Optimus Prime in the second (he offlined Prime in ROTF, but basically—in wrestling terms—couldn’t do it cleanly. He required assistance AND outside interference to pull it off). As far as the Bayverse is concerned, the emperor has no clothes, as he also had the further indignity of playing second-fiddle to an otherwise obscure character in The Fallen, who was essentially the Decepticon leader…with Megatron acting as field commander. Ugghh.

So, we need a tiebreaker of sorts, to re-establish Megatron as the entity universally recognized as the pre-eminent force in the Decepticon army, and as one of the two pre-eminent forces in the TF mythos (Optimus Prime is the other).

Enter: Generations (WFC) Megatron.

One word:

Wow.

Modern-day Megatron figures are graded on a simple scale: it really comes down to MP Megatron (the most ambitious Megatron figure ever), TFA Leader Megatron (the most satisfying Megatron figure ever, IMO*) and ROTF Voyager Megatron (arguably the most versatile Megatron figure ever), and ne’er the twain shall meet. It’s really that simple. Every other Megatron figure thus far released has been disappointing. The MP figure suffers simply because MP Megatron must do more in transformation than pretty much any other TF figure released thus far, and the entire figure suffered as a result—but I must still commend the effort. Unlike some other Megatron figures that have come out since then, the designers were clearly trying to produce the best representation of G1 Megs that they possibly could. Ambition simply over-reached the dynamics of what the toy could do and what it would look like. The TFA LC figure is nearly perfect—save for his knock-knees and preserves the heart and personality and fun factor associated with the (now-defunt) Animated line. The ROTF Voyager is also nearly perfect—save for the fact that it has a large backpack barely connected to the body and it is a Voyager-class toy and not a leader-class toy—there is a difference, and the toy misses out because of it.* *

Generations Megatron, though, utterly defies scale. He defies the disappointment brought to bear by previous, lesser Megatron toys and—in true Megs fashion—swaggers up to the front of the line and TAKES his seat at the table. It’s breathtaking to behold.

I’ll begin with the alt mode. Essentially, Megatron is a Cybertronian hovertank (as one of the approximately 15 people who watched and enjoyed Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, this is especially nirvanic for me), capable of traversing any extreme located on terra firma, or simply taking flight above it. This is a nice nod to the Bayverse approximation of Megatron—who turned into a flying tank. There is great molding throughout, complete with what seems to be a cowcatcher at the rear of the centrally-mounted fusion cannon. And what a fusion cannon it is. The cannon is as long as Megatron’s alt mode—it’s nearly as tall as WFC Prime!!!—and looks like the kind of singular weapon of mass destruction that would make Megs both legend and Lucifer in Cybertronian history. The launching mechanism seems to be pretty powerful, too. Overall, this is a solidly executed, plausible and cool-looking alt mode. It’s solidly put together. The fusion cannon is static, but it too stays solidly in place due to its 3 points of attachment (in addition to the central post, the rear end of the cannon slots into two post located on the anterior end of the cowcatcher).

Are there holes in this alt mode? Sort of. While the designers did attempt to disguise it with molded gears and struts, Megatron’s hands are visible on either side of his treads. That little bit should and does keep this alt mode from receiving a perfect 10. It must be noted that due to the orientation of the fingers concealed within each tread section (And the fact that the whole arrangement is cast in black to begin with!!!), you’d have to be looking for it. Besides, the treads can also be folded away underneath the hull to achieve a hover mode (god, I miss the ATAC-01-SCA Spartas). It’s a small complaint, but it is there. Also, the treads themselves would have benefitted from a peg system to connect them more completely to the hull. In conclusion, I give this alt mode an 8.5. It’s good, but not great. The latter will come later.

The transformation is one of the simplest in the Generations line, but it is also a very clever transformation in some ways. First, you’ll need to remove the fusion cannon. Next, essentially, the entire rear portion of the tank unfolds into Megatron’s legs and upper back. The white portions of the hull are then folded down to form the feet and heelspurs, with the winglike sides folded up into the inner ankle. The front sides of the tank must be pulled out and then slid upwards, with the claw positioned over what is now the left shoulder being rotated so that the piece fits snugly into the groove atop the left shoulder. The cowcatcher folds up and should be clipped onto the upper back until you hear an audible snap. The head should now be swung up, because there is a red piece bearing a Decepticon symbol on his groin that must be pivoted up and positioned on the front of what is now Megatron’s chest. There is no dedicated peg or slot for this, so I can’t imagine that a loose joint on this piece would be very much fun.

Now for the arms. Pry the hands out from inside the treads. Fold both halves down into each other, using the two pegs as places of attachment with their corresponding slot. From here, the forearm is oriented laterally. Swing the arm forward in the direction of the main body and then fold it down at the wrist. Attach the fusion cannon using a post on the outside of either forearm, and you’re done.

Madre de dios.

I’ll just get to the supeflatives and hyperbole now. This vision of Megatron combines everything good about the G1, TFA, Bayverse, Classics & MP iterations of the character, and eliminates the bad and bestows it upon an unsuspecting public in the DLX class. I would have this toys babies if I could. The sculpting, the molding, the details, the head & face sculpt, the poseability, the fusion cannon, the overall aesthetic of this toy…this is undeniably Megatron, at his absolute and level best. What’s missing? If only the lightpipe wasn’t disabled (the head is set up for purple piping, but the eyes are painted red). If only this figure was a LC figure. But I can’t hold the last issue against the toy—the entire WFC line is made up of DLX figures, and, in truth, were this toy a LC figure, there would be some sort of stupid electronics gimmick that directly inhibited the toys playability and the articulation would be half of what it is now. The former is a non-issue and a testament to how much I have to reach to find something wrong with this toys base mode.

The legs offer stellar poseability, due in part both to the joint setup and the incredibly large footprint the toy possesses. This is made up of a portion of the alt modes hull and gives WFC Megatron one of the largest heelspurs seen this side of TFU Unicron. However, where Unicron’s heelspurs inhibit some of his poseability, they bolster WFC Megatrons. He is stable and can achieve a wide range of both stoic and dynamic poses. The ankles are hinged on both sides, adding ever more poseability. He has kind of a lizard-hipped thing going on, but I don’t care about that because it doesn’t look bad. The sculpted details on both the upper and lower torso are outstanding (there is even a huge, molded Decepticon symbol on his upper back!!!) and the overall proportions denote a being of both exceptional power and presence. Unfortunately, there is no rotation at the waist, which I find curious as this would not impede the functionality of the alt mode at all.

Even more exceptional articulation is found in the arms. The shoulders rotate and lift out to the sides (albeit somewhat limited) and the forearms bend and rotate at the elbow joint. The forearms themselves, of course, are naught more than the alt mode treads attached together by a peg system. What follows is some very convincing and effective dynamic poses involving the main accessory to Megatron: the now-iconic fusion cannon. This iteration of the cannon can sit on either arm (although the right one is the one usually favored) and fully looks like it is more than capable of crippling entire nations with a single blast. It also looks—with its exceptional sculpt—like it is capable of linking up interdimensionally to a black hole to process and project anti-matter (an ability Megatron showed once—in a completely unrelated fashion—in the G1 cartoon). The arms themselves are huge, brutish and asymmetrical: the right shoulder has vented detail and red paint applications that neatly divide the right shoulders deco in two and a black cannon (?) molded onto the side of the shoulder. The left shoulder features a non-articulated claw sitting atop the shoulder and an all black and off-white color scheme. Both forearms feature different molded detailing., and the fingers are free (albeit articulation-free).

The head sculpt is outstanding. Indeed, short of enabling the head to utilize RED piping, the sculpt is without flaw, while incorporating elements of G1, Animated and the Bayverse into the design. The chest features red deco and a allegiance symbol placed right front and center.

The end result is a Megatron figure I can truly sink my teeth into. Whatever flaws his alt mode carry are absolved with this base mode. WFC Megatron is simply awesome. I get the overall feeling that whoever designed this toy was a fan of the character. With that said, I did come dangerously close to deducting a half-point from the base mode as there is no rotator in the waist. Granted, WFC Optimus Prime lacks one as well, but at least WFC Prime’s engineering simply will not allow for one, so it’s a non-issue. Megatron’s transformation would not be hindered in any way by the inclusion of such a joint, and it’s exclusion—especially measured against the incredibly well engineered DLX figures we have seen of late—is noticeable and a little disappointing. With that said, the base mode is so strong that I have to give it and the overall toy a 10. Part of my overall sense of rating something incorporates the simple question “is this toy repesentative of not just the physicality, but also the essence of the character it is representing?” In this case, undeniably so. The alt mode is solid and plausible for an alien mobile cannon emplacement roughly analogous to an earth tank and the base mode is very simply the most visually arresting representation of Megatron I have ever seen. I will admit, by rights, given the flaws with the alt mode, this toy should garner no higher than a 9.5. But this toy just defies my attempts to rate it objectively. This is the best DLX class toy I have ever seen—better than BB Bumblebee. Better than TFA Blurr, Cybertron Mode Ratchet, Prowl or Waspinator. Better than Generations Straxus. Better even than HFTD Terradive.

Why?

For starters, it has exceptional articulation. You will get some killer poses out of WFC Megatron.

It has a credible alt mode—and a dual-purpose one, at that.

The transformation does not take away from the base mode. Which is very refreshing, in this day and age.

The base mode is exceptional. 5-star, and worth the price of the admission alone.

It has exceptional accessories. Granted, it’s only one, but the cannon is iconic and Megatron doesn’t need anything else.

It has exceptional detailing.

It is very solid and well-engineered. This is the one thing that separates WFC Megs from HFTD Terradive. Granted, Terradive must do more in transformation to get from Point A to Point B, but I can already see where the years will not be kind with to this toy regards to his ball-jointed legs and the peg system that holds his chest together.

It provides an exceptional homage to a flagship G1 character. And a long overdue one, given the love automatically given to Optimus Prime and (now) Bumblebee.

The flaws are kept to an absolute minimum and are confined solely to the alt mode.

If you haven’t done so already, get this toy NOW. It’s 12 bucks…of pure, unfettered goodness. Execute—with extreme prejudice—any and all who attempt to stop you from doing so.

(*at least TFA LC Megs was the most satisfying Megatron figure…until WFC Megs came out.)

(**I’ve got both the ROTF Voyager and LC Megatron toys. There is just no getting around it: while the Voyager is clearly superior, the LC has better molded details and is a superior display piece, while both of them are both CGI accurate and inaccurate in different ways.)