When Galvatron came out he had a crown and now the lastest few Megatrons have had crowns(or something simular to a crown). I was thinking recently why are they doing that? Not till today have I realized that the G1 Megs apears to be wearing a crown under his helmet.

http://www.xmission.com/~sgray/images/LPIC0054.jpg

 

Am I slow on this one? Maybe it's because I dismiss the toy and go by the cartoon for reference as to how his face should look. Beast wars Megatron even seems to have used the G1 cartoon for reference when they made that toy.

It's to do with the political (NB: I mean political in terms of the show, not the real world) aesthetic between the autobots and the decepticons. You will notice that the autobot symbol is a very 'worker' looking robot head, while the Decepticon symbol is a 'crowned purple dragon', indicating high status, even royalty. This connects back to the way the TFs were (supposedly) created by the Quintessons, with the Autobots as the slave caste and the Decepticons as a warrior caste.

 

As further evidence, the Primes have, as the symbol of his leadership, the Matrix: a tool of creation, a weapon that lights the darkest hour of the entire autobot cause. The word 'Matrix' is a very feminine word. The Decepticon leaders, including Starscream, instead wear crowns, indicating their status as 'Kings', inherently patriarchal.

 

As far as any relation to the real world is concerned... make of it what you will.

Crowns are cool. But what would Energon megatron look like in a tiearra?

As far as real world I always thought the Decepticon symbol was base on Soundwave and the Autobots' based on Prowl/Bluestreak. I guess the Decepticon symbol does look like a dragon.

In Japan, the leader of the Destrons (Decepticons) has traditionally been refered to as "The Emperor of Destruction" Or something similar. I think the whole "crown" design is meant to imply that title/rulership. Though, I never noticed the g1 Megs toy had one. Good eye on that.

the G1 Megs toy really wasn't a crown, it was intended to be a faceplate shield that slid down leaving only the eyes exposed. In animation and the subsequent G1/G2 Megs figures having resculpted heads to look more streamlined and the eye-holes from the mask were kept as like data ports.

As a kid, I always felt this the design on Megatron's forehead was his head being revealed beneath the helmet...like its delicated circuitry. In the WWI design, his helmet goes further down in front...but in the G1 comic, the design is exposed. This leads me to feel that when he reformatted his alt mode into a gun, it had to alter his helmet to fit as the gun trigger, so it receeded in a sense and left part of his underlying cranial components exposed...On the G1 toy, it looks like a crown...

As a kid, I always felt this the design on Megatron's forehead was his head being revealed beneath the helmet...like its delicated circuitry. In the WWI design, his helmet goes further down in front...but in the G1 comic, the design is exposed. This leads me to feel that when he reformatted his alt mode into a gun, it had to alter his helmet to fit as the gun trigger, so it receeded in a sense and left part of his underlying cranial components exposed...On the G1 toy, it looks like a crown...

That makes sense. Looking at it again, if he pulled the crown down to be a faceplate he would look more like the Decepticon symbol. especially if he had another crown under the faceplate.