Transformers Update

Well, I guess it’s time for my semi-annual post of “how I’m almost finished buying Transformers”, a regular series which has probably been going on since about…I don’t know, 2002? Anyway, the big purchase this year was in the Studio Series 86 toyline, which is basically “all your favourite G1 toys from the film just before they encounter horrible deaths, though we’ll also sell you versions so you can re-enact childhood trauma?". They’ve finally got around to Megatron.

Megatron is always a controversial figure, because every time a new one is released, a bunch of people will complain that he doesn’t turn into a gun and their childhood is ruined, etc, etc. Of course, Hasbro probably a) doesn’t want the publicity of a bunch of ICE agents or just regular cops shooting children dead because they’re holding a replica Walther P38, and b) even if they did, it’s illegal to sell toys like that these days in rather large markets like…oh, the US. So, anyway, since the early 90s, Megatron has been (mostly) a tank. And it’s been fine.

Here, I have to make a confession because I never actually really liked the original Megatron toy. My friends had Megatron — I played with him, even borrowed him for a few days here and there…but I had no desire to own him. Yes, he does have articulation, but his robot mode barely holds together, and then there’s gun mode. Which sure, is great if you’re playing War, but it is absolutely useless as a play pattern with other Transformers as it’s so big that no other Transformer can hold him. So it’s a big gun that can’t really stand on its own. Great! Meanwhile, Prime turns into a very decent lorry with a fun trailer¹ So I had no real desire to add him to my collection, instead preferring more interesting Decepticon leaders like Scorpononk. Even during the Action Master years, I plumped for a Shockwave figure over the non-transforming Megatron (although, to be fair, that was probably more determined by Shockwave being available as a £5 figure whereas Megatron only came with a £30 vehicle playset).

All the subsequent Megatrons² have been perfectly reasonable, but they normally gave lip-service to the original G1 toy or animation model. Studio Series 86 Megatron is different, though, because Hasbro and Takara have performed wizardry.

Somehow, they’ve managed to create a toy that has an almost-perfect rendition of the G1 comic/cartoon model and get a serviceable tank mode out of him, but at the same time hiding most of the tank details when he’s in robot form. Finally, a Megatron without compromise.

(is this the only Transformer I bought this year? hahaha, no. But one in the series of “I don’t think I ever have to buy another version of this figure ever again”)