Huh? The titanium Prime and Megatron are perfect examples of die cast not always being good. I'm honestly surprised anyone would compare Alpha Pack to that monstrosity. I picked up both Prime and Megs in the Hasbro titanium and neither can stand up, or pose in anyway, and Megs was actually in four seperate pieces in the packet!! Those things are an abomination and Spark toys' are exponentially better in every single way imaginable. Having little or no diecast is a long way from being a negative for me, considering how bad the diecast Titanium rubbish was.
Alpha Pack was one of my favourites from last year and the amazing paint finish on this Megs suggests he'll be even better. Super pumped for this.

 

Oh no don't get me wrong I hated the titanium series for everything that it was except for the fact that there were no other representation at the time. Seeing these toys being made again (that were once only represented by the titanium series) just makes me think of weighty toys that's all. I love alpha pack and I still display him in the front of the pack as an alpha should be.

 

Ah cool. That makes sense. For me weight is nice but it's not important. Plenty of great figures without die-cast. I'd sacrifice added weight for improved finish - the weathered, gradiated look on Sparks Megatron is amazing.

 

Very impressive figure... until you showed the undercarriage of his alt mode!

 

I had the exact same issue. I got Prime and thought "Wait a moment. The Titanium weighs more. And holds together just about as good." So yeah, I wish there were more diecast. I will say, I am usually more of a Megatron fan, but I can't stand this design unfortunately. I will be passing. :/

 

Wow, that's almost 100% the exact opposite of my reaction. Sure the Tiatnium weighed more but that's because it was an unwieldy lump of diecast with terrible moulding, super amateurish paint and joints so floppy it can't stand. Mine is just sitting slumped in a pile in the back corner of my junker shelf because it can't even stand upright.
Alpha Pack on the other hand has amazingly tight joints, excellent posing, a great finish, a fun transformation and simply looks amazing on the shelf.
I picked up Spartacus from the posts office during my lunch break today and will be heading home shortly to unpack and admire him. Really can't wait!

As an aside, I am loving Action Robo, one of my new favourite retailers. Prices are competitive, service is good, and best of all their shipping is super fast - coming from Hong Kong, the trip to Australia is ridiculously quick. I feel like I'm one of the first people to have received TFM MotorMaster and now Spark Toys Megatron.

 

Well just unwrapped this guy. He's ... amazing. As good as expected. The paint job is stunning, a subtle weathering on almost every single panel, so many little painted greebles and details and a stack of glorious little caution and warning's tampo's all over him. He has 8 or 9 "CAUTION" tampo's scattered about him and each one has a small paragraph of text printed underneath in minuscule writing. I haven't got a magnifying glass fine enough to actual read it but I can make out that it is legible and real letters and words! So cool.

Rolling rubber tracks, hip missiles that slide forward ready to launch, a fold down chest panel with a weird matrixy tech greebly behind it. The G1 Megatron faces look so good on him (much prefer to the War Within face) and they simply pop on and off with ease, but remain firmly attached. The eyes are painted a glorious red!

And he's got ratchet's galore!!
We've got ratchets in the shoulder cannon for both up-and-down and side-to-side movement. The shoulders are ratcheted forward-back and up-and-down. Ratchets in the elbows and knees. Thighs ratchet both forward-back and outwards-inwards.
Pretty much the only joints that aren't ratchets are the neck, the feet and the hands. Oh and the waist swivel which he has.
He even has a one click forward/back ratcheted ab crunch - though its based under the pecs rather than at the waist.
He's much heavier than Alpha Pack and those who have complained will be pleased to know he has diecast in his feet, inner calves and the tank-tread rollers on his outer calves.

He looks really good with Alpha Pack - they both have that solid puffy look to them that Dreamwave did so often.

The negatives are few and far between -
Be very careful when using his sword for the first time. The hilt folds 90 degrees into a "L" shape, so it clips under the tank mode, and it comes packaged that way. Mine was very stiff folding it straight and I think a small piece of plastic had fused around the pin. There was a faint cracking sound and it now moves fine, but there was a moment I though it would snap.
The sword itself is almost ridiculously tiny - more like a dagger than a sword. I think it was portrayed kind of small in the comic but this looks faintly ridiculous. But I've got so many swords, axes and maces lying around from all my MP scale Primes and Megatrons that i have no shortage of weapons for him. It's a shame actually because he holds the dagger/sword amazingly firmly, far better than Alpha Pack holds his axe.
He's a little top heavy but the ankle tilt has reasonably firm friction so he stays upright well.
Oh, and i just worked out what the red cylinder thing he comes with is for!! It looks a bit like a red painted Evangelion entry plug, and it slots into his shoulder cannon... which has a spring loaded firing mechanism! I just shot it 10 feet across the room! Nice!
Hands have the same level of articulation as Alpha Pack - which is good enough for MP, but I prefer full articulation.

I haven't transformed him yet but the instructions don't look too complex.

Just amazing, no regrets at all...
Well one regret. I wish I had a stronger magnifying glass. Damn I want to know what that Caution warning says!!!

 

How big is he, say, next to a CHUG voyager on the scale of Springer/Roadbuster?

Or, a figure around the height of Striker Manus?

He looks incredible.

 

If I remember correctly, it's actually meant to be a dagger, so that would explain that.

Other than that, I appreciate the feedback. Thanks.

 

He looks to be leaderish in size. I bet he would size up well with CW Megatron. Yeah l'll be needing Spark toys st-01, 2, and 3 and have never read a dreamwave comic. I saw that Simon furman is involved so the war within MUST be good

 

Don't really collect chug and don't own Striker Manus so this is about the best I can do:

MP-10, MMC's IDW Impactor, FansToys Reflector and the Hasbro Thrilling 30's Generations Brainstorm.
Hopefully that will help you get some idea?

Okay. I can see it being a dagger. Still looks kind of silly to me just cause he's so big and beefy and it's this squat little broad dagger thing. LOL
I may give him Apollyon's energy mace or something, or he can just wield the big cannon.
Transformed to tank mode. It's good, though a bit fiddly. Couple of the panels really struggled to tab in place and the silly hip missile launcher things are on little ball pegs and keep popping off. I think its going to take a bit of time and effort to massage him together so that he rolls properly and is flat. So many ratchet's means that everything kind of has to click into place at just the right position or he ends up a bit skewed. One ratchet off by one click and he'll get into tank mode but will be ever so slightly twisted and will struggle to roll. He looks good though.

The Underside is a bit of a hoot as you can see his arms and head all wrapped around himself.
Transformation back to bot was simple and intuitive and took less than a minute without instructions.
As a point of note, I'm terrible at transformations and usually need to use a video. I struggle with most MP's and have real problems understanding printed manuals for the transformations. But this guys was actually really easy, and going back I didn't need any instructions, everything just unfolded nice and simple. Going to tank mode was fairly easy and apart from a few panels I had to really pressure into place and the ratchet;s skewing everything was fine. Going back to bot was fun and easy.

I also remembered that there's a light up gimmick. You fold down the chest panel and behind the matrix greebly thing there's a battery cavity. And there's a teeny tiny little switch on the side of his chest, in his under-arm. He takes 2 x LR44 batteries. Which conveniently enough, is the same size battery that MP-29 Shockwave uses in his arm cannon - so I was able to test it out. Makes the yellow circle on his chest glow. Kind of cool but not really worth bothering with for me. The switch is REALLY tiny though so be careful turning it on or off too often.

Still very happy with this guy, but he'll definitely live in bot mode.

 

If anyone figures out how to remove all those ST-02 logo's without damaging the figure, please let me know.

 

Looking it over, ST-02 appears:
On the outside of each foot, which is plain unpainted black plastic - Should be easy enough to remove with Isopropyl Alcohol?
And on the lower right corner of the right hand chest panel (the one that covers the battery compartment) - it say's "BE IN POWER ST-02" It's gonna be very hard to remove as that panel has the airbrushed weathering - it's subtle but it's a faint brownish tinge. Trying to remove the tampo will probably also affect the weathering.
Now that panel is also the one that his faction symbol go's on and it flips down to access the batteries. There's also a small square nubbin that's painted blue. Just spit-balling here, but you could flip down the panel, and tape up the rest of the chest to protect the rest of the bot. Then use Isoprop or a paint solvent of your choice to completely clean off that chest panel. Apply a moderately substantial faction symbol, and repaint that nubbin blue, and the lack of weathering may not be too bad? It's a subtle effect, and if the entire left pectoral is unweathered and largely covered with a faction symbol, it may be less noticeable?
ST-02 also appears on the two front tank tread.. covers? Again those are weathered parts.
Honestly, I don't think you're going to be able to remove all the ST-02 tampo's without seriously impacting the weathering.
The ones tampo'd on silver parts (chest and tank tread covers) are done in a light grey, so they aren't too noticeable. The ones on the feet are the most obnoxious being white on black, but they're also easiest to remove.

Funnily enough, there are also two very tiny Tampo's on the top of his shoulder pylons. They're both upward facing arrows and they have very tiny writing underneath. It says MEGATANK. Made me laugh. It's so tiny that you really need a magnifying glass to read it, but it's there.
And as previously mentioned, a CAUTION warning and text appear on upper arms, knees, ankles, top of feet, rear tank treads and on the back of the figure/tank turret. I actually like those.
They didn't do these kinds of tampo's on Alpha Pack. May be the difference between a futuristic commercial truck and a futuristic military tank?

 

c/o 万代丸



DaimChoc Reports - ダイムチョック・リポーツ

 

When I saw this pic with the smiling face on the underside:


I suddenly had a flashback to Sigma's final form in Megaman X:


Now all we need is the Transformers own Blue Bomber, and we have the next Transformers game (and thanks 928toyslaboratory for not getting too miffed for borrowing your picture)

 

Thanks all you guys for posting the awesome pics! I was totally just going to get Alpha Pack as a one-off as I'm not a big follower of the video-games/comics, but after checking out some of the pictures, I immediately started rooting around to find the best price for this guy and found him for a decent price.

Yea - that pic with that smile is just wrong. Reminds me of some sort of crazy bondage/sex pose. Just not right. lol..

I hate the Titanium. I don't think it's any comparison really. A floppy mess vs an awesome MP representation in Alpha Pack. Not even remotely in the same league. If I understood your comment correctly, I do think that Alpha Pack is pretty light with a simple transformation. It's not horrible but I usually like my figures a little bit more challenging with a little bit more weight... but given its pretty accurate to the source material, I guess it does the job and I do enjoy it.

great job Spark Toys!

 

Die-cast wasn't the problem with the Titanium line, the crappy joints were.