The soft parts feels absolutely pointless. I guess they're suppose to give him a real lizard skin feel but it's hard to feel much of a difference between it and regular plastic.

Imagine the accessories or features that could've been added if the parts count was used for those instead.

 

I feel like he’s pretty feature complete, he (and all the beasts) just don’t feel well-tested. The QC problems with the beast wars figures should have been spotted right away. Cheetor’s neck pieces sheering off, Blackarachnia’s boob tab sheering off, Primal’s hip paint scuffing off...and I just feel like Megatron has issues across the board.

The soft plastic would be kind of fun, but I feel a little surprised that they had time to implement a feature like that while also not testing the parts tolerances thoroughly. These are things I’m experiencing right out of the box, not over a long period of time. My Megatron has stress marks from the assembly process. That’s an issue.

I like my Megatron. That’s why this is such a pain. The figure is awesome. I’m just concerned now that the QC shortcuts will eventually lead to breakage in the future.

 

I had the same thing happen.

Then got rude comments back about it when I was just trying to give a warning.

I hope your son's is still in one piece

Here is another two cases for you.

]

 

Got bored and figured out how to take apart the arm and how to possibly make the tail removable.
1. pry to break seam 2. pry up along the side of the seam. 3. life away the thick part of the tail.
4.lift away the narrower part of the tail and peel off the skin. 5. Remove the screw here. 6. Pull off tail flaps view of arm plastic without thick part of tail. possible way to make tail removable. Cut the two yellow lines. Glue or screw together the three sections circled in green. Then the green section can be pulled off and reattached by using the screw hole post.
View of the green painted part of the tail. I did not have to break this seam along this painted section to remove the skin from the thick part of the tail. So can be done mostly without visible damage.

 

Any tips on transforming the torso? I feel like this thing is gonna break before i ever get him into dino mode at this rate.

 

Try sliding the torso forward instead of pulling up. You hook your finger behind his head and pull forward and down. It basically uses those beefy clips as rails instead of tabs.



I can pull the clips apart on my copy safely, but it requires a lot of force. But the sliding method (in reverse) is the only way I've been able to get it back together when going from dino to robot.

 

Thanks man, shockingly no stress marks on it despite the applied force.

 

Beast mode pluses

• + overall look is great and very fun
• + expressive and charming personality
• + articulation is pretty good with jaw top and bottom, several neck joints, ball jointed shoulders, several hip and leg joints, and several tail joints
• + fairly solid

Beast mode minuses

• - lots of panel gaps
• - rubbery skin parts don't always meet very well, the worst is at the tail where the rubber refuses to conform to the shape it's supposed to, and the head at the spring-loaded parts
• - tan and teal colors are a bit garish and not all parts transition to the next ones correctly
• - mild paint chipping already
• - knee joints aren't contiguous when used, show white inner frame when bending
• - using head articulation dislodges one or more panels, even the ones that are supposed to spring back but don't
• - somewhat challenging to balance
• - no pupils in eyes

The quantity of each doesn't tell the whole story, the pluses outweigh the minuses to make a very fun dino mode, but that doesn't mask some serious issues as well. Dino mode ultimately is a hit for me, but I can absolutely see someone getting fed up with it.

Transformation thoughts

• an ambitious transformation utterly ruined by poor materials consideration with parts that absolutely do not want to come apart or fold the right way or stay together or click into position
• crotch halves absolutely do not want to hold together, nothing seems to snap at the bottom
• getting the tail panels over each other requires a tool or care to get the rubbery parts to pass each other
• unclipping the inner waist is an exercise in frustration, the part doesn't want to release in the beast mode's torso clip or in the robot mode's torso clips despite clipping from different positions, this part feels like something else is going to break before it gives in and does what it's supposed to
• the inner back kibble just kinda flips about and roughly "stays" in position rather than using a ratchet to hold it in place so you know it's correct
• the outer back kibble doesn't seem to have anything holding it in the proper position, so it sags
• there's a stress mark in the hinge at the base of the spine that's worryingly the entire way across the segment

This transformation is so frustrating, there's a clever change going on but it's made miserable through design problems on nearly every front. It doesn't help that there's a lot of parts inside the rubber skin elements which feel too thin and fragile to withstand repeated transformation.

Robot mode pluses

• + pretty big, a nice size
• + accurate likeness
• + articulated to WFC minimums plus a butterfly shoulder on the right
• + 5mm port in each foot
• + paint gets the idea across, even the tiny green Predacon logo in the forehead crest
• + has good personality

Robot mode minuses

• - lots of backpack kibble that just feels unfocused and messy
• - non-removable arm weapons is baffling, would have been so easy to achieve with everything going on here
• - considerable hollowness in the thighs and left arm
• - can be fussy to balance, no ratchets so once in a while the leg articulation will give up when it can't contain all the upper body weight
• - backpack and crotch don't stay together all the way, often get dislodged while posing
• - tan color dominates the upper body too much
• - purple plastic's color has too much red, looks inaccurate, cheap
• - back half of the head is purple instead of gunmetal
• - the robot parts revealed in TF - head, torso, left arm, and upper legs - have a soft sculpt to them, lacks the sharpness of modern figures, looks cheap and dated rather than contrasted to the organic parts
• - "claw" weapon on left arm looks like a lazy afterthought, awkward and oversized
• - head can't look up or down on its ball joint, can't look down on its transformation joint

There's no hiding it, robot mode is as mixed a bag as you can get, and the pros don't weigh all that heavily if you're not a big fan. It works for me on character beats alone.

Overall, leader-class Megatron is the strange case of a figure that I like yet absolutely would not recommend. The problems are nearly all at the design level, the rubber skin was a complete mistake leading to a myriad of problems and missteps (not to mention the many complaints of QC issues leading to breakage which thankfully I haven't experienced so far). Dino mode makes the most compelling case for this toy despite some notable gaps, yet the rubbery skin over plastic parts seems like it's not adding anything while taking away from parts fitting. Transformation is frustrating to the point of concern, there's no way an 8-year-old is going to be able to get that torso apart at either mode's connection points. But it's the robot mode that most holds this back, it's a fair bot mode but it feels like it should be better - the smallest of tweaks here and there (the backpack locking into place, the tail and head weapons being removable, the crotch staying together) could have made this feel a lot more worth the high pricetag than some silly rubbery skin. And the sculpting feels shallow compared to the other Kingdom figures, my girlfriend loves the beast mode, saw robot mode and recoiled at how chintzy it looks.

Do I like this figure? Yesssssssss!

Could I honestly recommend it? Nooooooooo.

 

Finished making the tail detachable... still need to get the shoulder back on the toy though...

 

Someone else was doing that in the Radicons section too.

 

I see that now. Provoding the link would be more helpful... Minor/Repaint: - Kingdom BW Megatron arm mod

Well at least i show how to safetly take the tail off.

How is your son's megatron?

 

Just dandy. Takes a beating and staying intact. After making a toothbrush for him, trying to make a custom rubber duckie for him.

 

I think most of us were hoping yours only broke because you accidentally dropped it, not because of design flaws. Now that more people are getting this figure and more reports are coming in(I’ve seen some on social media), more of us were seeing where you were coming from. Thanks for bringing some of the 1st issues to light.

Can you elaborate, are the shoulder pegs like a hexagonal shape instead of completely round, to kind of act like detents or faux ratchets? If so then the tip Gepard or someone else mentioned previously to shave down some edges(on the white discs that go into the torso IIRC) might help.

Either way I think the shoulder peg should’ve been made with even half’s on both halves of the shoulder pads OR the shoulder pads should’ve been molded as one piece, that way the connection of the peg wouldn’t just be on 1 shoulder pad.

Alternatively, possibly gluing the shoulder pad that isn’t connected to the peg, to the peg may help(I would think).

 

This guy is clearly a QC mess.

Got mine today and the T-rex lower jaw just flops down - there's no friction at all to hold it in place. Turns out the plastic between the hinges of the lower jaw was cracked right out of the box. Must have happened during assembly. Pulling the jaw off to try and fix it of course cracked it completely.

Super glue is totally ineffective since any pressure just recracks it. Not sure what else to do to fix it, but it's pretty lame having T-Rex permanently screaming all the time...

Of course, Amazon is out of stock to order a replacement.

Anyone else have this? Any fix suggestions?

 

Find some way to get your money back is my suggestion. This thing is getting rereleased in two different colors at least. The QC issues will iron out, and I’ll bet that a better version will come out afterward. If your copy is completely screwed, don’t spend hours fixing it. It’s just not worth it. As you already saw, trying to fix it exacerbated the issue. The build quality is shaky enough that I don’t really want to try disassembling anything. If it barely surived assembly at the factory, I doubt it will fare well being diassembled and assembled again.

 

I had dudes on Twitter telling me I broke my 50$ toy on purpose or that I was too rough with it. People crazy.

 

Do you have any closeup pics of the cracks?

 

Amazon delivered early and I got this guy Sunday.

Oh boy.  

It definitely doesn't help that my last purchase was Studio Series Grimlock, a figure that I loved for being updated but still straightforward and fun. Because this guy is anything but. I'm really struggling to think about how a target age group child would enjoy this as a toy, especially if they've been getting other figures that are out, this just isn't a fun figure. Even ignoring the many QC horrors, this guy doesn't even have a single element that I'm really satisfied with. Transformation is a nightmare of parts folding with few of them aligning correctly, others popping out at a glance, and some others requiring freakish amounts of force to snap into or out of place. The T-Rex form is gappy and his head seems small for his body mass. Robot mode has this obtrusive backpack, a useless left hand, and odd elbow articulation in the right arm; plus on my copy his robot mode hips are quite loose. I'm also a little concerned about the dino skin separating from the panels that fold out over his hand, they both seem to be loosely attached and could easily get caught and come off trying to fold all those panels.

I will say he actually does stand rather well, surprisingly. The paint and details on the robot mode torso is quite nice.

I can say with absolute certainty that this is the only time I will ever get this mold. I'm not sure if I'm prone to breakage at this point and if I should try and push the issue and then return it for a refund, or if I've been blessed with a better copy and should take the win. I don't think I'll try to start a return; I've never done that before for a figure I don't like, just for when there's a problem, but I certainly feel the temptation.

Ugh. Seriously, the designer should be forced to watch children try to transform this thing and then severely fined for every child who gives up.

 

Hope the QC issues get sorted out for the potential T-Wrecks release.

But one thing that bothers me the most is how small the leg/thigh cannons are... Vintage was too big due to firing mechanism, Masterpiece near perfect, but Kingdom Leader is way too tiny  

 

I just got mine in the mail from Amazon, but I'm almost afraid to even open it out of fear of the QC issues reported here. I actually made the pre-order back in October last year, which kicked off a Beast Wars nostalgia frenzy that had me pick up a bunch more Kingdom figures and even Masterpiece Megatron (KO) in the meantime. So like, I don't need it in the context of these others. My only real justification was "well, this one must be simpler/sturdier than the masterpiece, so I won't mind handing it off to the toddler a bit," but now, maybe not?