Yesss...

Beast wars megatron is one of the characters that grew on me really fast when I first watched beast wars, he was such a great villain and ended up becoming one of my favorite iterations of the decepticon/Predacon leader. This toy is really really cool and I'm glad I was able to get ahold of one after I passed on it the first time around.

But as much as I like this figure, I am super nervous on handling him in fear of something snapping, as I saw a lot of QC problems on other people's copies here. But I'm not sure if it's a problem with all copies or the ones that showed up in wave 2 with ultra magnus.

 

left: F0698
right:03181
No breakages yet, but I basically haven't handled him since I read this thread.

 

Been transforming him on and off over the past few days and he feels great so far. I'm actually enjoying him a lot, so I really hope he stands the test of time since he looks a lot better than the original, and he has better articulation. The only thing I really don't like so far is how hard to separate the hip assembly is. It probably would have been better if it was just tabs and not a hook, because getting it angled to both go together and separate is just so hard and it still requires more force than I'm comfortable with for a Transformer.

 

I was showing my kid how to transform ours into dino form. snapped the knee joint ...

looks like i can glue it all back together, but does anyone know how to remove the skin from the leg so i can pull the pin joint and glue the pieces together while it is not connected to the lower leg?

 

Put the leg in some hot water or use a hair dryer to soften the plastic. It'll soften up the skin so it'll be easy to pull off.

I havent tried it myself on the legs so i can't guarantee it'll come off easily, but it worked on my meg's shoulders!

 

thanks, I'll give that a shot. I can peel it back with my hands to reveal the pin rod holding the piece to the lower leg, but I can manage to peel the skin away with 1 hand and manage to push the pin out with the other. Hopefully the loosens up a bit with one of the two methods. how much do you think the skin might come off?

 

I'm assuming that they just slip the skin on during assembly so it should come off all the way? But the foot might be in the way so i'm not too sure : [

 

yeah I noticed that   there is a pin for the ankle joint, holding the foot on. but if i can pull it down a little bit, it'll still work. thanks again!

 

No worries! Tell us how it goes! I'm curious as to what it'll look like without the skin ahaha

 

Oh yeah, take it off baby! lol

 

So are we currently aware how many batches of this mold there have been?
I know we've seen his single release in Mid December and early January.
Then another batch in Feb/March and now he's being packed with Ultra Magnus in wave two.
Trying to figure out how many times the plan to issue this guy and gauge whether or not they might
fix the issues with a later run. Re-paints might do that too but I don't believe anything has been resolved in the case of T-Wrecks.

 

T-wrecks was probably planned for release when they were designing Megatron so its highly likely they won't fix the problems.

But ONE CAN HOPE.

 

So I finally found this in a store yesterday, and he's already one of my favorites this year.

He just feels so solid. I think it was a great idea to put a soft plastic over a harder plastic "skeleton", it gives him that sort of quality weight. The rubber plastic itself feels a lot more quality too, I have a hard time believing it will have issues down the road.

The transformation is shellformer-y as you can expect, but it was still fun. Until you have to separate the hips. I know mileage may vary, but holy crap, mine was a nightmare. I tried pulling up to unhook it like others have suggested, but it was no use. I actually had to get a butter knife to pry the hips apart. Fortunately, the tab hasn't shown any stress marks.

But man, that T-Rex mode is absolutely amazing. The amount of detail that went into the dino skin is incredible, the jaw mechanism is so smooth, and his joints have this super satisfying "chonky" feel.

 

Pretty sure the rubbery plastic in this case is PVC, like what most action figures are typically made of. Modern ones have no real history of decaying, so those parts should be fine.

Just be careful around the sometimes silly amounts of force needed to engage the clips on this toy. I'm sure the broken left shoulders have something to do with how difficult that shoulder is to tab in for beast mode, and that that particular shoulder makes for a natural leverage point.

As has also been pointed out in this thread, the thin clip tabs that anchor his dino flanks to his back on his robot mode also have the tendency to shear off without you even noticing, although I found that to be a non-issue. With only one half of the clip intact, I found the piece still secures nice a snug, but no longer requires a worrying amount of force to disengage.

 

I actually sanded off those notches on the clips you're talking about before they even had the chance to brake. Still holds together as if nothing changed.

 

Finally picked mine up from the post office.

Great figure out of the box. Though I have yet to transform him yet.

 

I thankfully don't have any of the issues (yet) mentioned before. Mine just has two left feet.

But it does make those running poses easier

 

Got around to transforming him into Dino mode. I love his look and his presence. I also like his poseability. I really love the leg mechanisms. Very clever how they work.

 

Prelude: He has entered these hallowed halls, a conqueror, yes! For he is Megatron, leader of the Predacons, and willing to tear time and space apart to achieve victory over those accursed Maximals. Too long has he stood in his more famous G1 namesake’s shadow, despite achieving far greater things. Now, for Beast Wars’ 25th anniversary, he returns in War for Cybertron Kingdom as a Leader-class figure. Let’s say go, yes!

Robot Mode: Let us start by celebrating the fact that Megatron is the first true Leader-class figure in the entire War for Cybertron line-up. Meaning he’s not a Voyager-class figure with extra parts and delusions of grandeur, no. He’s a Leader through and through, big and sturdy, no extra parts. For that alone he deserves quite a few accolades.

Kingdom Megatron depicts the Predacon leader as he appeared in the first season of Beast Wars, so let’s start by comparing him to the old Ultra-Class Megatron from 1996. Kingdom Megatron is a tad taller, a tad slimmer, and somewhat better proportioned than his predecessor. He is also far more detailed, especially on his torso, and is more purple where the original was more blue-grey. Speaking of colors, Kingdom Megatron has quite a few of them. Where the original was almost monochrome, Kingdom Megatron is almost a little too colorful. Still, they are clearly meant to be the same guy.

Comparisons aside, Megatron is a very well-articulated figure with a ton of detailing. His right hand ends in the T-Rex’ head, which can open its jaws pretty wide and has a port for attaching blast effects inside. The other arm is the T-Rex tail, which turns into a pincer. Unlike the original figure, you actually see a robot hand here. Would have been nice if the pincer were detachable, but that’s just a minor thing. I could have done without the folded-together plates hanging off his forearm, but the pincer is big and stable enough to actually grab Deluxe-class figures and hold them aloft without problems. Speaking of folded-together plates, though, there are quite a few of them on his back, too. A bit more streamlined than those huge shell-wings 1996 Megatron had, but still quite a bit.

Overall I’d say that Kingdom Megatron is a pretty accomplished figure in robot mode. As mentioned above, maybe a tad too colorful, but otherwise I have few complaints. He is also in scale with both Dinobot and Optimus Primal, so bonus points for that as well. So bottom line for the robot mode: not perfect, but pretty good.

Alternate Mode: Megatron transforms into a purple Tyrannosaurus Rex. The transformation is similar to that of the 1996 figure, though a bit more complex. The resulting dinosaur is pretty large and looking pretty good in general. Whether you like his purple coloring is subjective, of course, but it’s a massive beast with fully articulate legs and even the tail can move a bit. Nicely done.

Not quite so nicely done: the dinosaur’s hide. Most of Megatron’s beast mode is covered in rubbery plates that do a nice job of looking organic, but they don’t properly line up around the beast’s neck. Getting the plates around the back and tail to properly align is possible, but difficult. I have also read that a few people had problems getting the tail to properly snap into place in this mode, but with my Megatron at least it worked just fine. Discounting the hide plates, everything holds together very well. A solid T-Rex.

As mentioned above Megatron is very nicely articulated in this mode as well, you can do running poses and such without problems. That does pose a bit of a problem of its own, though, as Megatron’s knees open up quite a bit when he bends them, showing a white joint inside. Kind of looks a bit weird here. Apart from that, though, I have no true complaints. A very nice, very massive T-Rex mode. Big enough for Optimus Primal to ride on it.

Remarks: Let’s face it, for all that G1 Megatron is far more famous, he is most famous for yelling “Decepticons, retreat!” in pretty much every episode he ever appeared in. Beast Wars Megatron, voiced perfectly by David Kaye, was a far more dangerous and sinister villain. Through three seasons of Beast Wars and two seasons of Beast Machines he remained a threat to freedom and all sentient beings everywhere. He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, and boy did he like to monologue.

I skipped out on the very expensive and very large Masterpiece Beast Wars Megatron, but when this Leader-class figure here was announced, I couldn’t resist. It’s not perfect and I’m still waiting for that Transmetal version, too, but I don’t regret buying it. It’s probably not for everyone, but if you are a Beast Wars fan, you won’t go wrong with this one. The fact that you can get four or five of him for less money than the Masterpiece version helps, too, of course. So bottom line: recommended to Beast Wars fans.

Rating: B

Source: Transformers-Universe.com

 

Does it help I read this entire thing in Megatron voice? Yeeessss.   nice job. Yes, I've been enjoying your reviews for over 10 years now.