"How do you like the taste of true fear? I will make it the last thing you remember!" As this figure is a redeco, this will not be a full review, but rather go over differences and show various pictures. Megatron [Vega] is the 2nd redeco of the Titans Return Megatron figure (first being Legends G2 Hero Megatron). He is part of the Street Fighter II x Transformers limited crossover series. Vega is the Japanese name for the final boss but was changed to M. Bison in the US. Because of naming confusion, Street Fighter fans often refer to him as "Dictator", especially for international play. There are no newly molded parts. He does not come with the extra Noble drone that the Legends G2 Hero Megatron redeco does. His deco is done to resemble the Street Fighter character. He has a LOT of silver paint...almost too much. Yes, he does have flesh tones, which is odd to see on a TF figure. However, I think this looks great as a SF fan. Compared to his box mate, Convoy [Ryu], Megatron clearly turned out the much better of the 2 figures. At first, I thought the various tolerances were a lot worse on this figure, especially for both alt modes. I had a hard time tabbing together the arm assemblies into the folded up legs. I then realized that due to the paint, the locking knee tabs weren't plugging in. Once those were forced in, the transformations went much better and were now easy to tab everything into place. The G2 Hero figure had a somewhat loose cannon connection on the bot arm. This connection is now snug for Megatron [Vega]. Make sure these knee tabs are plugged in for alt modes to work. Headmaster: The deco is done to resemble the Dictator. G2 Hero Megatron version is shown for comparison. Rear view. Bot Mode: Really like how the deco turned out for bot mode. The wonky proportions of course can't be fixed with a deco change, but it works. Rear view. Comparison with Legends G2 Hero Megatron. Tank alt mode: The tank alt mode itself is rather meh, but the new deco really works well here too. Another view. The extra weapon is able to store on the rear. Comparison with G2 Hero Megatron. Jet alt mode: This is actually our favorite of the 3 modes. Despite the tank kibble, the jet mode actually looks rather nice. The new deco works very well here too. Another view. The extra weapon is able to store on top of the rear section. Comparison with G2 Hero Megatron. Overall: The mold itself is mediocre, but the new deco looks great. Still prefer the G2 Hero deco over this one but still a lot better than the original TR Megatron deco. Megatron [Vega] comes as a set with Convoy [Ryu]. Megatron turned out well enough, although Convoy, well, um, that'll be another review thread. It would be hard to justify current prices for the set just for Megatron alone. Attempting various Street Fighter poses requires a flight stand.
The mold honestly rocks this color scheme. The flesh-tone face and hands are still weird, but overall not much of an eyesore. Definitely one of the stranger exclusive sets Takara's released in recent memory.
I know they’re Takara-exclusive, but wouldn’t these TECHNICALLY be the first Collaborative releases predating Ectotron?
No. Because the Star Wars and Marvel Crossovers happened beforehand. And if we're talking things that Hasbro didn't already have the license to, then you'd instead probably consider some of the other weird side projects TakaraTomy did before, like the transforming shoes, or the Optimus Playstation and Megatron Mega Drive.
Yeah, it's medicore, and that's being friendly about it. I really don't care about Blitzwing. We have zero Blitzwing figures. Liked the redecos, though. The alt modes are not even remotely "clean"...not at all. The jet mode looks pretty decent from top but then massive tank kibble in all the other views, including one of my biggest pet peeves: exposed hands. The tank mode has major jet kibble in most views.
Have to strongly disagree about this mold. Both alt modes are great as far as triple changers go. Just look at your own pics of that jet mode, it’s not just good for a triple changer, it’s good for a transformer. Tank mode is a bit futuristic but still very solid. Bot mode is just so-so but it’s not terrible. This is a good mold. IMHO.
The jet is passable. The tank kinda, sorta works, but only in either Megatron scheme, or the Vega one here. It's notably patchwork looking in Blitzwing's colours, where it's immediately obvious that the back half is just folded jet parts. I've never really liked the look of the mile-wide shoulders in robot mode, though.
The point of the thread is to go over the new deco. However, just because the figure is a triple changer, does NOT give it a free pass to glance over major, glaring issues. I try not to make figures look worse with odd camera angles at least. I actually had more pics but decided not to upload them as the point was not to make the figure look worse (like the huge honking tank parts under the jet). This mold is at least far more successful than the TR Laser OP mold...which is just trash.
Fair enough so with regard to this deco. Jet mode looks killer, tank really good, and bot just weird. IMHO. This type of thing isn’t really my jam but I do quite that jet deco.
The proportions I don’t like about this mold seem like they’re okay with Vega/Bison from the way he was depicted in the late 90’s games-present. However I highly doubt the unsecure knee tab connections on my TR Blitzwing were rectified here. Paintjob is okay.
Never had Blitzwing. Before Vega version, only handled G2 Hero version of the mold. The knee tabs worked just fine and never had alignment issues, which is why I didn't think of it at first with the Vega version. The rather excessive use of silver paint made the knee tabs not plug in like the G2 Hero version. Once I forced them in, then everything was aligning correctly.
Yeah, not sure what they're talking about with the knee tabs. Both my Blitzwing and G2 Megatron are fine. There's no tolerance differences between the two.
I have both, G2 version has 1 knee tab that doesn’t tab in securely. Glad your Vega doesn’t have the same issue.
The Target release appears to be the same based on stock pics except for the name change from Vega to M. Bison (American name). The name itself is not printed on the character.