trying to imagine the transformation based on these pics...I mean the arms are obvious, but how does the hip skirt move?...seems like there is quite a few things going on there.

 

Yeah theres a lot, the sides the arms are attached to pull away and hinge down, somehow the hip skirts get where they are, the backpach shifts down while the legs collapse so the purple kibble can meet, and then some sort of black magic happens with the grey barrel that flips it out and hides galvatrons head

 

i wonder if some elements are partsformery aside from the canon.

 

Nope

 

Nah but it does faux form, but idk how it would be possible for galvatron to NOT faux form his neck collar area

 

Oh wow. Yeah. That’s a fantastic Alt Mode. All kinds of possibilities with the back/stabilizer area. Can’t wait.

 

The hip skirt looks to be on a swivel which is attached at the very front of the skirt in robot mode. They swing out 90 degrees, so that instead of running along his body they stick straight out to the side. The sides of the robot torso then swing down, accordion style, made up of two panels which are joined at the shoulder pylons. The outer torso panel ends up under the figure, while the inner panel now makes up the side of the cannon and drops the pylon into place to peg into the moved hip skirt.

The chest then swings UP, covering the head. Then the entire cannon drum (which the orange barrel attaches to at the end) flips out, on a hinge or arm at the front of the waist so that the back of the thing now faces forward and the robot chest is under the cannon. The panel at his back folds down towards the front of the cannon, covering the space vacated by the cannon drum, with the spine rotating back to face upward. The lower, purple skirt piece flips up 90 degrees, completing most of the purple spine of the cannon mode. Basically his entire upper body comes apart and rearranges, and the entire cannon mode is "below the belt," so to speak.

The legs rotate back 90 degrees at the hips, with those little fold out purple panels to finish the cannon spine up top, and the feet swing down on wide panels to form the third leg.

He's fairly simple, in terms of execution, it appears. But he does a LOT with what he has.

 

Having had a good look at the cannon mode photos I'm pleased that the main points I don't like - the front of the legs and the feet - look like an easy fix. Either a false front that clips on to or a new front that replaces the front of the leg - won't affect transformation at all - and the feet could easily have a better looking foot shell fit over them.

Hoping some enterprising 3P or upgrade company feels the same as I do and gives us those and an alternate head with swappable facial expressions.

 

One of the weird things with Galvatron's design is that at when they were doing the final revisions they removed the cannon mount. The earlier versions, (which were used for the Marvel comic) had it and like Megatron it connected at the forearm. The cartoon version though had no cannon mount so the circular cannon just somehow... attached to the vaguely circular arm.

And annoyingly all official versions seem to copy the original toy and have the cannon mount on the upper arm. I do like that this one seems to give you a choice.

 

This is our obligatory, "Give me a G1 show accurate Galvatron or give me death" post! In honor of Giga-Galvatron. Some of the old guard on this message board might remember that from back in those days when Armada and Energon was the current series's of the time lol.

 

Maybe the same reason why I keep reading people thinking Megatron needed to be held in gun mode to be fired, which isn't true either.

 

That first pic staring down the barrel is very ominous. The alt mode has alot of gravitas and feels heavy duty. Look out Starscream!

 

Guys put your seat belts on:

 

Once again...

Yes. This is Galvatron!

 

This guy is solid, no real hollow spaces inside Galvatron everything is stuffed.

 

Interesting. In these latest shots it looks like the cannon drum might open on a hinge, allowing the head/collar to hide inside it for cannon mode. I'd been working under the theory that the robot chest covered the head in cannon mode, but now I think there might be room to stash it away completely. Cool.

 

Yesss, THIS is the galvatron I know and love! The alt mode is superb! Not entirely accurate but I don't care in this case, both modes are stunning. The posability and display options are vast!

 

Enjoy.

 

Ok,now...that's cool that you can tilt the cannon though...
edit: man, I think I like the cannon mode better than the bot