Keeping this review short since we've seen this mold once before. Unfortunately, my Megatron is at my family's house so I can't take comparison pics just yet. Energon was the cartoon that got me into Transformers, so I have a soft spot for this design. I find the Core Megatron mold to be decent. It's simple, but makes for a cute desk figure. I don't know which deco I prefer personally because I like them both for different reasons, but for what it's worth, HasTak picked a really nice shade of purple for him. I'd say he's worth the $10 I spent on him, but I'm also a bit blinded by nostalgia.
Picked this one up on the Target sale and he's really dippy. I didn't bother with the Megatron original on this mold, but as Galvatron it's somewhat interesting. This mold is nearly Happy Meal toy-level simple, you fold his nosecone down, his lower arms backwards, wrap his legs around the shoulders, and rotate the backpack -- the end result is a brick with kibble to make it look less like a brick. The forearms don't even have a place to lock in, they just fold down and back and out and there's a lot of "ish" about how they're intended to go. There's also a lot of hollowness, and his feet aren't designed to actually bear weight, he has these long heel spurs that don't do anything, his real feet are the leg portion around them. There's some red deco they didn't apply to his knees which could have really livened up this figure. And I don't like how his back wings don't lock into place in either mode. All that said, he's not terrible, the only real design error was the darker shade of purple used for the paint (all his purple is painted) that's not light enough, but he still looks good for it. The shoulder cannons work on both pegs in shoulders and in hands now and his knees stay on just fine, I gather those were issues on the Megatron version. (The tabs under his arms remain entirely annoying, though.) I think if his nosecone had been filled in and his forearms weren't just sticking out at that janky, awkward angle he'd be pretty good. Overall: C
Some comparison shots of Energon core class Megatron and Galvatron. The transformation is simple, but the original leader class figure basically transformed the same way. Wished the forearms did more than just sit there in vehicle mode, but they get hidden by the wings anyways. I do hope we get a core class Energon Optimus Prime to go with this, but I doubt it would happen. I hope we get more Energon universe representation in the generations line in future in full size.
I'll admit, a weakness of mine is small starships, so these guys are right up my alley and I enjoy them. That said, I still want a streamlined Leader Class Energon Megatron/Galvatron influenced by DW's take on the design, all sleek and cool.
