Went to Little Tokyo in LA hoping they'd have some Transformers stuff (after all, the franchise came from combining two Japanese toy lines), but I found more knockoffs than legit stuff (there WAS a shop that sold legit TF toys, but there wasn't that much there either):

Polyfect-brand combiners (L-R: Menasor with Nosecone and Afterburner in place of Dead End and Wildrider, Defensor, Superion)


Obvious Last Knight cash-in


Two Starscreams


I think the one in the top left is based on Rail Racer, but I'm not sure


A pretty good-looking tank-based G1 Megatron

 

It's not G1 Megatron, but (CW) Armada Megatron with head and colors like G1 Megatron  
On alibaba I saw a new version of this mold with a new head

 

Do you have the aliexpress link for that?

 

Man, those KO combiners are like... eternal. Every Chinatown in the world has had them for the past 20+ years  

These have been spotted a few times in this thread (in some other colours too) and have generated some interest, but none of the usual KO sellers seem to have them. The guess was that they were exclusively for the export market. I wouldn't mind finding some myself.

I think that's a KO of a more recent Japanese toy line featuring high-speed trainbots (not Transformers-related).

That's not Armada Megatron... remember the Combiner Wars Megatron was designed to look like G1 Megatron first, and then was repainted into Armada colours afterward (and given a new head).

That mold has gotten a good quality, full-size (leader) knockoff (by KBB I think)... but also a smaller voyager-scale version that was lower quality and had simplified joints (which also was released in green).

I haven't seen that green version with the new head before. Looks kind of cool.

zmog

 

@SMOG in reality they both came out in wave 1, but given that megatron g1 had a pistol as an alt mode, while the tank had the armada, it is reasonable to think that the mold was the latter, while the other a simple remold to look like the g1...

 

Megatron was a tank long before Armada. G2 was a green camo M1 Abrams.

 

It's really not reasonable to think that the Combiner Wars Megatron mold was intended to be Armada and not G1 considering the only commonality it shares with the Armada Megatron is the head, colors and being a tank (despite being a drastically different tank). The entire silhouette of Combiner Wars Megatron is significantly more in line with the design of G1 Megatron than it is with Armada Megatron

 

G2 Is not G1, in universe henkei there is one Megatron with tank mode, but also this not G1... The CW Meg has so little of the G1 beyond the colors that not even with the 3p kit to perfect it does it really resemble it in robot mode... We can agree that even the armada is far from being identical to the vintage original, but if we talk about inspiration it is clear that in that way they were inspired more by the Armada (think about how different the cannon on the arm is from the iconic one, it looks more like the weapon of the armada, or the girdles on the shoulders which, even if different, certainly recall the silhouette of the armada more...) than by the G1, which was born as a pistol and was still a pistol (nerf) in the line immediately preceding the CW. Then for heaven's sake everyone has their own opinions, since it has never been declared by the designers what the remold is.

Edit: For the record I'm one of those who think it's been years since they've been giving us G2 Megatrons G1ized rather than a real G1 Megatron. For me the last Megatron truely G1 insprired is this

 

He looks just like Combiner Wars Megatron with his back tracks opened up.

 

For those interested in the new version with a different head:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/YongnKids-...p/B09XB3S76C?th=1&language=en_US&currency=EUR

 

Okay, firstly... let's not get caught up in convoluted and questionable definitions. Let's align on a few key points first.

G1 Megatron is a character -- not just one design and incarnation.

G1 Megatron has certain aesthetic consistencies through almost every one of his variations that make him easy to recognize. We also know that G1 Megatron does not frequently appear as a gun anymore, for reasons of marketing. He has appeared in various other forms, but most often tanks.

There are different variants of G1 Megatron... the Marvel comics version, the G1 cartoon, the War Within version, the IDW version, the WFC:Siege version... but although they are linked to different "continuities," it's clear that they are all intended to be the same character.... inhabiting sub-divisions of the original G1 setting.

Even G2 Megatron is also the same character, intended to be simply G1 Megatron in a new body, not really any different from Optimus Prime >> Powermaster Optimus Prime.

Meanwhile, I think we can also agree that Armada Megatron, while having some superficial similarities to G1 Megatron, is a distinct character.

The Combiner Wars Megatron was announced and promoted first in his traditional G1 deco and headsculpt, with the Armada version being a blatant remold.

If there was really any doubt, we can observe that this mold has many design motifs that are pointedly carried over from "classic" G1 Megatron: the entire chest design, the structure and decoration of the legs that deliberately reference the gun-handle from G1 Megatron, the forearm-mounted fusion cannon, the shape and style of the hips... it's abundantly clear that this mold was intended fully as a G1 Megatron homage first, and an Armada Megatron purely as an afterthought.

The design points you cite (skinny cannon, tank treads in silhouette) are all products of the realistic tank mode and transformation, and do not directly resemble the Armada design in a specific way. Literally, the only specific Armada Megatron reference points on the remold are the head and the colours. Even though both Armada and CW are tanks, the type and style of the tank modes are radically different as well... there's no hint of a homage there.

While I must agree with you that Combiner Wars Megatron is not literally a 1980s toy that transforms into a Walther P38, it is obvious that he was designed to be a variation on that character, and not at all a variant of Armada Megatron.

I don't think this is one of those "difference of opinion" things. The burden of actual evidence just doesn't support your somewhat puzzling argument.  

zmog

 

That looks like it is probably based on the smaller, simplified KO. It's funny how that head design seems a bit simplistic, but at the same time, looks really cool.

Kind of reminds me of the G2 "techno-jets"

zmog

 

It seems disconcerting to me call evidence things that are in reality your questionable ideas, starting from what a G1 is or is not, so much so that Megatron is the only one who has changed the alt mode compared to the G1 over the years when we talk about new characters inspired by G1, even shockwave WfC can be transformed into a shape similar to his original gun, even if it is not the official transformation, Meg no... This speaks volumes about what G1 really mean when the designers talk about it, something very different from the smoky interpretation you give of it .... Having said that it is obvious that being now on positions of pure opinion (never heard a design promote the CW as a true G1 Meg, unlike the WfC for example, or affirm which of the two CW Megs was the remold, at most they pressed as always to promote the incarnation more similar to the classic rather than that of a Japanese series distant from them). Among other things, following your reasoning, then TR Astrotrain would also be a remold of TR Megatron... I doubt you will agree, but being a debatable topic for the reasons I have already explained, we could continue to discuss it indefinitely, which we cannot I doubt you will try to do as usual  

 

>still waiting on ko ss ironhide

 

My dude

Best Ironhide I own. And I have MP G1 ans SS86 Ironhide.

 

I assumed they meant SS14

 

I'm waiting for the next AliExpress sales to get it, at the last ones I had other priorities...

 

i meant the bayverse version

 

My point is that, sure, you can define G1 Megatron exclusively as being ONLY the handgun version of the character if you want.

However, it must be acknowledged that many people (if not most people) define G1 Megatron as the character originating in the G1 setting, and who appears in many variations, but all intended to be the same character.

From here, we can likely agree that there can be more than one definition of what "G1 Megatron" means. Also, I already clarified that the narrow "only gun" definition is not the one that is being applied here.

Moreover, speaking anecdotally, your more-limited definition is actually very much the minority view. Unless you're just looking to start arguments, it generally makes sense to assume that most people are operating on the latter definition when they're discussing Transformer character designs.

BUT... that said, this is not really a question of "pure opinion" at all. I have pointed to specific shared design elements that confirm the legacy and intent between G1 Megatron and CW Megatron. You have not been able to do the same for Armada Megatron.

If someone's only exposure to G1 Megatron, Armada Megatron, and the last 35 years of Transformers media was limited to verbal descriptions with no actual visual reference points, I could see how this might be unclear. However for people who can see the actual designs though, I think some things are highly self-evident.

In terms of homage, there's nothing here on the same level as (for example) Superlink Megatron's cannon looking exactly like Armada Megatron. Instead, there might be a cute little homage to Armada Megatron that is explicit somewhere on the CW mold (aside from the head swap) that I missed... I'd love for someone to point one out. However the visual quotations from the classical G1 Megatron are pretty blatant and decisive.

The tendency to insist on assigning subjective value to highly objective and observable things is... not healthy, in my view. Someone who pursues slippery-slope arguments for purely contrarian reasons might be accused of being a troll... but for someone who does so entirely earnestly and unironically... I worry for them.

zmog

 

Your last observation could easily be directed at yourself, since you do the same thing... You even roll attributes of Super Link, which is not Armada anyway, so finding them in an Armada would be a surplus. You have mentioned objective aesthetic elements assuming subjectively that they are pre-eminent, for me other elements which I have also mentioned are pre-eminent, in the end I repeat it has become a subjective question based on the interpretation of this or that detail which is more important to me for you no, and vice versa. As I already said, anticipating the fact that I don't feel like carrying the discussion indefinitely, we will never get anywhere since we have different opinions on the two CW Megs, it being understood that I would like you to stop stuffing the answers with veiled all 'usions to the inferiority of your interlocutor, which is not really true, indeed we have probably been following the TFs since the same years (although from the tone of the answers you give I tend to think that you are much younger than me and more inclined to certain nasty habits that you manifest even when you talk to others)