Bot Reviews: Transformers: Legacy Leader Transmetal II Megatron

As I said back when I reviewed the Kingdom version of Beast Wars Megatron, the character’s an all-timer when it comes to good Transformers villains, a theatrical showman who loved to scheme, and whose long-term plans could actually back up his bravado.

He spent the first season of the show in his purple T-rex form, got an upgrade into a robotic, Transmetal T-Rex at the start of Season 2, and then, in the final burst of episodes at the end of Season 3, belatedly got another upgrade, into this giant Transmetal II form, to effectively serve as the show’s Final Boss, and one of its most powerful threats (and I won’t say how he got this ultimate form, for the few people out there that haven’t watched Beast Wars. Watch Beast Wars.)

My own internal sense of organization tells me we’re jumping out of sequence with this guy, thanks to his first Transmetal form getting skipped over for an update, not that I’m going to turn down an update of this beast.

I had the Beast Wars original back in the day, and it was a favorite of mine, big and cool-looking, jam-packed with features, with his bound-to-chip-off chrome paint apps being the only knock against him I (eventually) had. He’s long gone, so I’m all for a de-chromed upgrade.

Robot Mode

He’s a big one! Remember when I was impressed with Kingdom Megatron’s raw size and heft? Well, somehow, despite being the same price point, this Transmetal II version’s a head taller than that previous version, and comes with a wider torso.

And that’s before getting into the wings on his back, which can be unfurled to give him an even bigger silhouette.

This take on the character is a much cleaner, more streamlined design, looking a bit like a classical demon with his all-red getup, big wings, clawed feet, and dragon-headed arm. The original version of him was already decently animation-accurate, but this one takes it a bit further, by included the more humanized, muscled-looking chest that the show model gave him, complete with dragon claws over the pecs.

The odd clear red orb in the middle’s a funky detail, the original toy had a cockpit seat in there as part of an abandoned feature where there was going to be a tiny driver, symbolizing his Spark, but this one has it just as an empty orb.

He’s got a panel hanging down his back for kibble, but other than that, he’s got a remarkably clean, tidy sculpt, compared to the pile of parts that was the Kingdom version. I’d almost call him too clean, in fact. See, like I mentioned when I reviewed my old Beast Wars Prowl, the point of Transmetal II figures was they were mutated, asymmetrical cyborg beasts, with different sculpting on each side of the figure. And there’s a little bit of that on this guy (outside of the obvious dragon-head-arm). Specifically, each lower leg has different detailing on it, but that’s really the only thing. It’s show-accurate, but I would have liked to see a bit more obvious mismatching.

So, a big point of contention on this guy is his headsculpt. As per the show, it’s supposed to literally be the same Megatron head under a helmet, complete with the same face. And most of the details from the show design are there. But for whatever reason, his face is way different from the smug schemer we know and love, and instead, he’s got a shark-toothed snarl over a face with ridges under his eyes.

There’s an explanation for this from the designers somewhere, but my google-fu has failed me, something about painted teeth being misinterpreted as sculpted teeth? Either way, it’s not a bad headsculpt on its own merits, it’s just a bit odd to see after Kingdom Megatron (and Kingdom in general) really nailed the show’s facial features. This design makes me think more of, like, Deathsaurus. Or better yet, Cryotek, the blue repaint of the original Transmetal II Megatron that I’m sure is in the pipeline for this guy.

That’s another reason why I’m not too fussed here: The sculpt really suits the vibe of the body it’s on. Oh, and he’s got a dragon tail hanging down from the back of his head, with a claw on the end, like some kind of demonic ponytail.

Megatron’s colors are deceptively simple, looking almost entirely bright red at first glance. But many parts of him have a purple gradient on them, adding some good-looking color depth. Beyond that, he’s got some painted gold bits, some clear orange (mostly for the wings, which also have a gradient going into purple), and a tiny bit of black and silver on the face. It’s a really effective mix of stuff, and there’s just enough going on to make him feel complete when he easily could have looked too plain.

The build quality on this guy is astounding, you’d think he’d be hollow, or rickety, for how large he is. But he’s got a ton of weight and density to him, he feels almost G1 Solid in your hands. The fact that his joints are really tight, with a lot of them being on clicky ratchets (his hips, waist, and shoulders) really helps. He’s mostly made out of rigid plastic, but the orange parts of his wings are a bit softer (since they’re fairly thin, it avoids breakage), and both the neck of his dragon-arm, and the ponytail behind his head are rubbery plastic, for flexibility’s sake.

The big stability issue on him is the assembly that makes up his back and neck, a long series of panels that needs to fold up. See, the one hanging off his back looks and feels like it should be able to tab into his back (you can see the connection!) but something’s a little bit out of alignment.

it kind of hangs down a bit diagonally, and if you try to push it in, it makes his neck come undone, and raise up.

It feels like everything’s a little bit mis-sized. Still, if you’re content with letting it hang there, he otherwise holds together really solidly, and again, I need to emphasize the chunk and heft he’s got.

They also didn’t skip on that poseability! Megatron comes with all the standard joints (and I already talked about all the ratcheted ones he’s got). His one humanoid wrist doesn’t swivel, but his huge clawed feet still have ankle tilts. Up top, his neck articulation is a little bit limited by his big ponytail bumping his wings, but it’s about as articulated as it physically can be.

On his back, his wings are on swivels that let them rotate backwards a bit, but more importantly, the wings each have five segments of feathers (scales?) that flare outwards on separate pieces tied to the wing’s main joint, letting you billow them outwards for an impressive wingspan. Apparently the talons at the top of each wing (which can also swivel) were installed backwards on him, but they look good enough for me to not bother trying to fix it.

The dragon-head-arm is where the articulation is the most nuts, though. Outside of a full rotating and swiveling shoulder, the dragon’s neck has four whole balljoints on it, plus an extra swivel at the dragon head, and they’re tight enough to bend and flex the arm in all sorts of ways. He can even talk to himself.

And while it doesn’t see much use in this form, his ponytail’s got three ball joints of its own, and is similarly mad flexible.

For features, Megs comes with one lone accessory, an effect part in the form of a big jet of clear orange flame. Now, at some point, HasTak started phasing out the gummy, rubbery effect parts that started in Siege, probably because leaving them on too long could strip paint off figures, so this one’s made of rigid plastic. But that means, while it’s 5 millimeter compatible and can fit in most War for Cybertron weapons ports, the little hole in the middle of its peg that’s clearly meant to mount it on the smaller blast effect pegs on some figures just doesn’t work, because it’s a little too small, and the old, soft parts assumed a bit of flexibility would be present. Still, it’s usable by plenty of figures.

For Megs’s part, there’s a port in the dragon’s mouth for him to belch flames. I do wish it pointed a bit more straight, it seems to curve inwards a bit.

Bizarrely, the instructions also mention that he can hold it in his hand like a big club, even though it’s meant to be a non-solid jet of flame.

I suppose it’s another thing that would make more sense when they inevitably repaint this guy into Cryotek, and it’s a solid club of ice. Outside of the dragon’s mouth, he’s got ports beneath his feet, and that’s it. Impressively, for one last feature, he’s got a window up top for functional lightpiping, a throwback feature I appreciate on a guy like this. Granted, his eyes are painted over, but it still sort of works, and it also illuminates where the missile launcher on his head was on the original figure.

Transformation

This is surprisingly easy to pull off, while not being overly simple, since you’re basically just squatting him down, rotating the torso, head, and tail, and adjusting some other stuff. It’s certainly much more straightforward than the Kingdom T-Rex edition. The biggest revelation on my end was specifically that those claws on his chest aren’t a sculpted detail, they’re his actual dragon claws. The instructions get a bit weird with them, though, and spend a whole bunch of steps telling you specific ways to adjust them, when it’s fairly obvious where they go, and something like one step would have covered it. What isn’t obvious is figuring out the specific set of steps to arrange his robot head/dragon tail/dragon chest, on that whole assembly that wouldn’t cooperate in robot mode. But unlike that mode, you know when it’s in place, because everything tabs in.

Dragon Mode

This form’s a little more squat than the robot mode, due to the compressed, chicken-like legs, but is no less impressive, because he’s a big freaking dragon, and that’s just cool.

Aside from the chicken legs, he’s got tiny little arms with vicious-looking claws, a different chest with a smaller clear orange orb (where the purple “spark crystal” was on the original, and the rest of him is basically re-arranged robot bits, not that that’s a bad thing. I like the claw at the end of the tail, it looks like he could capture hapless small victims with it.

The sculpting on him’s vague enough, too, that he can pass for a stylized “real” dragon, instead of a robotic one, if you need something to menace a castle, or a DnD table, and again, he only has a tiny amount of that Transmetal 2 asymmetry, but there’s a little more of it now, due to his chest being given an asymmetrical sculpt.

That chest, by the way, adds a bit more gold, and a gold gradient in the same style as the purple ones to his color scheme.

I didn’t talk about it in robot mode, but the dragon head is really great, and looks really close to the original design, as I remember it. It’s a vaguely chinese dragon, with horns, and a mean expression behind its pupil-less eyes.

Funny enough, while he’s still the same brick of solidity as his robot mode, and the whole assembly that gave me problems then is now locked down, this form has its own little construction issue: The base of the dragon’s neck is kind of threadbare, consisting of a front panel that doesn’t really want to stay in place, and a robot fist that’s blatantly visible from the sides.

It’s better than the original’s extremely visible robot head at the back, at least, even if this new one’s tail is a bit awkwardly low on his backside.

He’s got the same good articulation in this mode, including the head and tail, which really get to show off their bendiness in the form of expressiveness. His stubby dragon arms, in particular, have a ton of joints, way more than they really need, including wrists that both swivel and droop, elbows, and shoulder articulation, putting Rex Megatron’s stubby forearms to shame.

Oh, and uptop, he’s got a moving lower jaw, which makes me think of the one action feature from the original I miss: As part of a missile-launching gimmick, the upper and lower jaws were on the same spring, and pushing his horns would make his mouth open and shut in a really muppet-y way, letting him lip-sync dialogue (or lyrics) really well. A shame to see that go.

At least he can still barf out flames via the effect port in his mouth.

Overall

First of all, let me just say that I feel spoiled to live in a time when a late-series body of a Beast Wars character is getting a huge, lovingly-crafted, newly-tooled update. I can’t forget that.

Secondly, this is a good one, for real. Even if it wasn’t specifically laser-guidedly aimed at me, it’d still be a good one. I liked Kingdom Megatron, he’s one of my favorites, but I think this guy edges him out quality-wise. He’s got some jank with his head and neck in both modes in terms of assembly and sculpt, but that doesn’t cancel out the stuff on him that REALLY works. He’s a big, solid-feeling, good-looking, highly poseable Dragon Man, plain and simple.

More importantly, in this time period where Leader-class figures are expensive, this is a time where it feels worth it, between the size and complexity. So, yeah, this is a standout one, and if you can afford Leader prices, I highly recommend him.

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