Bot Reviews: Transformers: Prime 10th Anniversary Hades Megatron

If there’s one thing that’s consistent across all Transformers media, it’s that every show or movie has its lovers and its haters. Case and point: Transformers: Prime, the 2010-2013 CGI-animated TV show.

This lavish, high-budget production has its critics, but personally, it’s one of my favorite parts of the franchise. It has gorgeous animation (which still holds up today), gorgeously-staged action scenes, excellent voice-acting and dialogue, genuinely great stories, and what I consider to be the definitive TV versions of characters like Ratchet, Starscream, and Megatron. Megs in particular was voiced by Frank Welker, in his (thusfar) final turn on TV as the character, and portrayed him with a sort of cold, resigned sarcasm, mixed with menace, that could be really fun to watch.

It makes me feel old that it’s been ten years since Transformers: Prime premiered, but that’s the facts. Surprising absolutely everyone, Hasbro decided to commemorate it by releasing a pair of 10th anniversary sets, in a pair of elegant Selects-esque boxes.

First up, we have Hades Megatron, but before we begin, let me explain what this guy is, exactly, since he’s actually a re-release of the Takara version of the figure.

Transformers: Prime had a fairly standard Deluxe/Voyager/Other Sizes toyline in North America, but over in Japan, Takara decided to try and cash in on the hobbyist model-making market. Their toyline, Transformers Prime: Arms Micron, involved repaints and retoolings of the Hasbro figures, who now, instead of their standard weapons and accessories, came with small Arms Micron robots that you had to build, and who changed into each character’s weapons, like today’s Battle Masters. These Arms Microns weren’t on the TV show, but were an invention of the Takara toyline (though the Japanese release of the Prime show added in a post-episode “Arms Micron Theatre” sketch, where the Microns themselves would get into antics).

In addition to the small robots, the main figure in each box was deliberately missing paint apps, and you’d have to sticker on most of the details. Hades Megatron is a re-release of a figure from this line, a repaint and retool of the Hasbro Voyager, and is kind of an odd choice of Hasbro to make for a re-release. But Arms Micron is a toyline I never really touched before, outside of their version of Unicron, I have some heavy nostalgia for the show, and this version of Megatron looked to improve on the Hasbro Voyager I already had, so I decided to dive in.

Building the Figure

Megatron comes with several sheets of plastic sprues, to assemble his two transforming weapons, and a sheet of foil stickers to apply both to him and his little buddies. Building the Microns and stickering everything proved to be more involved than I expected. Actually building the weapons was pretty straightforward for someone like me, who only has a little bit of experience, using only a pair of Gundam clippers.

The stickers were tough, though, and involved liberal use of tweezers and toothpicks to get them out, applied, and lined up as best as I could. Luckily, they were durable enough that I could peel off and reapply them a few times in a row. Still, some of the shapes and cuts of the stickers feel a little bit off, and I definitely wrapped a few stickers around corners and edges they weren’t designed to cover, in order to make them fit. You’ll definitely want to set aside a couple hours for this project, mostly on the stickering, particularly if you’re determined to get them as even as possible, like I am. These stickers aren’t the greatest, honestly, and I feel like I’m going to use trimming scissors and glue on them to make them fit better and stick more.

On the positive side, the two smaller robots you build hold together really well at the end, without that feeling of fragility that sometimes comes with model kits. They’re less Flame Toys, and more Trumpeter. Let’s have a look at what you build.

Gora II

Gora II (so named due to the first Gora coming with a smaller, deluxe Megatron), is a small purple robot gorilla. Well, I say small, but he’s a bit larger than I expected, dwarfing Siege’s Battlemasters by quite a lot.

He’s got a sort of lifeless drone look to him, what with his face being a blank slate with a single, Lugnut-esque red eye. The rest of the sculpt is kind of a weird-exaggerated impression of a gorilla, though, with a pair of giant forearms made out of cannon bits, no hands, and a pair of barely-there prehensile back legs. Still, he’s supposed to be simple, and has to transform into a weapon with a set design, thanks to it being on the show, so some weirdness in this mode is forgivable.

For colors, he’s solid dark purple, with all other details being supplied by silver, purple and red metallic stickers. The stickers on him, like the rest of the set, are a bit iffy, full of wrinkles and corners that seem like they’ll flake, despite my best efforts, but it’s not as bad as some of the other figures in the box, and the metallic silver and red they give him do contrast the purple pretty nicely.

He’s also got an odd purple transparent gem you slot into his left arm, called an Energon Crystal in the lore. I’m not sure what the deal is with it, but it’s another neat detail.

For poseability, while Gora II’s got a fair amount, a lot of it is for transformation, but it does a fair bit to help. He can move his arms at the shoulders and elbows, you can ratchet his head up and down, his arms can move inward at the elbows, he’s sort of got an ab crunch, and his stumpy back legs can move in and out. Functionally, though, you can make his arms point, raise and lower his posture, but that’s about it.

Gora II’s got a fairly interesting transformation, where he basically folds and compresses into a cylinder, and changes into a replica of Megatron’s arm-mounted fusion cannon from the TV show, a short but thick laser-blaster.

The most amusing bit of sticker detail in this form is how the front of the cannon has 2d patterns on it representing the cannon’s interior.

One neat thing about this weapon (and the other Micron is the set) is that they happen to have cross-compatibility with the weapons ports of War for Cybertron Trilogy figures, thanks to a shared peg size, so you can totally give this weapon to those figures.

The cannon’s got pegs on three of his four sides, as well as five different mounting points on the cannon itself, the idea being that you could build giant, crazy multi-weapons. In fact, the instructions (presumably copied from the Takara release) show you how to build a big combination weapon with two other Microns that aren’t even in this set, if for some odd reason, you have some.

Overall, Gora II’s a weirdly neat little critter for his size, with only the stickers bringing him down a little bit.

Hades

Like Gora II, Hades is a creation of the toyline, not the show. However, his transparent purple colorscheme makes him look like he’s composed of Dark Energon, a frequent plot device on the series, so he feels like he fits into that universe.

First things first, this guy’s even more huge for a “Micron,” which took me by surprise. He’s comparable in height to a Cyberverse Commander/Large Legend/Core Class, and his wingspan adds a ton more mass.

In terms of design, he’s definitely the cooler of the pair, as a giant purple bat, who’s not Ratbat. His sculpting is somewhere between a robot and living energy, making him look like a crystal come to life. For colors, Hades is almost entirely clear purple, with three white “energon crystals” on his back. He’s got stickers, again, in the form of a red eye, purple and gold lightning bolts on the top of his wings, and silver bits on the other side, adding enough visual interest without ruining the “animated energon come to life” look.

 

Hades is also surprisingly poseable! His head can move up and down, and his wings have several different swivels on them, letting them roost, spread out, and flap pretty generously. On top of that, his legs can move at the hips. While it’s undocumented in the instructions, all of this poseability means he can do the Traditional Ratbat Pose pretty well, too, on top of the mid-flight pose he’s shown to have.

Hades has a couple different combinations with Megatron, which I’ll note when I get to him, but on his own, you can rotate and flip a few parts to turn him into an absolutely gnarly giant double-bladed scythe. It happens to resemble a Dark Energon weapon Megatron wielded in the TV Movie, Predacons Rising, but that’s definitely a coincidence, since that movie didn’t exist when this guy came out, and never aired in Japan.

This giant purple cleaver is just ludicrously cool, and fun. There’s even a pair of guns on it, as if it wasn’t deadly enough.

It’s a bit heavy for most figures to hold up, but it’s worth it. I appreciate that it’s got a few pegs in various places along its handle to attach to figures that can’t hold it normally.

If I haven’t made it clear, this is a really fun accessory. Anyway, onto the main guy.

Robot Mode

Prime Megatron’s design was always neat. He’s clearly inspired heavily by the Megatron of the 2007 movie, but simplified and stylized. So he’s spiky, but smooth. He’s a bit monstrous, with his snarl, and his three-toed feet, but not to the level of some of the Movieverse designs.

Hades Megatron stands at about the same size as today’s Voyagers, maybe a lick taller, so material-cost shrinkage hasn’t set in since he was released. Sculpt-wise, this is pretty animation-accurate to his show design, though he does have a bit of a kibble backpack. You can try and hide it by folding the sides down, or flare it out like bat wings, if you want him to own it. I particularly like the snarling face and angry eyebrows of his headsculpt, as well as the sculpted gesturing pose of his hands, in a very theatrical way.

Unfortunately, comparing him to my Hasbro original, he does seem to have suffered from a bit of mold decay, in that a number of his joints feel noticeably looser, though not to a figure-killing level. On top of that, his pelvis has problems plugging in, and can come undone when posing his hips, which are, themselves, a bit loose. In terms of how he was engineered from the start, his shoulders are built a bit odd, in that his Big Spikey Pads are on struts that rest on top of his arms, instead of plugging in, meaning they can block articulation a bit.

Speaking of that original Hasbro Voyager, that version’s flat grey and brown colors were always rather dull. Hades Megatron changes them up completely, in a way that’s probably less show-accurate, but more eye-catching. Hades Megs opts for a body that’s dark grey, black, and purple (both opaque and transparent), all to place emphasis on his head, pecs, and shoulders, which are bright, chromed silver. It’s a weird choice, especially considering how gaudy chrome tends to look, but it’s very striking and dynamic to look at. The chrome seems pretty durable, and it being straight silver will hopefully make it less inclined to chip over time. It’s a color choice I dig, and it certainly pops more than the Hasbro release.

Another thing thing I love about his color choices is all the translucent purple on him. On the show, he frequently powered himself up on Dark Energon, so this evoked the times when he’d use it. He even has translucent purple eyes, with a window on the back of his head, and if you hold him up to the light, both his eyes and body will glow with a purple aura, like he did at certain times.

The rest of his detailing is, once again, provided with metallic silver and purple stickers, and this is the one figure in the set they feel the worst on. A lot of his stickers didn’t want to rest flat on him, no matter how I tried, and their very-mildly-peeling edges like to catch on my fingers as I pose and transform him, which doesn’t feel great. Once again, I may take some clippers to trim them, or use tiny drops of glue to hold them down. Honestly, though, he has a fairly simple purple-and-silver deco on the show, so, outside of his faction symbol on his chest (which actually does stick just fine), you can get by without applying any more of them, and it’ll technically look more animation-accurate, and thanks to his already pretty varied deco, won’t look too plain.

For poseability, he predates modern Siege articulation, so he lacks ankle tilts, and doesn’t have a waist joint, but he’s still pretty bend-y. Once again, the loose hips on my copy are a bit of an issue, in that while he poses fine, he barely passes my “can he stand on one leg and kick?” test. Luckily, his big, flared feet make him stable, though, which compensates.

Another issue with his articulation is those oddly-designed shoulders, in that his aforementioned floating shoulderpads block them a bit. You can at least move them aside, though. Meanwhile, his hands can fold inwards, which works with their molded pose really well.

For gimmicks, Goru II’s fusion cannon form is supposed to stay attached to his right arm, as per the TV show.

If you want to switch it up, though, he can hold it in his hand if you’re careful (the tab you use likes to fold away if you don’t angle it just right) and he has two different mounting points on each forearm, for some options (and even some War for Cybertron Trilogy weapons, if you want).

Sadly, Megs can’t extend a sword from the end of his fusion cannon, like on the show, or like the Hasbro version of this figure can, though that version only did it at the expense of the cannon taking up more room.

Of course, he can also hold Hades’s gigantic scythe mode, too. Unfortunately, and this is a big one, between how heavy the scythe is, and his somewhat loose joints, he can’t hold it up without his arms flopping over. However, the instructions instead tell you to apply it to his arm directly as a sort of giant claw, which is….still kind of heavy and unstable, and still can’t hold it up. Considering what a cool weapon it is, the fact that he physically can’t do anything but rest it at his feet is a letdown.

But, luckily, Hades can also combine with his wielder, as a pair of demonic wings for Megatron.

This isn’t based on anything on the show, but looks awesome, and feels like a thing that could have happened amongst the Dark Energon trickery.

It does make him a bit backheavy, but he can still stay standing with him mounted this way, and looks very nice.

Transformation

Wowee, this is more involved than you’d think, considering what he changes into, and I’d forgotten how it went after so many years.

There’s a lot of parts to move around, and a lot of panels that need to be pegged in. Luckily, everything that’s supposed to peg in does so just fine, which is often a problem on these kinds of transformations, and after my first go at it, I was able to do it again using the “look at a photo of the other mode and go from there” method.

Vehicle Mode

Like the 2007 movie design it takes inspiration from, Hades Megatron changes into a Cybertronian Spaceship. That being said, it’s the kind of Cybertronian Spaceship that’s not doing much to convince us it’s not a bunch of jumbled-up robot parts with some spiky wings on it.

That *also* being said, this IS what he looked like in animation, and funky details like his head peeking out to look ahead of him are accurate.

On top of that, the transformation engineering is good enough that he’s stable, with everything pegging in and staying together. In this form, Gora II’s cannon mode is supposed to rest at the back of Megs’s ship mode, otherwise the back section looks incomplete. It’s an obvious thing, but a lot of stock photography and reviews I see don’t properly do that, making this mode look weaker than it actually is.

Outside of that, Hades can again combine with Megs in that same back-mounted spot instead, giving him a second set of wings, with Goria II on top of that, as a really high-up cannon mode.

The big pileup of junk that is his fully combined form is really kinda ludicrous and silly. I admire its audacity, though, honestly.

A shame that one port at the back is the only weapon mounting point you can access in this mode.

Overall

Nostalgia’s a heck of a drug, and this guy doesn’t hold up as well as I remembered, with some of the new parts of him being a clear downgrade. That being said, Megs’s two Arms Microns are pretty fun, and make for great accessories to pass around, particularly Hades the Bat-Scythe

But fun little robot buddies can’t really hide the fact that the core robot’s kind of loose and messy, and his chrome and stickers make him feel kind of flimsy in-hand, plus I worry about the shelf life of both them and the chrome. Like I said, at least you can always leave most of the stickers off.

All of that being said, if you want a Voyager Prime Megatron in 2020, you might be better off tracking down the original Hasbro version….though, a quick check on Ebay says this new release might actually be cheaper. I honestly wish they’d opted to release the all-silver “Final Battle Megatron” with his three-part Dark Star Saber weapon instead, as, based on images, that looks like the better release.

As for Hades Megatron, though, he overall comes out on the side of “not too bad, but with a lot of problems” and while I’m glad I got him, if you don’t get a shot at him, it’s no big loss.