General Information: Images:
Tech Specs: Rank: 10 Courage: 9 Firepower: 10 Skill: 9 Fast Action Battlers are the successors to the 1-2-3 Transformers and Playskool Transformers, they are larger figures developed for younger kids to play with. The Fast Action Battlers generally feature simplified transformations and action features are combined with sculpting similar to mainline figures. The first wave of Fast Action Battlers had Optimus Prime in it, so it's only fitting that eventually a Megatron Fast Action Battler would be made as his arch nemesis. What kid shouldn't have a Megatron to battle their Prime?
Robot Mode: The overall body structure is definitely Megatron, with his sharp, angled head design, his clawed looking feet and the wings mounted on his back. The only oddity in his body design are his arms, which start normally at the shoulder but then angle inwards fairly sharply. It looks like the designers were trying to represent the moment where Megatron puts his arms together to form his fusion cannon (and the name of the figure hints at that as well). However since the arms don't combine it winds up looking like he had his arms permanently damaged at the elbow. There is a reason for the design, and that would be the missiles embedded into his arm. Using a pressure based missile launching system you push the back of the missile until it pops out. You need to rotate the arms a bit outward or up to be able to do this, and by angling the arms it helps with that functionality. Detail-wise this Megatron is on par with larger figures representing the character. His head sculpt looks fantastic, with layers of detail on his helmet and all the proper angled bits sweeping back. His face has its evil eyes and if you look carefully enough - the gruesome teeth in the mouth as well. Among my favorite details on the rest of the body are the layers of armor over the inner workins of his shoulders, some thin line details on his forearms that resemble muscle fibers and finally his legs, which have a ton of angled, sharp looking details. Where this figure disappoints is the color scheme. His base plastic colors are grey and orange. Paint decos are done with black, gold, silver and metallic blue. The metallic blue looks nice since it is applied with spray ops on the arms and legs. The silver, black and gold are used for more solid detail work such as the inner parts of his shoulders and the claws on his legs. The color distribution works well, but it does not capture how he looked in the movie (the Leader class figure suffers from a similar problem). Adding to the disappointment is that the photo of the figure on the back of the packaging shows a color scheme that is much more faithful to the movie with a mostly silver body. It would seem however that the intent with Megatron figures was to create a slightly "less accurate" version at first and later follow it up with a redeco that matches the movie more closely. This has already been done with the Premium version of the Voyager Class Megatron and soon the Leader Class in 2008. I wouldn't be surprised if a future redeco of this figure showed up in a dark silver color overall like the prototype shown on the packaging. Megatron has ten points of articulation. This includes his hands, which can move to the sides and three points of articulation on each leg. His waist can turn but it is more of an action feature where you push it to the right and it swings back to the center, swiping at the enemy. Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
Vehicle Mode: The wing pieces are made up of two shades of grey, one light and the other ametallic blue-grey color. Those ar really the only new color additions in this form. You cannot use the missile launching feature here unless you detach the arms from the central nosecone.
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