General Information:
Price Point/Size: Gigacon
Retailers: General (K-Mart, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Kay Bee)
Release Date: January 2003
Transformation Difficulty Level: 4 (Expert)
Accessories: Clench Mini-Con figure, Missiles x 3

Images:

• In Package
• Vehicle Mode
• Vehicle Mode (left side with Mini-Cons attached)
• Vehicle Mode (right side with Mini-Cons attached)
• Container on left side of vehicle
• Ramp in vehicle mode (with Mini-Con)
• Ramp in vehicle mode (no Mini-Con)
• Launcher in vehicle mode
• Clench power linked on turret
• Clench power linked to activate missiles
• With Megatron in vehicle mode
• Robot Mode
• Robot Mode (with Mini-Cons & Dark Saber)
• Face close up
• Face with blast shield up
• Blade extended in left hand
• With Megatron in robot mode
• Leader-1 and Clench in vehicle mode
• Leader-1 and Clench in robot mode
• Clench in gun mode

Sounds in mp3 format:

• Cannon firing
• Machine gun
• Missile launch
• "The power is mine!"

When the writers of Transformers The Movie decided to take Megatron and reform him into Galvatron, they probably did not realize they would set a trend over ten years later where Megatrons of the future would upgrade and change their names to Galvatron. It happened in Robots in Disguise, and now it has happened again with Armada. The Armada Megatron toy has been given a new deco and renamed as Galvatron. For more detailed coverage of the toy itself, please read Megatron's review. This review will cover the changes made to the toy for this release.

Clench is a redeco of Megatron's Mini-Con Leader-1. He is now mostly a dark blue gray color. His arms and upper legs are a dark red/purple color. His eyes are painted yellow and a portion of his chest is painted light gray (presumably to match the same color on Galvatron). His windows are silver while his laser turrets are gold. Most likely due to his darker colors, this deco makes the toy look much more menacing than his lightly colored predecessor. Also, not having neon orange on his laser turrets helps make the toy look more like a machine of destruction and not a spokesperson for laser turret safety. As a side note, Clench is not a new name in the Transformers universe. The name was previously used for a Transformer during both Generation One and Two where Clench was a larger Transformer truck (yes, I do plan to review him eventually).

Colors:
The biggest change to Megatron to become Galvatron (visually) is his color scheme. His cannon barrel, sides of his tank treads and his robot head helmet and horns are now dark red/purple. His treads, upper body, waist and lower arms are alldark blue gray. The tank treads have green "staining" on the underside to give them a slightly worn look, a very nice touch. His robot face is dark blue with red eyes. His robot legs and turret section are light gray. By itself the light gray is rather dull looking, but contrasted against the other colors along with battle scorch marks, it looks very nice. The shoulders, upper legs, hands and mid section are light lavender. The Decepticon symbols are a very bright purple (even the tiny one on his chest). Accents are filled in with gold rather than neon orange. Overall this is a great color scheme. Hearing colors like "light gray" and "lavender" may not sound good, but in this case, this is a toy that looks better than it sounds. He looks much more menacing and "Decepticon-like" in these colors.

Retooling:
Galvatron only has one significant retool, on the battery cover there is a slot where a plastic tab is inserted to keep the sounds from activating until you want them to. I am saving the tab in case I ever need to turn him off again.

Although this is more likely due to the rigors of reusing a mold, some parts of Galvatron move a little more smoothly than on Megatron. A prime example are the ratchet joints on the upper legs, which now move much more smoothly than on Megatron.

Sounds:
Galvatron uses the same sound effects as Megatron except for one. Megatron's scratchy voiced "Decepticons attack!" voice has been changed to a smoother one (but still rather chipmunk-like) saying "The power is mine!".

Galvatron is a fantastic redeco. What's impressive is that in theory, the colors that Hasbro used don't seem like they would go well with each other, but in the end they do. He looks much more "Decepticon-like" than the previous deco. Highly recommended!