General Information
Release Date: May 2025
Price Point: 4,950 Yen (MSRP)
Retailer: Japanese Exclusive
Accessories: Arms x 2, Horns, Fusion Cannon
Official images and text in italics are from Takara Tomy Mall
Characters from the web-distributed anime "Transformers Wild King" are now available as toys! The energy master "Megatron" who is active in "Transformers Wild King" is now available! Transform from a robot to a vehicle, from a vehicle to a robot! It can be combined with the separately sold Energy Beast (wild docking)! Enjoy your own wild docking!
*The specifications are the same as the "Megatron" included in the "WKS-02 Megatron & Captain Volka Wild docking Set".
Character Profile from Takara Tomy's Site (translated via Google Translate):
He is the powerful leader of the evil Decepticons. He currently has a peace agreement with Optimus Prime, the leader of the righteous Autobots, and is building up his strength to protect their mutual home planet, Cybertron. One day, he discovers Elementros, a planet said to contain an unknown power, and decides to be the first to board it. By the time Optimus arrives at the planet in pursuit of Megatron, he has already acquired a new power: Wild Docking. With his ferocious dinosaurs at his command, Optimus is closing in on his goal... but what is it?
Packaging:
Megatron is packaged in a rectangular cardboard box with no openings. Instead, the front is covered in product photography showing Megatron in both modes and combined with Energy Beasts. Behind him is a planet (presumably Elementros). The back of the box features the toy in both modes along with his profile (translated above). A small box on the right shows him combined with Energy Beasts. Below that is a ton of (presumably) legal information. Overall this box is nice and really different from what we have in lines like Generations or Cyberworld. To me this makes it a bit more special beyond being a Japanese exclusive.
The figure and accessories are tied to a plain cardboard try with rubber bands. Unlike lines like Legacy, there are no parts wrapped in tissue paper. This packaging is nice as it is reusable, allowing you to store the figure inside when you do not have it on display.
Accessories:
Unlike Optimus Prime, Megatron only comes with a couple of accessories:
Horns
Like Optimus Prime, Megatron has a piece that attaches to his head in his Combiner form as well as the end of his cannon in vehicle mode. This piece has a section with tabs that connect to the back of Megatron's head and horns on the sides. The horns feel like a bit of a callback to Unicron (but I may be reading too much into it). This piece is made of black plastic with red paint applications on the horns.
Fusion Cannon
Megatron also includes his classic weapon: his Fusion Cannon. This weapon features two cylinders with a rectangular section in between. The back has a series of lines wrapping around it while the front is a thicker barrel. This design calls back to the design of the scope that would form the Fusion Cannon on the G1 Megatron toy. This piece features six 5mm pegs, all around the rectangular section of the weapon. On two sides there is only one peg and on the other sides are dual pegs. The cannon is made of black plastic with no paint applications.
Robot Mode:
Megatron is a Voyager Class sized figure, measuring about 7 inches (17.78 cm) tall and almost 5 inches (12.7 cm) across from shoulder to shoulder.
Megatron's design is based on previous versions of the character but he does not use as many G1 design elements as I expected. Instead, he looks like someone took the rather blocky G1 animation model and bulked him up, especially on the upper body and legs. He looks G1-esque on parts like the chest, which remains rectangular in shape and the head, which has his familiar curved "helmet" section with a face featuring thin eyes, a nose and mouth. The rest of the robot mode design gives him a very bulky look including having wide shoulder sections, thick forearms and very thick lower legs and feet. The character looks powerful, like a real bruiser all while having plenty of cool sculpted detail.
Megatron is made of silver and black plastic. Paint colors on the figure include silver, red, black and purple. These are all traditional Megatron colors and they look great. The silver, black and red are used to detail many parts including the arms, chest and legs. A purple Decepticon symbol can be found on his chest and I really like the red and black details on his face.
There are twenty points of articulation on this figure. This includes six on each arm and three on each leg. While this is pretty cool since Wild King is not really known for articulation, be careful with the elbow and knee joints. Both the forearms and lower legs detach for his Combiner form and the joints are all tight, so you can easily wind up popping off one of the limbs as you try to move the joint. They pop right back on, but it can be a bit frustrating. There are twelve 5mm ports in this mode, all focused on the arms. There are two on top of the shoulder, two on the sides of the shoulders and one on each forearm. The ones on the sides of the arms allow you to attach the Fusion Cannon either to his shoulder or forearm. There are of course 5mm ports in the fists as well. The lower legs have two 5mm pegs in front of them but they also have a bar in between as these are meant to attach to limbs formed by Energy Beasts (more on that later).
Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
- Detach the accessories and set them aside for now.
- Straighten out the arms and legs.
- Push the robot head into the chest.
- Rotate the lower body around.
- Rotate the forearms so the pegs on the inside face forward.
- Rotate the wrists so the top of the fists face the same direction a the two pegs.
- Swing the arms back. Each shoulder section has a tab on it that fits into a slot on the black piece connected to the robot head.
- Connect the Fusion Cannon to the inside of each forearm (they will likely pop off as you do this, adjust as needed).
- Swing each leg out to the side, then rotate it at the hip, then swing the legs back.
- Rotate each lower leg around so the treads face out to the sides.
- Attach the horns to the Fusion Cannon.
Vehicle Mode:
Megatron's tank mode is a very blocky one. Usually when you think of a tank you think of a rectangular or H shaped vehicle with a turret on top. This vehicle however is rectangular, but there's basically no front end. Instead it's a rectangle with the long side making up the front and back with a (non-moving) turret sitting on top. This design is weird and I can't help but feel the front is "missing" a piece. That said, the tank does have some cool features including the horns on the front of the Fusion Cannon and some cool, sleek line details along the sides of the tank.
All the same colors seen in the robot mode are visible here. The red and silver details show up on the turret section and the tread section has some black detailing.
Be warned, there are no wheels on the bottom of this figure so don't go "driving" it around any hard surfaces. The top of the tank has eight 5mm ports on the shoulder sections and two pegs on the top of the Fusion Cannon. The back of the vehicle also has two ports next to each other on each foot. How you use these may take some imagination but many of the Energy Beast parts have a "dual peg" connector point so you can make some pretty weird but fun looking combinations.
Transformation to Torso Mode (from Robot Mode):
- Detach the accessories and set them aside for now.
- Detach the forearms and set them aside for now.
- Detach the lower legs and set them aside for now.
- Swing the middle chest panel down.
- Attach the head piece to the back of Megatron's head.
- Take each lower leg and swing open the back panel.
- Attach the forearms in the legs, then swing the panels back to close up the legs.
- Energy Beast limbs can be attached to the elbow and knee joints.
- The lower leg pieces serve as feet for the Combiner. Attach Energy Beasts to them in limb mode and then attach that to the knees.
Torso Mode:
When Megatron forms the core of a Combiner, a splash of color gets added to the mostly silver figure thanks to the bright colors used on the Energy Beasts. That said, folding his chest panel down reveals a bunch of new details inside his chest. Like Optimus, there is a Matrix in his chest but whereas the Autobot Matrix looks like a hopeful gem this Matrix looks like a tool that has been subjugated by Megatron to serve his ambitions. Instead of handles, this Matrix is held in his chest by four chains. The chains and the Matrix "container" are painted purple while the crystal in the center is painted light blue. Some red details appear behind that. This chest design looks fantastic!
This mode has sixteen points of articulation, mostly focused in the arms. The shoulders are where most of the 5mm ports are located. Of course, much of the play value comes in attaching different Energy Beasts to different parts, creating unique combinations and adding additional attachment points for accessories.
Final Thoughts:
Megatron is a fun figure definitely meant for younger fans. This is not comparable at all to say, Earthrise Megatron but given it is mainly meant to be a torso for Energy Beasts it's a fun figure. All that said, this is not the easiest figure to get. Wild King has not been carried by the usual retailers outside of Japan such as Entertainment Earth. Instead, getting these figures generally involves using Amazon Japan or Japanese importers/retailers. Some fans may not feel the extra effort is worth it. Personally I'm glad I snagged this but your mileage may vary.
Pros:
- Cool robot mode sculpt that nods to G1 while not being slavish to it.
- Relatively simple transformation.
- Cool torso mode allowing you to create fun combinations with Energy Beasts.
Cons:
- The limbs popping off easily can be annoying, especially during transformation.
- I do wish Megatron had more accessories like missile pods or something.
