Megatron was, of course, the natural choice for the villain in the first Transformers movie. In order that the Decepticon leader had some sort of threat level, his G1 character was ignored in favour of making him actually quite good at his job, and thus he got to kill Jazz and pretty much take his Autobot counterpart in a straight fight - only losing when the plot device was jammed into his chest. Coming back to life was less beneficial in the second film, however, where despite killing Optimus Prime he generally came off second best.

As with Prime, there were three proper action figures made for the first film - a Legends toy that barely qualifies as a Transformer; a Voyager that is basically ruined by the permanent ice that covers it and a Leader class figure. A new set of moulds were used for the second film to reflect Megatron's new alternate mode - resulting in a Legends figure that seems halfway passable, a predominantly green Voyager that made no sense, and another Leader figure. What I have here is the Premium Series version of the first film Leader class toy, which I'm informed is better than the Revenge of the Fallen counterpart. I was told this by the man was selling me the toy, though... ;)

In the first film, Megatron is the only character not to take on an Earth mode, and thus his alternate mode is what can charitably be called a Cybertronian jet. However, it's more just a way for Megatron to swiftly get from point A to point B, and is thus more of a folded up robot. To be fair, the toy does manage to come fairly close to what we see on screen - it's a little bulkier, especially on the underside. Indeed, the whole thing is a bit of a mess...

The wings are impressive enough, and the three prongs at the front look pretty dangerous. The back end is a real muddle, though, starting with the legs splayed under the wings and a barely-hidden robot crotch on the tail. The mode also doesn't hold together too well, with the arms having a habit of dropping out of place. Oh, and whoever thought that little panel hides the obvious nature of Megatron's head deserves to be the subject of some sort of restraining order preventing them from working in toy design, because it barely covers his face, let along disguises the presence of the head itself...

The transformation is quite good - a little obvious due to the alternate mode's folded-up robot status, but with a couple of nice moves - I do like the Automorph for the wings, and the charming pop-up red spikes. The robot mode is a decent representation of Megatron, all things considered - it's bulkier than the CGI model, notably the big backpack. However, this rather works, giving him a real presence. Megatron really is a nasty piece of work, all plates and panels, notches and spikes - the legs are especially well done, really getting across the complexity The grey and black goes well together too, with flecks of red and gold. One drawback to the look is the big pods on the outside of the wrists - which aren't helped by their habit of flopping forward.

Megatron's articulation is less impressive, however - the arms move well enough at the shoulder, but the elbows are rather restricted, especially with the weight of those pods restricting them. The legs are sadly shackled by the needless second Automorph mechanism in them, which means their range is dictated by their movement during the transformation. Damningly, the head can't move properly at all - though in practice you can detach it and move it a little on the joint behind it, but this has a very limited repertoire before it starts looking weird. The pods I've been berating hold two different gimmicks - the (robot's) right one conceals a mechanism for firing Megatron's clawed hand weakly across a short distance. It's as dramatic as it sounds. The other folds out (through another Automorph gimmick) into a big gun - pleasingly, the arm design means Megatron can do a fair impression of his two-handed firing thing he does in Mission City. It's a nice feature.

Megatron does have a suitably impressive-looking robot mode, the sheer size helping him work well with other figures. I mainly got him to be beaten up by Optimus Prime, something he's more than up to. There are some nice features, like the gun and the actual mechanics of the transformation, but the alt mode is a flop and the lack of articulation is almost insulting in a figure of this size. I'm hugely grateful to Clay of The Transformers Archive for selling me this chap at a cut price, thus meaning I'm rather pleased with him. Anyone paying anywhere near the RRP might be a bit more frustrated at Megatron just being an imposing statue...

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