Galvatron DeArcherfied

[kup]

I had to pull him apart to paint the orange bits. there are roughly 13 individual orange pieces!

After pulling him apart I am convinced that this toy was meant to be an Ultra until very late in the design phase. There are several inert gimmicks in it including electronic triggers. I was more surprised however that it appears to have a crippled third mode (possibly a canon mode) and the molded missiles on the sides of the tank mode were meant to pop up! There is also electronics space inside the turret. It seems that originally there was no missile and there was supposed to be an electronics trigger for lights and sounds. Also when his head popped up it was likely meant to trigger a Transformation sound like the other Ultras.

This is most certainly a shrunken down Ultra and the sad thing is that it would have been an Excellent Ultra the likes we have not seen since Beast Wars.

My guess is that the decision to make him a Deluxe came about due to high production costs. Since Ultras are very simple these days, they figured that it wasn't cost effective to produce such a complex Ultra and decided to make him a deluxe instead of canceling it. He was likely meant to be released alongside Onslaught to counterbalance Powerglide and Silverbolt.