Toy Review - Masterpiece Megatron (BW)

[GoktimusPrime]

MEGATRON
Series – Masterpiece
Sub-Line - Beast Wars
Size/class - N/A
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - N/A
Released here – No (March 2019 in Japan)
Approximate Retail Price - 35000JPY (approx. $450)
Approximate Size - 26cm
Allegiance - Predacon
Alt-modes – Tyrannosaurus Rex
Main Features/Gimmicks – Light and sounds, hardpoint for mouth blast
Main Colours – purples
Main Accessories – hunting rifle, beam effect, toothbrush, swappable faces, adapters for MP Dinobot's stand

























MP toy courtesy of Tha_Phantom

[Tha_Phantom]

Thanks for posting these pics and starting the thread Gok!

So I messed with this figure a bit last night and my first impressions are as follows:
First of all, yes he is a pricey MP but he is also massive, and I mean really massive! The deco and sculpt (especially in dino mode) is just absolutely gorgeous and dripping in detail, they really went to town with the aesthetic and I love it.
Before I got home to work out how to transform it, Gok and I had a lot of fun just messing with the dino mode at a cafe (as a NSW resident, this is the first Masterpiece Megatron I have legally been able to take out in public ). The dino mode has a pretty decent range of articulation, they even worked some movement into the tail and the mouth opens wider than you'd probably expect. Speaking of the dino mode, the only robot parts that are visible are the robot knees, otherwise everything else is very well hidden, and the robot knees are only noticeable if you really look for them. Overall they've done very well here!
The robot mode is very well articulated and represents the CGI cartoon faithfully, it looks great and balances quite well in various poses. Otherwise, there isn't much to say, it is great though.

Now for the bad. Please note I am only speaking for my own experience, so if you have had a better experience then I am happy for you.
The robot mode transformation was quite scary due to all the panels and tabs. I was so scared I would break it extending the waist hinge for the first time. Transforming the back kibble was also scary just due to the thinness of the plastic and how complicated it is to all fold away. Going back to dino mode I had some trouble getting everything to fit together, but overall it works. I don't want to scare anyone into not buying it, as nothing actually broke on mine, but just be careful is all. Now I understand this complicated transformation is necessary to make it as CGI faithful as possible, but the end result is a very delicate feeling Transformer, so just be mindful of it.

Overall I'd give him 8/10. He loses points for a scary transformation, but once he's in either mode he looks absolutely exquisite.

[DaptoDog]

Thanks for posting these pics and starting the thread Gok!

So I messed with this figure a bit last night and my first impressions are as follows:
First of all, yes he is a pricey MP but he is also massive, and I mean really massive! The deco and sculpt (especially in dino mode) is just absolutely gorgeous and dripping in detail, they really went to town with the aesthetic and I love it.
Before I got home to work out how to transform it, Gok and I had a lot of fun just messing with the dino mode at a cafe (as a NSW resident, this is the first Masterpiece Megatron I have legally been able to take out in public ). The dino mode has a pretty decent range of articulation, they even worked some movement into the tail and the mouth opens wider than you'd probably expect. Speaking of the dino mode, the only robot parts that are visible are the robot knees, otherwise everything else is very well hidden, and the robot knees are only noticeable if you really look for them. Overall they've done very well here!
The robot mode is very well articulated and represents the CGI cartoon faithfully, it looks great and balances quite well in various poses. Otherwise, there isn't much to say, it is great though.

Now for the bad. Please note I am only speaking for my own experience, so if you have had a better experience then I am happy for you.
The robot mode transformation was quite scary due to all the panels and tabs. I was so scared I would break it extending the waist hinge for the first time. Transforming the back kibble was also scary just due to the thinness of the plastic and how complicated it is to all fold away. Going back to dino mode I had some trouble getting everything to fit together, but overall it works. I don't want to scare anyone into not buying it, as nothing actually broke on mine, but just be careful is all. Now I understand this complicated transformation is necessary to make it as CGI faithful as possible, but the end result is a very delicate feeling Transformer, so just be mindful of it.

Overall I'd give him 8/10. He loses points for a scary transformation, but once he's in either mode he looks absolutely exquisite.

Great write up. But what we really wanna know is, ah, how's the crotch?

[Tha_Phantom]

Great write up. But what we really wanna know is, ah, how's the crotch?

Baha, the question on everyone's mind! Well the one on my Megs seems fine, if I'm being honest the back kibble worries me more.

[Tha_Phantom]

Okay, just had another mess with it, going from beast to robot for the second time. Yeah I overreacted before about the transformation, it's not so scary once you know what you're doing. I'm upgrading my rating of him to from an 8 to a 9/10.

Overall I am happy with MP-43 and would recommend it!

[Trent]

I rate this guy very highly. A lot of fun and just looks ridiculous. The crotch on mine has a few cracks.

I voted Only If as its a damn expensive figure and if you had no attachment to the line or character then you may be a little underwhelmed.

[1AZRAEL1]

I love BW so this will be a definitive figure to have on my BW shelf. I need Prime's primary antagonist.

[Tha_Phantom]

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Got around to having another play around with mine yesterday and thought I feel I know it enough to put my opinion forward.

He's great!

I got him from Rex to robot mode fairly quickly without instructions (second time) with no damage, just being careful of tabs and panels. If you are paying attention, it is a simple enough transformation and a lot simpler than Sunstreaker and G1 Megs. In a way, the same criticism of Primal can be applied to Megatron. It's not that much of an update from the original toy. Sure the look is much better, sculpting and size etc. However, the toy basically transforms exactly the same way as the original BW toy (with a few minor tweaks here and there i the legs, butt and shoulder panels).

The sculpting is great, I never thought I'd own a T-rex toy that has so much emotion on his face. It manages to convey the condescending look of BW megs perfectly. The details and paint are glorious, it looks like he's right out of the cartoon and the moving eyes make the face so much more dynamic. A small addition, but it adds so much!

Dino Articulation is a bit lacking, I'd like more movement to the hips, has he can'T really run, it looks more like a shuffle. The knees and mid calf joints can make up for it a little, but still... I see why the hips are the way they are, mainly to keep the dino skin attached. His little rexy arms are cute and have enough movement in them to help add to dino personality. I know wiggly claws would be pushing it, so what we have is nice.

Robot mode is fantastic! Looks bang on. Stands as tall as my Chogokin Voltron and has presence! The fact you can take his armour off for Home-Megatron is a cute addition, especially when you see that even his naked shoulder joints look like the ones in the TV show. I like that you can remove the tail arm as well. I never like that, is it supposed to be a claw? It is too unwieldy to be of any practical use. I do wish they had made the opening panels flip around a bit closer to the tail for robot ode, as they really impede arm movement, makng an unwieldy option even more so. I usually take it off.

the faces are great, on the back of each one, he has a stamp on the back.
A, B, D
interesting that we have no C
Each one has Mega-pupils painted on for no light times, but with batteries in his head you can make them light up! Cleverly they've got two little bumps in there splitting the light of the LED, so when you have a face on, his that button and move his head around
His eyes follow you!
Accessories wise he does OK, toothbrush, hunting rifle and laser blast. For some reason, I thought there was an LED in the dino mouth, but no, just an FX box. The accessories are oK.

The FX box is cleverly his in the dino mouth. You have to perform a bit of dentistry on him to get it open which is funny. I like that. There's an on off switch hidden in a flip panel in between the crests of his eyes and the switch for activating the sounds is just in front of that.

He has three modes for sounds, one for Robot speech, one for dino speech and one for pew pew. A long press on the activate button will make it do a transformation sound and you've changed modes. I leave mine in pew pew mode as it has Japanese beast Megatron in there instead of David Kaye Megatron. While JP Megs sound creepy and evil, he doesn't sound as cultured, creepy and evil as Kaye's Megatron

So overall, was this guy worth it? Sure he was pricey. I think I got a good deal, he is as tall as my Lion Voltron (who was very expensive), looks like a cartoon figure, has presence and is fun to play with his faces and little terminator esque robot hand. I've been careful with mine and he isn't broken, so yes. While I was fine skipping Dinobot and Cheetor, I am totally glad I got Megatron.

If you like Beast Wars and good toys, I suggest getting this one. This is from a guy who prefers the Transmetal BW figures in design to normal BW.

P.S He also has a really good neck joint. Discovered by Kurdt. Have a look at the back and you can elevate a panel that raises out from the shoulder area raising his head out of the crevice bit. It's easiest to see before you plug his back in. Don't just pull the head as the ball joint will pop out.

[doublespy]

Here's my review:

My first impressions with this weren't so great. Mine has quite a loose waist, and a bunch of stress marks like others' right out of the box. And the T-Rex mode articulation is a bit of a let down. The waist is only a mushroom peg pinned through; I can kinda understand why the designer chose this type of joint construction - to save space for transformation, but it's certainly not ideal for such a heavy figure. After a close look I think the stress marks on the main double hinge of the backpack wings seem really unavoidable and I will talk more about it later. To add to all this, how the panels fold/unfold felt kind of counter-intuitive the first time around due to the nature of curve organic surfaces.

However I know better to jump to conclusions on a Masterpiece figure. After having him for about a week now and a couple more transformations, he's grown on me very quickly. Once I got to know more about how the panels/joints work, it's so much more fun to mess with it and I got to start appreciating the end results of this transformation more.

T-REX MODE:




Although at this point it should be considered normal for a BW MP figure to achieve this kind of accuracy, it still amazes me when I have it in hand. The skin texture is fantastic; so are the "printed on" light purple stripes, and they match perfectly across different parts. TT absolutely nailed that T-Rex head and even the contour around the neck area defining the bone structure; brilliant. The rolling eye gimmick is extremely important for Megatron imho, but it seems it's common the eye balls are on the loose side, so they don't like to stay in one position.





After I'd familiarized myself with how every part moves, I do think the articulation in this mode is decent. My main gripe is that the thighs are fixed in place with no articulation whatsoever just like Dinobot. With the robot thigh joints being right there (unlike Dinobot which I can totally forgive given the engineering difficulty) I thought TT could've figured out a way to integrate those in T-Rex mode to give it some degree of thigh movement. Fortunately the knee and the excellent ankle and tole articulation are the same as in bot mode, so you can get him in some great walking poses. The tail has only a single swivel joint near the tip, which is necessitated by 'bot mode but unfortunate at the same time, considering Dinobot's amazing tail articulation AND it having to split in half. imho tail articulation helps add a ton of personality for these BW characters. As someone mentioned before, the little forearms can't touch which again a missed opportunity.





The four BW MPs look amazing together in beast mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

The engineering is underwhelming, and that's kind of expected tbh. I do like how the hip missile assemblies come together. The multiple hinges and interlocking tabs on the backpack wings definitely take some time to get used to. The main double hinge that folds the dino skin panel in half is designed with an extremely tight pin fit. I believe this is to help guide the angled locking tab in without relying solely on the friction from the tab connection to hold the folded panels in place. This tight fit results in stressing the hinge very easily so stress marks are kinda unavoidable. I can see why they designed it this way though. The panels cover almost all of the T-Rex torso, and there are a lot of contoured lines, resulting in lots of angled hinge and tab connections; and they are harder to manufacture to a perfect fit, especially with this large number of joints. I just wish maybe TT could've gone with a thicker plastic, but then that may result in a thicker backpack... I don't see any of the stress marks would worsen though if you be careful and apply pressure right at the hinge when moving it.

The backpack cleans up real nicely and looks great though after all that folding. This is the kind of modern design that couldn't be done without 3D CAD.

By the way, the instructions are some of the worst I've seen out of Takara imo. I had to watch Wotafa's video review to make sure I wasn't gonna break it trying to pull the body up.

'BOT MODE:





As all previous BW MP figures this mode is clearly the emphasis of the design and it's absolutely gorgeous. As mentioned before the backpack cleans up nicely and fits together solidly. Even the inside of the "wings" have the light purple stripes just like the CGI in the show. I can't think of anything to criticize here. Just perfect.





All the head sculpts are beautifully done as you'd expect from TT's modern Masterpiece figures now. I especially love the smiling face; it just captures the character so perfectly. The laser effect part is nice, but I'd suggest being very careful with the peg when attaching it.





Articulation is outstanding. The loose waist is a bit of a pain but I haven't found it to be troublesome for the poses I got Megs in. The neck joint is on a raised panel which you do need to pop up before snapping the body halves together, and it has a great range. He also can assume very natural kneeling poses.



I think it's funny the instructions gave actual names to the four armor configurations we see on the show: "full armor mode", "pondering mode" (sans the T-rex tail), "bathing mode" (with shoulder armor on only), and "rest mode".





He scales perfectly in 'bot mode with the others and I had so much fun setting up fight poses. Can't wait for more Predacons!

OVERALL:

Megatron's list price is about 7000 yen more than Dinobot. Even with pre-order discount he's a very expensive figure. Objectively I don't think he's worth that price, especially considering his engineering is not nearly as complicated as Dinobot, and his small design issues most of which like I mentioned earlier, are quite understandable but nonetheless could've been executed better for his price. Subjectively though, Megatron is another amazing entry into the BW MP line and is easily worth the money for such a definitively cartoon accurate figure. I'm at a point where I don't really care too much about the price for these BW MPs anymore (it's not like TT put one these out every second month). All the output so far suggests guaranteed satisfaction and they'll be as definitive and perfect as top modern toy engineering allows them to be. I'll keep supporting the line and hopefully we'll see it continue as far it could go.