Toy Review - Kingdom MEGATRON (BEAST)

[SharkyMcShark]

I'm going to be hyperbolic. 10 years ago, this would easily have slotted into the Masterpiece line (as it was then).

SUMMARY
- A delicious, fun, characterful figure only slightly let down by its engineering.

PROS
- The most characterful beast mode of any main line retail figure, ever. Part of the reason I'm not big into figures with organic beast modes is because they're usually bricks. Not this one. There's a tremendous amount of gorgeous poses you can get this figure into - everything you'd want from a T Rex, this can do. You can tell this was a goal, given the amount of specific engineering that went into this - the beast mode thigh covers are some of the most innovative engineering on a main line figure in a long time. The amount of poseability rivals much more expensive third party efforts like Planet X's Grimlock.
- Both modes are solid, once you get to them.
- Transformation is pretty good too! First few times feels like a bit of a mess, but once you've got it down pat it's reasonably intuitive.
- Great heft! It's a heavy, solid feeling figure.

CONS
- That soft vinyl plastic isn't great, is it? I'm not sure how that's going to hold up long term, and especially the belly panels on the beast mode are a bit difficult to get to stay together in beast mode.
- A classic shellformer. The only things that don't tuck up into backpack on the robot mode are the dino head/throat, the tail, and the lower legs.
- The knees on mine are a bit weak, which prevents posing to an extent in robot mode as the figure is a bit top heavy.

[doublespy]

You can tell this was a goal, given the amount of specific engineering that went into this - the beast mode thigh covers are some of the most innovative engineering on a main line figure in a long time.

I'd started writing my review couple of days ago and was thinking the exact same thing. This even beats the MP Megatron whose main weakness to me is the lack of leg poseability in T rex mode.

Kingdom Megatron and Primal are really like two action figures rolled into one.

[graza78]

Loving this figure.

Does anyone's elbow on the tail arm not go past 45 degrees? There's alot of resistance going past that point.

[SharkyMcShark]

Loving this figure.

Does anyone's elbow on the tail arm not go past 45 degrees? There's alot of resistance going past that point.

I read on TFW that this is a common issue. It will go further if you push it but it's likely to stress the plastic, and you'll need to re tighten the joint somehow.. Fortunately the copy I have didn't get it (in all the elbow is probably a little bit loose).

[graza78]

I read on TFW that this is a common issue. It will go further if you push it but it's likely to stress the plastic, and you'll need to re tighten the joint somehow.. Fortunately the copy I have didn't get it (in all the elbow is probably a little bit loose).

Cheers. The joint moves fine moving in the other direction so not sure whats causing the issue. Its not a big deal

[doublespy]

Megatron here, along with Blackarachnia, are imo two examples of design synergy between main line and MP designs, where the main line figures actually improve on some aspects of the respective MP figures.

Beast mode:
I don't know for sure if the T rex mode is more anatomically accurate than the cartoon model, but it feels more realistic to me although with a slight stylized touch to it. The soft rubbery plastic skin looks great with all the molded skin texture, and feels right to me for a dinosaur toy. The gaps don't look nearly as egregious in person as some photos make them look.








Articulation in this mode is excellent. The robot mode right arm articulation is pretty much unhindered here, especially the side to side rotation, thanks to the spring-loaded neck panels.
What's most impressive imo is the front to back thigh rotation which the MP figure technically doesn't quite have. It's a clever mechanism that allows the thigh pieces to rotate on a circular track. Megatron to me is just expressive in T rex mode as the MP version.












Transformation:
The flow of transformation is the same as the MP figure. More thigh mass gets distributed to the backpack, and obviously it won't be able to collapse as neatly as the MP. But it doesn't look as bad in person, and if the thighs need to end up on the back to give way for better T rex articulation, I'd take it any day of the week.

'Bot mode:
Just like the MP figure, it has great shelf presence. I could've sworn the head sculpt was just slightly tweaked from the MP head, so it has that incredible likeness to the show model.






Articulation is quite decent in bot mode. Imo not as good as dino mode as he doesn't have regular arms per se so it's limited here and there. The right arm has a slight butterfly hinge built in which is good for both T rex and robot mode. The left fist has a dedicated up and down hinge presumably for better weapon holding. Neither the front to back nor in and out hinge at the hip is ratcheted, which is disappointing. Good thing though is he has front to back ankle joint as well as ankle rocker, so he's quite well balanced in more dynamic poses and so far I haven't had issue with the hip joint being to loose.






He's very substantially sized for a modern leader and scales very well with the other Kingdom BW figures.




Overall:
Just like the rest of the Kingdom BW figures, Megatron sets out to achieve a few different things than the MP counterpart and does it very well. Imho he's not simply a mini Masterpiece as the phrase gets thrown around quite a bit lately, but a great update to the character with a very well executed T rex mode.

[Butcher31]

I just managed to get hold of one of these elusive leader class toys. I'm very impressed. It's one of the few toys where alt-mode is a lot more fun than robot mode. In fact, I'd say that's the case for all of these Kingdom Beast Wars figures. I like how Doublespy put it, that it's two action figures in one.

It's been mentioned in other posts, but we need to appreciate the engineering on those dino thighs and how pieces from very different parts of the figure come together and are able to move together. It's very clever. They've put them on sliders that run through axial guides around the same axis as the hip pivot. It just comes together so smoothly that it actually moves better in T-rex mode than when the parts are separated. Hats off to the designers there.

Also a shout out to the rubbery plastic used. I know some won't like it but it's a bold move that I think works really well. It does mean that they've almost doubled the part count as a result. Each rubbery part also has a hard plastic part as a skeletal frame for it, which I appreciate. I wouldn't want them to do it on every figure, but it's a really nice change that works for a posable dinosaur and sets it apart from other toys.

I do really enjoy the MP version, but it doesn't have to be a competition. They're both great and I have no regrets in owning both.