Post by Philip Ayres on Oct 20, 2008 20:48:18 GMT
I'm just coming on to the TM2 dlx toys so thought I'd pause of the way to cover Dragon Megatron !
BW TM2 Megatron www.tfu.info/1999/Predacon/Megatron/megatron.htm
Transmetal 2 Megatron is one of the giants of the Beast Wars line. He's an Ultra class toy, he's a cartoon character - the Beast Wars Megatron upgraded using G1 Megatron's spark and he's a dragon. Not a lot to go wrong with there. He was available in the US & the UK - yes he was in the UK, I saw them in Biocombat packaging with my own eyes on several occasions so don't believe those who say he didn't come out here. He was Metals to D-47 opposite Optimal Optimus (C-47) but I can't find any trace of a huge vs pack being issued.
As I said above he's a dragon. There had been very few dragons in Transformers before this - just Doublecross (a two headed dragon) and (presciently) BWII Galvatron spring to mind. This was the first time a more organic Dragon was tried although - being a TM2 toy - there's considerable robotic detailing in Dragon mode. The dominant colour here is red, a bit of a departure for Megatron as a primary colour - lots of silver, purple and green before this, though the original G1 Megatron does have red plastic on the insides of his arms and legs. This dragon bends at the ankles, knees, just bellow the hips as part of the TF, a universal joint at the hip, ball jointed shoulders and bending elbow. The neck turns at the base while the neck itself is of a similar construction to TM2 Dinobot's tail - albeit covered in chromed red scales on the top side, with a pull lever at the base to straighten it. This lever has a catch to lock it in place, but it's strongly suspected the catch is the wrong way round - the direction it's orientated keeps the neck curved rather than straight. The head has it's upper part made of chromed red plastic from nose back to the first set of horns Under this there's a missile launcher inside the mouth - press down on the horns and the mouth opens - the lower jaw opens downward at the same time as the upper jaw raising - and the missile fires. The back pair of horns can be moved up - I think they're meant to do something with locking the missile in place but I can't quite figure out what. There's another pull down lever on the back which causes the wings to open & close which can be locked in place with the wings fully open. The wings can be out to the sides or directly behind the toy. There's space in the wings for storing the missiles but I won't be using that as failing to insert one properly and forgetting it was there led to me damaging a TM2 Megatron ! The legs keep the fold out fans - this time molded ones - and roller skates from the TM version, but this time the wheels on the roller skates turn. The tail is made of the same rubber material - no gimmick this time. The tail ends in a three pronged claw. There's some bending joints further up the tail towards it's base - this is the only point where the toy falls down as it doesn't really seem to connect convincingly well to the rest of the Dragon - just sort of hangs there.
Megatron has a kind of vehicle mode - fold the arms up alongside the head, stretch the tail out behind him. Fold the legs so the top joint is compacted and the legs runs alongside the body. Fold out the fans to reveal a large set of wheels, and fold up the feet revealing the roller skates. Now at this point you should wedge the neck straight using the catch. But you can't as outlined above, which ultimately wrecks the vehicle mode which is meant to be a dragster or jet I think. What it does show more clearly is the cockpit - there's a little cockpit mounted in a ball on the back of the toy. The cockpit can be turned round in it's housing but also moves up & down inside and is gravity weighted. Nice touch - Tigerhawk has one too, but one both toys they are empty.
TF (from Dragon to Beast) Open up the chest panel with the spark embedded into it. Fold the wings back and pull the arms & the panels they're attached to out to the sides. Fold the lower body panel up through the gap in the chest. Fold the wings & the arms back a bit, then fold the neck to one side of the body and the lower body panel to the other. Pull the tail back and lock the waist together. Swing the legs and waist up a bit, bring the tail base into the place vacated by them and then lock the beast neck and body panel - now serving as arms - into place which secured the robot head in the right place.. Fold the wings as far back and down as you can. Lock the beast chest back together and rotate 180 degrees. Continue folding the waist up through 180 degrees via a pivot in the body so ten end up the other way up and sitting in front on the reversed beast chest panel. Fold the wings onto the robot's back and lock in place. Fold the tail down the back and likewise fold the beast arms down the sides of the back. Fold the dragon neck down so it locks onto it's shoulder. Reverse the lower legs at the joint under the knee. Straighten his right arm and turn the shield round on it.
The robot restores Megatron to Ultra size after his downsizing as a Transmetal Mega. The red dominates once again, though the centre of the chest is now taken up with the cockpit which is blue with a clear orange dome. The head is undeniably beast Megatron. Although the head is articulated you can't really move it due to the dragon's tail down the robot's back. The top of the head is covered by a clear orange helmet that does lift, and above this is another missile launcher that takes the same missiles as the beast head - previously this was rather inaccessible on the underside of the tail between the robot's legs. The wings hang behind the toy - as they should with all good Beast TFs promoting angel/.demon stylings. However since the wings got turned round during the TF the mechanism for flapping them is now inside the robot's body. His right arm - on your left - has the shield on it and ends in a 5mm peg hole - standard for Mega and Ultra toys in those days, since introduced for small toys too. The arm is ball jointed at shoulder & elbow - thought the socket at the elbow is orientated so the lower arm can only fold in towards the body on it's ball joint. To make up for this - which was part of the TF - there's a bending joint above the ball joint. The other arm is the dragon's neck and ends in the beast head. This arm can swing back & forward at the shoulder as well as bending out to the side and bending & straightening as part of the gimmick outlined above. The hips swing fore & aft at the body, and also swing out to the sides - ratcheting joints, not ball joints so take the weight of the toy better. The leg is in 3 pieces and bends at both of them - but the middle segment is a little large to be a knee cap ! The lower of these joints swivels as outlined in the TF. The ankles bend - indeed the feet fold right up to allow the roller skates to fold down.
Overall: Spectacular beast mode, decent robot mode, fan favourite character. Can't really go wrong. Throw in the rubber duck and we'd all be happy.
Megatron appears in Beast Machines as a dragon - same form in the cartoon - but the BM toy of him is a deluxe sized toy in a Mega sized box. Why not just stick the TM2 version out again in a BM box
? Not as if there were enough of the TM2 version. Madness.
Cryotek www.tfu.info/2001/Predacon/Cryotek/cryotek.htm
The dragon mold returns in Robots In Disguise repainted in various shades of blue as Cryotek. And it still looks fabulous. They could go on for somewhile - Breen, Yellow, Gold, Black, White and produce an entire army of differently coloured TF Dragons but it's at just two colours that they stopped which is a bit of a shame. I imagine it may be back some day ! I'm quite surprised he didn't show up in Armada - the centre points of the wings where they're all hinged would have made an ideal spot to mount minicons.
Cryotek has some minor mold changes compared with Megatron - apparently the spikes on the wings are shaped slightly differently. There's an important variation to be found on the toy - the Japanese "USA Edition" of RID Cryotek actually has the pilot in tact in the cockpit, the only version of either of the TM2 Ultras so to do !
BW TM2 Megatron www.tfu.info/1999/Predacon/Megatron/megatron.htm
Transmetal 2 Megatron is one of the giants of the Beast Wars line. He's an Ultra class toy, he's a cartoon character - the Beast Wars Megatron upgraded using G1 Megatron's spark and he's a dragon. Not a lot to go wrong with there. He was available in the US & the UK - yes he was in the UK, I saw them in Biocombat packaging with my own eyes on several occasions so don't believe those who say he didn't come out here. He was Metals to D-47 opposite Optimal Optimus (C-47) but I can't find any trace of a huge vs pack being issued.
As I said above he's a dragon. There had been very few dragons in Transformers before this - just Doublecross (a two headed dragon) and (presciently) BWII Galvatron spring to mind. This was the first time a more organic Dragon was tried although - being a TM2 toy - there's considerable robotic detailing in Dragon mode. The dominant colour here is red, a bit of a departure for Megatron as a primary colour - lots of silver, purple and green before this, though the original G1 Megatron does have red plastic on the insides of his arms and legs. This dragon bends at the ankles, knees, just bellow the hips as part of the TF, a universal joint at the hip, ball jointed shoulders and bending elbow. The neck turns at the base while the neck itself is of a similar construction to TM2 Dinobot's tail - albeit covered in chromed red scales on the top side, with a pull lever at the base to straighten it. This lever has a catch to lock it in place, but it's strongly suspected the catch is the wrong way round - the direction it's orientated keeps the neck curved rather than straight. The head has it's upper part made of chromed red plastic from nose back to the first set of horns Under this there's a missile launcher inside the mouth - press down on the horns and the mouth opens - the lower jaw opens downward at the same time as the upper jaw raising - and the missile fires. The back pair of horns can be moved up - I think they're meant to do something with locking the missile in place but I can't quite figure out what. There's another pull down lever on the back which causes the wings to open & close which can be locked in place with the wings fully open. The wings can be out to the sides or directly behind the toy. There's space in the wings for storing the missiles but I won't be using that as failing to insert one properly and forgetting it was there led to me damaging a TM2 Megatron ! The legs keep the fold out fans - this time molded ones - and roller skates from the TM version, but this time the wheels on the roller skates turn. The tail is made of the same rubber material - no gimmick this time. The tail ends in a three pronged claw. There's some bending joints further up the tail towards it's base - this is the only point where the toy falls down as it doesn't really seem to connect convincingly well to the rest of the Dragon - just sort of hangs there.
Megatron has a kind of vehicle mode - fold the arms up alongside the head, stretch the tail out behind him. Fold the legs so the top joint is compacted and the legs runs alongside the body. Fold out the fans to reveal a large set of wheels, and fold up the feet revealing the roller skates. Now at this point you should wedge the neck straight using the catch. But you can't as outlined above, which ultimately wrecks the vehicle mode which is meant to be a dragster or jet I think. What it does show more clearly is the cockpit - there's a little cockpit mounted in a ball on the back of the toy. The cockpit can be turned round in it's housing but also moves up & down inside and is gravity weighted. Nice touch - Tigerhawk has one too, but one both toys they are empty.
TF (from Dragon to Beast) Open up the chest panel with the spark embedded into it. Fold the wings back and pull the arms & the panels they're attached to out to the sides. Fold the lower body panel up through the gap in the chest. Fold the wings & the arms back a bit, then fold the neck to one side of the body and the lower body panel to the other. Pull the tail back and lock the waist together. Swing the legs and waist up a bit, bring the tail base into the place vacated by them and then lock the beast neck and body panel - now serving as arms - into place which secured the robot head in the right place.. Fold the wings as far back and down as you can. Lock the beast chest back together and rotate 180 degrees. Continue folding the waist up through 180 degrees via a pivot in the body so ten end up the other way up and sitting in front on the reversed beast chest panel. Fold the wings onto the robot's back and lock in place. Fold the tail down the back and likewise fold the beast arms down the sides of the back. Fold the dragon neck down so it locks onto it's shoulder. Reverse the lower legs at the joint under the knee. Straighten his right arm and turn the shield round on it.
The robot restores Megatron to Ultra size after his downsizing as a Transmetal Mega. The red dominates once again, though the centre of the chest is now taken up with the cockpit which is blue with a clear orange dome. The head is undeniably beast Megatron. Although the head is articulated you can't really move it due to the dragon's tail down the robot's back. The top of the head is covered by a clear orange helmet that does lift, and above this is another missile launcher that takes the same missiles as the beast head - previously this was rather inaccessible on the underside of the tail between the robot's legs. The wings hang behind the toy - as they should with all good Beast TFs promoting angel/.demon stylings. However since the wings got turned round during the TF the mechanism for flapping them is now inside the robot's body. His right arm - on your left - has the shield on it and ends in a 5mm peg hole - standard for Mega and Ultra toys in those days, since introduced for small toys too. The arm is ball jointed at shoulder & elbow - thought the socket at the elbow is orientated so the lower arm can only fold in towards the body on it's ball joint. To make up for this - which was part of the TF - there's a bending joint above the ball joint. The other arm is the dragon's neck and ends in the beast head. This arm can swing back & forward at the shoulder as well as bending out to the side and bending & straightening as part of the gimmick outlined above. The hips swing fore & aft at the body, and also swing out to the sides - ratcheting joints, not ball joints so take the weight of the toy better. The leg is in 3 pieces and bends at both of them - but the middle segment is a little large to be a knee cap ! The lower of these joints swivels as outlined in the TF. The ankles bend - indeed the feet fold right up to allow the roller skates to fold down.
Overall: Spectacular beast mode, decent robot mode, fan favourite character. Can't really go wrong. Throw in the rubber duck and we'd all be happy.
Megatron appears in Beast Machines as a dragon - same form in the cartoon - but the BM toy of him is a deluxe sized toy in a Mega sized box. Why not just stick the TM2 version out again in a BM box
? Not as if there were enough of the TM2 version. Madness.Cryotek www.tfu.info/2001/Predacon/Cryotek/cryotek.htm
The dragon mold returns in Robots In Disguise repainted in various shades of blue as Cryotek. And it still looks fabulous. They could go on for somewhile - Breen, Yellow, Gold, Black, White and produce an entire army of differently coloured TF Dragons but it's at just two colours that they stopped which is a bit of a shame. I imagine it may be back some day ! I'm quite surprised he didn't show up in Armada - the centre points of the wings where they're all hinged would have made an ideal spot to mount minicons.
Cryotek has some minor mold changes compared with Megatron - apparently the spikes on the wings are shaped slightly differently. There's an important variation to be found on the toy - the Japanese "USA Edition" of RID Cryotek actually has the pilot in tact in the cockpit, the only version of either of the TM2 Ultras so to do !