The beast himself, Megatron is the leader of the Predacons as they battle the Maximals and tap every resource they can find.
As part of the 2021 Beast Wars reissues, we got both the leader of the Predacon’s, Megatron and his nemesis, Optimus Primal. The Beast Wars toyline was designed to give Transformers a fresh breath of air by ditching the old storylines, characters and branding. Beast Wars stands out and start the series new. Megatron is obviously one of the names that carried over, and the character of Megatron is unchanged. He’s still the ruthless leader of the ‘bad guys’ but according to the CGI cartoon, this is a different character than the one that transforms into a gun.
We know what to expect from a character called Megatron. In the cartoon series he’s a cunning leader, capable and strong. But the team of Predacons have frequent in-fighting with a battle for the top job. A lot of the Predacons aren’t particularly competent, such as the thick-headed Scorponok and conniving Terrorsaur.
Megatron was originally released in 1996 alongside Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Cheetor, Scorponok and many others. The functionality in this 2021 reissue is unchanged however, the paint was adjusted to make the figure more closely match the character from the cartoon series.
Beast Mode
The designers took some cues from Barney the dinosaur, especially in the 2021 reissue of Megatron. With a much more saturated purple compared to the original release, it is hard to miss Megatron.
In Beast Mode, Megatron struggles like a lot of the other Beast Wars figures with movement. There’s articulation in the jaw, that snaps open and shut charging the water attack. There’s also some limited articulation in the legs and his tyrannosaurs arms can move too.
Aside from the spray water attack, Megatron also has access to hidden hip mounted missile launchers. Mine are very prone to firing whenever they want, often while trying to transform the figure.
Megatron has fantastic balance, with strong legs that allow him to stand easily. His tail and head also create a level centre of gravity, making Megatron harder to knock over.
Robot Mode
Transforming Megatron gives us access to his last weapon, his tail with a powerful pincer like motion. Both the dinosaur head and the pincer-tail are built into his arms, so he doesn’t have any hands which is something Hasbro addressed in other Megatron figures such as the Kingdom: War for Cybertron release. The large legs hold up well, with additional support that flips down from the heel supporting the figure.
In robot mode we also get access to the mutant mask. The larger figures released in the first wave of Beast Wars toys featured an additional piece of armour that protected their heads. Megatron’s mask sits like wings behind his head until they are flipped down.
We can also see, compared to the original release, they have opted to make the reissue more closely match the CGI cartoon by swapping out the grey for black. This is something that’s happened across the toyline.