So, finally found TFA toys in TrU last night. They had JUST stocked yesterday I have a feeling, as there was a generous supply!

I picked up the Optimus v Megatron 2-pack.

The 2-pack contains a Deluxe size Optimus Prime (Earth mode) and a Deluxe size Megatron (Cybertron mode) Neither I believe will be offered on their own, kind of like the Classics 2-pack. Both also have 'battle damage' on them. They also come with a bonus DvD. All that for the price of a Voyager ($19.99)

Optimus Prime:

Robot mode: This is a Prime with the face mask up. He also has the single bladed axe, just like the cartoon personae (the Cybertron Deluxe Prime has a double blade, but face mask down) Very poseable, and fairly hefty. The animated line is made out of a very different plastic type from previous transformers! It's solid and strong. 9 of 10

transformation: one of the more unique prime transformations out there, in fact, it is a refreshing transformation after all the movie toys. Though, there were some great Prime transformations among those as well. Not too complex, but decent for a deluxe. 8 of 10

Vehicle Mode: Snaps together snugly and hides any bot parts fairly well (you can see a bit of the arms behind the cab, but not enough to care.) Oddly, it has wheels on both sides of the legs... this doesn't affect it much, and was probably done purely for cosmetics as a robot? The only odd thing in the vehicle mode is when/if you put the axe on, which is basically just cliped back there, meaning you have a giant axe on the back of a little fire-cab. I just leave it off. 9 of 10

Megatron:

Robot mode: practically drips with evality. The plastic makes him hefty and solid, BUT on mine, the legs are loose. I'll be enacting the 'super glue on ball joints' fix to stiffen those a bit. The cannon is removable, and again, he is very poseable. 8 of 10

transformation: weaker than Prime's. Not much to it, though the legs have knee pieces that fold out that's kinda a neat touch. The cannon 'transforms' too, but I think that part's a little odd. No surprises here. In fact, when you're done it's one of those 'did I miss something?' moments. 6 of 10

Vehicle mode: Well, from the top down it's cool, but once you get to looking at it from the front it doesn't make a lot of sense. Plus, he suffers from the 'Cop-tur' syndrome (his head is blatantly right below the front part of ths ship, it isn't even recessed at all into the ship) Very 'alien' looking, maybe a little too much. 5 of 10

DvD:

The DvD included is Episode one of TFA. There was very little production made into this. The menu consists of Play and Gallery. Gallery is a set of pictures of wave one toys.

The episode is interesting because, the Intro and the Ending are both custom to the DvD, and they're both in widescreen (which adds credit to the show being animated all in widescreen)

Apart from that, the sound quality is bad... not muffled bad, there's just a weird reverb echo throughout the DvD. I thought maybe I just missed it originally on the episode, and it was meant to be 'robot' voices... but then the Earth bit at the end had the same reverb...

Something we all missed when it aired... THEY MENTION OMEGA SUPREME!!! No, really! If you're paying attention, when Megatron attacks, Optimus Prime tells Teletran to 'activate the Omega defense system!') :lol:


All in all, well worth the $20! I love both of the toys (even with Megatron's low scores on transformation and vehicle, he's still just damn cool, and I think the only Deluxe version we'll see of him any time soon!) and the DvD is a nice addtion and an early appetite builder for the upcoming full DvD releases!

Thanks for the review. They just hit my area, and I think I got in on first shipment. Had a choice of Optimus (Cm), Prowl, Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Blackarachnia all at Deluxe level, then Starscream, Lugnut, and Bulkhead at the Ultra level(or whatever 20$ is). Also the two pack, and I didn't really dig through the 20$ so there might have been something hidden behind.

I only picked up Blackarachnia. Really thought hard about Prowl, Optimus, and the two pack. And Starscream.

Prowl I decided to wait until they reissue him with the sidecar. Not happy with the simple stoplight thing. Optimus looked good, but I was on a budget. Which meant really the 2 pack was the only one that really tempted me. I finally turned it down because of the Battledamage look. I don't care for battle damage gimics. I really hope these get reissued non-damaged... could that be possible or is the damage molded on(from just looking it seemed only painted on)?

I suppose I'd better start making sprites now that I've got some referances...

I'll check when I go home, but it seems that some of the cracks were molded. The damage didn't bother me so much, but they may release them later on without. Then again, they never released the previous 2-pack (Classics) on their own...

Oh yeah, I picked up the 2-pack last night at TRU along with Screamer. The 2-[ack is great and I haven't watched the dvd yet. My Megs also had horribly loose legs, but the super glue fix made it perfect. I really dislike Megatron's alt mode, so he'll be staying in robot mode. I transformed him and said to myself, "That can't be right." I checked the instructions and sure enough, it was dead-on. Bleh. Ops is great. Screamer is all sorts of fun. I could have blown some cash, if I had it to blow.

yeah, and to answer the earlier question, yes, all the damage is painted on.

Also, completely forgot to mention that bot Prime and Megs have the waste-rotating-punch action. It doesn't get in theway of anything, not even in their poseability though!

Next time I see the 2pack I'm getting it then.

Might repaint them myself to get rid of the battle damage. Not that there's anything really WRONG with battle damage, it's just one of my least favorite gimmics.

Battle damage... who needs Battle Damage?

:nuts:

Heh, yeah I was thinking it wouldn't be too hard to overpaint. Nice details on the back and battleaxe as well!

I watched an few episodes on Youtube just to get the actual Animated look of Prime, all I need is the Cybertron version of Prime's non battle mask head to complete the look, But it sucks that im gonna drop 11 bucks just for a lil head...
Unless I can find someone willing to part with the head...

And I think he's more in scale with the other figures (Show wise) then the Voyager version...

Now only if Bumblebee was smaller, I wonder how big the activators version is compaired to the deluxe size...

Nice painting there. I like how you touched up his back, but there's alot of little black and yellow detailing you put on there too that rather make it shine.

Just got the two pack myself. Dissapointed in the DVD honestly, I was hoping for a tiny bit more. Maybe a more complete gallary, or maybe the first three episodes. Oh well, it gives me good referance pictures of the Autobots at least.

One thing that throws me off with the figure is that his eyes are so... squinty. The baby blue is actually his cheeks, with the tiny clear blue being the eyes. Takes some pretty strong light to shine through(might be because the plastic is so dark, they almost color matched it to his helmet so you can't tell that the back/top of his head is all transparent) but I think the main problem is that the slits are to small. Still, I rather liked some of the heavy light piping where I stand the figures out on a bright sunny day and their eyes only cast a color rather than a shadow. Very neat.

Still, between the blue skin tone being easily mistaken for the eyes(making it look like he has dull milky eyes) and the black "battle damage" the whole thing makes him kinda look like some Chaos tainted zombie.

Currently have him kneeling and saluting Blackarachnia, like she was the one that infected him with the chaos taint. Of course, the fact that she's posed in an action-ish pose riding on Arcee(bit big, but if you lay her down it works).

Oh, those yellow wrist dots The Rod added(which are molded on, but he colored them to bring them out, another nice touch), anyone else wondering if you could cut one of them out? They're the exact shape as the peg on the grappling hook that came with Blackarachnia. Little work and Optimus can have his grappling gimmic too.

I'll give my thoughts on Megatron in a bit too. Still need to play with him a bit more.

On the whole though, the spring torso and the battle damage annoys me. The torso thing doesn't really get in the way, but it does make them seem a little loose and floppy. And the battle damage on Megatron looks like he has a bad rash...

Megatron! With pink rust rash spots. Yeeah...

First of all, let me state that the stylizing for the most part makes the figures stand out dramatically from other Transformers. Most differnet from the Movie types really. Which means "repaint the previous line and mix them into the new line" tactic is going to be a bit glaring if they do it this release.

However, for the most part it works. The limbs are just posable enough that the odd angles of them don't get in the way and infact give additional posability. I was somewhat annoyed with Blackarachnia not having articulate wrists, but given the arms transformation, that's not surprising. My major beef is that you can't put them in a "robotic" pose, with arms straight down, legs perfectly straight, ect. But then you can't do that with the Movie figures either, and some of the G1 mini's/Gobots you did that and all you'd have to do is tip them forward to transform them. For Animated you can't assume that pose because the limbs are always going to be bent. Particularly the shins it seems.

On with Megatron... you know, that name seems doomed since RiD to refer to someone who's Robot Mode was the main design, with the alternate mode something they figured could fit. Okay, Armada's was obviously a tank. But Energon it was a Galvatron homage with some sort of space ship strapped to his back, and Cybertron it was a Unicron homage that became a heavily greebled... something with wheels and wings that was called a triple changer because you couldn't tell if it was meant to be a drag racer or a jetcraft. Movie Megatron was the worst of the lot so far. I haven't seen a single toy that gives him a decent alt mode, and during the movie itself his altmode is pretty "spacecraft-jetthingy-goes real fast and flies". This Megatron evokes movie Megatron quite strongly.

First thing to note is the banna on his arm. I mean his... um... hang on what do they call it? Ionic Fusion Cannon Sword? Some mess like that. It overbalances the poor guy, and quite frankly while it can be a decent cannon on acount of half of it being gun shaped with a sorta barrel(Infact in Animated he only has half of it, knock the pin out of the hinge and you have a more show accurate version), there is no way I can figure out how or why they assumed "sword". Pity, since in the first ep Megatron draws a really cool twin bladed sword. Wonder if I could find a fantasy sword at that scale. Anyway, the Fusion Bannana actually can "transform" I guess. You break it in half(on a hinge people) and then flip one of the clear plastic "blades" around. This puts both blades on the same side, making it... well about the same really. It doesn't hide, or even extend past the gunbarrel. It just makes it look even more like he's got a glowing red bannana on his arm. It is removable fortunately(took me some ExcessiveForce™ the first time. The peg is not round, its rounded with one flat side). It's also almost required for his alt mode.

Optimus Prime's axe also clips into his altmode very tightly and snugs up his form. Otherwise his waist(with "Power Punch Action") seems a bit floppy. Not to bad though. However, even plugged in I'm looking at a giant axe on the back of a truck. At least Megatron's cannon looks like it should be mounted there on the ship. Sorta.

Anyway, enough about the cannon. Megatron looks good. He looks big(he's no bigger than this Prime, and his head is actually larger in comparison, but he still manages to evoke "big"). He's got all kinds of angular lines and diamond shapes on him. His legs from the knees down are also huge, which might be part of what makes him evoke "big". Oddly, his "toes" are also huge, despite not really needing them that big for balance, the animated version being smaller, and them almost getting in the way during transformation. Odd, but nothing to be done to help it. I suppose it will help his balance for some extreme poses. Unfortunately both feet have to be on the ground for these poses(making them noticably less extreme and dynamic), as the bottom of the foot is not flat, it's tilted in. Leader class Brawl and Stockade had a similar problem, and I suspect it's on all the Animated figures(so far least noticable on Blackarachnia, but my collection is small at the moment). His... Revoltech?... joint at his knee(the rotating, not the bending) on mine is a little floppy. Easy enough to touch up, its basically a flattened ball joint after all and in theory will pop on and off easily.

His eyes glow nicely in light, though part of the battle damage is that he's missing an eyebrow. And his "chaos taint"(the battle scarring or whatever) is in pinkish-purple. Almost a light fuscia or... (looks closely) metallic flesh tone? Eh not quite. Still, it looks somewhat silly on him. While Prime's gives him a sorta evil zombie look, Megatron looks like he snuggled with My Little Pony and got a rash from them.

Okay, time to be dissapointed. "Decepticons! Transforme and Rise up!"

Meh, it's not really that bad. On par with some Gobot or Pretender robots. Honestly they at least put some thought into it, and it does look somewhat like Movie Megatron's alternate mode. I'm going to have to check the animated episode again, but it doesn't look all that much like it(Actually, if the cannon were to hinge the other way, and you could mount it between his knees it'd be pretty darn close to the like three second seen altmode). And it really doesn't look like much period honestly. The transformation is all in the legs, with the everything from the KNEES upward pretty much remaining the same. The cannon mounts and pegs things together, otherwise we're relying on the waist joint to hold things together. The toes look like they SHOULD fit flush with his sides, but they don't because they're to big(and I don't think they could even if they were shaved down, joints don't bend that far) Unfortunately the cannon barrel would blow off his nose(/kneecaps) if it fired, and the rear half with the "blades" just kinda hang there with no purpose. Aside from hiding the fact that half the jet is pretty obviously his back. Which means flip him upside down and his Cop-Tur-itis(IE his face) shows. Blackarachnia has the same problem though, and honestly I LIKED Cop-Tur, he was one of my first Transforming robots I ever got.

Still, folded up like that, the colors are nicely done, there were some interestting pannel flipping to fit EVERYTHING(at least from nose to wings) into the shins. And really, if you ignore the battle damage(which does show on this mode but only highlights the robot mode kibble) and the screws(which are nessisary to construction and mostly put into the robot mode back... which means they're almost all visible in IonFighter mode), and NEVER LOOK AT HIM FROM BELOW, there really isn't any robot mode kibble visible in vehicle mode. Even looking at it from directly behind, you stare right at his upper arms and the top of his head, and because they're all clear red plastic, it looks like you're staring at jet thrusters.

In short: Weapons need a reworking. Battledamage is annoying. A few loose joints. Still good. Better than Optimus Prime? Not really. Good enough to stand on it's own as a Deluxe... only because it's a known character. Megatron, Optimus, these days even Bumblebee can get by on "looks good in robot mode, passable in vehicle mode" but if you're Vanquish or Dirge you'd better have an alt mode that looks like something.

Hang on, something just clicked on him while I was messing with him... Oh that's neat. His upper chest is on a tight and highly limited ratchet joint. Only two clicks, up and down, about a 15 degree difference. Lets his wheels line up a little flatter on the ground and gives his robot mode a tiny more posability. Really not noticable, but makes a loud click like I broke something inside when I switch positions.

First off, nice cleanup job on 2-pack Optimus, there!

Bought Voyager Megs today, and the 2-pack.

First, I opened the 2-pack. I took some time unstrapping Megs. His legs were so gimpy in so many places, I didn't even bother unstrapping Ops. I strapped Megs back in and boxed the whole thing back up.

Then I turned to Voyager Megatron. The alt mode is kinda nifty, although as long as they were making the gun detatchable, it would have been considerate of them to make it so the gun could mount under the nose of the alt mode like it is in the cartoon.

That was strike one.

It's a pretty cool transformation, I must admit, and the figure is mostly cool, except it appears the thing needed to actually get the figure/weapon pose pictured on the back of the box is not included with the toy. That missing piece is Photoshop. Yeah, the thing that holds the gun to his arm doesn't swivel around far enough for the gun to actually be on his forearm. It comes close, and I'm not averse to having it under-slung like Classics Megs, and this guy's legs and feet make dang near any pose possible, including holding the gun straight out (it looks lame, but you can do it).

That box/product disparity was strike two.

But this was the dealbreaker:


What the heck is this?! Instead of having the turned-down-at-the-corners, forbidding look we've come to expect on Megatron's face, we get a look that says "ngar".

Apparently I'm not the only person in my area who thought this version of Megs was a loser: There was a box on the shelf that had obviously been opened and returned to the store. I took a peek in there: Same "duh" face on that figure too. What the crap?

Oh well. I took both packs back and, to my delight, picked up a Prowl and a Lockdown. Prowl is cool enough that if a samurai version comes out (I'm not convinced yet), I'll be happy to have two of him.

Thanks for the comments everyone, I haven't decided on what to do with Megs sofar all i did do was repaint the feet...

I did the simple thing when unpacking them I popped the arms and legs off the ball joints both came out pretty easy.
Also my prime doesn't do the punch gimick the waist swivels but it doesn't rotate back in a punching fashion... Megs does on the other hand...

Voyager Megs looks all pastel in that pic lol.

My tru had everything out, the two pack Voyagers Megs, Starscream, Bulkhead, they had a sku spots for Ratchet & Grimlock but none was there...
Deluxes Cybertron Prime, Bumblebee, Prowl, Lockdown.
And from what i could tell... Alot of paint apps are missing...

I'd have to go back and double check, but I think you're thinking of the earth mode version... the helicopter. His cannon is under the nose. But the Cybertron version has the cannon as the nose.


Also, there's a fix out there for the Voyager Megatron's arm cannon...

http://forums.tformers.com/talk/index.php?...5&#entry1373275

Yep, sorry, had to practically frame by frame it(and the show is animated ON THREES! No wander it doesn't look so good!) but when we do see his cybertronian altmode, it has the cannon as the nose, or mounted under the nose and sticking out. Also, on the deluxe version, the rear of the cannon is what's shown as the shows cockpit, and it's mounted above and a little back from the cannon. Plus the wings are at a bad angle in the two shots(one back view one side view) so I can't tell if they're right or not.

And yes, I should have said this before, but Optimus Prime orders activation of "Omega" which Teletraan one denies, saying it's to fuel consumptive.

CyberPumpkin, don't give up on the 2pack just because Megatron's legs are floppy. Mine are too(I blame the new plastic they use, it's got slightly different tolerances than what was used in the Movie line). But Optimus's joints seem alright.

Okay, one transformation joint is a bit loose, but it pegs in place in both modes so it's only during transformation that I have to mess with it.

I thought it said something about it being disconnected due to some peace accord (I'm probably wrong)


I wonder... I knew the first three epsiodes were low frame rate (well, I didn't know until now, but I really suspected it) but what about the later ones? I noticed when the movie aired that it was a little choppy in it's movement, but I haven't really noticed it since.

Just to go back to the Voyager Megatron....

I picked him up, and I like him well enough. I didn't bother with the cannon-fix, I just folde the cannon flat under the arm and turn the hand. Looks pretty good that way.

The vehicle mode, JW% is completely right about, it doesn't appear at all like the show, but that kind of goes along with a lot of the recent Megatrons (at least the movie ones)

It also strikes me that in every picture on the box or officially online, the toy is pictured BACKWARDS from the intention of the designers!!

The wheel base and the wings on the Voyager are the giveaway.

For the wheels, there are three. Most triangle formation on EVERY transformer with a flight mode involve one forward wheel and two back wheels. If you believe the instructions/boxshots, they want the two wheels up front, and the one wheel in back. Also, the one wheel folds out in the wrong direction to be used as a back wheel. It seems to be quite obviously a front wheel.

Also, the wings... they fold out in the opposite way that they should to be facing forward in the pictures. It just doesn't make any sense!

Turning it towards the direction that seems to be designed makes it look considerably more like the ship in the cartoon, but with the cannon on the bottom. In the cartoon, there's even a roundish widget on the back top that is similar to the 'official pictures' cockpit!

The Cybertronian Vehicle mode of both Deluxe and Voyager Megs is rather strange in its design for the wheels but the front is indeed the two wheels... But besides that I trimed off some of the Deluxe's cannon peg so it now sits flush on the arm and actually locks better into the leg tabs in vehicle mode.

Im sure the could have designed the cannon to be sperated for the likeness of the total of 3 minutes we see him in vehicle mode but I guess they just did it this way to save on cost...

3 minutes? He's in that mode on screen for a minute tops. At least the Cybertron Prime has got some screen time unlike Megs. I really don't think they should have even bothered with Megs' Cybertron form. I'll be getting the deluxe 2-pack, but only for Prime and that sweat axe.

I don't think they should have made a Voyager for it... but he does look damn cool towering over Deluxe Prime and Deluxe Prowl at home :lol: