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At last, I have received my Masterpiece Megatron, straight from Japan.  The Masterpiece line of Transformers is essentially a line of large “perfect” G1 Transformer figures.  Perfect is a bit subjective however and also relies a lot on personal preference. 

This line carries a high price however.  Each one runs roughly 100 US Dollars or more.  The series so far includes Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus (no armor), Optimus Prime with trailer, Starscream, and now Megatron.  The first three are all essentially the same toy, a toy that was released twice in the states as 20^th Anniversary Prime and this year as 20^th Anniversary Movie Edition or some nonsense.  Starscream has the primary problem of being considerably smaller than his Optimus based predecessors.  Megatron thankfully stands perfectly scaled next to Optimus Prime.  More or less.

If you’re planning on getting this toy, now is the time to pick it up.  They won’t be produced forever and this toy’s chance of a Us release like Prime had is zero to none.  You see, like his G1 counterpart, Megatron turns into a Walther P-38 handgun.  Granted it’s a huge oversized version, but it’s still silver colored and realistically designed.  This has created a large controversy among import sellers.  In order to legally sell the toy in the states, many online retailers were forced to open each toy and install a yellow or orange safety cap into the gun barrel on the figure.

This of course outraged many MISB (Mint in Sealed Box) collectors who want an untouched unopened Megatron for their collection.  Also there were fears that the colored tips would be large and ugly and irremovable.  As of the time of writing this, reports suggest that Megatron figures from tfsource.com and Hobby Link Japan (I got mine here) have removable tips while figures from Big Bad Toy Store have tips that are glued in place.  That should cover the larger import Transformers dealers, I can’t say for smaller ones or eBay nor am I going to compile some sort of list so don’t bother emailing me suggestions for one.

The whole tip thing is ridiculous in general since many of them pop right out.  Also the toy is packaged in robot mode so there’s a reasonably good chance some customs agent isn’t going to notice or care if he inspects your single toy from eBay.  Hell I received some parts for work once that had been checked by the Terrorism Mail checkers and man, you want something that “looks like a bomb” to go through the mail, send transmitter parts to someone.  I would have loved to see the look on the face of the poor underpaid inspector when he cracked those things open.

Anyway, enough rambling, I’ll move on to the meat of this review.

Megatron, in robot mode, is the perfect complement to MP01 Optimus Prime (or MP04 or 20^th Anniversary Prime).  He stands the right height and has all of the appropriate accessories to battle Prime with from the Energy Ball & Chain from the pilot episodes to the lightsaber and handgun used during Prime’s demise.  All we need now is a Masterpiece Hot Rod for Megs to hold at gunpoint.  Also much like Prime, he is a really nice poseable rendition of the character that actually strikes me as kind of “off”.  I imagine a lot of it is the excess of detail.  The version of these characters I’m most familiar with is the cartoon versions and both Prime and Megatron are much more detailed than their animation models would allow.

It’s not a complaint really more of an observation.

If I wanted to complain I’d mention Megatron’s creepy weird scowl.  It’s like he’s trying ot look evil and dignified but instead it just makes him lood sad and slightly depressed.  Truth be told an evil grimace would have worked MUCH better on this guy or better yet, some sort of sinister smile.  Also his helmet all around feels too large, especially the forehead.  I imagine that comes down to some sort of design constraints.

Another design issue I have is his feet.  The Separate feet are kind of nice and certainly useful for posing but Megatron’s feet are “supposed to be” part of the gun’s handle.  I’m generally not too nitpicky about minor changes such as this but his feet have a very distinctive look that’s just lost when they are made to look more separate.

Also, while it doesn’t come off as bad as it did when we were getting prototype images, Megatron all around is a bit too skinny.  This is one I know is due to design constraints since the gun handle can only end up so wide.

Lastly, unlike Prime, he doesn’t work too well with his Alternators cousins.  Prime has size issues when group with the Alternator Autobots but they can be forgiven since he still looks good.  Megatron’s skinny body and overall… gun-ness make him look a bit out of place next to the Decepticon Alternator’s car army.

Oh, and his Fusion cannon makes him a bit hard to balance.

Also he completely lacks the huge phallic trigger cod piece of his original G1 counterpart.

So, while the Robot mode looks very nice, it does have a few issues with matching his G1 design.  Still, there’s no mistaking that this is Megatron.  And as the leader of the Decepticons, and like every other Transformers, he can change into something else.  In this case, a gun.

That’s right, Megatron once again turns into a gun.  Ok, Classics Megatron DID bring us back this old true alternate mode but that Megatron turned into a rather Nerfish gun.  This Megatron turns into a Wather P-38 pistol, just like his G1 counterpart.  In fact, on the basic level, the transformation is exactly the same.

On the Basic Level.  Hidden inside that relatively simple moving of parts that is the G1 transformation are a hundred panels and clasps that must be adjusted and massaged into place in order to make things work.  The first time I transformed him I didn’t quite get things to fit right in his arms so things didn’t mesh well at all.  It wasn’t helmed by the fact that there are a couple of plastic bits I missed inside his forearms  holding them open.  To compound the problems further, almost every transformation joint on this thing was stuck in place, some requiring excessive force to loosen.  I was worried I was going to break this thing a few times.

I’d recommend removing the scope/fusion cannon during transformation.  At least for the first time anyway.

All that work is almost worth it.  Almost.  Since Masterpiece Megatron is a much larger robot than his G1 counterpart, who turned into an essentially life sized P-38, he ends up turning into a much larger P-38 handgun.  There is a lot of compression during the transformation, particularly in the legs but it still doesn’t make this hand gun life sized.  It’s still small enough to grip with one hand but you’re going to look ridiculous doing it.

Still, the beauty here is in the details.  The toy is mostly plastic but it looks like metal.  The engraved P-38 emblem is particularly cool.  There is also a working safety lever.

The scope however does not work.  It contains a light up gimmick.  Pressing a button on the side causes it to light up.  I’d say that on this level of a toy this sort of cheap gimmick is pointless and a working scope would have been cooler. However, this is a toy likely to stay in robot mode, and in robot mode, the scope is a fusion cannon where having a glowing red light is much cooler.

If you could afford one of the variations of Masterpiece Prime, chances are you could manage to scrounge together enough to afford a Masterpiece Megatron.  Considering they are essentially the only two Transformers available in this scale, having one almost necessitates having the other.  Megatron and Optimus Prime are the primary icons of the Transformers franchise.  It’s just not the same without either one of them.  On the other hand, this toy does have a few minor flaws, but look at the actual G1 toy next to any art model of Megatron.  Not to mention it’s really expensive.  It also doesn’t really go with any other Transformer out there aside from Optimus.  If you’re looking for a leader for your Decepticon Alts, you’re better off hoping they actually release that rumored Cadillac Megatron.  If you want probably the nicest most accurate Megatron toy you’re going to get, this is the one to go for.